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WATERLOO CHRONICLE '"sioytpr CNsgitTed Clad "Ed hula] wchromcleesemex m-l 75 King St. South, Suite 20] Walerioo, Ontario N21 IP2 meWaterkro C'rtronirla, welcomes IFIIPH m the Mum Ther should he stgned wtih mum». mime“ and pluuw null! ber and Will be m-nncd for ar, u rm v Nu unugned tetrers wqll lw published Suhmnwms mav he tNirred in! Ieryph. m please hr hrref f'opyrsght In letters and who! materials whmlnod In the Puhlnhpr and arrrpred [or puhluauon "mains wulh the author. Nut the puhlmhn and m Menu,“ may (tech; reproduce them In prim Flt-(Ironic at other forms Um mailing address u 75 Km]: M S. Suite 2m. Waterloo V1] H'? nuro maul addmsn m hmnulrawmn no! and um la: number w Mr, 'UJH The views orour columisls are their own and do not necessarily represent those of the newspapen mum Publications Min Sues Pic-duct Agreement Number l 353 79 lnlrmauonal Slandud tieoat Numbe, ISSN 0832-3410 "It Waterloo Chrumcle Is published every Wednesday by the fairway Group, a dwmon of Southern Umano Community Newspapers Inc. a division of Southam Publications. a (LanWesl Company a! "v'!tt,:,,_i",' Letters Policy ' aloly'n Ansley hm Alexander a rculnion Director of Mun-gel Admllin‘ Gfrtylaryce F!" We: Andrea Halli-1 We! fat Boswld "rim”; (2.71.33: Publisher Edna! Norma Cyca Syhaa O'Donndl Amend-h; with; lynn {Fur-l Ruins-la Publisher: tu-l Busveld 380-1830 Fax. 8863385 Audued circulation 26.056 Manager "95:3. "In-ctr "ttee Ry3rtay " ob Vrhanai Spurn Editor There I was up the lad- der Sunday afternoon, removing the imitation- hut-altogether-natural- looking boughs from around the front door, when -- SPLAT. CRACK! SCHPLUT'. SMACK! --- little blue egg shells and yolk covered the door- step. Oh, the horror, It was only after the eggs came crashing down that I noticed the nest. But no, I had to put the job off, allowing a mother robin to come along and pick their lush synthetic greenery in which to build her spring abode. If I wasn't such a lazy git, I would have taken those decorations down in March like everybody else. I was overcome with guilt, And as M ike cleaned up the carnage. he tried to console me. Didn't work. though, And speaking of the last snowfall (again), I blame Millie in our composing department for this week's winter encore Sez Millie sometime Monday. "Yesterday I put all my winter hunts, sweaters and coats away, So you watch, ill snow again." Half an hour lair-r. it was snowing. And not little wussy baby flakes either Big, fat ones, all blowing and blustery like Besides. you know what they say Better to have a mat and not need one than In need a coat and mm have one riving to work yesterday morning while it Dwas still dark, I passed three homes sporting fully illuminated Christmas decor. It was quite lovely, actually - freshly fallen. fhdfy-type snow softly blanketing festive trimmings. And given the fact that IT'S ALMOST MAYER. the sight made me belly laugh out loud. So I want to thank each of those three home- owners for having enough of a sense of humour to poke fun at our most recent assault by Mother Nature. If it weren't for the fact that I fmaily took down my exterior Christmas decorations on Easter Sunday, l, mo, would have flipped the 'on' switch when I got home from work Monday night. We all needed a good laugh. So, yeah. I finally took down the holiday decora- tions, but now! wish I hadnt. And not just because l would have liked to take a dig (no pun intended) at our recent snowfall. Nope. I wish I'd left the lights where they were -- or taken them down soon» er. As a result of my chronic procrastinating ways, I've committed murder Closely examining the nest - a true work olart. labour oflove and all that _, I thought about what must have gone into its construction, And I thought about what that poor bird would think when she returned to my front door to find nothing - no synthetic houghs, no nest, no eggs. And it's all my fault, Oh. the horror - oh, the guilt. Geesh, Millie. Thanks heaps. How 'bout you take the boots and coats back our of storage. eh? We can't take another blast of winter. Sh I've learned my lesson when it domes to talk mg down the trimmings __ next year I'll do it long before the last snowfall, Or something like that Happy holidays those decorations down in March like everybody else. If I wasn't such a lazy git, I would have taken VIEWPOINT Heaven save us from the culture vultures My objection goes a hit deeper Since even Craig wouldn't pretend that his popu- lace is unanimously for a stand-alone city. what gives council the right to push only that point of view That means they were pegged as tops in graduate, student and employer satisfaction. along with graduate employee levels. And, incidentally, Conestoga improved it's perfor- mance in every category from the previous year. Still, as yet another handy- dandy public service, I have a tip on how political observers can save untold hours a week. It's simple: Just ignore it every time Day breaches something new at a media huddle. This time it's the revelation that Cambridge has hired a lobbyist at Queen's Park. Regional Chairman Ken Seiling thinks it's inappropriate when the city is represent- rd by a government MPP, Plunging Star: Some party colleagues have taken to calling Stockwell Day "dead man walking". but it may be a bit early to call him out, Gosh. even for a novice leader, Day has committed more than his share of gaffes. It's seemed to be a cou- ple a week, sometimes daily. ‘ f, " " And ignore it through the (r first correction, and perhaps the l, Ftst two or three denials. Then you can make a judgement on how bad the mess is this time. And the messes go on and on. s And Day makes it sound like ll every politician in Ottawa is Incompetent except him And he's mostly right until those last two words, What Next? Just when you think Cambridge has run out of things m confuse us. along comes Mayor Doug Craig with another wowser. It sounds typically high-handed In me Incidentally, I hear tell that some people say And I guess it's tough to learn that French editorials are parroting what all his allies say. The dull boy from Texas has announced his considered judgement on the mess. "The Far East just is_n'l far Enough." The Old College Try: Let's have three cheers and a tiger for Conestoga College! The institution on the four-oh-one has for the third year in a row been rated the best com- munity college in Ontario. Conestoga doesn't get its fair share of ink and air time, but it's doing a superb job. Maybe, to rate top of mind, it has to get a footlysll team that can win the Vanier Cup. l's settled now (temporarily, this is) but IPresidem George Dubyah had his prob- lems negotiating with the Chinese. As blunt comments on his skills, some Paris editorials took to calling him "idiot" and "moron." They'd prefer the disused school build ings be gussied up as community centres, museums. art galleries. palaces, canon emporiums and art stufrlike that there There's apparently only two kinds of building they like: School buildings and, far back in second place. disused school build, ings. " strikes me that most of the relatively few opponents want all the schools kept open. Never mind what it would cost! Never mind the mockery it would make of plan- nlng. School Bored: Here's a switch on essen- tially the same story:What is the impact of one of three downtown high schools closing? Underwhelming folks, Just underwhelming. u The only life came with DY Howard Rotberg. ctrfounder of tD the Coalition to Help Our Inner City Education, He's accusing school board planners of not following proper procedure in notifying my idents about the prospect of a school clos, mg, Master Plan: The folks who have been wailing about the closing of Waterloo schools need wail no longer. Thanks to some geniuses somewhere. three of the four schools will have bright new futures. The big switch is made possible by the provincial big thinkers who made it policy that school boards get first crack at surplus properties, followed by the nearest college or university. then local municipalities. The way it'll work out is public and sepa- rate boards will get money to help build new suburban schools. And - let's have a blare of trumpets __ will see school buildings contin, ue to serve the community, But they've offered as good a solution as can be hoped for. I'll bet it wasnt the product of a committee, Or it'd still be meeting. Anyhow, no one can dispute the i'mpor tance of education. If we couldn't sign our nameg wt'd havefo pay cash. they'll never speak to Craig as long as they live, They dqq't want to interrupt. It's only a five-way deal involving, of course, the public and separate boards, as well as the City of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University and a French-language Catholic school board. "raven save us from the culture vultures, Some protest! Petitions went undistributed, signs went urtwaved, and in general. it had all the spirit of a foot-health seminar. That's if you go by an infor- mation meeting at Kitchener City Hall. II was sponsored by the downtown advisory com- mittee. And get this: About 30 (count'em folks, 30) attended the meeting.