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p 4 weekender saturday august 2 1997 st saturday august 2 1997 vol 13 no 31 the tribune comment opinions send your letters to the editor to the address below torial get involved to aid innocent children crime in our communities is hard to bear at the best of times but its even harder to tolerate when its aimed at our children recently there have been laced with crime stories about dickie dee vendors being robbed bicycles being stolen from children and last week a gang of six older youths swarmed two younger kids and stole freezies from them what is this world coming to where are any adult bystanders did they or could they have come to the aid of our innocent children theres always a fine line between getting involved and aiding someone in danger and protecting yourself in a potentially danger ous situation regional and provincial police departments sometimes send a confusing double message police give or sponsor awards for civil ians who do get involved aiding strangers affected by crime yet consistently urge residents to be careful and not get injured or become the target of criminals themselves but when it comes to young people surely any adult bystander should come to their aid or at least phone police on their behalf please keep a watch on our residential streets in parks and around community centres for the rest of this summer if you see a child or youth surrounded by a threatening group of kids espe cially who are bigger dont hesitate get involved you dont have to approach the thugs yourself unless youre with one or two other adults phone the police from the safety of your home or go to the nearest phone booth and make the call do your bit to help protect our children what would your favorite word be never write metropolis for seven cents because i can get the same price for city i never write police- man because i can get the same money for cop mark twain the author of the ad ventures of tom sawyer and huckleberry finn was a very funny man but he was no chucklehead especially when it came to the business of writing he knew that words were the currency and coinage of his craft he also knew that bigger didnt necessarily mean better but mostly what mark twain did was carry on a lifelong love affair with words you pretty well have to if you want to be a writer it comes with the territory not that you have to be a writer to love words i know a plumber who does the cryptic crossword in the new york times every day and pknow a farmer who reads homer in the original greek lots of people love words in fact a chap by the name of vick knight jr has just published a book called my word which is devoted to the favorite words of famous people ronald reagan claimed his favorite word was home for billy graham its decision lucille ball voted the word beauty as the most well beautiful word in the language for writer erma bombeck it was yes some of the people knight queried followed basic black arthur black the lead of mark twain see above which is to say that they reacted with a certain stinginess playwright ira levin sent a telegram that read sorry im in the middle of a play and need every word ive got science fiction writer isaac asimov wrote a reply in longhand it read i thought about your request and i really dont have a favorite word and even if i make one up it will mean getting a pic ture to you and making up some soppy paragraph or other and well i just dont want to its a tougher question than it appears on the sur face what would you pick as your favorite word the english language is festooned theres one of my favorites with hun dreds of potential dele gates someone once asked william espy for a list of his favorite words the famous wordsmith replied with meandering mellifluous wisteria shenandoah murmuring and gonorrhea again words dont have to be lengthy to be splen did hush is a wonderful word so is mist and dawn many good words have alas been lost back in the 16th century a pretty young woman was called a bellibone or a poplolly and someone who was down in the dumps was said to be suf fering a bad case of mub- blefubbles id be hardpressed to say what my favorite word is ugly words are plentiful enough victual is an ugly word so is saxophone and phlegmatic ugly is easy but most beautiful maybe ill go with dorothy parker someone once asked the new york wit what she thought the most beautiful phrase in the english lan guage was ms parker smiled and murmured cheque en closed general lost battle of words sto 407 at mccowan dear editor this is apropos of mr blacks column on reporters or newspaper misprints in battle worn eng land in 1942 a county newspaper reported of a wellknown general as the following and i quote instead of a battle scarred veter- letters an the first misprint appeared as a battle scared veteran imagine his apoplec tic demand for a cor rection reprint and apology the apology appeared in the next weeks issue but appeared with the cor rection as a bottle scarred veteran on which note the general wisely with drew possibly his first defeat tom greenbough dear editor this is a copy of a letter sent to al palladini if its not too late here is an idea for the second phase of the 407 stop it at mccowan road the third phase for 2002 or whenever can then go beyond hwy 48 into durham region right now there is no need to take such a super highway east of hwy 48 spending money creating jobs and spurring develop ment is only appropriate when it is a sound decision and heading into durhams farm and natural lands with phase ii makes no sense to me i hope to see this logical revised plan in the news david mcgrew stouffv1lle tribune weekender inewspape patricia pappas publisher andrew mair editorinchief julie caspersen editor debra weller director of advertising phyllis ritchie retail advertising manager stacey allen classified manager barry goodyear director of distribution vivian oneil business manager pamela nichols operations manager about us i i wv 905 6402100 retail sales 905 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