Crossword Puzzles
The long, dreary winter months were not so dreary after all for those of us who could find solace in trying to solve The Sun's crossword puzzles, preferably before a warm fireplace or cozily propped up in bed.
The solving of those puzzles involves -- of course -- many aspects of one's varied fields of expertise acquired not so much from formal and long-past schooling and continued reading but is largely possible due to age and experience.
An old gaucho saying states: "The devil knows more because he is old than because he is a devil."
Brought into play is the wrestling with ideas and notions and concepts of geography (port of the Red Sea: Aden; dry desert in Asia: Gobi; capital of Bolivia: La Paz), history (XIIIth century invaders: Tatars), entomology (bluebottle, cicada), fictional characters (80-day traveler: Fogg), theater (Shakespearean quotes and actors/actresses past and present), baseball lore (RBIs), vocabulary or corpus testing (educe, esnes, mesne, divot, elan) and also -- and here is the fun -- the ability to cope with cunning charade/captious/pun type questions such as: Dublin hen (Irish setter), handyman and beekeepers' cocktails (screwdriver and stinger, respectively), polite MIT grads (civil engineers), kissing (lip service), baby food business (growth industry), etc.
It is also helpful to mind linguistic laws to determine whether the solution required is a noun, verb or adjective which out of context cannot be distinguished: beam, welcome, act, to name a few.
At times the very nature of the puzzle or the desire of the author to test the mettle of the solver calls for very low frequency words: nide (pheasant brood or nest), onager (Asian donkey), iter (Roman canal or right of way).
Fortunately in the world of crucigrams, everyday accepted risque expressions have -- as yet -- not entered: "breasts" is a solution to the question "chicken parts" and not to the female anatomy!
A word of caution to beginners: never try to tackle the Times of London crucigram if tired and out of sorts.
It takes a considerable amount of cogitation, mentation, ratiocination, musing and lucubration.
Frederick G. van der Wens
Cockeysville
The writer is an adjunct language instructor at Essex Community College.
Canada's Care
Dr. Darius Rastegar in his letter of April 12 mentioned the Canadian national health program as one the U.S. should adopt.
If he had taken the time to learn the facts about that system, I doubt he would approve of it. In fact, the Canadian plan is no better than those of England, France and Germany. It is known that the waiting lists for diagnostic tests and surgery are nonexistent in this country, as compared to Canada. A few examples:
In Newfoundland (population 570,000) there was a two-month wait for CAT scans in 1992.
In 1988, women waited several months for Pap smears and two months for mammograms. The wait for bone scans was one or more months, and for myelograms was three or four months.
The number of Canadians waiting for surgery was estimated to be 177,297 in 1992.
British Columbia (population 3 million) has fewer than one-half as many CAT scanners as Seattle does with a population of only 490,000 people.
As for MRI machines, Washington state (population 4.6 million) has more than all of Canada (population 26 million).
Moreover, in a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, nearly one-third of Canada's doctors sent patients outside the country for treatment during the last five years.
When former Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa needed treatment for a potentially fatal skin cancer, he went to the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda at his own expense. Where will U.S. citizens go for treatment when our health care system, which is the envy of the world, is trashed by the Clinton plan?
Space does not permit more examples of the abysmal situations the Canadian government-run system has created; there are hundreds I could cite.
However, suffice it to say that Canada's health care system is increasingly plagued with the same problems that have become the hallmarks of socialized medicine wherever it has been implemented.
To quote Canadian Michael Walker, "[When] Americans say they would prefer the Canadian system, their statement is based on little knowledge of how Canada's health care system actually works or the service level toward which it is heading."
He goes on to say that the Canadian system cannot be introduced in the U.S. without reducing the best health care system (and availability) in the world.
To Dr. Rastegar and others who think government can run health care as efficiently and with less cost than the private sector, I say, "Learn from the failures of the European systems." The best thing government could do for health care is to get out of it.
Peggy Knight
Towson
State Parks
It was with profound disappointment that I read The Sun's editorial regarding corporate support for Maryland's state parks and forests.
The (April 10) editorial implied that the Department of Natural Resources intended to place commercial advertising signage in our parks when this is not the case at all.
Responsible stewardship of our public lands is our primary objective, and we will continue a long-standing tradition of keeping our parks beautiful and natural.
At the same time, responsible stewardship requires more than protecting the resource, its inhabitants and visitors.
Responsible stewardship requires that we also develop methods and mechanisms for providing funding for resource protection and enhancement.
The State Forest and Park Service cannot provide responsible stewardship of Maryland's natural resources by relying on state funding only.
Nor will a combination of user fees and current levels of state funding be adequate to allow for responsible stewardship.
The answer to our dilemma is not to increase fees. Nor is it realistic to anticipate increased levels of funding from the state government.
Therefore we are supplementing existing funding by seeking additional support from Maryland's business community, which recognizes the importance of preserving our public lands and providing environmental programs for the public.
We are seeking support for programs such as Junior Rangers, Scales and Tales, Outdoor Discovery Camps and the Maryland Conservation Corps -- so that these programs can continue without reliance on public funds.
In addition, we will work with over 8,000 volunteers and our many "Friends of" park groups who are also assisting us. It's through a combination of innovative approaches to management that we have been able to keep our parks open and operating efficiently.
I want to assure the citizens of Maryland that we will continue to keep our public lands beautiful and natural.
Our corporate recognition program will be appropriate and tasteful, and we will continue to maintain our state forests and parks in a manner consistent with our tradition of excellence.
I invite our citizens to visit our beautiful parks and forests and to help us be good stewards of the land.
James W. Dunmyer
Annapolis
The writer is assistant secretary, Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
Tickets Wanted
I would sure like to have Officer Frank Linsenmeyer [who issued 40 parking tickets after a heavy snow] in my neighborhood, especially on weekends.
There are illegally parked cars everywhere: bus stops, fire hydrants, areas posted by the city with "No Stopping" or "No Parking" signs and in public alleyways. The police in this area tell me they are short-handed and, therefore, too busy to ticket these violators.
Mary Lou Kline
Baltimore
Gender Change
All of us deplore the violence on our streets and throughout our society.
So we ask: Who is commiting these crimes? What identifiable segment of the population commits 99 percent of the violent crimes in this country? Of course -- males.
That is why it was especially disturbing to read the story of the 15-year-old girl shot dead by an 18-year-old girl as a result of some adolescent grudge.
If females are now becoming as violent as their male counterparts, then Lord help us.
Richard Fulton
Baltimore
Doing It Now
History will record that Gov. William Donald Schaefer has been one of the finest officials ever to represent the people of Baltimore and Maryland.
First of all, the governor is honest in every sense of the word. Unlike most politicians, he says what he means and means what he says.
He expects his employees to do an honest day's work and does not put up with fools, malingerers and self-serving sycophants. His "do-it-now" rule exemplifies a desire to put his beloved city and state above all other considerations.
If he has made a few mistakes, his motives have always been to improve the lives and conditions of the people he serves. His city and state have been his entire life.
His leadership has given us a truly modern port, a fabulous inner harbor, and a central city redevelopment program that is the envy of the world.
He is responsible for saving the striped bass fishery, and -- through such programs as the Columbus Center and the North Point State Park -- of showing the world how to manage our great natural resource, the Chesapeake Bay.
He has added to our state parks and road systems. He has supported improved education at all levels. He has given us a subway, light rail and the finest baseball park in the country.
Only a spineless General Assembly has prevented him from establishing programs of national importance in the areas of education, taxation, welfare reform, child adoption, health, gambling and cigarette smoking.
It is unfortunate that great men always attract the unfair criticism of political opponents and special interests.
Nevertheless, fair and thinking people will thank the governor for his contributions to Maryland and for his steadfast adherence to high principle in all his public activities.
A. Morris Todd Jr.
William C. Vergara
Towson