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4 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, April 7, 1987 Editorial Comments Still Falling American president Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy breez- ed into Ottawa over the weekend for a state visit, which lasted all of 24 hours. Prime Minister Brian Kony, as he has in the past, tried to getthe American President thinking in terms of dn agreement to com- bat the major environmental problem of acid rain. Mr. Reagan, as he has in the past, talked a bit about the acid rain problem, and a lot about the joys of a free trade agreement bet- ween the two countries. There were a lot of handshakes, speeches filled with platitudes, a formal state dinner and lots of posing for pictures during the 24 hours the Reagans spent in Canada. And Mr. Reagan and Mr. Mulroney even managed to find a few minutes to meet privately to _ talk about a host of bi-lateral issues like defense, Arctic sovereignty and the AIDS epidemic. But the meetings produced no further initiative on acid rain. Anyone who thought they might was dreaming in colour. Acid rain has been on the agenda in Canada-American relations for over a decade now. The cause of the problem is known, the sources of the problem have been pin-pointed. The technology exists to eliminate greatly the acid rain which is killing lakes, streams, forests. The only thing missing is the political will.to spring the massive amounts of dollars neecagl to put the technology to work on this hofrendoys problem. _ If the will was there, acid rain would not have been an issue for discussion over the weekend. "Concrete steps to solve the problem would have been put in place years ago. Bricks and Bouquets How about a solid brick for the guy who makes up the American League baseball schedule. He had the Blue Jays opening their season in Toronto on April 6. Obviously, he has never been to Toronto in the first week of April. Or maybe he thought the Dome was ready. Temperature at game time Monday "afternoon was officially 7 degrees C. But in Exhibition Stadium, hard by the banks of Lake On- taro, it was cooler than that. There is no way the Blue Jays, or any other baseball team should venture north of the Mason-Dixon Line before mid-April at best. Baseball in Toronto on April 62 It should not be. Still with the bricks, the National Hockey League has come through an eighty-game schedule with 16 of the 21 teams qualifying for post-season playoffs. Really, does a team like the Maple Leafs, which LOST ten more games than it won, gave up 319 goals while scoring just 286, deserve to be in any playoff? And remember, they snuck in the'side door on the next to last game of the season, thanks mainly to the Minnesota Stars, who collapsed totally in the past few weeks, winning just ong of ten games. The League should come to its senses and allow 12 teams into the playoffs. And speaking of those playoffs, the final game for the Stanley Cup could be played June 1. That's about as silly as open- ing the baseball season April 6 in Tgronto. But enough of the bricks. A A is-due the eight-man team from Port Perry Curling Club which was victorious over the weekend in the first round of the Governor-General playdowns.-The team now goes on to the next level of competition this Saturday in Toronto, and if the guys can 'stay alive,'" they curl in the finals on Sunday. Give it your best shot, guys ' (Turn to page 6) Port Perry STAR & oO cn (== | 235 QUEEN STREET " PORT PERRY. ONTARIO Phone 985-7383 PO Box90 LOB INO J PETER HVIDSTEN Member of the Publisher 'ata ¥nimuity Newspapes SN at Advertising Manager une . - Jed every Tuesday by the JB McCLELLAND Editor CATHY OLLIFFE News & Features Subscripbon Rate In Canada $20 00 per year Elsewhere $60.00 per year Single Copy SU COPYRIGHT -- All layout and composition of advertisements produced by the adver tising department of the Port Perry Star Company Limited are protected under copyr wht and may not be reproduced without the written permissadn of the publisher ¥ - 80 WE CHOSE THE WEEKEND THAT YOU LO JE AY HOIRG SLEEP Chatterbox by Cathy Olliffe APRIL SNOW Mother Nature is insane. I believe this. Today is a nightmare. This morning made Nightmare on Elm Street look like an old Disney re-run. It is Tuesday. It is snowing. No, I take it back. It is a virtual BLIZZARD outside, and | hate it, hate it, hate it. Today is the last day of March. On Sunday I raked the lawn. My neighbour raked his lawn. Another guy down the street planted grass seed. I dreamed about buying flowers and fertilizer. Fertilizer. Doesn't that just about sum up what the. weather is like these days? One minute you're basking in the sunshine. The next, you're scraping windshields, driving around at .02 km per hour and wondering what the heck you ever did to deserve this. . At the rate the snow is coming down. we'll be skiing in June, for pete's sake. Too bad I don't ski. EEX XE RR XX : é : : It 1s now Thursday afternoon. It is snowing again. There seems to be more snow on the ground now that there was all winter. The robins are wearing snowshoes. Poor little things, all preg- nant and plump. searching for nest building materials and worms in snow drifts. Really. the time has come to assist these red- breasted beauties. After all, we wouldn't let preg- nant human beings wander around homeless in the snow would we? Well, you might. But I just can't stand by and watch our friend- ly robins freeze or starve to death. Therefore, I'm asking Scugog Councillors to forget about the foolish maximum security prison. and concentrate on saving our robins. A national emergency. could be declared, Worhen's church groups could knit little sweaters. Soup lines could be established at local restaurants. Temporary shelter could be provid- ed in homes, with robins billeted from one fa mily to another. Hopefully. the national emergency won't last too long. However. if this ridiculous weather con tinues. the community will just have to sustain the rescue efforts. To help bolster spirits, I've devis- ed a theme song, sung ta the tune of "Robin In The Rain =~ Robin in the snow. What a frozen statue Robin in the snow, With your beak all turned blue PecKing in the snowbank. With vour frost-bitten beak. Ploughing through the snowdrifts With gangrened feet (Chorus) Robin in the snow. You really hate the weather. Hailstorms always make you pay. Betcha you were wishing you had stayed down south, Robin on an April day! kkk FERRER RERX And going from the ridiculous to the sublime. I feel I must offer hearty congratulations to the students, teachers and parents who worked so hard to produce The Wizard of Oz at Cartwright Central Public School last w eek (Thursday. April 2%. Everything about the show rev ealed a tremendous amount of effort, from the singing and acting, right through to the lighting, sets. music and costumes. | I thoroughly enjoyed the show. and I just want to say it's nice to see the way everyone pitches in to come up with an excellent performance. EEE ERRFERERXX I also want to offer my thanks to Debbie Jones of Lake Scugog Lumber and Diane Lackie of Port Perry High School for getting me involved with Career Day at school. Together with four other women, nurse Joan Lane. YMCA director Anna Croxall. real estate agent Gail Scala and Bell telephone salesperson Peggy Finch. I gave a short speech about my cahem) illustrious career. All five of us talked about how we got involv- ed in our professions, our education. what we like and dislike about eur jobs. and future oppor- tunities for students wanting to get inv olv ed in similar occupations. All five of us were also extremely nervous. "There's something about public speaking that turns a normally confident individual into a quak- ing mouse. In fact, I heard on the news just last night. about a study in which people were asked 'what their biggest fears are. Turns out public speaking was the number one fear. ranked higher than anything else. And I believe it. Isimply hate giving speeches. It doesn't bother me to churn out a column in this newspaper. read by 15.000 people each and every week. But put me in front of 100 people. face to face. and my knees turn to jelly. So why do | want to thank Debbie and Diane" Well. I want to thank them because they forc- ed me to overcome my fear, if only for a few minutes" The best thing about public speaking, after all, 1s getting 1t over with. The feeling you get from conquering a fear is amazing. It's sort of like jogging ---- you hate doing it, but the feeling of accomplishment you get when you'ré done is well worth the sore ankles and lack of breath. \