8 Terrace Review — Wednesday. November 20, 1991

Letters to the Editor

Put authority back
where it belongs

To the Editor;

I read in the paper where a bunch
of children or young adults did
considerable damage on Hallo-
we’en night. It also points out
what the R.C.M.P. were able to do
about it. It pointed out their
options: they could have used
water to hose them down, or they
could have made arrests. In both
instances, they would have been
criticized by the public in general.

Now we get to the question of,
“Why do parents allow their
young to be out unsupervised so
late at night?”

The same Charter of Rights and
Freedoms ties their hands.
Further, we say let's educate
these little monsters. Again,
teachers’ hands are tied by the
Charter.

None of these people can do a
damn thing. I am glad to have
raised five children, and freely
admit that sometimes I was per-
haps a little too strict. But all of
them have families of their own
and so far none of them are in any
trouble with the law.

It’s time to give the. police, the

Did you know that our planet and

its natural satellite do not have
names? We know them as Earth
and Moon, but according to
astronomers those really aren’t
proper names, they’re simply
generic terms. The word Earth
comes from the German word
Erde — meaning the ground or dirt
~ that got extended into something
larger over time.

Other planets in our solar system
are all named for mythological
beings - Jupiter, king of the
Roman gods; Mars, the Roman
god of war; Venus, Roman
goddess of love and beauty,
whereas our planet, if we really
want to get technical, is named for
dirt. During the fourth century
B.C. people knew of five planets:
Jupiter (Zeus-Star); Mars (Aries-
Star); Venus (Aprodite-Star);
Saturn (Chronos-Star); Mercury
(Hermes-Star). But when the word
for our planet was first derived, no
one had any sense of the Earth

being one of the planets.

‘And what about the Moon? In
astronomy, Moon is the name
given the satellite of a planct,
specifically the satellite of the
Earth, Other plancts’ satellites
have becn given mythological
names like Titan, Charon,
Ganymede, and Miranda, but our

- Moon is just “the moon.” In
-ancient times the Moon was given

the name “Selene” in Greck, but
again it’s just a gencric name for
something that shines, as is the
Latin “Luna”.

teachers and parents a chance to
regain the proper authority.

When a child can tell it's parent,
it’s teacher and the police to
f--- o--, tell me how can they make
any sense out of their jobs of
teaching, organizing the home and
protecting public property.

I suggest that we scrap the
Charter and as tax-paying people
revise it so that once again the
teacher, police, and parents get
control of these unholy monsters
that can destroy public property
and hassle people in plain view of
police, who are unable to do
anything about it.

Don’t just say it's about time
somebody said something.

Write to your MLA and MP. Go
to your teacher and help them
rather than always complaining
about what they do.

And for God’s sake, give the
police a pat on the back too.

I sure don’t want the job they
have. It’s thankless, dangerous,
and too low payed.

Happy next Hallowe'en.

W.G. Gyger,
Terrace.

Another problem is whether or
not Earth and Moon should be
capitalized. You’d think this
would be easy to figure out since
only proper names need be
capitalized. Still, some
astronomers insist Earth, Moon,
and Sun are always capitalized.
The New York Times Manual of
Style says earth, moon, and sun
are written in lowercase, except
when referred to as astronomical
bodies, usually in conjunction
with other bodies and without a

_ “the” preceding. The Associated

Press Stylebook advises writing
earth in lowercase, except when
used as the proper name of the
planet, but that sun and moon are
always lowercase. And the
University of Chicago Manual of
Style says that the names of
planets and their satellites are
always capitalized, but that the
names sun, moon, and earth are
always lowercase, except when
used in connection with the names
of other planets and without the
word “the”.

The dictionary is equally
confusing. The. Merriam-Webster
Dictionary defines earth as a noun
meaning soil; dirt; land; ground;
the planet inhabited by man. The
New Webster Encyclopedic
Dictionary of the English
Language describes earth as a
noun meaning soil; home;
dwelling; the particles which form
the mold on the surface of the
globe; the globe which we inhabit.
Webster's New Collegiate
Dictionary’s fourth meaning of
carth is “often cap: the planet on

People’s names aren’t what they
used to be. There seems to be a
wider variety of names in the
population, and I’m certain the
spellings are more complicated.
It’s more difficult than ever to
figure out how to spell a name
from the way it sounds.

Some people become quite irti-
tated when their last name is mis-
pronounced. These folks correct
you s-l-o-w-l-y and deliberately,
with a heavy sigh, as if you’re
the moron to blame for the entire
world getting their name wrong
for eons. But how would you
know that Kjorlsi is supposed to
sound like "Shirley"? Or that
Jones might also be pronounced
"Jo-nez"? Or that Zmylgvd is the
Swahili version of "Smith"?

Most people with irregularly
spelled first names are not so
hostile, They patiently spell out
their names, immediately assum-
ing you wouldn’t get it right, but
knowing it’s not your fault. Any-
body named Merri, Geoff or
Sheelagh must’ve grown accus-
tomed to this spelling-out process
at a young age. ,

which we live.” .

None of this seems particularly
important; so what if our planet
and its satellite don’t have proper
names, it’s no big deal, right? But
what about the future? Picture a
day 50 years from now. Many
changes have occurred — human
colonists are now scattered .
throughout the galaxy, and many
intelligent life forms have been
discovered on neighbouring
planets. Human and non-human
representatives have gathered
together to draw up treaties,
diplomatic arrangements, and
trade agreements.

A designated speaker calls on
each planetary representative to
rise and speak his or her or its
case. Frowning slightly, the
speaker looks in your direction,
“You've forgotten to fill out the
card listing your planet’s proper
name.” Mystified, you reply that
Earth is the proper name.

Someone coughs politely..
Someone else snickers. The
speaker's eyebrows raise a faction.
Confused, you turn to your nearest
neighbour, a green scaly thing that
resembles a cross between a
chubby toad and a moth-eaten
teddy bear. And as you see a smirk
slide across that little green face, it
suddenly dawns on you that your
planet does not actually have a
name, Earth, after all, simply
means dirt. Good gricf! How
embarrassing!

Maybe we should hold a Name
the Planet contest now. Just in
case. We've only got about 50
years, Maybe,

Name phonetics, like a good
portion of our language, make
little sense. If S-E-A-N spells
"Shawn", then shouldn’t D-E-A-
N be pronounced "Dawn"? And
why does one ’r’ suffice for
Gary, while it takes two for
Larry? Then there’s the
Stephen/Steven problem — I
cannot find another instance in
the English language where "ph"
sounds like a "v", Names pho-
netics don’t follow the standard
Tules.

When I married, the choice to
change or retain my last name
was simple. It was not a matter
of identity. My maiden name was
a three-syllable job, confusing to
spell by its pronunciation. I
thought "Wiebe" would be casy.

Not so. I’m often called Mrs.
"Wee-a-bee". And the "ie" throws
people off all the time. For years,
my name was spelled correctly
throughout this newspaper, yet
misspelled on my own subscrip-
tion label. This past month, it’s
been wrongly spelled above this
column, but on the subscription
label, it’s right.

This is amazing, when you con-
sider that Harriett Fjaagesund is
always perfectly spelled out.

And while we’re on the subject,
I often wonder how anyone
derives the nickname "Peggy"
from Margaret. Or "Dick" from
Richard, and "Bob" out of
Robert, I’ve always thought those
nicknames didn’t make sense,
and I'd like to complain about
that to some government agency.

Most nicknames have their

‘ roots in childhood. These

monikers are like a bad skin
disease, particularly the stupid
ones, They can spread quickly
and sprout permanent roots
before you have any say in the
matter. Just ask any guy called
"Booger"

If allowed to go beyond a rea-
sonable age, say, the primary
school years, a nickname can
grow beyond anyone’s control. A
person can move away and start a
new life, certain that he’s left his
embarrassing nickname behind.
All it takes is one loud voice
calling down the street "Hey,
Booger!” and he’s right back
where he started.

As a small child, my brother
was called "Stinky", for obvious
reasons. The name stuck until
around the age of cight, when my
parents decided that a guy named
"Stinky" would not go far in life.
With a concerted family effort,
and a few threats to some stub-
bom eight year-old peers, he was
able to shake off the "Stinky"
label. He remains grateful to this

_ day.

- The thing is, a name says some-
thing about a person. While
"Theodore B. Johnson" evokes a
certain image, "Stinky" and
"Booger" also invoke their own
particular images. The lesson
here: If you have any choice in
the matter, be careful about what
you let other people call you.

This is the reason that I don’t -
mind my misspelled name above
this column. Little things like that
don’t really bother me at all.

I’m just grateful they don’t call
me “Booger”.

SHIRT LAUNDRY DAY

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Swing in to our DRIVE THRU

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Terrace
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' 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. — Saturday

* Phone: 635-5119