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WATERLOO CHRONICLE Circulation Manager . Circulation Publisher: Cal Bosveld 886â€"2830 Fax: 886â€"9383 Eâ€"mail: wchronicle@sentex.net 75 King St. South, Suite 201 Waterloo, Ontario N2J 1P2 The Waterloo Chronicle is published every Wednesday by The Fairway Group, a division of Southern Ontario Community Newspapers Inc., a division of Southam Publications, a CanWest Company. The views of our columists are their own and do not necessarily represent those of the newspaper 136379 International Standard Serial Number ISSN 0832â€"3410 The Waterloo Chronucle welcomes letters to the Editor They should be signed with name, address and phone numâ€" ber and will be verified for accuâ€" racy No unsigned letters will be published. Submissions may be edited for length, so please be bnef. Copyright in letters and other materials submitted to the Publisher and accepted for publication remains with the author, but the publisher and its licensees may freely reproduce them in print, electronic or other forms Our mailing address is 75 King St S , Suite 201. Waterloo N2J 1P2, our eâ€"mail address is wchronicle@sentex net. and our fax number is 886â€"9383 Carolyn Anstey _ Amy Hachborn Letters Policy Andrea Bailey Bob Vibanac. Reporter Sports Editor fim Alexander Gerry Mattice Director of Retail Sales Cal Bosveld Deborah Crandall Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement Number Norma Cyca Bill Karges Advertising Advertising Audited circulation: 26.056 group of friends‘ and I got together recently Ajvnfllli came up with a theory which we believe ill withstand the test of time. It doesn‘t involve a highly scientific approach or an inâ€"depth hypothesis; it‘s actually pretty straightâ€" forward. Okay, okay. I‘m willing to have an open mind with this one. There are some things boys do excepâ€" tionally well. Yes folks, in a nutshell dating in the new Millennium means: boy and girl meet, boy and girl hang out, boy and girl grow to have feelings for one another, boy gets scared, boy considers all the swimsuit models he‘ll miss out on if he settles down with girl, boy listens to stupid buddies encouraging him to lose girl and have another beer, boy needs space, boy sucks. And believe me, my bitterness is shared. I was talking to this girl who‘s been seeing a boy for just over a month. Ladies, 1 think we need a textbook of our own. The first chapter would be called "Don‘t want him, don‘t need him". The second would be "We lied, size DOES matter". And the third chapter would be "Grow up you 25â€"yearâ€"old child". Fail not, they are good at making it to the Beer Store before the big orange light shuts off for the night; they are good at dropping off their football picks before the betting deadline; and they are excellent at planning a trip to that little holeâ€"inâ€" . f theâ€"wall bar with their (Mike®ann en buddies week after week | STRAIGHT after week after week | U P {after week). I digress, this R spells shear talent. At the mere thought of these three syllables, you get to know what the back of a man‘s head looks like pretty quickly... as he‘s running away. The only looming problem has been the fact the boy will soon be moving out of town for a few months. But after a date the other night the boy told the girl he felt it would be better if they put things "on hold" until he comes home, then evaluate the situâ€" ation. Now, at the risk of offending an entire gender, here it goes... boys suck. But my friends and I managed to compile a little list of our own, citing a number of areas which, how should I say, need a lot of work. Areas like skipping the Beer Store and taking us to the movies instead; forgetting football even exists for one night; and at least including us in a funâ€" filled night with the buds. But n0000000, this would imply the dreaded ‘C‘ word... COMMITMENT. "On hold"? What the heck does that mean? Does it mean they will be dating other people while they are "on hold"? Does it mean things will be exactly the same when the boy returns? Pretty naive on his part if you ask me; and as far as I‘m concerned there‘s just one explanation for such behavior â€" boys suck. I swear there must be a high school course avail able only to boys, teaching them how to be incon siderate selfâ€"serving creeps. I can picture the textbook now... Chapter One: "It‘s not you, it‘s me"; Chapter Two: "If I wanted a relationship, it would be with you, but I don‘t, so see you later"; and Chapter Three: "Buddies over Babes". Wait, maybe that‘s a little extreme. On second thought, no it‘s not. Boys suck. } At the risk of offendi;{g an entire gender. Yep, I think we‘d have a best seller on our hands ANDREA VIEWPOINT Boxing Day isn‘t what it used to be Memo to Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig: The colors are just a tiny example of what the region can do. What do you ; fhink It won‘t vanish though. It‘s too much a natural as an extra day to unwind from Christmas. Say, it‘s surprising to me that the ‘m really worried. It‘s been a week now Isince anyone wished me a "Happy New Year." You figure they know something? Fare Play: Well, it looks as if the Kâ€"W vista will be improved in one detail in the new year. The GRT buses look so much betâ€" ter than did their old Kitchener PUC predeâ€" cessors. Fresh from his smashing election victory (26 votes), Doug is apt not to say too many kind things about the region. In fact, 1 hear tell he‘s starting a new philosophigal movement. It‘s _ called _ Transcendental Aggravation. Coward that I am, I‘ve never joined in shopping on Boxing Day. It wouldn‘t do me any good. I once bought a zillion Christmas cards that were halfâ€"priced on Dec. 24. Good, you say? Except that next Christmas 1 couldn‘t recall where I stashed them. So much for the annual bargainâ€"huntâ€" ing! Like others elegantly known as our senior citizens, I can recall when Boxing Day began in Canada. It was about 60 years ago, and it had a very slow start. In a couple of years though, more stores and businesses got on board the holiday and it quickly became a fixture. Now it apparentâ€" ly has lost some of its steam, at least as a shopping day. A Hollow Day: Boxing Day is traditionally the day when shoppers jam stores and go a litâ€" tle bit bananas in seeking out the "bargains". But the day may not be what it used to be. At least, Toronto retailers say ||__ the day is slipping, that not as many wildâ€"eyed customers are preser themselves. Explanation? I haven‘t any. The blue color looks snazzy compared to the insipid nearâ€"yellow color it replaced. It never fails.... Just after Christmas is always our busiest time of year / presenting SANDY BAIRD Ottawa wants it that way, he maintained, because it gives us the edge in exports. And he added that Washington is miffed that we keep our dollar so low. It bothers me a bit when the buck is sagâ€" ging. It‘s a terrible feeling to sit in your room and watch the wallet on your dresser lose weight. They could rank the battle with Gettysburg, Midway, ‘the Bulge or even George Dubya‘s glorious win in the battle of Florida (2000). It‘s not such a faint hope, you know. There‘s )\ [R been a lot of revision in history You could say that the big exceptions are the folks who spend the winter, or most of it, in Florida. Incidentally, 1 heard an economist who laid the blame for the shape of our buck on the Canadian government. Americans haven‘t adopted it They would, of course, if they could somehow link it up with the military. But they can, of course. They could say they‘re celebrating the Battle of Trenton which was fought on Dec. 26, 1776. . Belatedly they could confirm that battle as vital to winning the War of Independence (or the American Revolution, if you prefer). !‘ Dollars and Sense: The muchâ€"maligned Canadian dolâ€" lar celebrated the year‘s end by DY climbing to its highest close in D two months. Our buck broke through the US66 cents barrier at year‘s end. and predicâ€" tions by economists forecast our dollar will hit a consensus value of US7O cents in 2001 Of course, we‘ve heard this all before. Every year it‘s the same old thing. The preâ€" dictions play on the average Canadian‘s pride, and it‘s not as if the discounted dollar is costing us very much. «4 Take Betsy Ross and the sewing of the first U.S. flag. She put in the blue because of the mighty oceans beating up against U.S. shores; she put in white because of the purity of U.S. aspirations, and she put in red because she cut her fingers a lot.