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The Citizen, 2007-12-06, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2007. PAGE 5.Bonnie Gropp TThhee sshhoorrtt ooff iitt Earlier the better The newspaper reporter. The image is 30 years out of date but it’s iconic and endures. Look at him there – Johnny Deadline – in the busy newsroom, wearing that cheap, wrinkled suit with his loud tie askew, his snap-brim fedora pushed back from his forehead. He’s crouched over his manual typewriter, pecking out his STOP THE PRESS hot story with two fingers. And, but of course, a gasper hanging out of the corner of his mouth. Gotta have the dangling cigarette. A newspaper reporter without a cigarette is like Harry Potter without his specs. Snoopy without his doghouse. Ron McLean without Don Cherry. Yeah, well forget all that. Employees of Tribune Co., a giant media conglomerate that owns a stable of American newspapers and television stations, have just learned that if they smoke, they’ll be paying an extra hundred bucks a month over and above their regular medical premiums insurance. A crusade against smoking reporters. Is nothing sacred? ’Tis but the latest assault on that sorry bunch of misfits in our midst – the tobacco addicted. We’ve chased them out of bars and restaurants. We’ve banned their odiferous practice in our workspaces and government buildings. Ontario has just passed a province-wide ban on smoking in all public institutions. Parts of California forbid smoking in parks and on beaches. How else can we put the boot in? Is there some new way we can make these wretches suffer even more? Smokers fight back, but either their heart isn’t in it or, thanks to the debilitating side effects of their habit, they just don’t have the wind to put up a decent fight. Their latest pathetic sally is the smokeless smoke. Really. Three Ontario entrepreneurs are looking to buy the Canadian rights to a Chinese-made (oh, swell! The folks who gave us lead-tainted kiddy toys) smokeless, tobacco-free cigarette. How would a smokeless, tobacco-free cigarette work, you ask? Well, it involves a nicotine cartridge, a microchip and some water-vapour mist. Your smoker sucks on an imitation cigarette while a battery-driven microchip activates an atomizer which puffs out a nicotine-flavoured plume of water vapour. Not quite as down-home friendly as lighting up a Lucky, is it? Such a change in such a short time. Is it really less than 20 years since smokers fired up with abandon on trains and buses, in waiting rooms and hospitals? Remember when airlines routinely reserved rows 16 through 18 for smokers? Good luck to non-smoking passengers in rows 15 and 19. And offices. Nobody batted an eye if you lit up in the office. Hell, there was an ashtray on every desk. The air in a typical office was blue with tobacco smoke, both new and second-hand. Non-smokers were grievously outnumbered and suffered silently. When I worked in radio, even the studios held ashtrays and guests were routinely offered a cigarette ‘for their nerves’. How the worm has turned. It’s a brave soul indeed who would flick his Zippo in an office setting these days. ‘Firing up’ has become a firing offence at many firms in Canada and the U.S. Most office buildings are identifiable during office hours by the clots of desperate, shivering nicotine addicts clustered around their doorways, getting their fix. Needless to say, one huge benefit for white collar workers is that the air in their offices, once noxious and riddled with carcinogens, is now pristine and pure as a forest glen. Not. The latest news is that laser printers, a fixture in pretty well every office in the land, have been quietly spewing out particle emissions far deadlier than tobacco smoke since they were installed. In fact, one study suggests that spending too much time near an office copier is worse than sitting by a guy puffing two packs a day in the next cubicle. Ironically, the office workers likely to be least affected by toxic printers are the smokers. They’ll be out on the sidewalk having a smoke. Is that a smoker’s cough I hear – or is it smokers having the last laugh after all? Arthur Black The end of the start of the work week. A long and busy Monday is now behind me and the dreary drive home is complete. And there it is — home. Opening the door I am greeted by the familiar, comforted by the place I call my own. In the low kitchen light I noticed the answering machine blinking a message notice. Pressing the button I hear a voice that wraps itself soothingly around me. My grandson has called with a special request. If it’s alright with me he’d like to come over some night and help me ‘make’ my Christmas tree. With tinsel and bells on I returned the call and plans were made for his visit, brightening the week to come. “But it’s so early,” an acquaintance said when I told her this story. Perhaps. So she was even more surprised to hear that the majority of my other decorating had already been done by the time my special visitor came to help with the main event. And why not? I know the purists argue rightly that the celebration of Christ’s birth does not begin at the end of November. Advent is a holy season for Christians, the period of waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity. As such, I assure you that the Christian elements of my decorating are placed at more appropriate times. I am moved by the true meaning of this special time of year. But, what harm, I ask, is there in placing greenery, lights and snowmen around my rooms weeks before the time chosen to mark Christ’s birth. None of these have any significance to the nativity. Outside the church, the holiday is known as the season of Christmas, and it is that I welcome with festive finery. Even when it was less in vogue to do so, I was an early Christmas decorator, always the first weekend in December. But decorations became more elaborate over the years often making it challenging to fit in. People started getting their outdoor embellishments in place to take advantage of more pleasing weather. And the next thing I knew there were many people far ahead of me, giving me permission to do the same. Couldn’t be happier about it. And not feeling the least bit foolish or apologetic either. It’s no secret to anyone that the dark, bleak winter is a dark, bleak time for me. It is with pleasure and gratitude that I enjoy the holiday decor that lights my way home each and every day. Then being in my house, fragrant with cinnamon, flickering candles and dancing lights chasing the gloom away, ribbons and garlands gracing stairways and mantles, and smiling snowmen, is therapeutic. The beauty of holiday decor soothes soul and spirit. So, yes, as the landscape disappears under a bland blanket of white I eagerly bring colour and life into my house. After facing the bitter bite of wicked winds heading out the door each day, I return to cocoon amid the warm glow of twinkling lights. I feel happy and safe. Actually, all of the good feelings that typically accompany Christmas are there once the ‘hype’ begins. I know that my spirit of goodwill towards men certainly improves when I start thinking Christmas. So when you think about it, isn’t earlier even better? Other Views Got dem ol’ smokin’ blues Aspeaker of the legislature has lost his job because of allegations he favoured his own party for the first time in history. But many others have been threatened. Liberal Mike Brown, who as speaker refereed debates, failed to get re-elected mainly because opposition Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats felt he was lenient with his own party when it broke rules and a few Liberals, who were disgruntled for various reasons, voted with them. The allegations contained some truth, because the easygoing Brown permitted more heckling and obstructionism than speakers traditionally do. Most of it was by Liberals in sustained attempts to prevent opposition parties being heard rather than by the frustrated opposition. Almost all speakers have been accused of favouring their parties. Brown’s predecessor, Alvin Curling, a Liberal and the first black speaker, left to enough praise it might have been thought he was a candidate for a Nobel Peace Prize. Politicians tend to be charitable to departing adversaries. But Curling quit shortly before the legislature was to debate a New Democrat motion he was biased and incompetent and should resign. The Conservatives felt the same, calling him a disgrace as speaker, and their entire caucus once walked out because he refused to allow them to say the government was suppressing a report. But black community groups complained Curling was being picked on because he is black, which was untrue, and an accommodating federal government found him an ambassadorship far away from the sensitive situation. Gary Carr, an earlier Conservative speaker, was accused by Conservative premier Ernie Eves of being biased, but on this issue the Speaker clearly was in the right. Eves unveiled a budget outside the legislature to avoid opposition parties’ questions and Carr accused him of putting his political interests ahead of the institution. But an election was too close to risk punishing this outspoken speaker. Conservatives threatened to remove another Conservative speaker who showed the neutrality Speakers are supposed to have. Chris Stockwell, after being left out of premier Mike Harris’s cabinet, was elected speaker on a promise to serve all MPPs equally and made rulings his party disliked. Some in it felt particularly Stockwell was delaying their legislation to merge Metropolitan Toronto into a single city and warned him privately they were considering proposing a non-confidence motion that would remove him. Stockwell retorted he would not be pressured, but any attempt by Conservatives to eject him as speaker would have made them look dictatorial and they never followed up their threat. Hugh Edighoffer, a Liberal speaker, upset many because he tried to keep the front of the legislature free of demonstrations. He barred groups including disarmament and environmentalist activists, saying the Liberals had worked hard to provide a dignified atmosphere. But opponents finally won the day by arguing the front of the legislature should be a “people place” where the public rather than lobbyists could express its views. But the speaker who got in most trouble was Conservative John Turner in the early 1980s. His rulings included permitting a Conservative minister to sneer that a Liberal needed to see a psychiatrist, because he was depressed and paranoid, and ejecting the leaders of the two opposition parties, but within minutes changing his mind and allowing them back in. Turner also broke the rule the speakers should be neutral by making a radio broadcast in his riding supporting government legislation about which the opposition parties had concerns and introducing Conservative ministers at a rally. The NDP put forward a motion the legislature had lost confidence in Turner and asked him to resign. But the Liberals, who earlier said much the same thing, refused to support it on the grounds Turner had weaknesses, but was a fine human being who should not go down in history as being kicked out of this prestigious job. This has been a problem when premiers and more recently MPPs chose Speakers – they often have picked the nicest guy and not the smartest. Eric Dowd FFrroomm QQuueeeenn’’ss PPaarrkk Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only. Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your letters brief and concise. Speakers, like referees, often targets