8 - Wednesday, April 22, 1992 - North Shore News The spray is falling! The spray is falling! 1 DON’T know about you, but I'm getting fed up with the anima! kingdom. Don’t get me wrong. On the whole ] consider myself a nature lover. It’s just that i think nature has its place in our society and should stay there ... on public TV where it belongs. There are some critters I’m par- tial to. Generally, little fluffy whatnots with big sorrowful eyes and (this is important) no teeth to speak of. Also it's crucial that they be small enough so that if they get out of hand by, say, snarling at you or something, you can control the beggars by thumping them with nothing larger than a Q-tip. Now, insects are out. { will have no truck with those beasties. Scientists and other sti ange people define an insect as having six legs, a head, thorax and an aodomen. Reeboks are optional. My definition is somewhat broader. It includes anything that slithers, crawls, stings, or looks ugly. : Thus the following are all in- sects: snakes, spiders, wasps, Geraldo Rivera, head lice, and Brian Muironey (although he’s more like plankton, really). But i've really had it with gypsy moths. Now there’s an insect with attitude. I figure any creature that fikes to gnaw the occasional hole in my shorts is bad enough, but these dudes want to have a good chew on my shrubbery while they’re at it. With stakes lixe this on the line, { say dipping their wings in a little airborne Bug Death is just what they deserve. Go ahead. Flood the area with hydrochloric acid. Plt hold my breath. However, there are others wha Paul Hughes HUGHES’ VIEWS clearly don’t agree. Which is as it should be. This is, after all, a democratic society, and every nut with opposing thumbs has a right to speak his or her mind. Nevertheless, it seems to be get- ting out of hand. Uve lost track of all the letters of the alphabet that have lined up against aeria! spraying. Let’s see, there’s SPEC, WHEN, CAAS, and Lord knows how many others we've yet to hear from. Well, ['m thinking of forming my own group: ENOUGH AL- READY. Um convinced these persons have a Vietnam complex. Say the word helicopter and the word spray, and obviously we're talking Agent Orange here. It wouldn’t matter if it were marshmallow cream that the gov- ernment was loading in those suckers. They see a Bell helicopter and right away they have a Cam- bodia Mashback. The good lunatics of CAAS (The Citizens Against Aerial Spraying) really know how to play hardball. They sent an “urgent’’ faxed letter to the UN’s human ADDITIONAL 10% HEN Y¥ 4 1H 53-65% OFF and more! DESCRIPTION China Super 60 Persian Bakhtlar Pakistan Bokhara Parslan Tralba! SIZE 4x6 7x10 3x5 5x8 RETAIL gedo 253x000 spsxho 163600 NOW 399.00 $99.00 199.00 599.00 #8 WATER STREET, GASTOWN (across trom Spaghenti Factory) HOURS: MONDAY - SATURDAY 10 - 7 P.M. « SUNDAY 11 - 6 P.M. 681-6440 tights commission requesting im- mediate intervention. You've got to hand it to CAAS. They really have their fingers on the pulse of world human rights abuses. Move over Iraq. P-off Peru. Vancouver’s got big bug problems. Granted there are some experts who insist Btk could be harmful tc people. Life is harmful to peo- ple. I believe that if I can survive the morning rush on Lions Gate Bridge with several hundred ex- haust pipes stuck down my throat, a few droplets of Raid should be No sweat. OK, so 1 may close my window. That's a small price to pay to prevent the possibility of the giant firs around Capilano River becoming infested with a greedy bug that won’t be satisfied until it has reduced them to toothpicks. While we are doing all this Chicken Little dithering, the gypsy moth eggs are waiting for the dinner bell to ring. When it does, the larvae will erupt with the cry, ‘‘What's to eat? Hey, this looks like a tasty forest!"’ There goes the neighborhood. As E write this, the government is planning to get up at some ungodly hour of tomorrow morn- ing and rid us of this voracious menace. Meanwhile, the protest groups are pulling out all the stops to prevent them. Is that the Carmanah ! hear whimpering? LIONS GATE HOSPITAL Apri? 1992 NEWS photo Paul McGrath The bombardment begins A DC-6 aircraft sprays Foray 48B (Btk) over a North Van- couver neighborhood at dawn on Easter Sunday. Agriculture Canada's zerial assault on the Asian gypsy moth was delayed a few days by wet, windy weather but finally got under way. over the weekend. The $6 miilion moth eradication program of aerial and ground-spraying will continue over the Lower: Mainiand as weather permits. See story page one. 231 East 15th Street North Vancouver, B.C. V7L 2L7 Tel: (604) 988-3131. Fax: (604) 988-3184 A letter to the people of the North Shores: For the past 3 weeks Lions Gate Hospitel has been involved in labour disruptions with the Hospital Employees’ Union. This situation has restricted our ability to provide our normal level of services to the people in our comraunity. We have and wili, however, continue to provide complete Emergency care, and as full a range of services as possible. If you or a family member is in need of medical or hospital services, we urge you to contact your physician, who will make the necessary referrals for care, or come directly to our Emergency Department. We thank you for your patience and understanding during this uncertain time. Sincerely, Robert J. Smith President & CEO