The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

i v 1 c p4 weekender saturdaymarcht t998 st saturday march 7 1998 vol 14 no 10 the tribune is a member of the ontario press council the tribune inions 905 6402100 fax- 905 6405477 email thetribistarca editqrial what steps have been made for women saturday is international womens day and what has changed since the last international womens day are women any closer to equality are women better able to earn positions of power and authority earn a living with out discrimination maintain dignity in the face of abuse hardship and poverty are women in many parts of the world still murdered for their gender are women still set on fire beaten or mutilated for indiscretions or the perception of indiscretions are there still societies that keep women covered on religious grounds to mask their mandestroying wiles are there not governments which still condone the rape and torture of women and the infanticide of female children are women in canada on an equitable footing with their male counterparts the united nations says we fall farbehind such countries as sweden and the nether lands in reforms which would see quicker equality are we making steps to rectify the situation the answer in most cases is that women have made tiny steps forward and while any movement forward is certainly positive the forces which prevent those steps from becoming great strides are still in place still in the hands of men who would do much to maintain their control it will be a fine morning when we wake to find the need for such a day has passed os sll is that you preston giftgiving one of toughest nuts to craek one reason people get divorced is they run out of gift ideas robert orben gifts are like hooks martial i dont know about you but i find giftgiving one of the toughest nuts to crack in what passes for civilized life these days what do you buy for aunt ida how do you satisfy the carnal crav ings of uncle sid is cousin orville even going to unwrap your gift this christmas after what happened last year hisn hers sealskin body stock ings seemed like a great treat to leave under the tree how were you sup posed to know hed been elected pres ident of the saskatoon branch of greenpeace giving gifts can often be like jug gling eggs for most of us that is roy collette and larry kunkel dont have that problem theyve been exchanging christmas presents for 1 1 years actually that should read exchang ing christinas present roy and larry swap the same gift each year its a pair of moleskin trousers as you might expect theres a story behind it the story began way back at christmas 1987 thats when larry kunkel first unloaded the trousers theyd been a gift from his mother back in his college days larry had never liked the moleskin trousers they froze stiff as a board in cold weather and needed too much ironing so larry did the sensible thing he wrapped the trousers up in christmas paper and gave them to his brother-in- basic black seeing the world through a childs eyes dear editor i think happiness is a spring like day and a very small boy discov ering the great outdoors i watched him standing at the edge of the cement path and cau tiously extend his foot onto the lawn then deciding it was safe toddled across it he then squatted down and examined a low lying pine bough the grass looked interesting so he wagged his hands back and forth in it and laughed he looked up and watched an airplane and some birds pointing as they flew away letters for no reason other than the fun of it he ran as fast as his short legs would carry him up and down the driveway arms extended and head back what an adventure i wish everyone could forget the rat race for a time and witness the pure innocent joy on the face of a little child simply enjoying life im glad i was able to kaye sutherland arthur black law roy problem was roy didnt much like them either he wore them a couple of times pronounced them miser able and gave them back to kunkel at christmas the next year larry kunkel didnt like the trousers any better the second time they appeared in his life so he dug out some christmas paper wrapped them up and waited for christmas to roll around this pingpong gift exchange con tinued for several years until roy decided it was time to make the ritual more interesting he took the mole skin trousers twisted them into a corkscrew stuffed them into a 3-foot- long extremely skinny cardboard tube and mailed the christmas present to kunkel three hundred and sixty five days after that roy looked under his tree to see a tiny square package with a card that read to roy from larry it was the trousers painstakingly folded into a seveninch cube and wrapped in baling wire the feud was on the next christ mas collette had the pants delivered to kunkels door by ups they were in a twofootsquare wooden crate filled with rocks nailed shut with spikes and banded with strips of steelwire the next year kunkel had the trousers mounted inside an insulated thermopane window that came with a 20year guarantee against accidental breakage calmly collette took a hammer to the window extracted the pants stuffed them in a fiveinch coffee can and soldered it shut the coffee can was then put in a fivegallon contain er filled with concrete and reinforcing rods and delivered to kunkel the following christmas for christmas of 1995 kunkel inserted the pants in a 225pound stainless steel ashtray made from 8- inch steel casings he had merry christmas roy brazed in bronze on the top kunkel got the pants back for christmas of 1 996 of course eventu ally collette found a 600pound second hand safe in which he placed the trousers he then had the safe door welded shut and delivered to kiinkels place of business last december kunkel got his revenge the pants showed up in col- lettes driveway in time for christmas eve they were inthe glove compart ment of a 1984 dodge dart or what used to be a dodge dart kunkel had mashed the car into a 2000 pound cube measuring three feet by three feet by three feet mind you kunkel had the junkyard dealer attach a testimonial certifying that the moleskin trousers were indeed in the glove compartment is collette whipped not on your life this will take some planning he says i will definitely get them outjm confident i believe him i also believe that roy collette will come up with an even more ingenious- delivery sys tem for the moleskin trousers by next christmas i mean you can just tell these two are the kind of guys that put their pants on one leg at a time stouffville tribune weekender newspaper patricia pappas publisher andrew mair editorinchief tracy kibble editor debraweller 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 lljlll 905 6402100 clarified 905 6402874 dis 9056402100 a fax 905 6405477 thetribistarca iho mirkhan f jeoutunsxt mj sua s pumjhd ovry tudy thurwly advuwrvamilibhrlciahr barri advnc barry bay tllt ivbdlotfjkrijejprllasjbrarapkai guardian burlington shopping newt burllntlod lot cllrporant collltijwoodwuaxa connocliou j boat xoikri minora erin advbs satacouutry boutrt jllobicoko guardian flamtxroufh pol oterftown indpondntaclon kr paa kjnjloo tiu wvk und thl wk mfdjandpnlau now ncwraarkalmurora hra-ban- nr nortuumsrlodnat north vk ml hlvlll m york mirror oakvlu bavr yl t it rrvt fit oakvlll shopping not orlllla tody othawa-whubyclarln- v feenfe mirror smfmioa ubridto trlbuna tody snlor city of york guardian conlnt can- imlisonjfrom uiapuiluhw p nil hut too puluabr rrve u0 right to rfuaa or clnaalfy an advr uainnl crdll for advrluwranl 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 gram mar while we endeavor to print as many letters as pos sible we regret that not all letters may be printed