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

Had time to do some reading this summer. though pre- cious little. in between losing my wallet. entertaining my grandboys, being almost tom limb from limb by mosquitoes at a lake up north. and being thoroughly whipped at golf by some old guys who should be in nursing homes but can still hit the pill right up the middle. Highly recommended is Farley Mowat's account of his personal World War II. Its title alone would have made me read it. It's called And No Birds Sang, borrowed with a slight change from Keats' ballad. La Belle Dime Sans Merci. I First part of the book is typical Mowat. very readable but merely an accomt of the training and bumbling experienced by the average Canadian soldier. and sprinkled with a few highly improbableincidents. But when Mont gets his feet into the real war, the ins vasion of Sicily, the brutal fighting hp through “my" Italy. where the men were halt-from moat of the time, he hits his stride, and I dorm think he’s ever written anything better. No one could have written this book who was not there. He conveys with chilling accuracy the exhaustion. the bitter- ness, the dogged courage. and, yes, the wry humor of the real fighting men in a campaign that had little of the drama and dash of the invasion of France. Just tough, Moody fight- ing over range after range of momtains. against acme of thetoughestandhesttroopsinthecermmanny. Mttrratsiemtstoh-thimsetfbrtitntotttemirtdarad theemt?tioetsof the your; Canadian lieutenanthe was“. Beet-uhh-ttaria-det-tttr-trt-ttth-ls them. tttet-tld-rf, the-rr-tthe-tF ot the Poor Bloody Infantry. tarm-nt-gd-ttthimself-tttretrofit-oe mundantopnthimanlfhlthehero'arole.andbdoed BILL SMILEY deprecates his own ineptitude in many situations. Rather, I managed to grab two of Simpson‘s novels and read them he writes with an admiration that is almost love, of his straight through. They were The Peacock Papers and " friends and fellow-soldiers and sufferers. walski‘s Last Glance. Buy them or borrow them or steal He flares with rage at the imcornpetence and stupidity of them. They're great. _ senior officers, and in a couple of paragraphs strips all the Simpson came to Canada from Ireland, but you'd swear, gilt from that pompous little idiot, darling of the from his novels, that he’d lived in a small Canadian town or newspapers, General Montgomery. It's an honest book, and city all his life. Be knows the vernacular, he knows the petty a good read. little ttypoeriaies, and he knows the often peculiar attitude It had a little special interest for me, because one of his toward life of Canadians. friends, Major Alex Campbell, was in his unit. and died just In The Peacock Papers, he explores, with wit and irony as he would have wanted to, in a mad, single-handed, ho- and pity, a decent, middle-aged. successful Canadian busin- pelessbhargeagainstaGerrnanposition. gags.'""""'""'"""""""""'"""""""'"' It could only be the same Alex Campbell 2Tg le/gg, of us . in the same town. Perth, Ontario. Alex's ather V ... I'lle"d in the first World War. From the time he was a nip- In Kowalm ' Last Chance, he 'tmis off layer after layer he ted H .-. ofttteateigtiatmtaitt'oma1ieitrartddnhtr1etoeittttePre- per, wan revenge. ejoinedthernilitiaassoonashe . wasold mm. andhythe timelwas inhigh school. hehad Q'm'mm'm ertetvirteedttteeteattattortgttyymrta1kto a commission. nught be one. Both hooks are very funny. but a great deal Alex used to help train our high school cadet corps, fero- more ttum that. , . , . . . ciously but with an mderlying decency. A few years before. .A.m) pr book, you ttgh'! Well, it 8 so“! orimmittgiy, me he had been a tiger on the line of the football team, a vast are: :3 'ltr/gd',',',',',',":',,",",',?.'; PY 12 “30:48:: the . various we , my man with great strength and no'fear of anything or anyone. det, mm bin, and other likely qtota, bundled them I'iittetnteimstttet-ieatmartittttteemmtrv'ttettCamttttt, . . . . declared war on Germany. And he died exactly as he would into a - garbage N8 and threw them m” the attic. This have wiahed. hurting his hulk against machine-guns instead PM Mmte mmtptieatimt' of opposing linesmen. Sitting around the living-room are about eight dice hoses. Another author I discovered this summer was Leo Sirnp- They are labeled: Politics. Weather, Celebrations, Family, aent.teeitvmrirttttevi11neeooadtte,attatrio,ttrtd0-t?f Sers,aatdaomt.iaitironr-etair,rmetirtttrtttegrmn him, mum rettdttitstttmN, mob-birdie when!!!” urine bag, practice a coin. scan it, and hurl it toward ,tt1eirtqttittatteMCmtadhart mum when "me-top» thematic. Mnemarkedlisoetlnaousisover- He flares with rage at the imeompetmee and stupidity of senior officers, and in a couple of paragraphs strips all the gilt from that pompous little idiot, darling of the newspapers, General Montgomery. It's an honest book, and a good read. It had a little special interest for me, because one of his friends, Major Alex Campbell, was in his unit. and died just as he would have wanted to, in a mad, single-handed. ho- peless Charge against a German position. It could only be the same Alex Campbell I knew. We grew up in the same town. Perth, Ontario. Alex's father had been killed in the first World War. From the time he was a nip- per, he wanted revenge. Re joined the militia " soon as he uaaoidemnsgtt,amtttytttetime1sasinhighaehoot,ttehad a commission. Alex used to help train our high school cadet corps, fero- ciously but with an underlying decency. A few years before. ttetutitt-tatigermtthe1irteofthehtotttat1team,avaat man with great strength and no tear of anything or anyone. I'll bethe was the happiest man in the country when Canada declared war on Germany. And he died exactly " he would have willed. hurting his hulk against machine-guns instead of opposing line-men. Another author I discovered this summer was Leo Simp- son. tretivmrirttttevi11rteeooadtte,attatrio,ttrtd0-t?f him, but M’t read his novels. probably due to the incredi- hieincptitadeotCansdisnpehliMswhenitcomestopro- Be'ifanere-eriter,ntmAmttre1iteeatethartttte tante-rar-tr-ttOtt-ttttnrt-tmet-rm tsoo-+o-tttheist-qt-ttttVario"' attrrttaartdttrmtiqeat-t. Literary perarntrullations Mytmtttwioet-t-rteamistgrnee- adorable 'tttqeNrht with a touch at db ttttBtttmmndrthtr.tttdm-e.n'spttt my won-k. 'atitttt or driving habits that are bothering Incas mud”: mum tnmr-tlrntr, Ik . My (that habitually call me with all sort: of may ideas for "getting into trouble." Intuit ahrarr happens when t'm scheduhd to work or else I'm too pooped to participate...maybe they planned it that way! V Whenever I have some spare time on my hands everything is reversed. Everyone else is either busy or out of town and I'm left middling my thumbs for lack of anything better to do. No MQPW- A A. A --- thtitaesmtedowittt one'sselfwhen faced with such a predicament? Get a my”. that‘s what. - -- A A The next step after deciding on taking up some kind of leisure activity itt to set- tle on one area of interest that will hope- fully not turn out to be a passing whim. [love to read. Ws sonnething I've done since that first day my mother pried my eyes open, but I tend to go cross-eyed afterafewhttttitnfmettofattook. And with the nature of my work (I read everything in sight just to keep abreast of what's happening) I find that opening a book isnot thefunitusedtobe.alth- ough I'il never really give up the reading habit. Painting is also out of the question. On a larger scale I find that if I'm painting a wairor fence 1 usually end up with more of the stuff on me than where it's supposed to be, so you can just imagine what I'd do if I was creating a work of art on canvas in my apartment. I’ll leave the art world to my tgister-in-law Diane...she has all the talent in that area. Photography is out too because once again it's too close to what I do day in and day out. I look at my camera equip- ment in my spare time and come down with a severe case of "shutterbug-itis." it's a disease which fogs up the lenses of my glasses and causes me to break out in a rash. Strike another possible hobby off the list. I was running out of ideas. Things were looking rather bleak until I saw a recent National Geographic special on the boob-tube which featured the world of 'microscopy ttlt-oct-tits-trt-tWitt-ri-Ne" fhmhtg.Tttemte_dNstilristtatl.hemterstar%sd "ris%mimi.Aatdthenttorttttt)t.astttetmAyarddoes www.munmm. thrtse'regettirtgttteee.BratriatntaarmtAsmr'lltte hallway do“; that in; (no in. Mine contained a couple of tiny fruit flies just to get things rolling. I placed one of the little beasties under the lense and psyched myself up for what I was about to see. I didn't psych myself up enough though. What was once a tiny fly grew to about the size of an elephant when I looked through the eyepiece! I just about fell off my chair. It's enough to send you screaming through the hallway or bab- bling ineohegsntly to the lampshade! 'Ne_euailrqottigtttaitrettse dobetmmlchJutahoubed about mam-why bulimic-ted Mk. Bells beganto ring inmost: mrertsrxtlhedirttotttettVrtyt-d "dnttttt'temttimtmiipedrxtol from tt-erdfmyrntmth. Eureka...l had finally stumbled, acroejs something lntereatiu!‘ . , TtteneiteuBietgdwasttrfittdami- croscope that wouldn‘t cause me to empty out my bank account. I called some local suppliers and all they could do was laugh. I didn't want to spend mtteetunti00,tmtatttteaametimel wanted 'oemrtitirtg with a bit of quality. A hobby is defined " "any favorite pastime or something a person likes to work at or study apart from his main business." In other words. it's supposed to be something done for relaxation or pleasure. But I've found myself involved in so- mething that is going to take elm-mm: amounts of tranquilizers just to keep myself, trom flipping out everytime I look through the eyepiece. Where does that leave me now'? We just ended up going from the ridiculous to the sublime! It seems they dott't carry anything costiu lea: than $1,000. So much tor that idea. BtgttitettIstmgttt1edaerxttttgaett- mera store that carried a limited line of microscopes, most falling within my price range. I carted the equipment home only to discover another problem. I think I'm going to start knocking back tranqui- lizers before sitting down to view the mini-world! For example. I thought I'd start off with something small and simple. The microseope kit comes complete with a few prepared slides. Has anyone out there got any basket weaving" kits for sale?