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p4 thktolsonewwimdk t m ttpt ihe tribune wednesday december 31 1997 vol 109 no 86 the ttibune is a member of the ontario press council comment op inions st send your letters to the editor to the address below edn wishes for a happy new year as we enter 1998 we should all take a look back at the good and bad of the year past for conflict and bad feeling in ontario 1 997 will be a tough one to beat the teachers and the government neatly split the province down the middle as they made pawns of our students in their power struggle over bill 160 the impact of the two- week teachers protest will linger through the year to come also of controversy was the provinces amalgamation of metro toronto into one megacity and the subsequent down loading of services to municipalities yes 1997 certainly was a controversial one however we need to look at the bright side as well as usual there were dozens of stories about people taking selfless action to help others while its sad we need food banks local residents must be congratulated for their support of those less fortunate over the past year we are indeed trying to take responsibility for our fellow man thats a noble and compas sionate pursuit which must continue in 1998 for the new year it would be nice if not only citizens but government as well showed more feeling for all of those who live in our fine country we must not let greed and selfishness rule the day and we must stand up to those who would cynically appeal to those baser instincts lets remember that were all in this together happy new year skull on mantel makes a real impression lets have a contest who received the weirdest christmas gift last week i dont mean the normal weird either were not talking about handknit toilet seat covers from aunt marjie car scrap ers with gloves attached or electric garden hose caddies those types of gifts are more safely categorized as unusual those are gifts for people who have everything or are purchased by people scrambling through canadian tire with 25 minutes until store closing on christ mas eve no im talking weird here i bet id win just about any weird gift con test this year of course its all my fault i got what i asked for i asked for a skull i got a skull naturally now that i have the skull i dont really know what to do with it i know it didnt add much to the festive appearance of my mantelpiece on christ- minute with mair andrew mair mas day it most certainly didnt increase the appetite of our dinner guests that evening as it stared silently from its perch over the living room in fact it cast quite terrible twosome back in form its beginning to look a lot less like christmas poc has dislodged most of the tin sel strands from the lower portion of the tree a growing carpet of pine needles is littering the rug and an unappetizing crust is starting to form over the bowl of hills prescription diet cat food which has been man dated by the vet as part of spasms regimen on his road to recovery our animal companions who can vacuum up a third of a can of bargain basement beef h tuna in less time than it takes mike harris to read the opening page of mr silly are strangely resistant to the subtle delights of the healthful but some what malodorous alternative on the plus side the label contains not two but three official languages and it takes much longer to finish one can which is just as well given the cost meanwhile spasm who only days ago languished sadly in dark corners is tearing about the old homestead with renewed vigour and beginning to severely test the patience of mr wallethead my significant other who was suf ficiently distressed by our kittys flpt ft kates corner kate gilderdale descent into the doldrums to over look past misdemeanours is once again questioning his own sanity as spasms return to robustness also marks his return to obnoxious feline behaviour as the recipient of by far the largest single chunk of our christmas expenditure spasm is not showing the gratitude and restraint such generosity undoubtedly merits so far however he and his cohort have failed to fell the christmas tree and have dismantled the decorations over the fireplace only once their attempts to gain entry to the porch and partake of the poisonous leaves of the poinsettia have also been thwarted whenever kind visitors bring flowers or plants they are rele gated to the porch the only place from which the terrible twosome can effectively be barred even your correspondent who is understandably regarded as a pushover by the young and the feline has had enough of seeing beautiful bunches of flowers reduced to a handful of soggy stalks within hours of their arrival despite such challenges though the warm glow of the season has not entirely been doused the telephone i gave my longsuf fering spouse was warmly wel comed even though it meant giving up his reconstituted set which required the deft manoeuvring of a pair tweezers to allow communica tion with the person on the other end he was equally happy to receive a smart new shirt a warm toque books cds and no socks our round of christmas visits and visitors resulted in only one embar rassing moment the receiving of a present which had not been recipro cated this happens to a varying degree every year and although i had pur chased reinforcements to accommo date such a crisis i had a hunch that most 15yearold boys would prefer nothing to a gift pack of lavender soap my resolution is to do better in 1998 happy new year to all our readers a pall now i use the word cast in quite the literal sense because of course it is not a real skull it is a genuine model of a skull nor is it a human skull per se it is a cast of the la chappelle aux saints man until recently the most complete neandertal cranium found it sits nicely on a resin pedestal which is mounted on an oak platform and there is a brass nameplate affixed to the base it is in my view quite fetching i found it on the internet while surfing through paleoan thropology sites which happens to be a fascination of mine from childhood my wife bought me this oddity after i whined for a full year that no one ever got me gifts i truly wanted she adamant ly refused to purchase it at first demand ing to know what possible use it would serve she also objected to having long- dead things in the house as well the item in question came from california and is made by museum replicators is lifesize and well somewhat expensive she complained that it would likely turn out to be a plastic piece of junk that would just collect dust in the basement i had resigned myself to getting a pair of socks but then on christmas morn ing kim produced this enormous box pleasantly wrapped and of substantial heft i eagerly tore off the wrapping peeled back the cardboard and in a hail of plastic shipping chips out came my treasure complete with ossified colour ing and anatomically correct cranial fis sures wow now of course i will have to find some place to put it for despite its view ing stand and nameplate my skull still raises eyebrows friends from sudbury dropped by for their first visit to our new house and the first thing out of their mouths wasnt nice place or merry christmas but rather boy you guys have been busy you havent even put away your halloween decorations yet stouffville tribune a mctroland community patricia pappas publisher andrew mair editorinchief tracy kibble editor debra weller director of advertising mike rogerson retail advertising manager stacey allen classified manager barry goodyear director of distribution vivian oneil business manager pamela nichols operations manager about lis etail sales 905 100 905 6402874 distributio classified- 905 6405477 email 6244 main st oi ils l4a1e2 the stouflviue tribune pub lished ovory tuesday thtiraday and saturday is one of tho molroland printing publishing and distribution group of commu nity newspapers which includes tajaxpiekertognew advertl i allislon heraldcourii advance brampton guardian burlington post cltyparent ntagwooovwig benchc i jiectlon- east york mirr coke guardian georgetown inde pendentacton free press kingston this week lindsay this iswecicmaickharojlecvnomist jsunl hdanapoelinishenv mirror- itori canadian champion muv saga new newmarketaurora manner northumberland wa north york mirror oaky g beave prillla 1 t liberal searborongh mirror and vi uuxbridgejwbtinetodayiisfini contents cannot be reprinted wt oiit- written permission from the i i nntillahaw permit bxhav thn nnh- i publisher permit 1247nie pub- usher reserve therlght to ref slbr iaslfyan fidvor credit for advertise rnnr to space the error occur kv yv s v i- j letters policy the tribune welcomes your letters to the editor please keep letters to no more than 300 words note that letters may be edited for space libel spelling grammar while we endeavor to print as many letters as possible we regret that not all let ters may be printed