Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 15, 1989, Winnipeg, Manitoba Grand Winnipeg free press october 1989 Page 8 Chuck features editor 3arenthood one of lifes rewards there called and indeed they there easy to they buy Cowboy boots that hang like weights from the feet of a six Eskold they shake a baby out of a sound sleep to inquire if he is ready to Wake f a stranger so much As blinks an they will extract a display of Pic Tures from their purse like an accor Dion that Falls to their it is one of lifes rewards for surviving your own some grandparents see grandchildren As a Chance to Correct the mistakes they made the first time others View being a grand Parent As a Twilight zone where you can love them when there dry and fed and Send them Back when there wet and others Rel ish being a Spectator As they watch their prophecy materialize just wait till you have children of your own special relationship perhaps the Saddest words in All the world i never knew my its Good to remember that in a time when marriages dissolve without notice or grandparents contribute a special relationship to a child that no one else can years ago i wrote a Job description for grandparents that bears repeating a grandparent can always be counted upon to buy anything youre from Al purpose greeting cards to Peanut from Flower seeds to from transparent tape to 10 chances on a a grandparent buys you gifts your Mother says you dont a grandparent will put a sweater on you when she is feed you when she is hungry and put you to bed when she is a grandparent will Frame a Pic Ture of your hand that you traced Over the brocade sofa in the Mediterranean living a grandparent is the Only baby Sitter who Doest charge Money to keep a grandparent will believe you can read when you have the Book upside when a grandchild grand How come you didst have any children a grandparent will fight Back the Universal press Syndicate Denys gets direction from huge map in Edmonton Edmonton up there Are 823 stores in the John Evans and Gail Denys know All of there Edmonton and they walk the streets of West Edmonton the two uniformed constables say having the brightly lit Halls of the worlds biggest mall As their turf int the Plum assignment it would we get on some Days people in this that makes it the third biggest City in Evans leaning against a Wall in his patrol tucked into a Corner of the Gargantuan any time you get that Many people there Are bound to be some who want to cause Trou drug dealers Evans and Denys Are part of a program started about nine months ago that put the permanent City police office and four constables in the Edmonton biggest tourist the mall also has a sub Stantial private Security the cops Collar Nab credit card fraud bust drug dealers and troubleshoot to keep the mall Safe for the hordes of shop most of the customers and tourists who throng to the mall see it As a consumer but Evans and Denys see its million Square metres of shops and amusement Parks through much More jaded walking past the malls indoor Evans Points out some of the less appealing attractions the areas drug dealers and stole goods handlers congregate to sell their the kids know where to he Evans estimates the mall attracts about 100 most of them some of these kids Are 14 and there virtually professional Crimi he shaking his most of their crimes Arent big league Jimmy open cars in the malls vast parking lots or slip a pair of flashy running shoes Inlo their the sporting goods stores were really getting says the moustached at 34 the Veteran on the mall to the Point where some stores had the highest sales in the country but we rent 1 i making a profit there was that much Many Young shoplifters graduate to he we had one breaking where these kids just climbed up through the roof of one of the food fairs and went along from store to store dropping Down to take whatever they could As Evans Denys looks Over the largely teenage crowd milling around a video a lot of the kids we know Treyve been apprehended or we know there into Denys her Bright Brown eyes scan Ning the you can Tell by the Way they react when they see she interrupts the conversation and strides Over to two scruffy confronting the taller of the she demands whats your name where Are you going the his curly hair tied Back by a Black slouches deeper into his torn Jean jacket and Denys quizzes him fur demanding identification be fore sending him on his that ones a real Little she were pretty sure Hes done some Bandes around criminal activity Denys says she let the teen go Only after pumping him for information on criminal activity in the this time she got a potential Lead on a drug shipment arriving elsewhere in the these kids All know each and they All rat on each she Evans says the mall has turned out to be the Edmonton police forces Best source of information on criminals in the Denys says she was a Little taken Aback when she started on the West Edmonton mall before i got on this Job i didst realize half the things that were going on in the mall especially with the i see some kids Here Day after like that she Point ing out a teenage girl staring intently into a video she was Here the exact same and Shell be Here makes you Edmonton mall int differ ent from any other shopping says Evans All attract a certain amount of its just More noticeable Here because its so t by Tony Davis romantics Call them the windows of the a scientist once called them the part of the brain that Sticks the eyes have always been surrounded by superstition and half even today experts in the Field dont always see Eye to Eye about whats fact and whats take the belief sitting close to the to can permanently damage that concern is so widespread that last year a Vancouver Platinum communications developed the Eye guardian to Cash in on parental the Small Black Box attaches to the to using an infrared turns the screen snowy if anyone moves too close to the the picture reappears when the viewers move Platinum Confidence in the device was bolstered by a recent japanese study claiming positively charged dust particles Are repelled from television screens like microscopic and that prolonged close viewing can damage but Len an Eye surgeon who Heads seven Oaks general hospitals ophthalmology actually recommends some of his patients watch to with their nose to the set if that what it takes to see the eyestrain i hate to contradict the japanese study but its not something in aware i dont believe watching television can physically damage the though the matter is still being Macbeath optometrist Earl who has Practised in Morden for 10 said he sitting too close to the to youll feel youll tire your but you wont physically damage but at least one Manitoba optometrist thinks sitting too close for Long periods of time in front of a to or computer screen can harm the i know this might create controversy with some of my but i believe it could increase says Steven president of the Manitoba optometric one thing the experts did agree on is that More people Are myopic nearsighted than Ever today indoor the proliferation of Reading material and increased use of televisions and computers have drastically changed How North americans use their says Elwood Woody an optometrist who has Practised for nearly 40 years in Over Many decades the demand on the visual system has changed says who believes our eyes Are adapting to our changing studies on Canadas Northern native and inuit populations show they Are Seldom of course it May be partly due to their different notes but there not staying watching or using computers As much As we they still use their eyes for More Lon distance tasks like woolly thinking Manitoba Eye doctors say they have Many patients who believe old wives tales about the theres a lot of woolly thinking about the says who operates frequently on patients suffering from glaucoma and other ocular you could do me an enormous favor by telling people there is no such thing As laser surgery for lasers Are used in some types of Eye but its not a Mureall for every Eye disease like people Mintz says he routinely encounters people who believe they can Wear out their eyes prematurely by using them too Spearman says his patients often say the same older patients Tell me there not going to use their eyes Asim going to save them so they last they but you cant Bank your says explaining that using your eyes less wont make Good vision last longer or keep poor vision from getting but the doctors say that Doest mean people take commonsense precautions with their those interviewed say the old schoolroom adage that when you read or the Light should fall Over your left Cornea shoulder is at least partly based in truth if you happen to be if youre the Light should fall Over your right and a room always should be generally Well lit for Reading As Well As contain a Reading the contrast caused by the readers Shadow on the Page can cause Eye says he adds a Book or Page should be no More than three times brighter than its such As a because the contrast can also Strain vision though not permanently harm but Mintz says children who read a lot or do closeup work in dim Light can end up with poorer Many glasses wearers believe they can improve or maintain their current prescription by wearing their spectacles As Little As this is except in rare doctors lasses Are a a visual says they wont improve your eyes and they wont make them they just help you see the same Way a Crutch gives you mobility if you have a broken but the Crutch Doest help the leg heal he blames optometrists who Promise children they wont have to Wear glasses later if they Wear them now for spreading that potentially one of the most dangerous myths is that All sunglasses provide at least some Protection from the Mintz says sunglasses that dont filter ultraviolet Light can do More damage to eyes than not wearing sunglasses at because sunglasses reduce the Light to our our pupils open up to unless your sunglasses have us your eyes Are absorbing More of the harmful rays than if you we rent wearing clarification that because your pupils would narrow in the brighter reducing the us rays entering the explains warns manufacturers of sunglasses who claim their product screens ultraviolet Light Arent always telling the the Manitoba optometric society is working towards clarifying that Issue and getting standards enforced within the next few and because you can see Well Doest mean you regularly visit an some Eye like in which pressure from fluid in the Eye builds up and damages the cant be detected by the victim until the problem is too late to although the experts dont always agree on Eye Mintz says that erode a persons Faith in i suppose like any Field of scientific you can talk to two doctors and get three different optometrist failed to heed own advice extended Wear Contact lenses can Lull even knowledgeable users into habits that could result in damage to their says a Winnipeg Steven president of the Manitoba optometric once fell into that trap who has 15 years experience prescribing Contact suffered temporary comeal damage after he failed to heed his own advice about the maximum time extended Wear contacts should be left in the extended Wear which some manufacturers claim can be worn continuously for up to 30 Are designed to allow More oxygen than daily Wear lenses to reach the eyes oxygen prevents the growth of harmful bacteria on the eyes when he first got his extended Wear Mintz he promised himself he would remove them after 30 Days As but they were so comfortable he forgot about and one month stretched into the new York times has reported that new studies published in the new England journal of Medicine warn leaving in extended Wear contacts even overnight could result in permanent vision the studies were conducted jointly by Harvard University Massachusetts Eye and ear infirmary in Boston and Abt a Cambridge research one study of 500 people in the found that people who leave extended Wear contacts in overnight were 10 to 15 times As Likely to develop ulcerative which scars the surface of the than those who use daily Wear soft contacts which must be removed and cleaned the studies could be bad news for Johnson the first company to offer disposable extended Wear such contacts have been available for about a year in the which Cost about for a three month Are designed to be worn for seven Days and then thrown Mintz disposable contacts should be Safe if used according to the but he feels they should be taken out and thrown away after six ;