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City needs a tobaggoning park would like to make a proposal to Ithe City of Waterloo to make a tobogganing park at Bechtel Park. This tobogganing park would promote healthy living for the citiâ€" zens of Waterloo. At the moment Bechtel Park is not the ideal place that it could be. During the summer months the grasses and weeds grow along the hill...making it very difficult to get a toboggan to slide down the hill in the winter. 1 would suggest that the lighting could be a pay as you use it. Also, at the bottom of the hill is a small creek/{marsh area. As you come sliding down the hill on your toboggan you crash into the weeds at the bottom. You may also encounter open water or very thin ice along the creck. With some proper planning these issues could be overcome. To make a tobogganing park fully accessible at all hours of the day (that the park is open) lighting could be an option. Put a loonie into a meter and you Then, late in the evening. you might spot a badly dressed man (who may or may not have had a beer or two) standing alongside the road. golf clubs in tow, forâ€" lornly waiting for someone to pick him up. I'm in the market for a car, which â€" I‘m sure you all know â€" is one of those loveâ€"hate relationships. Usually when I decide to buy a new vehicle, it‘s because the current one has reached the end of its usefulness and is beginning to cost me more money than it‘s worth. That is not the case this time, as the Green Monâ€" ster, as he is lovingly referred to in our home, still has plenty of life left. _ But with the youngest kid soon to graduate colâ€" lege, and since the car doesn‘t have a whole lot of residual value left in it, we figure it‘s best to pass it on to her This also saves her from scheming about ways to prompt my demise. something I worry about from time to time - Truthfully, I‘ve been without my own car for a long time, even though I bought it. It was always being borrowed by one of my kids to go to school, to work or to hang out with friends. It seems the only time I ever drove it was to drop them off or pick them up somewhere Last summer it got so bad. I had to make arrangements with all of them to drop me off at one time or another at a golf rournament. th That‘s the problem:; 1 think 1 have too much Back in the driver‘s seat get a 1/2 hour of lights on the hill. Just more of the same from council (And) for any Waterloo councilior to come forward and say they believe we are on sound financial footing is ludicrous. We have not put the RIM Park scandal behind us, and we are conâ€" tinuing to accrue legal expenses in this matter in amounts so vast that we haven‘t yet been told the final bill. So much for transparency. We are continuing to see outâ€"ofâ€" control propertyâ€"tax increases year after year. I know of few people who are recording costâ€"ofâ€"living increases as COMMENT -__I Last week I ran into a man at the gas station who was fuelling up his very AN large eight cylinder truck. and comâ€" RKE plaining all the time about how much it cost. I don‘t want to turn into one of those people. so a nice efficient four banger sounds like the right plan So, once again, even though l don‘t think 1 really have to follow any rules ... Practicality is determining quite a few things about this vehicle choice. For the first time in 20 years, I don‘t have to think about everyone else‘s needs when it comes to purchasing a vehicle. The only thing 1 know for sure is the vehicle has to be able to hold a full set of golf clubs and a pull cart in the trunk. â€" But I don‘t want the head of my driver poking me in the back of the head, so there must be some space. For a while, I toyed with the idea of a sportier car; but practicality said that wouldn‘t be a great idea. Actually, Mrs. Practicality made that comment And as 1 travel through car lots, 1 cast a glance at those with a standard transmission This is, truly a spiteful thing on my B( ” account. I figure with a manual, then xs no one else can drive it. Practicality Rl\l again has ruled against this. Yes, the same Practicality 2 At the end of this. the only thing 1 know is my golf clubs will fit in the hack and it will have heated seats One of the things I have learned to appreciate over the past few weeks of winter is the luxury of my wife‘s heated seat. Het car too! _ No need for lots of passengers or hauling around sports equipment. I can buy whatever I want. * Hear more of Brian‘s thoughts on life with the KOOL Morning Crew every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a m. on Waterloo radio station 105.3 KOOL FM I‘ve aMbeI"nrlorn between a six cylinder and a four cylinder. _ When I started the search, a six was a given, but I‘ve toned that down â€" mostly for environmental reasons. Actually, that‘s a lie. 1 just don‘t want to spend anymare on gas. high as the tax increase, so to say this is in keeping with inflation is just a baldâ€"faced lie. _ _ _ Once again city hall has spun their bad news into good. _ Their Orwellian doubletalk is quite the fashion at every budget release, and I had hoped the mesâ€" sage that citizens are sick of this crap had gotten through to the elitist mindset in chambers. _As to the concept that spending $20,000 on a party for city employâ€" ees is appropriate, I am appallyd. We can ill afford expenditures like this. These are the very expenses we need to curtail in order to avoid the unreasonable propertyâ€"tax increases we have been burdoned with these past seven years. Planning to build a ridiculous town square, a redundant central library and a new "RIM Park West" are perfect examples that no matter how many times we replace city councillors, there are powerful forces that are intent on bankruptâ€" ing us all. Stop giving us cow chips and call ing it steak. â€" Scott J. Abrams Waterloo || [ The site uses statistical and demographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau, and claims that among the 300 million people who live in U.S., there are at least 88,799 different last names and 5,163 different first names in common use. When I was a kid, a friend‘s father always called me Marshall Tucker (of whom there are 52), after the American southern rock band The Marshall Tucker Band. Aside from my family members, I‘ve only met a handful of people with the last name Ward (despite there being a veritable army of 323,966 of them out there). Marshall Ward is a professor in the fine arts program at Wil frid Laurier University. Email is welcome at mward@wlu.ca. ILhought I was the only one. As it turns out, there are lots of Marshall Wards out there. There are roughly 81 people in the United States alone named Marshall Ward, according to HowManyOfMe.com. Tucker is a great last name (just ask the 209,978 people who have it), and l like the first name Charles (2.293,260}. My family is full of people with the last name Smith (which is the most common surname in the United States with a whopping 3,017,684). Going way back in my family tree my greatâ€"greatâ€"greatâ€"great grandfaâ€" ther‘s name was David Smith (35.744). _ Famous presidents® names are often searched as well, with George Bush (503) at the tap of the list. Others include George Washington (1.286), Richard Nixon (461) and William Clinton (258). 1 went to high school with a Robert Kennedy (3,166), along with a Tim Mortison (85), and one girl who had the first name Madonna (8.999) Other famous musician names I looked up were Michael Jackson (12,279), Jerry Garcia (1.687), Johnny Cash (39). Sheryl Crowe (11}, Aretha Franklin (5), Frank Zappa (3) and the selfâ€" proclaimed "Antiâ€"Christ Superstar." Marilyn Manson (12) Surprisingly. there are two people living in the United States with the name FElton john. whose real name is Reginald Dwight (1) I have never met another person with the first name Marâ€" shall (though there are apparently 74,992 of us). I‘ve always liked my name, and considered it pretty unique. _ s 1 have a friend named Charles, who goes by Chuck (23,997); and a friend named Ben (116.998), who goes by Buck (amazingâ€" Iy, so do 5.999 others). _1 also like the name Burt (8.999). as in the actor Burt Ward {10) who played Robin on the 1960 television series, Batman (Zero). Strangely. I know a few people who are using my name all backwards. One has the first name Ward, and several have the last name Marshall. There have been some people with the name John Smith (49,535) in my family. The name John Smith often is ""“‘V‘A’k‘l‘)""‘ regarded as the archetype of a comâ€" mon personal name in most Englishâ€" speaking countries. It is a recurrent pseudonym, used in similar fashion to names like John Doe (there are 295 real ones!) and Jane Doe (only 22) â€" used as placeholder names for unidentiâ€" fied corpses. "D‘oh!" not Doe, is the expression made famous by fictional cartoon character Homer Simpson (a name held by 42 nonâ€"ficâ€" tional, nonâ€"cartoon people). That may seem like a lot, but it‘s nothing compared to the 1,048 real James Bonds and 113 nonâ€" wizard Harry Potters. (On HowManyOfMe.com, some of the most searched celebri ty names include Iennifer Lopez (2,614}, Jessica Simpson (514) Brad Pitt (5), Tom Cruise (3) and Paris Hilton (1) â€" who, if noth ing else, is one of a kind. 1 like to play a game with my art students called "What would be your name if you were a fictional character on a soap opera?" You take your middle name and it becomes your character‘s first name, and the street you live on becomes your last name. My name would be Wallace Brandenburg (of which there are two real ones roaming the continent, perhaps looking for roles in soaps). â€" â€" If L were a character on a soap opera, I would want to be like Jack Abbott (118) on The Young and the Restless â€" the archâ€" nemesis of wealthy business tycoon Victor Newman (120). And aside from the habitually rehabbing pop princess. there is one other Britney Spears out there. for whom I express my deepest condolences What‘s in a name? WATERLOO CHRONICLE + Wednesday, March 7, 2007 + 11 MARSHALL