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The Waterloo Chronicle is \ published every Wednesday by The Fairway Group, a division of Southâ€" ‘ ern Ontario Community Newspapers Inc., a division of Southam Publicaâ€" | tions, a CanWest Company. WATERLOO CHRONICLE The views of our columnists are lheir‘ own and do not necessarily represent those j of the newspaper. ‘ 886â€"2830 Fax: 886â€"9383 editorial@waterloochronicle.ca sales@waterloochronicle.ca composing@warerloochronicle.ca Dwayne Weidendart Gerry Mattice Group Sales Director â€" Retail Sales Manager, Ext. 230 Ken Bosveld _ Deborah Crandall Associate Publisher . Editor,Ext. 215 75 King St. South, Suite 201 Waterioo, Ontario N2J 1P2 Associate Publisher: Ken Bosveld 905â€"523â€"5800, Ext. 239 Andrea Bailey Bob Vrbianac Reporter, Ext. 227 Sports Editor, Ext. 229 International Standard Serial Number ISSN 0832â€"3410 Deb Duffield Karen Dwyer Circulation Circulation Manager, Ext. 225 Assistant Regional Classified _ Classified Manager Sales, 623â€"6617 The Waterloo Chranicle welcomes letters to the Editor. They should be signed with name, address and phone number and will be verified for accuracy. No unsigned letters will be published. Submissions may be edited for length, so please be brief Copyright in letters and other mateâ€" rials submined to the Publisher and accepted for publication remains with the authar, but the publisher and its licensees may freely repro duce them in print. electronic or other forms. Our mailing address is 75 King St. S.. Suite 201, Waterloo N2J IP2, our eâ€" mail address is wehronicle@sentex net. and our fax number is 886 9383 Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement Number Norma Cyca _ Melissa Hounslow Advertising Advertising Sales, Ext. 223 Sales, Ext. 222 Letters Policy txmn Bartal Audited circulation: 26,056 40050478 Laurie Ridgway emember when you were a kid, and you saw R:‘he ‘big kids‘ doing stuff you wanted to do ut couldn‘t ‘cause you weren‘t old enough? And how you felt way too grown up to be doing stuff ‘little kids‘ were doing? Remember how you felt at that awkward inâ€"between age â€" kind of stuck in the middle â€" too young for some things, not old enough for others? That‘s kind of how I‘m feeling right now about gardening and other such backyard activities. _ First off, don‘t get me wrong. I‘m not suggesting gardening is just for old people. But let‘s face, older folks seem to have more time â€" and more patience â€" for digging in the dirt. Those in the know will tell you my fave backâ€" yard pastime involves a s ‘ chaise lounge, a ghetto P M‘ blaster, Coppertone, and J & ANOTHER a case of cold ones. But | | lately I‘m feeling like | THING"' that‘s for kids. I‘m too |f & grown up for that silly | nonsense â€" well, most of “ e the time. | ~<a _ 1 know I mu;tvbevgetting up there, though, because I‘m feeling a yen to garden. It‘s very unlike But I‘m too young to garden, aren‘t 1? And then I look at the wellâ€"manicured gardens of my neighbours, and I‘m inspired to join them in their quest to beautify our collective surroundâ€" ings. A couple of things hamper my efforts, though. One: 1 can‘t seem to find the time, and, B, 1 have no idea what I‘m doing. Hand to God, I am without question the world‘s worst gardener. The only thing 1 can grow successfully is mold on the unidentifiable leftâ€" overs in the refrigerator. This year I headed off _ 12/I0VETS IM LE to the nursery â€" 63 & times! No kidding. It refitgerator. seems every time 1 turn around, I‘m back at the garden centre. I‘m there so often, the proprietors rub their hands together and say things like "chaâ€"ching" when they see me coming. Holy weedwackers, but gardening is expensive, no? And now that I‘ve realized ‘annual‘ flowers don‘t, in fact, come back on an ‘annual‘ basis, the the cost factor is hitting me even more. I bought all kinds of gadgets too, like edgers and trimmers and pruners and so on. But my personal favourite is "The Claw". I‘m not sure what it does, but it sure looks impressive. Oh, who‘m I kidding? I won‘t be able to look after my garden properly until I‘m retired. I came to that conclusion a couple of days ago as I gazed upon about 100 clam‘s worth of flowers dead or dying of thirst â€" poor wee things â€" right there where J planted them. And since retirement age is 22 years, three months and seven days away (not that I‘m countâ€" ing), I‘d better stick to simple backyard projects, like, say, lawnmowing. So that‘s my dilemma. I‘m at one of those awkâ€" ward inâ€"between ages. _ â€" e Part of me wants to laze about in the backyard getting fried in more ways than one, and part of me wants to wear a silly bonnet, gloves and garden clogs whilst chatting across the fence to neighâ€" bours about grubworms and the like. I‘ve got a feeling, a least for a few more years any way, the evil younger Deb is going to have her way. The only thing 1 can grow successfully is mold on the unid%fiable leftovers in the refrigerator. VIEWPOINT Strategic planning no excuse for closedâ€"door session is comment is belated, but Waterloo I councillors have held a closedâ€"door meeting, and weaker than cafe coffee was the explanations they offered. The hoursâ€" long meeting was on "strategic planning", Mayor Lynne Woolstencroft said, but, while the Municipal Act permits closedâ€"door sesâ€" sions for a pack of reasons, "strategic planâ€" ning" isn‘t one of them. I‘d suggest the councillors abandon closed meetings in favour of briefer, upâ€"front sessions where everybody is on the record. If you‘ve ever tried those dryers in restrooms where you push a button and nothing but hot air comes out, you know what a closedâ€"door meeting produces. At it Again: As I‘ve said before, peace and quiet is so middleâ€"class. That‘s why it‘s refreshâ€" ing to hear that Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig is in full bellow again. Once again he has his sights set on Regional Chairman Ken Seiling. Craig is leadpipeâ€"sure that Seiling is plotting to grab control of the entire water delivery sysâ€" tem. That means a takeover of water delivery, something that‘s now looked after by area municipalities. Anyhow, Craig was commentâ€" ing at a talk given by Andrew Sancton, a politiâ€" cal science prof. at Western, who | m preaches the same antiâ€"amalgaâ€" | im mation gospel that Craig holds so . | ONCl For his part, Seiling says he‘s not plotting anything, and as for amaigamation goes, "Craig is the only one bringing it up on the region‘‘. But let‘s not forget it was the antiâ€"merger message, among many others, that permitted Craig to ease to a landslide win. {It was a 26â€"vote margin, wasn‘t it?) But, hey, who knows? The next ‘érj election may be oneâ€"sided. Maybe it‘ll even be like the Duke Blue Devils playing basketball against the Supremes. And Diana Ross is out with a sore elbow. Identity Crisis: As long as I‘m writing about Cambridge, I may as well, in earnest affection, chronicle its urgent concerns. Camâ€" bridge is eager for growth, but fearful of the price it may have to pay. To be blunt, it‘s afraid it may lose its identiâ€" ty. It thinks the growth areas in the region are too large. Cambridge worries that the boundâ€" aries between the municipalities will get a litâ€" tle too fuzzy. Then, Cambridge fears, Kitchener, Waterâ€" loo and Cambridge would grow into one huge urban area and look like the mass of urban spraw! along Highway 401, east of Toronto. _ This would gnaw away at the Cambridge identity and threaten its "unique character." Or so it‘s said. Now I, for one, am not at all certain how that "unique character" displays itself. The only trait for which Cambridge is celebrated is its frugality. In a word, Cambridge is thrifty. In another word Cambridge is cheap. Hold On. Maybe that‘s a mite strong. Maybe you should just say that a disproporâ€" tionate number of Cambridge folks are disâ€" proportionately frugal. You might say they‘re tighter than the top olive in a jar. _ That includes the chap whose hearing aid is on a party line. â€" s â€" The chap who‘s carefree. He doesn‘t care as long as it‘s free. _ The chap who always remembers the poor. That doesn‘t cost him anything. s The chap from whom 1 borrowed a vise. 1 didn‘t know how cheap he was until 1 saw the toothpaste on it. â€" Ifs and Butts: Critics of the recent big boost in tobacco taxes poohâ€"poohed them as unlikely to work, but recent events make it look like a real winner. Ti And Certain Debt: Waterloo D ratepayers have received the grim news: Their municipal debt amounts to an untidy $84 million, about $807 per capita. _ During 2001 Waterloo paid out $5.75 milâ€" lion in principal and interest charges, 9.8 per cent of operating revenues. _ â€" Say, don‘t you think Waterloo should do something to get even, or get closer to even? For instance, all citizens could take their returnable bottles back to the store and dediâ€" cate the proceeds to the municipality. There are other things they can do. They could raffle off a quilt, make freeâ€"will donaâ€" tions to the city, hold a big draw with the top prize being a threeâ€"day vacation in Plattsville. _ Or maybe if you want go wild, you could make it four days in Plattsville. The Canadian Cancer Society has had a 30â€"perâ€"cent increase in calls from smokers who want to quit. And, say the society spokesâ€" people, a hefty tax hike often pushes smokers into making their first moave to quit. But down in the Excited States, the cigarette manufacturâ€" ers aren‘t giving up without a fight. Word is that they plan on giving 10 trading stamps with every package. And when you get 50,000 trading stamps, you get a free cancer operation.