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Carulyn Anstey Jn Alexander Circulation Manager Director of Advertising WATERLOO CHRONICLE The Waterloo Chronicle welcames letters io the Editor They should be signed with name, address and phane num ber and will be venfied for accu racy. No unsigned letters will be published Submissions may be edited for length. so please be bnef Copyright in letters and other materials submitted to the Publisher and accepted for publication remains with the author. but the publisher and its hcensees may freely reproduce them in print, electronic or other forms Our mailing address is 75 King 5tS , Suite 201, Waterioo N2LIP2. our e mail address is wehromcle@@sentex net, and our fax number is ARhâ€"2383 886â€"2830 Fax: 886â€"9383 Eâ€"mail: wchronicle@sentex.net Letters Policy Syimia O‘Donnell Mvsr_lking 75 King St. South, Suite 201 Waterloo, Ontario N2J 1P2 Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement Number 136379 International Standard Serial Number ISSN 0832â€"3410 The Waterloo Chronicle is published every Wednesday by The Fairway Group, a division of Southern Ontario Community Newspapers Inc., a division of Southam Publications, a CanWest Company. The views of our columists are their own and do not necessarily represent those of the newspaper. Andrea Bailey Reporter Norma Cyca Advertising Lynn Bartol Lal Bosveld Publisher > smm § Audited circulation: 26,056 Publisher: Cal Bosveld Deborah Crandall Editor Laurie Ridgway Gerry Mattice Retail Sales Manager Bill Karges Advertising Bob Vrbanac Sports Editor But I guess it all boils down to the old adage we all want what we can‘t have. And I‘m sure there‘s some validity to the fact that my freckles make me unique | just wish I didn‘t have so many of them However, there is a bright side. If 1 ever get extremely bored, I can always play connect the dots Character? I‘ll agree with that. I‘ll agree I look just like Margaret, the little freckleâ€"faced redâ€"head from the Dennis the Menace cartoon. Oh, I got some colour all right â€" clusters of colour in the form of little brown dots all over my face. I think it‘s safe to say the cosmetics department at the drugâ€" store is going to make some nice coin off me this year. Of course my family and friends say I‘m making a big deal over nothing, and that the speckled look actuâ€" ally gives me character. Sick of being what 1 call ‘the pasty white girl} I recently started tanning on a regular basis. After all, everyone needs a little colour. Well, leave it to me to find a way to resurrect my annual summer battle. Well, after about three applications I was as orange as the rust that covered my parents‘ 1984 station wagon. And to top it off, I still had a zillion little brown dots on my face. The topper came the summer I wouldn‘t go outâ€" side without having my arms and legs completely covered. Sure this helped the collection on my knees and arms, but it did nothing for my face. Oh, and as a side note, don‘t go outside wearing a sweatsuit in 32â€"degree weather and then order a large vanilla milkshake. The effect it has on one‘s stomach is not very pretty. To be quite honest though, over the last few years I‘ve seemed to forget about my war on freckles. Like most working folk, I don‘t have a lot of time to spend in the great outdoors. Then one year I asked my mother to buy some of that sunless tanning lotion, figuring 1 could blend away the problem. Someone once told me that rubbing lemon juice on freckles will lighten them. Works for the hair, must work for the skin too, right? Wrong. When I hit my adolescent years, to me those angel kisses became massive brown blotches, too ugly to stand. I tried everything to get rid of them. All the lemon juice did was make me smell like furâ€" niture polish. Every year at this time, ANDREA while most people are enjoying the sunshine, I‘m BAILEY in the drugstore stocking up on foundation cream that will hide what 1 call hideous freak marks on my face. As a child, 1 never really gave my freckles much thought. In fact, my grandmother actually convinced me they were angel kisses. Yeah, angel kisses my asâ€" pirin. Now before someone reaches for the soap, the Fâ€" word I‘m referring to, as 1 cringe at the thought, is freckles. It‘s the curse of being a redâ€"head. and believe me my resentment runs deep. 1 use it at least five times a day, saying it to almost everyone with whom I have a conversaâ€" tion. Yes, happy days are here again. Well, not for all of us. As the season changes, e I‘ve found myself dusting e um off the old Fâ€"word a lot STRAIGHIT lately. ) Most people have packed away their parkas and opted for fleece sweaters. Sunglasses adorn the faces of every passing driver. And swimming pool owners have started booking the annual opening of their backyard paradise. ( :ould the nightmare finally be over? Could Mother Nature finally be relieving us of what eels like a neverending tomb of winter? Mind you, I‘d better not speak too soon as a big ball of white stuff could still hit me in the head at any moment. At any rate, with the sight of daffodils around every corner and the sound of birds chirping every mornâ€" ing, it seems spring has finally â€" and I hate this cliche â€" sprung. Connect the dots VIEWPOINT Hurrah for Spring: You hate to be preâ€" mature because we‘ve been tricked too often, but it looks as if spring has sprung. Any three warmish days in a row should indicate that it‘s so. The local world usually looks scruffy in spring, but this year it‘s seems maximum grubby. It‘ll take a good bit of â€" to use an oldâ€"timey phrase â€" "ridding up Ah yes, spring again. That‘s when Canada wrestles with three major surpluses â€" corn, wheat and Girl Scout cookies Policemen meet some real DP dandies. Take the OPP officer l* who stopped a woman driver who was makâ€" ing like Mario Andretti. Asked to explain, she said, "I‘m trying to get home before all the accidents harpen." Hirrah Tar Cnvime:Arou old If I recall correctly, police did a similar crackdown some years ago, but obviously without lastâ€" ing results. The thing that bothâ€" ers me about the passingâ€"lane drivers is that they look so sancâ€" timonious when you have to pass them on the inside. That brings up a point: How did they get their licenses in the first place? Some who drive in the passing lane obviously think it‘s the safe thing to do. Move ‘em Over: The OPP are on the right track in ticketing folks who drive in the passing lanes. Such offenders probably cause a lot of mishaps while remaining untouched themâ€" ce ‘ONCI Of course, in the teen years we were all immortal, and it‘ll probably be years before the tobaccoâ€"born illnesses become a reality to the youngsters. And it‘ll be hard to give up the habit then. You know anybody who‘s a chain smoker? He‘s probably also a chain quitter. It‘s a pity the cost of paying to commit suicide. The teens fresh from school who have to light up first thing make one scream for common sense. Waterloo believed there was no fate worse than debt PAY RAISE SANDY BAIRD Wow! Every Waterloo man, woman and child owes $752 on behalf of the municipaliâ€" ty. A kid is born today and he gets a rattle and a bill for $752. You don‘t have to spank a newâ€" born to see him cry. Just show him his share of the municipal debt Profligate Kitchener, by contrast, owes $20 million, a piddling $106 per capita Cambridge has no debt, which is about par for its parsimonious inhabitants. [‘ Say, speaking of accountants, did you hear about the Kâ€"W figâ€" DY ure filbert who‘s now partners with the Ford organization. It RD makes the cars and he makes the license plates. Balance Sheet: Up until lately, Waterloo believed there was no fate worse than debt Now, by nonâ€"accountant totals, Waterloo is on the hook for $73 million, an amount that works out to a hefty $752 for each of the 90,000 people in Waterloo. In the case of Waterloo, the municipality is paying 4.5 per cent (to cover the cost of handling and mailing). But because of the rules of accounting And financial reporting, the loan is not recorded as a debt. Waterloo h bought the land and borrowed AUUN| mc money to build the park. It TLY leased the land to MFP and the M | _ company then leased it back to the city. Waterloo owes $56 million for the Millennium Recreation Park, but it doesn‘t appear in the city books as a debt. It‘s financed over 30 years by Mississauga‘s MFP Financial Services Ltd., which finances large, longterm municipal projects. That is: You group on one side of the sheet all you have or are owed; on the other side you total up all you owe. Not so. Not so. Waterloo now proves it isn‘t so. Balance Sheet: I can‘t tota! up a tab at McDonald‘s, but I‘ve always figured I underâ€" stood what are "generally accepted princiâ€" ples of accounting." Are you still there? Under the rules, it‘s a contractual obligaâ€" tion to pay a certain amount in the future, and from a strictly accounting standpoint it is not recorded as a debt.