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2 the tribune february 28 1kj ht hbtme james thomas editorinchief established 1888 charles r nolan publisher babrebeacock advertising manager editorial oept ed schroatar jim holt display advertislme dept lois wldamao maria eluhrtm business office joan hantaan ooraandaacoo ebmh glow pubuahad avory thursday at 54 main st stouffvola ofll tal 6402101 toronto poena 3611s80 singla coplm 20 e subscriptions j1000 par yaar in canada 2600 ateawhara mambar of canadian community nawspapart association and ontario waafcly nawspapara assoeiatlonsacond class mah registration numbar 0896 tha tribuna is ona of tha inland publishing co lfcnltad group of suburban nawspapars which in- dudaa tha ajax whitby picturing naws advartlsar brampton guardian burlington post etobkou oazatta markham economist and sun nawmarkat aurora era oakvllla baaar oshawa this waak wsslssauga naws oshawa this waakand acton fraa prats milton canadian champion and tha oaorgatown mdapandant 6402100 3611680 editorials report proved us wrong we were wrong when the stouffville arena was taken over by the town we predicted terrible financial repercussions an operational deficit that would pose a hardship on every taxpayer in this municipality we had and still have little faith in governmentoperated projects as opposed to private programs the old board responsible to a few hundred shareholders pinched pennies like you wouldnt believe we doubted its suc cessors would do the same since any loss incurred would be absorbed by a broader base after all whats a few misspent thousands with a tax levy of close to 4 million how wrong we were waste even ex travagance we had anticipated hasnt oc curred quite the opposite if we read the 78 financial report correctly ten thousand dollars under the established budget quite a feat with signs pointing to an equally productive year in 79 with a debenture figure of 14600 removed from expenditure totals the an ticipated deficit is something like 3500 we should be so fortunate rink manager don joe lewis and the board are to be commended they proved us wrong however we dont intend to let them off the hook completely we still contend that a community centre is not a seasonal facility that operates at capacity from october through april and remains virtually empty may through september for the good of the town and the taxpayers organized programs should be nonstop all year round ail education alternative the christian school ideas not dead in stouffville very much alive in fact so alive were certain that eventually it will become a reality for the sake of those parents obviously dissatisfied with the public system wed like to see this new program proceed it would provide a crosssection of residents with an alternative but how viable financially thats the question weve been asking ever since the proposal was first introduced without government subsidy the cost could be prohibitive the present steering committee will undoubtedly have this information available when the subject is reintroduced t a broader scale whats so wrong with the system as it stands today academically very little morally everything even teachers admit this and we believe it this as we understand it is the cause of many parents concern and rightly so we firmly believe the separate school system has the right approach a combination of both and its paying off a stouffville christian school will likely follow a similar line of instruction the development of a whole person not just a part ten years ago we would never admitted such a system is necessary today we do and we wish this com mittee every success cutbacks in new schools a segment of parents in the unionville area are putting pressure on the york county board of education and the provincial government for a high school in that com munity they dont stand a chance not in two years five years maybe never nor should they not while facilities five to seven miles away are little more than half filled this business of building schools is a whole new ball game today far different from the construction spree of the fifties and sixties once burned twice wary as the saying goes the ministry of education has learned its lesson and isnt about to get caught again markham dist high school is taxed to the limit bayview secondary and richmond hill high on the other hand have space to spare so unionville students must be bused five miles west instead of three miles east we see no unbearable sacrifice in that this business about belonging to a neighborhood school is poppycock kids to day are continually switching locations not only from one neighborhood to another but one province to another they adjust quickly but not so the parents and therein lies the problem its the parents who are resentful the students at least the ones weve talked to couldnt care less winter loses its grip following a cold hard winter theres a touch of spring in the air thats making itself felt in melting snow and flowing streams breaking free from the icy grip of sabzero temperatures is a section of daf fin creek sooth of the ninth line of pickering edschroeter the tribunc nancy why sure i remember you sh- sugar and spice a a all moneylenders should be shot by bill smiley recently ive been teaching that perennial favorite the merchant of venice by one will shakespeare its a light romantic comedy but through the pretty speeches and comic complications runs an iron and an irony that almost steals the play every time it is read or performed the story of shylock the moneylender and his insistence on his pound of flesh that word and that phrase have become part of our language you may have heard someone say hes a regular shylock or he always wants his pound of flesh they are synonyms of a merciless greed hatred and desire for revenge for those who have forgotten the plot or havent read or seen the play ill give a pocket synopsis a rich merchant is approached by his best friend a young man who has squandered all his money including a goodly sum the mer chant has lent him the young fellow wants his friend to lend him another sum about 35000 so that he can get himself all duded up and marry a wealthy heiress upon which he will return all the money he owes for friendships sake the rich merchant says no problem all my cash is tied up in ships at sea with rich cargoes but my credit is ex cellent go borrow the money and ill back your note or words to that effect i am will smiley not will shakespeare so the young blade goes to a notorious moneylender shylock who agrees to lend him the money for three months usually he charges more interest than household finance but this time he wont charge any the plot thickens in a few sneering asides we learn that shylock hates the rich merchant he has reasons the merchant has spat upon him spurned him called him dog and hurt him badly in the pocketbook by lending money interestfree shylock can stand the spitting and the names but he turns purple when he thinks someone is lending money with no interest when he could be copping 40 per cent he sees his chance sure hell lend the young spender the money interestfree provided the merchant will sign a bond that if the money is not repaid by a certain date shylock may take a pound of flesh from any part of the merchants body its all a joke of course as shylock points out a pound of human flesh is not worth as much as a pound of veal or even a pound of hamburger this was before inflation i wouldnt bet on it nowadays the rich merchant agrees airily after all his ships will be in with their rich cargoes a whole month before the bond is due and nobody would take a pound of flesh shhh we in the audience know that shylock will take a pound of flesh from the heart area and that the laws of the city will back him up if the bond is signed in quadruplicate well well it is rumored on the stock exchange that the rich merchants ships have all been lost at sea and he is bankrupt big trial scene the law upholds shylocks claim old shy is whetting a big carving knife on his boot the rich merchant stands breast bared its as good as the old melodrama with the heroine tied to the railway tracks by the villain and the train fast approaching smart young lawyer to the rescue shylock may take his pound of flesh but not one drop of blood not one ninth of an ounce more or less that pound or his own life and all his property is forfeit try that one on the next pig you kill now shylock was stumped an old cricket term chaps and that- will window on wildlife shakespeare knew his law he was con- tinually involved in litigation like many a playwright a great to me line in one of his plays goes lets hang all the lawyers anyway the whole thing got me thinking of usury this was once an honest term meaning interest on money loaned it has since come to mean charging excessive in terest on money loaned a dirty business in elizabethan england usury was a crime and heavily punished right up to the death penalty depending on whom you knew in the right circles and i began thinking about usury in its pejorative that means namecalling sense in our society today is it shameful to be a v usurer is usury something to be hidden under the rug are there any penalties for usury answer no our modern usurers are not even ashamed of what they do they advertise it in all the media 9- they run all the way from our banks among our most respected institutions down to our finance companies so called among our less respected institutions all the way to the hood in montreal who will lend you money at 100 per cent interest and break your knees with a baseball bat if you dont pay up try borrowing 20000 from ann murray who touts for a canadian bank with no interest her look would shrivel your 4 gizzard try borrowing from a finance company without pledging your grand mothers bones for fertilizer in case ypu cant meet the deadline we are surrounded by usurers sucking the blood out of us maybe shakespeare was right line up all the bank managers in canada shoot them quietly and burn the presidents of banks and finance companies at the stake id enjoy that suddenly the cold weather was of secondary importance for the big owl was there perched upright on a stout limb overhanging a snow covered waterway was the object of our questa great gray owl and as had happened many times before this sighting had been another case of where persistence paid off that afternoon for example we had started out with high hopes two of these sporadic migrants had been observed all the previous week by two hydro surveyors at grafton near lake ontario it was easy to pinpoint the area for the orange- narked stakes were clearly visible and foot prints in the snow showed where the men had been working but thats all we found and after searching the neighboring woodlands thoroughly had to settle for some pictures of ice formations along the lakeshore leaving this location east of cobourg we travelled west past port hope to willow beach for it was in this particular bird sanctuary another of these large owls had been sighted by this time the afternoon like our hopes was beginning to fade especially after we had searched for some distance along a wooded trail with negative results at a small bridge crossing the mouth of a frozen stream my wife and our naturalist guide for the day paused while my curiosity took me over the span and some distance ahead here it was possible to get a better view up the course of the snowcovered creek without leaving the trail almost immediately i called year of the great gray owl by art briggsjude them to come up and join me for the big owl was already in the focus of my binoculars after studying the ashcolored creature for a time from a distance it was decided i should try and stalk the owl for a photo so while they headed back to bring the van around i started across the snowy marshland bordering the streambed there was no ap preciable cover to conceal my approach so it was simply a case of moving up slowly within range and without startling the longrailed predator most great gray owls i had been told are relatively fearless birds so it was quite frustrating to come within closeup camera range then have the bird fly a short distance away after several of these frontal approaches failed it was obvious if a picture was to be obtained a new tactic would have to be employed during these airborne escapades it was apparent the owl was not only concerned with my presence but also intent on picking up a meal enroute often instead of flying directly to a nearby perch it would swoop low over the snowy hummocks searching it seemed for mice or other such prey here i thought was an angle that might help me gel this big bird on film at the edge of some small thorn trees i crouched low and began squeaking on the back of my hand imitating the sounds of a mouse sure enough the owl was at once interested and instead of moving away it lifted and flew directly towards me now alas i couldnt focus the zoom lense fast enough as the great gray bird with the nearly five foot wingspan bore down on me in fact i had visions of becoming part of its meal so close did it come and with such deceptive speed frantically i ducked and luckily the owls vision gave it a true reading for after it swept overhead it continued back in the direction i had just come v i looked at its distant perch and while undecided whether to follow it further was surprised to see yet another great gray owl skimming over the landscape ahead here indeed was a chance to study these big round headed birds first hand whether i got pictures or not the remarkably large facial discs surrounding the bright lemonyellow eyes and the apparent lack of any noticable neck were features that stood out even in flight the shortness of the neck gave the bird a stubby appearance other exhibited airborne traits were the ponderous wing beat with the long fluctuating tail strung out behind once i saw the hushwinged predator use its feet to move along a horizontal log probably this slow deliberate action was the reason the northern indians called this owl nuhltuhl meaning the heavy walker since the first local reporting of a great gray owl in this newspaper in january there have been numerous sightings in nearby counties pickering has had two reports clairville one grafton as mentioned two and peterborough no less than seventeen