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Said Ald. Mary Jane Mewhinney: "We‘re (Waterloo taxpayers) just going to have to bite the bullet. I feel equity with Kitchener and Cambridge should be made immediately.‘" Huh? Could you not equate that comment with Brian Mulroney saying: "We just have to bite the bullet and support the imgort shoe industry?" And Carroll‘s comment that broken down, an alderman‘s pay would not "come anywhere near a laborer‘s‘"‘ is also a tad ouchy. If, over the course of a year, each alderman worked 15 hours weekly on council business, that would work out to $13.33 an hour under the new honorarium level. Not bad for a second income. OK, enough grousing. The bottom line is Carroll and company deserve their boosts, no question. But we warn that their actions Monday could cause image mwarn that their actions Monday could cause image problems, to say nothing of friction in the rank and file atflnmwhomdoubtwfllbejmtueagertobfleflle same when their turn comes. .« What we are uncomfortable with is council‘s eagerness to achieve parity with say, Cambridge council, when it meant rejecting the advice of a committee struck to analyse remuneration for elected officials. That committee, headed by chartered accountant Tom Drake, would have preferred a more gradual balancing of the salary scales over several years, but its recommendation went the way of the round file. It rubs us the wrong way that public perception of such a move was given such scant consideration, especially in a year of tough negotiaâ€" tions with city staff; whatever happened to "not only being fair, but appearing to be fair." Waterloo City Council members can call off the dogs in their version of In Search of Excellence. In terms of percentages, certainly they don‘t. But in real money terms, no rightâ€"thinking individual would begrudge council membersâ€"â€"and especially Carrollâ€"â€"the hikes they received, even if it could be argued that when they toed the public office line, they knew full well the remuneration levels. Naturally, such figures tend to stir headline writers out of deep slumber, and cause city staff to wake up nights in cold sweats, wondering how those figures rationalize with their own, uh, slightly lower raises. Second Class Mail Registration Number 5540 established 1854 They found it right under their noses Monday when they voted themselves a 29.5 per cent pay increase retroactive to Jan. 1. Mayor Marjorie Carroll also received a 25.6 per cent increase in her salary, plus a benefit package. Both moves were essentially geared to bringing Waterloo levels up to par with other area councils, and to more realistically reward the mayor and council for the increasing time and effort needed to attend to a growing city such as ours. Address all correspondence to Waterioo office, 45 Erb St. E., Waterloo, Ont. N2J 1L7. Telephone 886â€"2830, News and Sports line 886â€"3021. Wateriloo Chronicle office is located in the Haney, White law office building (rear entrance, upper floor). Parking at the rear of the building. Open Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Publisher: Paul Winkler . Waterloo Chronicle is published every Wednesday by Fairway Press, a division of JEMCOM Inc., owner. Publishing address 225 Fairway Rd. S., Kitchener, Ont. Circulation: Jerry Fischer Typesetting and Composing: Fairway Press Senior reporter: Melodee Martinuk Reporters: Mark Bryson (news) Display Advertising: Helen Smiley, Paula Hummel, Gerry Mattice Classified Advertising: Maureen McNab Sales Manager: Bill Karges | Circulation Manager: Greg Cassidy On image Richard O‘Brien (sports) a= Coun : Rick Campbell £, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 290, 1987 â€"â€"It is written nature. I rarely read the funnies when I was a child, opting instead for the sports pages, entertainment, and then the sports pages again. I remember wholesome cartoons like Dennis the Menace, Dagwood, B.C. (that‘s the time period we‘re talking here) and others of that ilk, the most notable of course being Peanuts, featuring good ol‘ Charlie Brown. What I remember most about the They all were, as far as we were concerned, and though we didn‘t buy any (not the ideal Mother‘s Day theme), it was the highlight of our shopping tour (hey, life‘s not all roller coaster rides and starry, starry nights). I just think Larson‘s totally warped sense of humor in The Far Side is the greatest, and view my day incomplete unless he has made me bust a gut. ‘"‘Here, Beth, look at this one, the one with the cows on the front, look at what happens, seeâ€"well, I don‘t know, it may be a birthday card, heck, it‘s just a greeting card, but it‘s funny as hell..." strips though was that I usually found them _ ~ _ marginally funny, and rarely sideâ€"splitting. The stuff kills me. It didn‘t take long to realize what was tickling her funny bone. Stocked on the rack was an entire collection of offâ€"theâ€"wall greeting cards by that zany Gary Larson, creator of The Far Side cartoon. It is a panel, I might add, that is not seen in enough local papers, and I am contemplating tossing the features budget out the window to get in on our pages. Well, naturally, I couldn‘t let Beth have all the fun, so there the two of us stood, reading each and every Larson card, howling to beat the band at every classic comment or drawing. **No funnier than this one here, with the theme standing out in the crowd, isn‘t it just a hoot?" A coolish, breezy Saturday gave my wife and me a chance to do some (mostly window) shopping without feeling guilty about passing up the opportunity to soak up the sun. On such occasions, our only fear is that our impulses will contribute to the soaking up of our hardâ€"earned cash. We found ourselves browsing in a shop in one of our favorite tourist areas locally, the town of St. Jacobs. There I was admiring the staying power of those silly looking duck decoys or whatever they are supposed to be, when my wife burst into gales of laughter over at the card rack. Actually, I am not a comic/cartoon fan by ‘‘We‘re (taxpayers) just going to have to bite the bullet. 1 feel equity with Kitchener and Cambridge should be made immediately .‘ Rick Campbell Chronicle Editor Killers â€" council‘s pay increase. â€"â€" SEE PAGE 1. Waterloo alderman Mary Jane Mewhinney on Yes, to your last question, the cows did take photos on their Grand Canyon trip. Why? To show the heifers back home, of course. Perhaps yes, you have to be there. They sure knew we were, in that craft shop last Saturday in St. Jacobs. A return trip is definitely on our list, if the good folks that own the place can once again put up with a couple of laughing hyenas. What I admire most about all of the above, and others too numerous to mention, is that at a time when our world can use a little insanity to keep itself sane, they are there, pen in hand, eager to make us forget the troubles of the day, even for just a moment. That is a rare talent, especially for an individual like Larson who has no problem conceptualizing a family of cows touring the Grand Canyon, or Mr. Ed, the talking horse, spilling his guts on the witness stand. The poison pen of satire is not restricted to comic strips either. A faithful follower of every editorial cartoonist and his/her portfolio (espeâ€" cially at Christmastime), I see Andy Donato in the Toronto Sun as the top in his field today when it comes to illustrating the corruption of government and the plight of the common man. Many brilliant editorial cartoonists have preceded Donato, and many of his contemporaries can make a case for top billing, but when it comes to the creative crurch and deadline dilemma, few can be as brilliant as often as Donato. But now that I have advanced into my middle years (when my middle is more noticeable than other parts of my body), I have acquired a discriminating, yet fiercely loyal funnybone. In other words, I still think a lot of the comics these days stink, but some of them I can‘t get enough of. In fact, the underlying theme in nearly all of the above is a venomous yet lightâ€"hearted poke all that is wrong, all that is absurb, all that is cockeyed in our world today. At or near the top of my list of course is Larson‘s bizarre The Far Side. (Check it out daily in the Globe until we get our act together): Others I try not to miss include Berry‘s World, Herman, Bloom County, Dollars and Nonsense, Doonesbury and the riotous satire in Punch.