The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

p 4 weekender saturday december 20 1997 the tribune saturday december 20 1997 vol 13 no 51 the tribune is a member of the ontario press council comment inion st send your letters to the editor to the address below editorial dont neglect safety at this the turning of the year thoughts are very often turned to areas other than our own safety with visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads it is easy to set aside com mon sense and prudence each year we regret to publish the incidents arising from holiday season neglect scarcely a year goes by without our having to notify the public of tragic christmas tree fires or neglected cigarette fires of stove fires or careless wiring fires we regret hav ing to print horrible accident details resulting from drinking and driving of senseless domestic disputes resulting from alcohol or monetary disputes but it is not just careless adult acts which we see each year it was announced in the toronto media that sick kids hos pital is warning parents to expect up to three hour delays before seeing a doctor at this time of year parents appar ently have so much on their plate that watching the children becomes even more difficult also parents run themselves ragged allowing either laps es in safety or their childrens health to be affected howev er in order to preserve some semblance of holiday sanity and because of reduced general practice clinic hours over the season many parents bring their children to the hospital for treatment of the most minor ailments clogging up the alreadytaxed health care system planning some foresight and an eye to safe practices will help to reduce the number of tragic events over the holidays there is much we can do to make the days merry and bright if only we took a moment everybodys trying to be bald these days do not consider myself bald i am simply somewhat taller than my hair anon let me throw some names at you sean connery donovan bailey patrick stewart michael jordan george foreman sinead oconnor mark messier evander holyfield notice anything those folks all have in common its more what they dont have in common scalp foliage dome fur head hair every person on that list sports a noggin as naked as a cue ball in a wind tunnel not only are they bald several of them are voluntarily bald basketballer michael jordan singernutbar sinead oconnor and hockey legend mark messier could still put away their gillette razors and grow bushels of hair if they cared to they dont they opted for baldness finally after centuries of bad jokes not to mention wretched wigs and toupees bald is chic and not just with human skulls whats the trendiest building an upwardly mobile metropolis can throw up these days a dome seattles got the kingdome hous ton has the astrodome here in canada toronto and calgary boast the skydome and the saddledome respectively i tell ya for a guy whos had a wide part in his hair since before wayne gretzy could skate these are um heady times to live in basic black arthur black seems like just about everybodys trying to be bald these days where i live the hit of our fall fair last september was bevan the barber thats because he showed up clip pers in hand and proceeded to shave the heads of our entire fire depart ment and police detachment every officer men and women cheerfully agreed to have their heads shaved to raise some money for charity now there was a time not so very long ago when all of those folks ordinary citizens stand up for canada dear editor is it just me or are there others out there who love this country i know its christmas time and people are busy with getting ready for the big day so am i but how many of us understand what is going on with this great country we are in a state of what would happen if quebec really did sepa rate have you really thought about it is it possible that if they did could we still be a country hardly four maritime provinces apart from us oh sure we read every day in our newspapers and other media how i the federal ministers rebut quebec ministers but what about the people when are we going to get into the debate -r- when are the- letters ordinary people of quebec going to get into the debate locally when we have a problem we get together and talk about it try to solve our differences and nine times out of ten the problem can be solved but we have to talk about it we have to get involved i dont think a lot of people real ize what the outcome would be if it did happen many say either they couldnt care jess and others say the politicians will solve the prob lem i dont think the politicians alone can solve the problem so the question is do we care let the politicians decide per haps some would say we would be better off think about it we are a country that the world says is the best country in the world believe me if there is sepa ration it wont be tts about time the ordinary citi zen stands up for this country lets get together lets talk about it lets try to save the best country in the world sometimes its just a small com munity like stouffville that can with other small communities solve the problem are you interested george lovett stouffville would rather have lost an arm than appear bald in public but no more bald is in glory be you cant imagine how sweet this latest fashion development is for those of us who have had to go through life as follically chal lenged persons oh its not being bald thats bad thats easy the hard part is the lame jokes we have to endure from our furinfested lessevolved brethren hey baldie is that really your forehead or did someone forget to turn a floor lamp off heeyuk dont walk too close to the budgie cage hell think youre the egg that got away har har hey izzat the top of yer head or didja clear a runway for mosqui toes nyuk nyuk the bummer is no matter how dumb the joke may be bald guys are expected to react like theyve just heard a killer oneliner from dave lctterman otherwise you get branded as a poor sport am i bitter nah im just sorry its taken the rest of mankind so long to figure out something we natural baldies have known for years that whats hair today can be gone tomorrow that were not going bald were gaining face that a bald man is an honest man you can sec hes got nothing to hide take it from a guy whose medi cine cabinet is free of mousse and hair gel and expensive useless hair restorers balder really is better no fuzz no bother l jxiv tvichiivs vt- stouffville tribune weekender a metroland community newspaper patricia pappas publisher andrew mair editorinchief tracy kibble editor debra weller director of advertising mike rogerson retail advertising manager stacey allen classified manager barry goodyear director of distribution vivian oneil business manager pamela nichols operations manager about us news 905 6402100 retail sal 905 6402100 classifieds 9056402874 distribution 905 6402100 fax 905 6405477 email thetribistarca 14 nst stouffville ont the stouffvill pub lished every itneam thursday- and saturday in one of the i metroland prim iiihing and distribution group of comma nity newspapers which ajsxpickoring news advcrtit r alllilon heroldcourlcr barilc s advance brampton guardian burlington post cilyparenl collingwoodwasagas beach conv s ocction east york mirror etobl- j coko guardian georgetown inde- f pendentacton free press j kingston this week lindsay this ft week markham economist sun midlandpenctanguishenc mirror milton canadian champion mis- sissauga news newmarketaurora erabanner northumberland news north york mirror oakvlllo i beaver orillia today oshawa whitbyclaringtonport perry this week peterborough this week richmond huvthorohlllvaughan liberal scarborough mirror and i uxbridgo tribune todays seniors contents cannot be reprinted with- out written permission from the publisher permit 1247 the pub- usher reserves the right to rcfuso or classify an advertisement credit for advertisement limited to space the error occupied letters policy the tribune welcomes your letters to the editor please keep letters to no more than 300 words note that letters may be edited for space libel spelling grammar while wc endeavor- to print as many letters as possible wc regret that not all let ters may be printed