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saturday march 19 2005 25 economist sun suntribune anne brodie on movies multitalented mmaker loses focus diary of a mad black woman starring kimberley elise steve harris and tyler perry now playing writing directing and starring as three characters tyler perry is pretty impressive seven years ago he was homeless after escaping his abusive father living on the streets of atlanta writing plays he created a stage charac ter named madea a middleaged woman who waves guns like they were handkerchiefs and speaks her mind like cannon firing she is intimidating and hilarious and stars in this mixed up movie mr perry also plays madeas brother and a nice allamerican suburban dad kimberly elise plays helen whose successful lawyer husband the practices steve harris is having a vio lent midlife crisis she comes home one day to find the maid packing her clothes into a truck and replacing them with an expensive glamorous wardrobe of negligees and evening gowns she thinks its a lovely anniversary gift even though her hus band hasnt touched her in a year and barely speaks to her but hold on the clothes dont fit and here comes her husband with a glam orous woman he says he can no longer hurt this woman the mistress by liv ing with helen and besides his children by the mistress need him he seals it by throwing helen out of the house iff march brings canadian tradition to life in by roy green staff writer f theres anything more canadian than maple syrup its french fries according to agrifood canada maple syrup is canadas secondlargest horticultural com modity export the first is frozen fries but forget mccain with sugar saptistics there are more than 10000 maple syrup pro ducers in canada using about 34000 taps most of them in quebec ontario new brunswick and nova scotia the export market has increased from 53 million to 147 million in the past 10 years with more than 80 per cent of it going to the united states other facts a maple tree is at least 30 years old and 12 inches in diameter before it is tapped tapping does no damage to the tree and only 10 per cent of the sap is col lected each year bush festival in full swing at the kortright centre in vaughan and bruces mill in whitchurch- stouffville its the sweetest time of year in york region fries aside canada is the worlds leader in maple syrup exports selling about 30000 tonnes valued at 150 million to more than 40 countries at kortright and bruces mill the sugar bush festival lets visitors step back in time and view a work ing sugar bush according to marj andre of the toronto region conservation authority natives used clay pots to boil maple syrup over simple fires protected only by a roof of tree branches this was tlw first ver sion of the sugar shack the first white settlers and fur traders introduced wooden buckets to the its a great time to get out and explore nature ms andre said were celebrat ing the season with wagon rides free samples allday pancake meals and delicious maple products there will be syrup making demonstrations from 10 am to 3 pm weekdays and 11 am to 5 pm weekends and holidays at kortright bruces mill offers much the same programming on weekends only the festival continues to april 3 visit the web site at wwwtrcaparksca or call 4166616600 the art of making syrup from sap dates back to native north americans who were the first to discover sinzibuckwood the algonquin word for maple syrup meaning drawn from wood they recognized the sap as a source of energy and nutrition and used tomahawks to make vshaped incisions in trees then inserted reeds to run the sap into buckets made from birch bark sec diary page 18 roll regular 499 pickedup prices 750 delivered we accept return bottles as deposit from most of our competitors buy i get2 50 off j r anaffian white irlillsprings since 19 i natural spring water store tue fri 11 00am 700pm hours sat sun 900am 500pm 318 main st markham north 905 29421 20 an award winning natural spring water price lower than any grocery store why buy anywhere else try it during our march special