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1 COME FLY WITH ME O, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the sky on laughter-silvered wings... From "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee Jr. Tom Cochrane was right: Life is a highway. What he forgot to mention is that it's also a one-way street. 1 have reached a stage of life in which a few blunt truths have made themselves painfully evident. There are certain things I've always dreamed of doing which, due to advancing decrepitude (mine) are simply Not Going to Happen. To wit: - Pat Quinn is not going to call me up to plug that hole in the Maple Leafs defensive corps. - The only way I'll ever see the summit of Mount Everest is on a National Geographic travelogue. -1 can stop waiting for a late night phone call from Jennifer Lopez complaining that she's lonely and would I like to go out dancing. - And now I realize that I might as well give up on another long-nurtured dream. I am never going to get to fly on the Concorde. The obituaries for the Concorde briefly fluttered across the front pages of the national press late last month. The delta-winged supersonic luxury airliner is being mothballed mothballed after barely a quarter- century of commercial service. service. The eulogies ranged from the rhapsodic: "Never before has such a beautiful object been designed and built by man", to the less charitable: "the largest, most expensive and most dubious project ever undertaken in the development development of civil aircraft". Beautiful? Well, I suppose so - although from some angles the Concorde looked like an albino praying mantis wearing a Batman cape - but she was unquestionably expensive. Only a handful of Concordes were ever built, but the price tag for development costs alone crested above $5 billion - and that's in 1960's dollars. More like $25 billion in today's currency. And it's not like the plane ever made back its investment in passenger fares. It could only carry 100 passengers per flight. By the time Concorde's owners pulled the plug, flights were running at 20 percent capacity, Which is to say four out of every five seats were empty. Why? Pick your poison poison - ear-cracking sonic booms; lingering air travel chill from Nine-Eleven; skyrocketing skyrocketing fuel prices; a spectacular spectacular crash into a Paris hotel three years ago that killed 109 people on the plane and four people on the ground... And the relative scarcity of people willing and able to shell out roughly 15,000 loonies for a three-and-a-half hour jaunt from New York to Paris and back. Truth is, the Concorde was an airborne white elephant. It never did have a lot of fans - just a few star-struck aviation Big Dreamers and a handful of wallet-heavy thrill-seekers - but it caught our attention for all that. Sort of like Madonna. And The Osbournes Still, the idea of the Concorde had its alluring charms for earth-bound grunts like me. The thought of breakfasting on the Champs Elysee, hopping a cab to Charles de Gaulle airport, sipping sipping Champers and nodding to Sting, Diana Ross and Linda Evangelista over the finger foods at 35,000 feet, then winding up at JFK just in time for lunch... Yeah, that appeals to the unnourished Sybarite in me. But the truth is, I hate flying generally - whether it's a luxury luxury airliner or a single-engine Beaver. Flying always makes my ears pop. A stewardess told me that chewing gum would take care of that problem, problem, so I bought a package of Dentyne and tried it. It sort of worked. But it took me days to get it out of my ears. Alex Shepherd Continued from front voice their political views. With the reorganization of government institutions we hope the people of Iraq will never again fall witness to the crimes Saddam and his gang of thieves and murderers perpetrated against fellow citizens. Iraq needs assistance building building a stable, self-governing and prosperous country. Iraq's people have not known a government of its own that respects human rights. The monetary contribution contribution from Canadians ensures the needs of the Iraqi people are met. It also draws upon Canadians' significant significant expertise and experience experience helping . countries recover from war. Canada, as it did throughout the Iraqi conflict, conflict, will continue to work closely with its partners including the U.S., the U.N., international financial institutions and countries in the region. We are also planning to re-open our embassy in Baghdad to re-establish a diplomatic presence there. We closed our embassy in 1991 before the start of the Gulf War. Our hope now is that a diplomatic pres- , ence will help meet the goals established to get Iraq back on the road to democracy democracy and prosperity. From the beginning of this war the Government of Canada pledged that it would be there for the postwar postwar reconstruction. We exercised our option, as a sovereign nation, to say no . to sending Canadian youth to that country to fight a battle that was not sanctioned sanctioned by the United Nations. What we are doing now is what we have always done best which is assisting nations in their time of need to help their own citizens get back on their feet. Canadians can go any where in the world without the fear of getting a bullet in the back because of a stand their government has taken. Extending our humanitarian aid to the Iraqi people ensures Canadians this security and nurtures the respect we have earned from nations and their citizens citizens the world over. Landers Continued from front for making the most of the local lad who made it big? "Timmins has Shania Twain, nearby Schumacher has Frank Mahovolich and Porcupine has Pete Landers, so they decided they would name the ball park after me." A left-handed pitcher with a powerful arm, Landers had an unshakable style that guided'his teams to seven wins at provincial Senior A competitions. And on three occasions his teams won national championships. championships. ■ He is in the Canadian Softball Hall of Fame, the B.C. Softball Hall of Fame and the Oshawa Softball Hall of Fame. Landers is employed at a metal forming plant in Oshawa and retired from softball ball two years ago. -LM Beryl Clarke (L) and Maureen Tomlison (R) dished out desserts applenty at the St. Saviours' Salad lunch and supper last week Wednesday at the church hall. 71 Fred DeVries proprietor FREE ESTIMATES • COMPETITIVE RATES • INSURANCE CLAIMS • FRED'S AUTOBODY (905) 623-6353 163 Baseline Road, Unit 1 Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 3L4 Complete Collision Repair, Restoration and Refinishing %» p Ovono Country Caîe ^ Full Menu ggj? Main Street., Orono, Ontario • 983-9009 4 a®, 9$ " M MORRIS FUNERAL CHAPEL LTD. SERVING DURHAM REGION SINCE 1841 ALL FUNERAL SERVICES PREARRANGED AND/OR PREPAID BURIAL - CREMATION - TRANSFERS "WHERE PROFESSIONAL ETIQUETTE IS IMPORTANT" FUNERAL DIRECTORS PAUL R. MORRIS GARY M. CONWAY DOUG R. RUTHERFORD DEBRA D. KELLEHER 623-5480 4 DIVISION ST.. BOWMANVILLE - AT QUEEN ST. ft- - - If