3 Dek er hg Oh DE en ae eee Gs Vases ISIN SBD SE ETE, Page M4 October 17, 1990. This Week HUMOR PHILANDERY RAMPANT ‘Fooling around’ more widespread I told my wife the truth: that I was seeing a psychiatrist. Then she told me the truth: that she was seeing a psychiatrist, two plumbers and a bartender. Rodney Dangerfield h, adultery. “A sport created by the mar- riage system” ac- ording to one OCTOBER IS FOSTER PARENT MONTH AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL FOSTER PARENTS Spenteyors FROM STAFF OF THE MINISTRY OF SOCIAL SERVICES & HOUSING cynical wag. A sport that goes back a long way too, apparently. “An ancient and long-established custom .. . to set your neighbor’s bed a-shaking.” Who wrote that — Harold Robbins? Enca Jong? Irving Layton? Nope. Those words were put Fester Care You can make a difference. MR. ONE HOUR DRY CLEANERS "MR. PLEAT” Professional Drapery Cleaners $goo DRY — = OF CLEANING - Present this coupon and receive $4.00 OFF your next cleaning order of °12.00 or more. — Offer Expires OCT. 31/90 One order per day - Esquimalt 383-9433 995-3034 477-5313 NEW Colwood Cook St Corners 388-5058 |} 478-5545 _ (formerly Qualicare Cleaners) Not to be used with any other Coupon An Island Publishers Newsmagazine V8W 1M9 #250-727 Johnson Street, Victoria, British Columbia Reg Cowie, Publisher Tony Kant, Editor 381-3484 IF YOU THINK IT’S FOR THE BIRDS, you’re wrong. Long held beliefs about animal behaviour are being dispelled — ap- parenily philandering is rampant in the animal kingdom. Photo by IRENE FLOEGE-BOEHM together by an Italian seribbler by the name of Juvenal about 2,000 years ago. Oh well, at least the sin of adultery is confined to the human animal, right? Homo sapiens may be an inveterate two-timer, but the other species on the planet are simple, decent, honest types that stick with their mates no matter what. Isn’t that what the biology prof, Reader’s Digest and all those Walt Disney movies taught us? Well, that used to be the way things were, Virginia. Up until just a few years ago, biologists believed that about 95 per cent of all bird species were nuclear family types, one mother and one father sharing the burden of raising their brood. Lately, scientists have been looking a little more closely and discover- ing that those families aren't quite as squeaky-clean as they'd first thought. In fact they now estimate that up to 30 per cent of the birds in any given nest were probably sired by a, as the saying goes, “non-resident male.” And it’s not just our feathered friends who are afilicted with the roving eye. Scientists have been shadowing rabbits, elk and ground squirrels more closely than ever before. ~ Same story, basically. They’ve found that the aforementioned species fool around a lot more than we ever thought they did — and what's more it's the females who usually initiate the debauchery. As often as not, the male is reduced to a helpless blustering cuckold, storming around kick- ing pine cones and cursing his in-laws while his inamorata is By ARTHUR BLACK out painting the forest red with some other stud. The male Idaho ground sauir- rel is particularly pathetic. When his mate is in heat, the male dogs her tirelessly right around the clock. He'll even chase her down a hole and sit on top of it to keep her away fron™® any passing Casanovas. As for birds, the experts are having trouble finding any curly-tailed feathered species that lives up tags the old Puritan ethic. Even tiny chickadees, those chirpy, Audrey Hepburnish innocents who spend the winters with us, are not, it seems, immune to an illicit roll in the snow. Philandering is rampant in the so-called animal world. Patricia Gowaty, a biologist at Clemson University says “it seems that all our old assump- | tions are incorrect.” Mind you, there may be a per- fectly sound biological reason for all the extra-marital matings these critters get up to. Experts theorize that the females maybe ensuring that their eggs get fer- tilized by a variety of male donors, thus guaranteeing genetic diversity in her off spring. Unlike humans, they don’t do it just for fun. Reminds me of the story of the old general who, off to the wars, locked his young wife in a chas- tity belt and gave the key to his best friend. “If 'm not back in a year, release my wife” said the general, and then he set off. That night in camp the general looked up to see his best friend galloping up to his tent. “General,” he gasped, “you gave me the wrong key.” INTRODUCING .. . Island newspaper group switches assignments for publisher, editor sland Publishers Ltd. has appointed a new publisher for This Week newsmagazine and The Victoria Star com- munity newspaper. Reg Cowie, senior publisher for the Vancouver Island- owned newspaper group, was named to his new posts last week by George Man- ning, general manger of the Island Publishers opera- tion. Cowie, with 20 years ex- perience in media sales and management, comes to his new position after a stint as publisher to sister paper, The Saanich News. Before that, he worked for the Island newspaper group in Parksville and Courtenay. Cowie is well known in the Greater Victoria area for his earlier involvement in The Sidney Review and The Goldstream Gazette. He takes over This Week in its 10th month of operation. This Week is carried weekly by the six community newspapers in the Greater Victoria area owned by Island Publishers — The Oak Bay Star, The Esquimalt News, The Victoria Star, The Goldstream Gazette. The Sid- ney Review and The Saanich News. COWIE Cowie will perform double duty as publisher of The Vic- toria Star, overseeing the staff of that newspaper in addition to his other responsibilities. David Darwin, former pub- lisher of The Star moves to The Saanich News. See 5 x Manning also announced & that Island Publishers’ senior editor Tony Kant would be given editorial responsibility at The Victoria Star in addi- tion to his position as editor of This Week newsmagazine. An 18-year veteran of the * newspaper business, Kanthas™ owned and edited award-win- ning newspapers on Van#® couver Island for the past 12 years. Before launching This Week for Island Publishers, he was the editor of The Oak Bay Star: In addition to the personnel changes, the general offices and production facilities of This Week have been moved to the premises of The Star at 626A Fisgard Street, directly opposite the Victoria Police headquarters in Chinatown. The telephone number for& This Week (381-3484) and The Victoria Star will remain the same. — oe