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ADVERTISING 905-640-2612 Classified: 1-800-743â€"3353 Fax: 905â€"640-8778 @fibtm is a of the Metroiand Media Gmup m. a wholly-0mm subsidiary of Torstar Comomion. Memuand is comprised of 100 community publications acmss Ontario. The Yum Region Newspaper Group also indudesme Uberal. serving Richmond Hill and Thomhill, Vaughan Citizen.The Eraâ€"Banner (Newnarhet/Aumra). Markham Economist The Sun-Tribune. published evety Thursday and 88mm. The Sun-Nbune welcomes your le! ~ Km All submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number. mm and address. The Sum'nlaune mes the u put“: at not and I’d! f0! dar- mad-we tum _ "a. , M MAI? jacuflyrmgsom Sun. Georgina Amocate,York Region Business Tunes. North of the City, yovkregoncom and York Region Printing. cmadurianerrmgrom Carrie MacFarlane mbanvifleOyrmg.oom 915-640-2612 Fax: 905â€"640-8778 bmndeauOyrmg. com Bonnie Rondeau Carolyn Norman cnormanOyrmg.c0m Dawna Andrews dandmwarmg.com York Region Media Group community DISI'RIBUTION DISTRIBUTION 905â€"640-26 12 Pnooucnou Mibe Banm'lle lETTERS POLICY Borrow]. EDITORIAL Lesson#l:lwassurpfisedtosee my original letter published afier Councilor Hargraves confirmed council had agreed to reduce Hoover Park to 40 km/ h and install stop signs at Kribs Lane. 7 Mayor Emmerson and council- lors were understandably upset by the timing and context of my letter. 80, id like to me this opportunity to publish a belated apology and thank you to council. » Moreover. I’dliketothankCoun- cillor Richard'Bartley for calling me to explain what happened at the council meeting which was written about in the Sun-iribune and. in turn, prompted my letter. My per- ception and letter were based solely on an article written with informa- tion available to the reporter. lesson #2: I was surprised to see my name and quote used in the context it was referenced in Jim Mason’s March 19 cotumn about police presence. Mr. Mason was aybe it's because I have an apostrophe in my last name that I am sensitive to the apparent demise of this cul- turally sensitive form of punctuation V lamrefeningtothatlittlesquigle. squiborwmkthatmightgobetweenthe Oandtherestofyournameifyouhap pen to be descended from people who hail from the Emerald Isleoreven Scotâ€" land â€"â€" the apostrophe (We O'Neills like to call it The Mighty Apostrophe) . I also lived in Quebec and witnessed the whole language law fight, especially as it comes to outdoor signs Your sign is not in French? Well then, just remove the apostrophe! Then it’s not really in either official language. Other stores removed the apostro- phe and the S. Which I kind of thougit was going a little too far. That's how department stone Eaton's famously became Eaton â€"â€" before later being eaten by the competition - and so on. When you’re a guy with an apostro- phe in your name, you tended to view mistbBatonthingasanafiront. (Ialmyshopedtheyhadtheapos- trophe stored in a warehouse some- whereandwerereadytopmitbackup when things cooled down. Or maybe some separatist wouldbreakin andtakethe hamm- lng CSIS on an international apostro- phehunt.) Others couldn't care a whole Isn’t Internet slang changing how we spell? Wilson; drivers; are out of hand Plus. I aglee with MI. Wflson’s com- ments in support of police and a job well done. It is unfortunate my comments were taken out of context and per- ceived as a complaint about police doing their job. That was never my intent. In fact. I welcome this traffic enforcement to control drivera Lesson #3: The Sun-Tribune keeps us informed about our com- munityand itisliterallyafreepress Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I now know many residents read these letters So, if you want to be heard, then write. However, Councillor Bartley taught me that it is far more constructive to pick up the phone first and dialogue to gain the proper perspective. BILL GRANT S'I‘OUFFVIILE lot either way, so long as the store had great stuff. which it did. Still others sympathized with the idea that people who spoke French felt threatened by the sea of English around them and if they didn‘t do something about it, their language and culture would some day be gone. Theymightevenseethelossofan apostrophe as a small price to pay â€"â€" minor cosmetic surgery, an odd but ultimately harmless editing job â€"- for the right to keep doing business in a great city like Montreal (or should that be Montreal). Even today in Quebec (or maybe that should be Quebec) they’ll argue whether or not they should've or shouldn’t have, could’ve or couldn't. would’ve or wouldn't, can’t. hadn’t or didn't do the right thing when it comes to outdoor signs and the apostrophe. Which is [Ban of why I ieft â€"â€" punc- Bernie O’Neill more with Mr. SUWW-Tribune PUBLISHER Ian Proudfoot mation oonstemation, the apostrophe apocalypse, or whatever you wanted to call it. It just got tiring after a while. Even though the apostrophe has served those of us of Irish descent for centuries. it can be a bit of a pain to have an apostrophe in your last name. even in Ontario I've had tellers unable to find my bank account and my health club membership “disappear” because my name was punched in to the com- puter with an apostrophe or without somewhere along the line â€" an apos- trophe catastrophe. An apostrophe doesn't work in e- mail addresses which makes me think there have been any number of people trying to get in touch with me who never got through or thought I was just ignoring them (long lost girlfriends wishing they could see me again, Pub- lisher's Clearing House wanting to give me a million dollars, the Leafs looking for a goalie. as in maybe I had Cujo's cell number?). A coffee and doughnut chain dropped the pesky punctuation years ago (the man‘s name was Tim Hor- ton) and I always feel like complaining. Although the Hells Angels don't use an apostrophe and 1 figure that's their business But now I fear that the Blackberry. Facebook. MSN and cellphone texting could do in the apostrophe for good. People e-mail me to say they cant 6290Main$t WflN. MA 167 make it. Wont be there. Didnt know about that. And so on. Because that apostmphe is a bit of extra work that probably isn't really necessary. takes time and might even cause a crash if you're texting as you move up in the Tlm Hortons driveâ€"through. If you ever read the thread of mesâ€" sages on Facebook that might have contributions from teens. you'll see abbreviations like rofl (roll on floor. laughing). lmao (laugh my arse ofl â€" I'll just use arse for the purposes of this column) â€"â€" and a hundred words like it's. there’s. we'll. they'll and so on. but without the apostrophes. L01. (laugh out loud). What punctuation there is on there is used to make faces. as in 2) or ;) or :~). I don't really know Morse (bde. but you get the idea. The slang is pretty inventive and funny, even if it doesn't have me ROFLMAO. Now it's influenc- ing written English. Perhaps that's why you see its when it should be it's. mens instead of men's. (Ilose is good enough and works on a Blackberry. Worse, they might not know how The Mighty Apostrophe is supposed to be used. so thev don't use it. Emma m Cum Debora Kelly Soon the apmtmphe will be like thv semicolon. We know it's good for some- thing. we'nc just not sure what. other than to ;) (Wink). Sloang Incident Bernie ()N’ill is an «film with the York Regmn Media ( .‘mup Busuunss MANAGER Robert Lazurko Dumcmn. Amunsmu, Dimmou Nicole Fletcher DIIBCIOII, OPERATIONS Barry Black