A2 - Sunday News, February 7, 1982 pitied guys who were. I bad to pity them in secret, of course, because if they ever found out, they'd beat me up. Jocks are like that. You can’t trust 'em. I guess I shouldn’t say that. Jocks actually fall into two categories, just like German Shepherds. There are the soft ones and the hard ones.” “The soft ones aren't really dangerous at all. they can even be mellow — the ones that are into tennis, for instance. Or water polo. And curling. I think curling people are mostly okay. They go off to a bonsprl every once in a while, happily whisking their brooms. I mean, how can you knock that? Baseball nuts strike me as being basically safe to be around, providing you don’t strictly personal by Bob Hunter Jocks will be jocks I'VE NEVER been a jock. Secretly, I've always let them talk about their habit. I wouldn't ilet my daughter marry one, but that’s another matter. What else can be con- sidered reasonably _har- miess? Golf? Pool? Cricket? Sword-fighting? These are all gentlemen's games, to be sure. Maybe that makes them okay. It’s the real down-home, dirty, greedy, stinky, out- and-out violent stuff that 'm mostly thinking about when I think of sports or sports fans. You can’t separate the sports fan from the game, I say. If there’s blood on the ice, there’s blood in somebody’s mind. If bones break, it’s absolutely bound to have a de-humanizing effect on the spectator. How many men — it is mostly men who go, you know — come out of a football game and pause to admire the begonias? Or comment on the beauty of cumulus clouds drifting in the late afternoon sun against the azure sky? Huh? Face it. They emerge from one of those games with their hormones burning holes in their hide. Their minds are a cauldron of primitive passion. Their thoughts have been reduced to grunts and groans. Elevating? Inspiring? Ob yes, and when the big game is over, everybody can get together and how! like an atavistic mob. My prejudice against good, wholesome Canadian sports began carly. Grade One, I think. Maybe sooner. It was the day they marched me, along with a lot of other boys, into an old caboose behind the school and forced us to put on skates and mitts and all that stuff. Students off to Europe A EUROPEAN TOUR is on the agenda for Handsworth Secondary students, who will be visiting Germany, Austria and Switzerland April 2-17. The trip is designed to give the students a look at historical and cultural sites and to acquaint them with the German language. Twenty-nine grade ll students will take the trip, accompanied by two teacher Sponsors. PERSONAL SHOPPING ONLY The students will pay $1940 each for the trip, with no expenses being paid by the School Board. Argyle students, mean- while. wert to Whistler Mountain for two days at the end of January. Were you lucky? Winning numbers in the Western Express lottery draw for ed- nesday, February 3 are: $100,000: 3139724, FINAL CLEARANCE Ready to Wear LINGERIE Children’s Wear ACCESSORIES SAVINGS UP TO 70% Subai PARK ROYAL SOUTH 3395816, 3115612, 3114007. $10,000: 2096549, 2219704, 3467032, 1971792, 3084533. ONLY Then they pointed at the door and the ice rink beyond and said: “Go!” It was 40 below outside. Well, did I develop weak ankles, low blood pressure and frostbite fast? I was glad in later years that I had the sense to get myself tossed out of the game as quickly as I did. It seemed that cvery Friday when there was & hockey game, there was also a fight. I didn’t have to be involved in the fights because I wasn't “playing” . Fighting and playing. The line tended to blur. Or maybe it was just that the line had always been blurred, and the “game” was the same as it had always been — young bulls charging around in a field as part of a pre-mating ritual. Biologically useful when we were still half-apes, but. really, nowadays, we could take all the mon. y wasted on sports and start building starships to explore the universe. Or something. Anything. Anything useful. I thought the whole point of life was to grow up, to put aside the things of childhood. - The fact that so many adults spend the kind of energy, time and money they do merely to watch a game, tells me that in some fun- damental way, they just haven't grown up. A game is a game is a game. It's a thing to do instead of anything important = or serious or real. It’s a totally phoney conflict designed so you can while away the hours in rapture instead of doing anything constructive. As far as I can see, it does serve roughly the same function as opium. What prompted these HARRISON GALLERIES Fine Art Dealer 2022 Park Royal, South Mall, Upper Level, West Vancouver 926-2615 Nuremberg Raid 24”x30” Oil Collin Pattle Other locations. 2932 Granville Street 667 Howe Street ps — WW 732-5217, 732-0911 683-0014, 681-2817 — N\ Ww Ahis weeds Dinney Ane choice of ESCANINIS_ ov OmonSoupciatinee Catsav Salad Theen {iev of Soke Augusto Lud Dyalcata (0h give iM 40 ote ivvcsistible tauptations ) um TEEPCOUC vesewe 424.2373 re disgruntled mutterings, of course, was the news that Wayne Gretsky is getting paid $21 million plus shopping centre to agree t¢ keep on skating and shooting for 21 years. - ten years, would it make the slightest bit of difference? Of course not. Hockey. just doesn’t matter, that’s all. I can’t believe that to do something as inane as play hockey somebody gets paid $21 million. There has got to be something wrong out. there. Are you guys crazy?