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p 4 weekendesaf wreavjam am2fth998 st saturday january 31 1998 vol 14 no 5 the tribune is a member of the ontario press council the tribune comment 905 6402100 fax- 905 6405477 email thetribistarca editorial write it canadian ask school children who is the head of their country and too manyof them will respond president bill clinton from kindergarten children watching sesame street who think the last letter of the alphabet is pronounced zee to older kids who identify with bart simpson canadian children are inundated by american culture on tv in videos and books yet they may get even more americanized right at their school desks if a us firm wins the tender to rewrite ontarios high school curriculum the ontario government has opened up the curriculumwriting process to private and foreign interests for the first time ever critics are denouncing the move as proof that the tory govern ment is so bent on privatization and saving money that high schools students will soon be seeing red white and blue ministry of education officials say the government will have ultimate control of the final curriculum and that half the writing team will be ontario teachers never mind the fact no other province in canada has ever developed educational curriculum using private firms or that ontario must have a long list of homegrown and highly- esteemed curriculum specialists at any number of universities and colleges parents groups across ontario have banded together as people for education this week the group held a press conference to explain that it is taking inventory of every school noting such aspects as the kind of programs offered technology in libraries class sizes and condition of textbooks it is highly concerned about this curriculum rewrite as well surely we dont need american expertise to help our children learn and guide them in learning to think lets have a made-in- ontario curriculum or at least one made in canada w mm theres a point to scribbling in the space age christmas is what just over a month gone i find myself looking at this present i found under the tree on christmas morning weeks later i still dont quite know what to make of it it is slim as a rothmans king size and about the same length but made of steel and its- gun- metal black there are no brand names in fact theres no dis cernible writing of any kind on this device but if you grasp it between thumb and forefinger at each end and apply outward pressure hey presto the gizmo separates into two pieces and you see that you are holding a ballpoint pen and its cap but not just any ballpoint pen no thats a fisher space pen youve got in your mitt buddy im impressed i even sneaked into one of those upscale calligra phy shops in downtown vancouver you know the places i mean where they sell leather-and-brass- bound personal secretaries that do exactly the same job as a spiral note book except they cost more than the car i drive they sell pens in there too tony european mod els mostly with fourteenkarat gold nibs and the heft of an lapd riot control billy but i looked around and eventu ally i found the fisher space pen as well retailing for about 35 i was impressed in fact as a guy who never voluntarily lays out more than 99 cents for a writing utensil i was utterly dumfounded what could possibly make this lit tle nondescript shaft in my hand worth 35 bucks fortunately my christmas prc- basic black send messages to olympic athletes dear editor the 1998 winter olympics ill nagano are just around the cor ner and people in communities across ontario arc eagerly look ing for ways to get involved in the spirit of the games people in your community can enhance their olympic experi ence without leaving home the bell olympic connec tions line offers people an opportunity to directly share in the emotions of the olympics by calling 1 88843 9team letters 8326 olympic wellwishers can leave messages of encour agement for their favourite canadian athletes in nagano messages will be transcribed and sent via the internet to spe cial email addresses created for athletes and accessed at the olympic village kathy pashby bell canada arthur black sent came with double wrapping the outer layer was standard christmas foil but the pen itself was swaddled lovingly in two pages of glowing information that told me all about the origins of the fabulous fisher space pen that would make me the envy of my peers thats where i discovered that my tiny gift pen is nitrogenpowered iwhich is to say the ink is under pressure this my little info sheet informs me makes it possible for the ink to be forced past the tung stencarbide ball specially de signed to withstand corrosion etc etc not just any old ink either no sir the ink in the fisher space pen is thixotropic which means that it wont leak or gob up like the 99- ccnt clunkers i usually favour according to my info sheet the revolving tungstencarbide ball liquifies the thixotropic ink vhich allows the fisher space pen to- write smoothly wonderful but isnt that quite a lot of fuss for something im going to use to jot down my grocery list well thats the point the fisher space pen wasnt developed for me it was created for astronauts nasa nabobs didnt get too far into the space travel game before they realized that standard grand and toy fountain or ballpoint pens just couldnt cut it out there ordi nary pens wouldnt perform satis factorily in the weightless zero- gravity environment of a space capsule so nasa decided to invent an allnew writing device they took their problem to a contractor by the name of paul fisher mister fisher went to work and came up with the fisher space pen and all for a mere 2 million us in research you read right but hey cut tingedge spaceage technology doesnt come cheap you know were just fortunate that nasa didnt pay any attention to that german crank who responded to their original request for a new invention the german inventor read the nasa specs for their proposed lithographic transmission system as nasa called it how the new device had to be a state of the art writing utensil that was light weight could perform in below freezing temperatures or in ex tremely hot surroundings it had to be able to write at any angle even upsidedown and it had to be able to do all this in a complete vacu um whats more insisted nasa this revolutionary breakthrough in writing technology would need to come with a relatively limitless supply of ink or fuel or ribbon or whatever it used to record astro nauts scribbles out in deep space the german inventor read the requirements shook his head grunted and dashed off a fiveword telegram the next morning at headquarters nasa brass ripped open the telegram to read have you tried a pencil stouffville tribune weekender a metroland community newspaper 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 us news 9056402100 retail sales 905 6402100 classifieds 905 6462874 distribution 9056402100 fax 9056405477 email thetribistarca 6244 main st stouffville ont l4a1e2 the islounvillk tribune pub lished cvcrytueday thursday and saturday metroland printing publishing and distribution group of commu riity- newspapers which includes ajaxpickcririg news advertiser alliston heraldcourier barrio advance brampton guardian burlington post cltypareiit colllngwoodwasaga beach con neclion east york mirror etobi- coke guardian georgetown indc- pendentacton free press kingston this week lindsay thus week markham economist at sun midlandpenetangulshcno mirror milton canadian champion mis- sissauga news newmarketaurora brabanner northumberland news north york mirror oakvillc beaver- orillia today osliawa- whllbyclaringtonporl perry this woeky peterborough this week richmond ilillthornhillvaughan liberal scarborough mirror and j uxbridge tribune todays seniors contents cannot lie reprinted with out written permission from the fiublishrr perjnlt fl247 the pubf ishcr reserves the right to refuse- or classify an advertisement credit for advertisement limited to space the error occupied s2na b3e13 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 letters may be printed