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a4 tribune march 12 1986 editors mail sets record straight re old arena dear editor to set the record straight council is running the town as the electorate voted many in this town are very attached to the old arena many in this town give construc tive ideas not destructive cri ticism the old arena is a very large structure it may well be saved for some purpose not in competition with our new complex you sir give up too easily there are many sporting activi ties we could offer in this respect we have many enterprising entrep reneurs in this town you have only to look around to realize this the service clubs the industrial and commercial sector are all alive and well many winners of awards are known across this province they make profits they invest those profits hopefully in a suc cessful enterprise in our town if we ignore the people who wish to comment on projects that change the nature of this town we would indeed be remiss if we try and no thing suitable is brought forward bringing down the ball and ham mer is easy tough decisions is what this job is all about this town and its assets belong to all not just council where theres life theres hope never let it be said we didnt ask sincerely fran sainsbury mayor town of whitchurchstouffville the ttibune ontario cctimunty nwrimp james thomas editor established 1888 bruce annan pat pappas publisher advertising manager jennl hutt distribution manager editorial dept chris shanahan kelly connelly display advertising dept lvnn moore real estate classified advertising joan marshman distribution doreen deacon karen heise national sales representative metroland corporate sales 4931300 the stouffville tribune published every wednesday and saturday at 54 main st stouffville ont isone of the metroland printing publishing distributing group of suburban newspapers which includes the acton free press ajaxptckering news advertiser aurora banner brampton guardian burlington post etobicoke advertiserguardian georgetown independent markham economist sun milton cham pion mississauga news newmarket era oatoilla beaver oshawawhitby this week richmond hillthornhillvaughan liberal scarborough mirror topic newsmagazine wiltowdale mirror metro- land printing publishing distributing is a division of harlequin enterprises ltd single copies 50 subscriptions 1700 per year in canada 4750 elsewhere member of canadian community newspapers association ontario weekly newspaper association ontario press council and suburban newspaper of america second class mail registration number 0896 6402100 6492292 on the lighter side sexist words abound by errki pohjolainen editorials options for old arena stouffville has its very own dome sta dium dilemma the old arena while toronto politicians breweries and other special interest groups argue over a re creation complex that hasnt even been built stouffville worries about one that has existed for many years what do we do with the old arena now that a sports prog eny the rec centre and its fresh con crete has dried should we demolish the old mare across from latcham hall should we renovate the historic rink and give it life again should we lease it off to some business group and let them do what they want with it should we save the front portion of the building for summer sports facilities like changerooms washrooms and a snackbar the town assigned a task force to in vestigate the possibilities and come up with an answer the people of stouffville especially the elder folks and sports groups are anxious and skeptical about the final recommendation surprisingly only 25 people attended a meeting at latcham hall march 5 to dis cuss the fate of the old arena more ques tions with few answers came out of it a council meeting last night was to decide if the task force is ready to make a decision or if it needs to examine more proposals a few private enterprise schemes were left sealed in their envelopes at the public meeting march 5 why werent they dis closed could one of those unseen designs be the fate of the old arena as of last night maybe those envelopes wont have to be opened stay tuned in recent years countless attempts have been made to eliminate gender from job titles and to some extent its been worth the effort but in certain instances using non- sexist language is simply confusing and horrifying let me explain when municipalities changed the ti tles of their elected representatives from aldermen to councillors it was well accepted by the constituents this substitution was one that worked it removed the presupposition that one is a man if that one is in local government for a time things went along smooth ly with that change but then someone had another great idea lets not have chairmen any more lets instead have chairpersons this too was generally well accepted but it marked the begin ning of the confusion so you ask whats this scribbler going on about why shouldnt man be removed from the title since many women occupy such positions well heres the problem if the lan guage is to made completely nonsexist well have to work hard to achieve it simply changing man to son as in chairman to chairperson doesnt solve anything eventually these types of changes will have to be worked out again simply changing words ending with man to those ending with son wont be enough more creative revisions will have to be invented once thats done we wont be human any more the word human has in it man so does woman and many others will these words become obsolete perhaps theyll be corrected by simply changing the spelling or misspelling them whoops misspelling is sexist too why should the word connote the female gen der sorry female will also have to go it contains male this is just the tip of the iceberg the confusion that will result when sex is re moved from common terms will mangle another sexist word to be axed the lan guage no longer will we be able to call any one a lady the word lad in lady is a reference to masculinity after all the terms with lad miss him her she he and so on are removed what i then will society begin to stop using words that sound sexist even if theyre spelled slightly differently for example will boisterous sound too much like boysterous to be an accept- able word j and once all these soundalike words j are eliminated what then certainly the crusade will have found more words to remove from the language i perhaps the next phase would include censoring words that contain reference to gender from all species of life words such as bulldozer sounding so mascu- line would certainly be dropped perhaps this will benefit future gen- erations several centuries from now children of the year 2186 will only have to j learn threequarters the language we were taught making it possible to grasp j it much faster and of course sexism will be at an end after the language is changed people will benefit but for our generation this is a herculean mandate footprints a treasure chest of data by art briggsjude while a new fall of snow excites skiers snowmobilers and tobogganists i appreciate it for a different reason even when it builds up to depths requir ing the use of snowshoes i like the fresh white covering for this is the time and condition that scripts the lives of the wildlife around us these footmark trails and other signs in the snow are a wonderful record of a creatures activities needing only the patience and the persistence of the observer to unravel the puzzle and an inch of fresh snow just before midnight lays the groundwork for the best stories of them all like some of the other senses civiliza tion has dulled within us the art of track ing and reading natures indicators has largely been lost no longer dependent on tracking an animal as a source of food we seldom give wildlife prints in the snow a second glance only about half the hunters and natur alists i know can decipher the riddles left in the winter landscape by the various wild inhabitants the rest seem content to locate the actual birds and animals by sight yet successful trackers such as our native people and those who followed in their footsteps know the surest method of locating the creature itself is by following and correctly reading its fresh trail since the trail is such a revealing and rewarding part of the winterland i be lieve we miss a great deal by not taking the time to look closely at the various tracks we see of course the first lesson in track reading is identification while no substitute for the outdoor classroom petersens field guide to animal tracks and animal tracks and hunter signs by ernest thompson seton are two reasonably priced books that will help with your home studies armed with such aids and encouraged by your own observations and experi ences you will soon discover the wealth of information a set of animal tracks contain increased observation and study will make you even more proficient you will quickly notice that even the same spe cies of squirrel in your back yard often have slight differences in their foot prints keeping these track variances in mind when you go for a ramble further afield and applying it to larger mammals such as deer it is possible to distinguish be tween the footprints of fawns bucks and does the size difference in fox tracks gives a clue to the animals sex as janu ary signals the start of the mating sea- smile of the week dear mr thomas when space permits id like you to include this little memory in your smile of the week at our country schoolhousc the heating system was a potbellied stove with pipes extending the length of the classroom the temperature was never the same either too hot or too cold its a wonder we all didnt succumb to heat stroke or pneumonia one day several of we older boys climbed up on the roof and put a cap on the chimney wc then placed a brick on top of the cap when classes resumed at 1 pm the teacher tossed in several large sticks of wood and got the fire going real good thats when the smoke began belching back in minutes the whole building was tilled forc ing everyone outside the teacher of course didnt know the cause and wc werent ab out to tell wc were given a halfday holiday but even the next morning the telltale sign of our mischievous deed remained hanging like a blue fog from the ceiling sincerely gordon fitzsimmons rr 1 pickering arena worship services attracted large audiences back in the 60s community worship services were held in the stouffv ille arena attracting large congrega tions the majority of stouffville and area churches were involved size of the audience attending one of these gatherings is indicated by this photo taken in 1969 jim thomas son you will notice an increasing number of fox tracks in pairs this is a good time to check these parallel sets of prints andc note the difference in size between mala and female 1 other indicators of the male sex espej cially in fox and coyote tracks areth scent posts they frequently use thesa posts are tufts of grass stumps or hum- mocks above the snow where the male lifts its leg in the same manner as youp male dog because a track in the snow is like sc book in that it tells a story its not enough to give it a casual glance to find out what has transpired following a fresh track not only arouses your curios ity but also opens up new chapters in the life of the creature that made it even if the track is old- and if you have the time and inclination to persist itll eventually lead to a fresh one one of the first lessons in tracking is to keep to one side of the tracks youre foli lowing some animals espescially raw bits and fox when persued are masters at backtracking a trick wherein they double back on their same trail stepping carefully into their previous marks be cause of this or the sudden joining of two tracks the novice tracker will be at a loss as to which course the animal took if he tramples the original footprints j- another helpful hint when trackihg animals one that often produces the actual sighting of the printmaker isto skirt around heavy brush or cover rather than try to struggle through it with practice you will soon be able to pick up the same set of tracks you were folldw ing when they appear on the other side of the tangle however while its impossible tole scribe the wealth of information tracks in the snow provide its sufficient to say the size age mood activity and habits of the animal arc often revealed sometimes the most common creai turcs furnish the most memorable tales mouse marks ending in feathered im prints show in detail how a hawk caught a meal a set of rabbit tracks running wildly overlaid with those of a coyduj leading to a scuffed and crimsoned pa jch in the snow needs no further explana tion there arc a hundred such stories whf- ten every night the interesting hobby qf track watching doesnt require expen sivc equipment just the outdoors and a fall of new snow try it