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Page 4, News, Wednesday, January 18,1989 Editorial Page The Terrace Bay-Schreiber News is published every Wednesday by Laurentian Publishing Limited, Box 579, Terrace Bay, Ont., POT-2W0 Tel.: 807-825-3747. Second class mailing permit 0867. Member of the Ontario Community Newspaper Assn. and the Canadian Community Newspaper Assn. Sod : aa Bais seeanee SES pea RS ES Se Public setting involved in finding criminals This month marks the twelfth anniversary of the Crime Stoppers program and as such has been proclaimed Crime Stoppers month throughout North America. The program has helped solve nearly 200,000 cases across North America. Tips made to Crime Stoppers have led to the seizure of drugs and stolen property with a value of close to $1.3 billion, and rewards total nearly $16 mil- lion. In Canada, Crime Stopper tips have led to over 15,000 arrests and more than 24,000 cases being cleared and the recovery of property and drugs valued at over $97 million. As of last November, rewards paid out totalled near $1.4 million. By the end of 1988, 111 arrests were attributed to hunder Bay and District Crime Stoppers and 226 cases have been cleared. Nearly $350,000 worth of stolen prop- erty and illegal drugs have been recovered in the region, with $13,475 in awards paid to date. Crime Stoppers has over 900 programs operating across North America, and the concept is catching on world-wide with programs now operating throughout Europe, Africa and Australia. The Thunder Bay district program is now starting its fourth year and is expanding to even more com- munities throughout Northwestern Ontario. Crime Stoppers is a partnership between the local police force, the media and the community, but each program is managed by volunteers who are responsible for fundrais- ing, publicity and paying rewards. All units are registered charitable organizations, and tax- deductible donations to the reward fund can. be made. by contacting a Crime Stoppers Board member. No longer is the controlling of crime being left solely to police enforcement. The public, through various programs, is involving itself in making communities a safer place to live. Crime Stoppers is but one in a growing number of com- munity based crime solving groups. The trend to going public with certain crimes and asking for public assistance is continuing to grow, and with the success these organiza- tions are having, more are sure to follow. Continued on page 11 General Manager......Paul Marcon Xo | Co) David Chmara Admin. Asst.......... Gayle Fournier Production Asst...Carmen Dinner Single copies 40 cents. Subscription rates: $15 per year / $25 two years (local) and $21 per year (out of town). When ball touthes rehead, open mouth 222222222222 > IPATENT PENDING Reader writes in and says age of chivalry not gone...but snow is Dear Editor: I want to take up a little space in your newspaper to say how grateful I am to the young gentleman who on Sunday afternoon of Jan. 8, took the time to finish shovel- ling out my driveway at 149A Birch which had earlier in the day been ploughed out by Desrosier, then an hour later ploughed back in by the town plough, which makes little sense to me, pay one to plough out and another to fill it in again. I likely would have man- aged on my own, even at were somewhat slow at it, but it sure was nice to see that someone did consider an older person than himself, again thanks to my benefactor, you are to be congratulated, I thought the age of chivalry was gone. J. Smith Terrace Bay Deadline for submissions to the TerraceBay/ Schreiber News; editorial, advertising and classifieds is Thursdays 5:00 p.m. 825-3747 Those slippery n "Sir, there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." Benjamin Disraeli Ah yes, it's many a flagon of snake oil that's been sold with the help of those slippery numbers know as Statistics. We live, after all, in a country that now declares itself solidly in favour of Free Trade -- even though only 43 per cent of the electorate voted for the party pushing it. But that's just one statistic. No doubt the prime minister has entire platoons of statisticians standing by, eager and able to prove that by factoring in variables such as barometric pressure, seasonal fluctuations and the price of a case of 24 in Oshawa, it can be shown that a majority of right- handed westerners and red- headed Maritimers actually voted heavily in favour of changing the national anthem to Yankee Doodle. statistics. They say anything you want if you mangle them enough. Statistics show that Lake Erie is only three feet deep on average, but only a fool or Vicki Keith would try to wade from Fort Erie to Buffalo. I'm sure that Ottawa must maintain an entire secret subdivision rese.ved just for statisticians and their families (3.2 children each). How else to explain the blizzard of statistics that falls on our heads week in and week out? Vital stuff, too -- all those little 'fillers' the newspapers use to separate the obituaries from the snow tire ads. "In the rutting season, wild jaguars mate between 36 and 45 times a day." Well, I want to know who counted. Exactly who was it who tiptoed around behind those jaguars with a stopwatch and a clipboard? And does his mother know ---- aa Se Yup, playing statistics is a mug's game alright, but having said that, I have to admit that I live the statistics published in this month's edition of Family ey , " 7 $ 'f : i i Arthur Black Circle magazine. The magazine sicced its in- house statistician on what I call the humdrummities of life -- all those little mindless things we all have to do every day, like well, bathroom duty, for instance. How much time do you spend in the bathroom every day? Twenty minutes? An hour? More? Ever wondered how much time you'll spend in the bathroom over a lifetime? According to the Family Circle statistician, seven years. The magazine says North Americans spend another six years eating and drinking -- which isn't bad -- at least eating and drinking are fun. But look at this: Time spent * by a typical North American homemaker doing housework: Four years. Four years! One thousand, four hundred and sixty days of folding sheets, scraping egg off the frying pan and hunting down dust balls under the guest bed? That's a life sentence! As a matter of fact, the more I read of this Family Circle statistical roundup, the more I umbers - statistics feel like a con serving time in the Big House. Want to know how much of our lives get dribbled away performing other less-than-electrifying pastimes? Opening junk mail: months. Waiting at stoplights: Five months. Standing in line: Five years. You depressed about all this? Don't be. Don't forget it was put together by statisticians, the 20th century's answer to voodoo witch doctors, crystal ball gazers and the guys who used to interpret chicken guts for Roman emperors. Ask another statisticians and you'd get a whole different story. Which leads me to my all- time favourite statistic: If all the statisticians in the world were laid end to end... They still wouldn't reach a satisfactory conclusion. Six a4