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4 the tribune thursday september 27 lt wht bhbutte james thomas edhohnchm established 1888 charles h nolan publisher barrebeacock advertising manager bmtqmaldept joaon thomson jim hob display advertising dept lois wldeman marie emmerson 8usaessofncejomllarshmaiidarmaomeonebmnglow published every thursday at 54 main st stourmbe onl tsl 6402101 toronto phone 3611680 c m 1i00 ptcnirln cansds s2sm elsewhere member of canadian community kmptptrt association and ontario weekly newspapers association second class mall registration number 0896 the tribune is one of the inland publishing co limited group of suburbannewspapers which in cludes the ajax whitby pickering news advertiser brampton guardian burlington post etobicoke gazette markhara economist and sun newmarket aurora era oakville beaver oshawa this week uississauga news oshawa this weekend acton free press milton canadian champion and the georgetown independent 6402100 3611680 editorials a 500 million dollar mistake the federal system of government has its place but that place should never include people for people are for real but ottawa and reality are worlds apart so it is pointed out so dramatically in walter stewarts 207page book paper juggernaut big government gone mad now available at john lords in stouffville its all about the boggeddown pickering airport a 500 million dollar white elephant that according to the writer was so anaemic in supportive facts and figures it should never been initiated in the first place while the result of stewarts in vestigation may be startling to some it really only supports what dr charles godfrey and his people or planes organization have been saying for years nobody wanted it nobody needed it and nobody selected the site stewarts claim that much of the plan ning was done in secret is no real revelation this had to be however he says a cost estimate of 500 million was reduced down to 300 million because the initial figure would appear too scarey if true the decision was both stupid and inexcusable while ignorance is no excuse we honestly believe that federal transport minister don jamieson and his successor jean marchand werent sufficiently clued in as to what was going on in fact from a remark made by one of the ministers at a particular meeting we wondered at the time if he himself was certain as to the location of the site plus all its im plications lets face it the civil servants are the government they make the decisions the ministers while held responsible for these decisions are merely figureheads thus a continual merrygoround of promotions and demotions the ministers change but the civil servants carry on this newspaper supported the pickering airport plan we felt it would be good for the economy of the community we also felt that the government both federal and provincial knew what it was doing that the joint an nouncement march 2 1972 was based on facts and years of study walter stewarts book makes one wonder too bad it couldnt have been written seven years ago it might have saved you know who five hundred million dollars our shoddy postal service recently an agincourt area resident took out a oneyear subscription to this newspaper on payment of his ten dollars he passed the casual comment that he hoped hed receive his copy the same week of publication meaning friday or saturday we made him no promise for chances are he wont in fact he may not receive it by the end of the next week and maybe not at all the service south of steeles avenue at least for second class mail is atrocious due to what would seem to be chaotic conditions within the distribution depot on progress avenue this terminal so organized and automated was supposed to solve all previous delivery problems instead the opposite has occurred its worse rather than better subscribers tell us all kinds of horror stories mostly about waiting up to a month for one paper then receiving four they become irritated then angry and so do we the majority of metro residents want the tribune for one reason the ads these ads auction sales in particular are often outdated if the paper is three weeks late in arriving hence the frustration branch post offices stouffville included have been extremely cooperative yet they and us bear the brunt of the criticism because the subscriber has mo where else to turn the robots within the station on progress avenue arent so accessible v time and time again this newspaper has appealed to postal authorities to correct this shameful situation to no avail as a last resort were taking our complaint to mp sinclair stevens in the hope that he now in the drivers seat can twist a few arms and bang a few heads we deserve better and so do you baby show oir trow no prerjecistrvtrtoftl reqtjirfp the flower that thrives on sunshine l often ignored and unappreciated the sonlower can add color to your garden or even a fence row this beauty was spotted by a tribune cameraman at lehmans gardens on the ninth line south of bloomlngton jim thomas 7hfiqr sorry aaam but talent doesnt count sugar and spice a novice at writing novels by bill smiley u every september after a long summer vacation several of my colleagues ask me jeeringly im afraid well did you write that novel or did you polish off your play and every september i have to come up with an excuse no i broke my pelvis sky diving or i had it well in hand until the day i was out sailing we crashed into a 200- pound sturgeon and i suffered a bad con cussion one gets pretty good at the instant retort the swift riposte after twentyodd years of it to tell the truth well uh no i spent the summer drinking beer and going to auction sales and swimming and cutting my toenails and trimming the corn on the ball of my foot and reading four hundred novels and cooking up a storm of frozen dinners would be out of character because every june i swear to all and sundry that im going to turn out a piece of prose that will make dylan thomas ernest hemingway mordechai richler and margaret laurence wish theyd been born thirty years later some years its going to be an autobiographical novel with absolutely nothing held back i warn my wife can you take it sweetie there will be no holds barred everything exposed the whole business down in black and white she nods as she finishes the dishes other years its going to be a play that exposes the whole rotten corrupt perverse middledass life of this country the wet tea- bags in the sink the tuwnade beds the after- breakfast martinis the secret racism as we watch the indians being decimated on the latelate showr but somehow after twenty years of this charade i might as well face the fact that i am neither a margaret trudeau nor a ten nessee williams a new piece of fiction that is going to sell must have certain ingredients sex drugs violence perversion how can a guy write a redhot article when he has lived a practically pure life for a number of decades how can a guy write explicit sex scenes about nipples hardening and the scream of an orgasm when all hes seen for the last twenty years is a couple or robins having an affair in the back yard how can a guy write about drugs when his nose is so many times fractured that he cant even smell onion breath let alone the scent of marijuana how can a guy write about violence when the worst incident he has seen in years is one grandboy giving the other a cheap shot in the back when the other wasnt looking knocked the others head against the corner of the picnic table and drawn blood and tears its not exactly attila the hun how can a guy write about perversions when the only thing hes seen for years is a babygirl bluejay trying to pretend shes a babyboy bluejay or a henpecked husband trying to pretend when his wife has gone to the john that hes henry viii no im afraid youll have to stick to tv the movies and harlequin romances if you want your favorite ingredients i just dont seem to have any background upon which to draw when my wife says to me after a par ticularly brutal party or weekend how come you never have bags under your eyes like me i merely answer the truth a clean heart and a pure mind my dear i must admit that after the thirtieth repetition of this little slogan she emitted an unladylike remark but its the trutht its not- that i havent had lots of ex perience i went through- a worldrending depression and ate potatoskin hash and porridge soup i went to work at 16 for thirty dollars a month twelve hours a day seven days a week i survived a war in which both sides were shooting at me especiallylthe british navy i was almost kicked to death by a german feldwebel just because id stolen his pipe and tobacco i ate mangels and drank rainwater in a prison camp i spent a year in a t b sanatorium ive survived thirty years of marriage two rotten kids and am still coping with two grandboys who are the most ingenious methods of torture since the inquisition i even graduated from a university with honors when they still had standards i spent eleven years in the editorial chair of a newspaper which has buried many a man i have lived through and thrived on teaching teenagers which has sent more people to an early grave than did the editorial chair but still whenever i think of writing a searing play or a violent autobiography i cant seem to put fingers to typewriter i think i know whats wrong i didnt hate my father that seems to be what you need to get you going or if youre jewish your mother my father was a mild decent man he didnt beat me indeed he didnt pay much attention to me my mother i was loving but not overprotective darn it why didnt i have rotten parents like everybody else so i could write a vicious sexy perverse novel o window on wildlife season for seeing spiders by art briggsjude the web hung like a mist net strung between the needled branches of a small pine in its closeknit centre a large yellow and black spider poised on the end of a heavier zigzag strand ready it seemed to be propelled by this coiled spring likeness from the foliage below a young grasshopper climbed the tallest stalk of goldenrod to reach the warm sun that brightened the plants yellowed plumes he rested there for some time till the dew was gone and the warming trend triggered his voracious appetite then spying some lush greenery through an opening in the pine boughs he launched himself in that direction the alert spider tensed as he saw the shadowed insect form approach then sprang into action when the grasshopper hit the web the surprised jumper meanwhile had managed to get one powerful back leg loose and was in the process of freeing himself when the spider charged quickly grasping the struggling hopper with its front legs the spider began turning its victim over and over all the while wrapping it with strands of new- formed silk soon the whole insect was en cased in a mummylike shroud whereupon the master weaver paralyzed it with a single bite then carried it bodily to the centre of the web there it would devour it or maybe even store it for a leaner day in autumn if you walk through uncut fields at this season or look along your garden hedgerows youll probably see this black and yellow argiope suspended head down in its characteristic web with a body length of one full inch and such conspicuous bright markings its among our largest and more colorful spiders it belongs to the family called orbweavers a group noted for their engineering feats of web construction when we look at these intricate patterns of per fection its hard to visualize they were con structed in the dark of night and are com pletely replaced every few days unlike the fibers formed from the mouths of caterpillars silk worms spider web material is produced from glands in the base of the abdomen the outlets of these glands are called spinnerets and when the fluid on emergence meets the air it hardens to form the strands we see actually these amazing fibers are insoluable in water and will stretch as much as one quarter their length before breaking in fact the silk from one southern spider is the strongest natural fiber known to man and was formerly used by island natives to fashion fish nets but when we begin to give spiders more than just an apprehensive look and find out more about them we realize that all the kinds are not webweavers yet instead of detracting from our observations these traits do in effect stimulate our interest and broaden our knowledge of these much maligned creatures most spiders for instance do produce silk fiber but many use it only to create egg cases for their young others however form draglines to travel from one perch to another while balloon spiders release silk strands into the air until they are lofted to a new location on the strength of a breeze the much heralded trap door spiders of the southern us dig a tubelike cavity in the ground which they line completely with silk to make the hinge on the lid this spider merely chews around the rim leaving one side attached the outside is covered with debris and the spider sits with the door closed waiting for the vibrations of some un suspecting insect above we cant help winder at the remarkably instinctive behaviourof these small creatures mwsaktat- when we discover they are almost the only animal besides man that makes traps to capture prey in fact some species of spiders actually throw a snare of silk over their victim while others like the bolas spider cast for passing moths in the manner of an angler using a sticky globule attached to a silk line v among the more interesting members of this catching group are the triangle spiders found as far north as southern canada its three- sided web is in fact anchored on one point by the spider itself when an insect comes in contact with the web the spider pulls the fine mesh tight then suddenly lets it go slack to further entangle its prey u however between the familiar daddy- long legs of our sheds and cellars and the ominous black widow spiders of literary prominence there are a whole host of in teresting creatures walking on eight legs few spiders will bite and all offer fascinating observations right in your own area if you take the time you may even see a pirate spider invade the web of another and attack it or a brown wolf spider chase an insect over the rocks to make its capture on our lawns and low places youll see the tunnel webs of the funnel weavers and to get a good look at the occupant tickle the edge of the web with a long straw and because spiders are found almost everywhere in abundance youll have no trouble finding them theyre an intriguing 4 group of small creatures that go about their daily task of consuming millions of insects without much fanfare so the next time you see a spider in your garden stop and look then step around it for a change doing you no harm and doing your plants some good seems a sensible reason for leaving it unmolested