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The Citizen, 1994-03-30, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 1994. PAGE 5. i ■.. ...’ ...". ’£1 Arthur Black ------ ---------------------- --------.................,.,7.,'-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ZZJ What a wonderful thing — the simple word Words are the most powerful drug used by mankind. - Rudyard Kipling I always wanted to write a book that ended with the word mayonnaise. - Richard Brautigan What a wonderful thing is the simple word, written or spoken. Mountains don’t have them. Neither do sunsets or hurricanes or falcons or cheetahs. Words are ours alone, we two-legged, nearly hairless bipeds. We missed out on fangs and talons and wings and muscle mass, but we got, by thunder, the gift of words. An ocean of syllables and consonants to mix and match at will. And mix and match we do. My hernia­ threatening Merriam-Webster lists more than a half a million entries, and the experts tell me that’s just a little over half the total number of words in the language. And that’s just the English language. There are about 9,000 other languages and dialects around the world. Words, words, wonderful words. "Googol" - now there’s s nifty word. You know what a googol is? International Scene By Raymond Canon Whither the Canadian dollar? When I retire I am going to buy a used crystal ball for visual effects and set myself up as an expert in foreign currencies. I probably know as much, if not more, about them than a lot of the so-called "experts" on mutual funds; the same experts that emerge about Jan. 1 of each year to advise all and sundry on where to park their RRSP money. I can certainly vouch for the fact that the state of the Canadian dollar is Number One on the list of questions I get asked throughout the month. For all those readers who have not religiously been clipping my columns on money matters and filing them under 'infinite wisdom' or 'ultimate truth', let me tell you a bit about how the value of the Canadian dollar gets determined. It does not, as some people seem to believe, rise in value just before you buy your currency for a stay in Florida and just as mysteriously drop in value just when you come back and cash in your unused amounts. The Canadian dollar is subject to what is called a "dirty float" by economists or a "controlled or managed float" by the Bank of Canada. This means that the value of the dollar is determined by the law of supply and demand on international money markets with the Bank of Canada jumping in when it deems necessary to buy or sell currency in order to smooth out the fluctuations of the dollar. If it is going to buy dollars, Canadian that is, it dips into its reserve of foreign currencies to buy the required amount of currency. Should it want to sell Canadian dollars, it can lake the proceeds and pul them into the same reserve. A googol is a word for a number so huge it’s virtually useless. Write down the number one. Now write 100 zeroes after it. That’s a googol. There are oodles of words that don’t get their due. How about duff? Any woodsman knows that one - it’s the decaying material you find on the forest floor. Dottie? Ask a pipe smoker. He (or she) will tell you dottie is the residual gunk that’s left in the bottom of the pipe bowl after it goes out. And how about / - that slash that separates words and the numbers in fractions like 1/2 or 1/4? Well, that’s called a solidus. Some prefer separatrix or virgule. How do I know all this off the top of my head? Are you kidding/serious? I looked it up. And speaking of fractions - do you know what an eighth note is called? A quaver. And a sixteenth note is a semi-quaver. Want to guess what a sixty-fourth note is called? A hemidemisemiquaver. Trust me -1 looked that up too. Then there’s the bad words. You see them in cartoons from time to time. The roadrunner outfoxes Wiley Coyote by decoying him into a freight train and Wiley picks himself up, dusts himself off and the thought balloon over his frazzled head says something like "When I get my paws on that @ # * varmint...!" That’s what cartoonists call a maledicta balloon. And they have names for every off- colour squiggle that appears in them. Names Since the bank is responsible for overseeing the fluctuations of the dollar, it can influence them another way by changing the bank rate each Tuesday. For this reason, if you note that the bank rate goes up a bit on a Tuesday, it could well be that the bank is making our short-term interest rates more competitive in relationship to those in the United Sates and, in so doing, shoring up a bit the value of our dollar. There is only so much the Bank can do in either entering the money markets or in changing the bank rate. If the law of supply and demand dictates that the Canadian dollar's value is going to go down, down it will go. Thus we have seen the dollar drop from about 90 cents U.S. to about 76 cents, and about all the bank could do would be to smooth out the value on the way down. Let's look at concrete example. Our provincial government is a heavy borrower on international money markets due to our large deficit. Any dollars that Mr. Rae borrows have to be converted into Canadian dollars and this in turn will put upward pressure on the dollar. On the other hand, all the interest that has to be paid on current debt, which goes to these foreign leaders, has to be converted into foreign currencies thus putting downward pressure on the dollar. Therefore, when you want to go to Florida and buy American dollars for this trip, it does two things. It contributes to our balance of payments deficit which has to be financed and it also contributes to downward pressure on our dollar. The latest figures show that such trips added to this current account deficit by no less than 7.7 billion dollars. This means that if we stayed at home more (or attracted more foreign visitors) we could create about 100,000 jobs in Canada. It's not that I am trying to create a guilty conscience in the minds of those who do go like grawlix, nitties, jams and quimp. That blur of feet when the roadrunner takes off? Those are called blurgits. The sweat drops on Wiley's brow are plewds. The dust cloud the roadrunner leaves behind? That's a briffit. Words, glorious words. The spike that some candlesticks sport to hold the candle is known as the pricket. The steel trip of an umbrella? A ferrule. That part of a shoe or boot that goes over the arch of the foot: the vamp. Even a simple mainsail on a boat contains such mysteries as a leech, a reef cringle, a clew, a luff zipper and a telltale window. An ordinary suburban bungalow roof can feature purlins, gussets, soffits and fascia. Actually you don't have to go beyond your own personal boundaries to find little-known - and marvellous - words at work. That dimple between the bottom of your nose and your upper lip is your philtrum. That isthmus of flesh that separates your nostrils is your septum. Your body is a symphony of uncelebrated syllables from your pinkie finger (minimus) down to your hallux (big toe). Ah yes, and we haven't even touched upon the metacarpophalangeal creases on your hands or the tragus of your ears, but I'm past my deadline and I see the editor looming. He’s got blewds practically jumping off his forehead and if I'm reading his lips properly he's just called me a malingering @ * ! # #. As Dorothy Parker might say, excuse my briffit. south, it is just that I want you to realize that such trips do have their hidden costs which must be carried by the country as a whole. Since central bankers do not phone me each week, I can't really tell you what is going to happen to the Canadian dollar. There are some things to look for, however. If the Federal Reserve (the American central bank) puts up its interest rates, look for downward pressure on our dollar. If the P.Q. wins the next election slated later this year in Quebec, that will cause the same kind of downward pressure. Offsetting pressure could come from a continuation of our favourable trade balance. You could also help by attracting as many foreign visitors as possible to Canada this year. One interesting thing is that our dollar appears to perform in unison with its U.S. counterpart when it comes to other currencies. For this reason, if the American dollar goes up against the German mark, the Canadian dollar is likely to do the same. Right now the dollars are not doing too well with regard to the major European currencies and the Japanese yen so, if you are going to Europe in the near future, prices are likely to be expensive. In addition, inflation is greater there than in Canada; a pleasant change. One last little tip. Banks make money on foreign currencies by selling at one price and buying at another. This is called arbitrage. Therefore, you may find that, when you come to buy your U.S. dollars, you pay $1.37 for them. Selling them back to the same bank only nets you 1.33. Don't scream at the bank; they all do it. Just remember that the same rule applies if you arrive in a foreign country armed with Canadian dollars. I wish I could say something like "May all your exchange rates be favourable ones" but that is, sadly, not the case these days. The treasure of lasting friendships This past weekend a visit with a long-time acquaintance brought home to me the value of friendships. A life without friends is a life bereft of one of its necessities, the need for human contact and companionship. Our first friends are the ones who showed us the value of sharing and how relationships develop. In the earliest stages they were little more than playmates, but as the years progressed they became confidantes and soulmates. They were there when Mom and Dad didn't understand and helped when you were in trouble, which was a good thing because they were often the ones who got you into trouble in the first place. There was stability in knowing you would always be there for each other, and spontaneity in the things you did. Adult friends still fulfill many of those needs, but they are represented in different ways to different people. For some their spouse is their mainstay, while others need friends to support them through a less than ideal marriage. Having people to depend on for comfort or company is something that most of us require, but the degrees to which we must have it differs with each individual. There are those for whom a solid friendship with a best buddy is all they need, while others thrive only if a continual swirl of people moves around them. They have a friend to respond to each of their needs — a drinking buddy, someone with whom they discuss marriage and family, share a hobby or work. But often, as we change so will our friends. I am one of the few people I know, who actually still spends time with a group of women who were my companions in elementary and secondary school. While we often move away from childhood friends as we grow and change, for me they are such an integral part of my life that I can't imagine not touching base with them. In their company I find the comfort of being with someone who has known you forever, the comfort of sharing a history, the common bond of the past. I spent last week looking eagerly forward to the time I would be spending with my old chum. As our children enjoyed each other's company as well, we had plenty of time for the therapy of nostalgia. Il is not that we spent the weekend living in the past; I would say the majority of our conversation dealt with the lives we lead now and the people who are part of it; but sometimes it's a lot of fun to take that walk back, remembering and reminding of faces along the way. In a world where we are faced with so many demands on our time and talents, reflecting back to a our age of innocence gives a certain sense of re-rooting. It grounds you, giving back a little of who you are and the people that played a part in that. Meeting and making new friends is an ongoing process in our lives, but I especially treasure the ones who are not a daily part of mine any longer, the ones with whom I can sit down once a year and talk as if we had just been together yesterday. As we go through life friends come and go, but the ones that last forever are the rare ones you can count among the best.