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CL A C--O a A of the Question Week... Do you think school boar d trustees should Linda Houston Pat Dilisi Sharon Wright 'Kelly Hough Doug Manns be involved in contract No, not really. It's up | think they both They know a lot Yes, it's important to No, there's enough negotiations with to the union and the should put the kids more than the gov- have them there. layers there already. teachers and other employer. But, they on a pedestal. It's the emment. They're an The people at the employees? can advise the kids who are taking important voice at the board should be able . employer what the the brunt of all this. table. to handle it. public wants. LETTERS CAS Christmas drive was aided by the community To the Editor: We at Durham Children's Aid Society are pleased to announce that our 2000 Community Caring at Christmas campaign exceeded last year's tremendous response. Thanks to the generosity of Durham Region, the hol- iday season was brighter for 289 families. Gifts, food and food gift certificates were given to 344 parents and 659 children and 21 youth. This overwhelming response also enabled the Durham Children's Aid Society, for the first time, to provide gifts for children in foster care and provide toys and books for children visiting the offices. Monetary donations not used at Christmas will be used for children for bur- saries and summer camp. We heard thank you many times from families picking up brightly wrapped packages, over- whelmed with gratitude, some with tears, some unable to speak and shak- ing their heads in awe over a simple act of kindness and goodwill. Life can sometimes be harsh for families in our community, but in the spirit of compassion, you stepped in to help. Great memories as a result, will surely be recalled and have a positive impact on chil- dren and parents through- out this year. The Durham Children's Aid Society has been help- ing children and families in our community since 1905 and is grateful to those indi- viduals, groups, organiza- tions and businesses that support our programs and services. On behalf of the children, we thank you. James L. Dubray, Durham Children's Aid Society It may sound strange, but | believe sl have been cured of hypochondria. ~~ Honest. Sitting here just now, ca casting about for ideas to pursue on a cold Sunday morning in February, at it has been years since | convinced d contracted some dreaded disease. 'warning signs for cancer in an ad on a city bus and realizing, with mounting horror, that | had some trace of all of the symptoms on the list; convinced, at 32, that my "heart was bound to fail (chest pains that tumed out to be 'pulled muscles); knowing, full well, at age nine, that | had _ contracted malaria after playing! with a friend's pet lizard (the name of the disease having been supplied by a g. Saturday afternoon adventure movie on the black and sty, the last phantom disease | recall was many I had contracted some kind of hemorrhagic fever. God, "what a night: Lying there, sick unto death with drenching sweat and a crashing headache, waiting for my eyeballs to melt and the final death throes to begin. Tums out it was simply a nasty rash and a combination hangover-food-related illness, the result of swilling tequila and eating copious piles of some kind of shellfish none of us at the table could conclusively identity. By mid- moming | was fine. But it was a close call. 'That's really the last time | can recall being in the grips of some horrendous malady which vanished, like the moming mist, after a time had passed and | came to my "Itused to be a common occurrence: Reading the Page Seven A HYPOCHONDRIAC CURED by Jeff Mitchell senses. Truth is, | almost never get sick. The odd case of sniffles, sure, and an occasional bout with the flu, when some dedicated fool insists on showing up at the office and hacking clouds of venomous microbes into the air, rather than doing the sensible thing, which is to retire to the sofa with a bottle of cognac and spend the day watching talk shows. We're not out of the woods yet, but it looks as though we've avoided one of those dreadful flu seasons, the sort of which has been a lingering feature of winters recently past. Rather like the plague it can be, as one after another of one's friends, neighbours and colleagues falls to the scourge. Like that scene in the remake of Nosferatu, 'where the streets stand empty and rats cavort over restaurant tables; the vampire's rampage having claimed all. "You phone someone and when they tell you he's not Sod in, you offer: "Oh, he's probably down with this thing." yea 'ago now, when | was certain, upon waking up - sweating in the middle of a sweltering Mexican night, that 'The person on the other end of the line sneezes in the affirmative, Another one bites the dust. - A bout with the flu can actually be okay, after the initial onset, a bewildering time highlighted by fever, sweats, chills, 'chattering teeth and, if you're really lucky, halluci- nations. Day two and three can be rather reminiscent of those times when, as a kid, you were too sick to attend school, but not in such a dire condition that you couldn't spend the afternoon watching soaps with mom. One had only to remember, as the day drew on, to throw a few coughing fits and hold one's breath long enough to create flushed cheeks and a hot forehead, and, Bingo! The words you're dying, more or less, to hear: "It looks as if you won't be making it to school tomorrow." Ah, to be ill, now that winter is here. Random Jottings by J. Peter Hvidsten SNOWBIRDS RETURN HOME Like a lot of Canadians this win- ter, we just returned home from a * week in the sunny south, cruising around the beautiful warm Caribbean seas, visiting ports like Grand Cayman Island, Cozumel and New Orleans. Itwas a tremendous trip, and we thoroughly enjoyed this unique experience, but it doesn't matter where | go... how long I've been away... or how enjoyable the vacation was... coming back home always makes me feel good. Unfortunately the trips back home are most often the most negative part of a vacation. Such was the case this past week when we began our day.at about 5 a.m., as our cruise ship began preparations to dock in Tampa, and didn't end until almost 11 P m. that night... 18 hours later. This being our first cruise, a celebration of Nancy and my 20th anniversary, we weren't prepared for the amount of waiting that takes place. With more than 2,000 passengers all wanting to get to shore, take a bus tour or enjoy a buffet, lining up and waiting became a big part of the trip. Allin all, we enjoyed it immensely, but were happy to return to good old Port Perry, cold weather or not. THE GOOD AND THE BAD Returning home after a week away, one of the first things | do is to look through the pages of The Star to see what has happened while we were away. One article in particular caught my eye, and that was the approval of council to allow 1.2 metre side- yards in the new Perryview subdivision. | | haven't seen the staff report, but | find it hard to believe Scugog's staff would go along with this request, and then recommend that council gives the thumbs up to the developer. As Councillor Pearce righty pointed out, a 1.2 meter sideyard will put the houses so close together there will be barely enough room to walk between them. There will be no access for a riding lawnmower or small vehi- cle between the houses without encroaching on the neighbour's property, and absolutely no way of gaining access with any type of equipment if a privacy fence is erected along the property line. The fact that developers have been allowed to reduce lot sizes to a paltry 40 feet is bad enough, but going the next step and endorsing smaller sideyards is completely out of character for this community, and an endorsement which may become the norm in the future. You can bet your bottom dollar, almost every devel- oper to approach council in the months and years to come will now come armed with a request for bigger homes, smaller lots and smaller sideyards. A sad day indeed for Scugog! On a brighter note, glad to see the Scugog Chamber of Commerce and the BIA finally putting their heads together to promote a summer festival, whatever it may be called. It's unfortunate Festival Days has come to an end, but in my opinion, the move to the fairgrounds last year put the last nail in the coffin of this popular summer event. Hopefully the combined efforts of the Chamber of Commerce and BIA will provide an enjoyable alterna- tive for residents and visitors to this community. We wish them the best of luck.