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p4 weekender april 24 1993 stux gyx ml wmmmmmma m write us or fax us numbers at right poor benefit most from local initiatives the poor will go hungrier this spring and summer because of a lessthanenthusiastic response to the annual food drive the daily bread food bank in toronto fell 30 per cent short of its goal of two million pounds of food in markham and stouf- fville donations dropped at fire- halls and local dropoff points are forwarded to the local food- bank until a threemonth supply is attained the remainder is passed on to daily bread in uxbridge the loaves and fishes food bank is run indepen dently volunteers found that while the same number of people donated their offering was smaller the failure of these drives to generate as much food as antici pated is the result of a number of factors viewpoint paula crowell one of those is a perception among the public that some of the people who use food banks are abusingthe system as this recession drags on the public becomes more intolerant those who are still employed view the new poor as a cross they never agreed to bear reports of abuse of the welfare and unem ployment insuiance systems make everyone suspicious of food bank users it shouldnt come as a surprise that some do take from the food bank to save their own money for other things but these people are a small minority of food bank clients daily breads organizational success may be the root of this food drives failure perhaps the umbrella network of foodprovid ing agencies looks too much like a welloiled machine to the pub lic it may be time for local food banks and daily bread to look at ways to give the food drives a more local feel several commu nities along the us eastern seaboard run programs in which one family adopts a more needy one the program began as a food- providing system but expanded into household items clothing and other necessities it connects the donors with those in need and gives both parties a different perspective of their neighbors in other areas farmers are donating small plots of land as vegetable gardens for the poor the seeds and fertilizer can be donated by local organizations and the poor are able to help themselves by growing their own produce during the summer months smallscale grass roots pro grams might improve daily breads image and provide the needy with more than just a two- week ration of pasta and beans markham economist and sun stouffville tribune uxbridge tribune weekender edition a metroland community newspaper patricia pappas publisher jo ann stevenson editorinchief paula crowell editor andrew mair editor debraweller director of advertising barry goodyear director of distribution vivian otceil business manager pamela nichols operations manager markham 2942200 sales 7987624 classi fied 2944331 stouffville 6402100 uxbridge 8529741 2948244 distribution and administration 9 heritage rd markham l3p1m2 fax markham 2941638 stouoviue 640- 5477 uxbridge 8524355 the markham economist and sun stoufiville tri bune and uxbridge tribune published every wednesday and saturday is one of the metroland printing publishing and distributing group of subur ban newspapers which includes ajax pickering news advertiser barrio advance brampton guardian burlington post collingwood connection etobicoke guardian the liberal georgetown inde pendentacton free press kingston this week lindsay this week milton canadian champion mississauga news north york mirror oakville beaver orillia today oshawawhitby this week peterborough this week scarborough mirror the era banner contents not to be reproduced without written permission from the publisher the best excuses start with welllm there is hardly a man so strict as not to vary when he is to make an excuse lord halifax very sorry cant come to din ner lie follows by post telegram from lord beresford to king edward ah the humble excuse could modern civilization function without the veritable vermicelli of little white lies we all tell to get out of things we dont want to do eachand every day prob ably not its early morning as i type this but already ive fended off a block of jehovahs witness es by telling them im a practis ing buddhist ive deflected a telephone sales pitch for maga zine subscriptions by claiming im stone blind and ive promised my boon companion and faithful cohort that you bet for sure ill get those storm windows off this afternoon first thing just as soon as this twinge in my back eases off lies all lies well not lies exactly excuses little dabs of social lubricant that help to smooth the meshing gears of everyday life an awful lot of impressive human creativity goes into mak ing excuses sometimes we expend more mental sweat try ing to avoid a job than we would if we just went ahead and did the damned thing but thats human nature too and some times the excuses themselves become somewhat twisted works of art consider for example the excuse of glamor girl zsa zsa gabor explaining why she slugged a beverley hills cop when he ticketed her for driving with expired plates on her rolls royce i am from hungary we are descendants of genghis khan andattila the hun we are hungarian freedom fighters or how about chrysler shill lee iacocca making excuses for not cleaning up automobile emissions weve got to ask ourselves how much clean air do we need then theres jessica hahn jimmy bakkers explaytoy excusing herself for doing a ten- page fullcolor nude layout in playboy basic black t arthur black it brought me closer to god not as famous but just as inventive is the spokesman for the us defense contractor pratt and whitney desperately trying to excuse the fact that his company charged the pentagon 999 for pairs of pliers thats 999 for each pair explained the spokesman well theyre multipurpose pli ers anyone who starts off most of his sentences with a long drawnout welllllll is bound to be a good excusemaker ex- us president ronald reagan proves the point his excuse to chief of staff jim baker for not reading his briefing notes for an important economic summit meeting wellll jim the sound of music was on last night and then theres bill clintons classic an excuse that will go down in the annals of born again pot smokers everywhere i didnt like it and i didnt inhale it my alltime favorite excuse i give the nod to lighton nde- fwayl mister ndefwayl isnt a household name in canada but he is in zambia where hes known as the best tennis player that country ever produced until last year that is last year mister ndefwayl was defeated by another zambian tennis player one musumba bwayla mind you mister ndefwayl has an excuse for his loss musumba bwayla is a stupid man says ndefwayl and a hopeless player he has a big nose and is crosseyed girls hate him he beat me because my jockstrap was too tight and because when he serves he farts and that made me lose my concentration for which i am famous through zambia well perhaps so mister nde fwayl but youre still the num ber two tennis player in zambia accordingto the lastreport v