6 -— Wednesday, December 26, 1990 - North Shore News INSIGHTS GY ACN MUTT NEWS VIEWPOINT Tipplers beware O YOU can’t have another rum and eggnog before you motor off to Uncle Bob’s house for festive gath- ering number 15. _ Local police working the roadblocks this year to clear streets of drinking drivers have a new tool at their disposal. And it’s going to snag those moderate drinkers who feel they are in control behind the wheel of a car, but who really are only deluding themselves at the peril of others. Newly implemented hand-held alcohol scszening devices make possible random roads:de breath sampling every day of the year. *Yis the season for Christmas Counter Attack and local police will be pulling over their share of drunk drivers. While statistics show that the Counter Attack campaign has resulted in fewer drinking drivers during the annual stepped-up en- forcement period, thus far, police have tended to catch the more blatant tipplers. Tke numbers show that the average blood-alcohol reading recorded in B.C. is approximately. 180 milligrams. You are legally over the line at 80 milligrams. If you are driving close to that line, watch out — the police are better equipped to find cut who has been naughty or nice. It’s nice to be socially responsible. Don’t drink and drive. ‘LETTER OF THE DAY Lautens’ squatters comments unfair Dear Editor: Re: Nov. 30 Trevor Lautens ar- ticle ‘‘Frances street squatters...’’: Once again this jowly, haughty looking man has spouted off nasties about another less fortu- nate group in society. This time its squatters and they are easy targets as nobody likes squatters -—- even myself. To some degree I agree with Lautens; however, | respectfully disagree with the rather viscious, condemning approach he takes. Unless I stand corrected these squatters were existing in cir- Publisher Associate Editor .... North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an suburbart Shore. Second Class Maid Reg:stratron Number Subscnpteons North and West Vancouver, $25 pes year. Mailing tates avadable on request. Submussions are responsibility tor unsoherted material inciuding manuscripts and mctures: which should be accompanied by a stamped. addressed welcome bul we cannot accept envetope Peter Speck Managing Editor Timothy Renshaw Noel Wright Advertising Director . Linda Stewart independent newspaper and qualihed under Schedule 111 Faragraph I of the Excise Tax Act, ts published each ednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Fress Ltd. and disinbuted to every door on the now iS cumstances where there was no heat, water, power or light. Wood fires and kerosene heaters, if they can afford them, only go so far. Lautens also refers to the squat- ting as ‘‘creeping Stalinism.’’ This comment is overreactive nonsense and { doubt there is a communist under every squatter’s bed, if they even have beds. The only real mistake the sqatters made is pro- testing outside the wrong resi- dences. They should have cam- paigned outside Lautens’ and every politician’s who actively worked to defes! rent controls, the rentalsman and_ increased SUNDAY - WEDNESDAY + FRIDAY 1133 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 59,170 (average, Wednesday Friday & Sunday) - Display Advertising Classified Advertising Newsroom Distribution Subscriptions Fax social housing. I am not implying that Victoria is solely to blame but anyone who would be a squatter in such miserable living circumstances is either demented or very down on their luck in life. The North Shore News is a good community paper. It disturbs me to see [autens’ col- umn in it when he is capable of writing so much better. Frankly, Doug Collins pales in comparison to this character. Mr. T.E. Peck Vancouver 980-0511 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 al MEMBER ed North Shore owned and managed Entire contents © 1990 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. IN OUR ELECTRONIC world there’s no need for un- communicative folks to have a chip on their shoulder. The chip in their answering machine is all they need. I'm not at all uncom- municative, but 1 confess to being a veteran answering machine junkie and [’m grateful to all my readers and friends (mostly, if not always, the same) who've worn out two of my machines in just five years. They’ve taught mea lot about the human race. The first being how fast people learn. For over a month my origi- nat device convinced me I’d LOST all my friends. Hardly anyone ever responded. In the dead silence between beeps you sensed them fairly seething with anger. Especially the gent who utter a loud ‘‘Hell!”" right at the end be- fore banging down his phone. Today it almost never happens — and when I myself phone aroun, it’s clear why. Since 1985 nearly everyone else has acquired an answering machine. So now communication is often speeded simply by leaving the machines ia talk to each other, which can save a lot of time and be easier on the blood pressure. Once you call back to your caller’s machine, you can forget him with a clear conscience. Nine times cut of ten he forgets you, too. As well, you learn all about hearing and speech impairments. Callers afflicted with the former are deaf to your warning about brevity and embark on the leisure- ly story of their life. Running out of tape after 30 seconds, they redial (‘‘It’s me again’’) and con- tinue their autobiography. Some don’t tire until their fourth re- dial. Others don’t hear the bit about leaving name and phone number, and hate you ever after because you didn’t gct back to them by trying all 750,000 numbers in the phone book. Answering machines not being compact disc players, gabblers and mumblers also get angry at not hearing from you — unaware of the garbled mumbo-jumbo your tape recorded in place of their number. Meanwhile, the few non-a.m. types left get all hurt if you let the machine reply before deciding to pick up the receiver — as most of us do at odd times. Too bad, say I. The phone is the worst invader of privacy ever invented. So if you’re busy, what's wrong with hearing first who wants to inter- rupt? Finally, there’s all you learn about people’s personalities from their taped messages — which Noel HITHER AND YON sometimes make you glad the machine replied, not its owner. Curt cold messages. Ponderous ones. Cocky or smart-ass ones. The odd warm, bright one. And then, my all-time favorite: Loud music and talk. ‘‘Sorry, we're having one whale of a par- ty,’’ begins the female voice — her message interspersed with gig- gles and asides to someone else — “Don’t, Harry, I'm talking!’ \t ends with a crescendo of party noise and an exuberant shriek: “STOP IT, Harry!’’ She and Harry, | later found, are a nice married couple with four kids. Machines don’t ALWAYS get it right! eee TAILPIECES: Special holiday week treat for the kids is the music, magic and mystery of “‘The Mcon Lake’’, an operetta for children of all ages sponsored by the North Shore Children’s Entertainment Society at the Cen- tennial Theatre. Evening shows Dec. 28-29 and a Sunday matinee Dec. 30, with tickets from Tick- etmaster or the theatre box office, 987-PLAY... Still in theatre mode, panto addicts are promised slapstick fun —- again for all ages — at Deep Cove Stage’s ‘‘Tom The Piper’s Son’’ - running through Jan. 5 at Presentation House — - tickets 986-1351... And get your pledges in for participants in the Jan. 1 Cates Park Polar Bear Swim, with all money going to the Christmas Bureau — call Pat Kel- ly at the Legion, 985-1115 or 987-2510. eee WRIGHT OR WRONG: When you save face for someone, it’s funny how much better YOUR face looks. ge eF EWS photo Mi v) ake ald WORK WITH West Van youth earned Const. Harry McNeil (right) this community service award presented by BP Homeowners’ Rob Inman (left) and West Van Mayor Mark Sager (centre).