opinion

Our Readers Write Lower Isn 't Russia — Yet To The Editor: Upon the advice of my attorney, f- sent a letter of ■ resignation to* the Lower Township Democratic Social j Club, dated Dec. 11. 1985, and it was received by Robert I Parks, president, dated return receipt Dec 13. The Myers past is one we need not be ashamed of. My I husband worked for the government for 32' v years and upon his disability retirement received letters of commendation from Philadelphia and Washington. D C. My government records are good also, including being a War Bond girl and sponsored by a colonel to work with a U.S.O. Canteen group in Center City. Philadelphia I HELPED therapists with children who had speech defects, marched for the March of Dimes, was a den mother, helped with a church youth choir, taught Sunday School and vacation Bible school. When we moved here in 1963. we joined the Lutheran church lour whole family was involved). I was treasurer, i taught Sunday school, vacation Bible school, joined the women of the church and the sewing group. Any organizations here in Lower Township asking for help or donations were never refused by us. Now to receive harassing phone calls and read certain letters in the paper, I find that my rights as an American and human being are violated. AS FAR AS my making any harassing or threatening phone calls such as "throwing one out of a club." I never made any to anyone as my background taught me manners. etiquette and to conduct myself with dignity As for the puppet or puppets who are put up to this kind of harassment, if you don't like my looks — that's tough. It works' both ways, and you or no one else^js going to take away my God-given and found for rights to think, pray, worship, vote and choose and live in freedom to do so TJiis is Lower Township, not Nazi or Russia Township, yet. ANNA M. MYERS Villas Y oungsters 'Sleighted" To The Editor: Once upon a time, there was a little Victorian town by the sea. It was called Cape May. The town made its' livelihood from something called 'tourism.' That meant the bureaucy dealt in illusions; making people think one thing about the town while some sleight of hand was really going on. • ' The town especially liked to do this to its' young. One winter, late in the year of Nineteen Hundred and EightyFive. the town told a group of young skateboarders that it would do something nice for them if they agreed not to ride on the streets and sidewalks of the town. "We'll get back to you," the town told the youngsters. THE TOWN GOT back to the youngsters in the new year. It told the youngsters they couldn't skateboard on the streets and sidewalks. The youngsters had abided by the town's wishes for more than three months, but the town pulled a sleight of hand on the youngsters. The youngsters' good faith effort was ignored. (Page 40 Please)

f W era liT y tAHTERH^ Published Ewy Wednesday i——. Tni—dUn By The Sea ware Corporation P.O. Box 430 Cape May Conrt _ Honse. NJ. 08210 Cape May Co— ty Herald Joseph R. Zeinik Editor Bonnie Reina General Manager Gary L. Rudy Advertising Director John Dunwoody Special Promotions Director Darrell Kopp Publisher pSw 3»oll b* £r"opSn> it, - o ..C^p 'N'O ' b»T»p)«k«»<5 DEADLINES News & Photos Thursday Advertising Friday — 3 P.M. Classified Advertising Friday — 3 P.M. 465-5055 For News or Advertising Information Mail Subscription: Yearly, S40; Six Month, S20 Call 465-5055 For News, Advertising or Subscription Information p.n.r.pMMUi ».» ifcc ..I iK. IIIHtlll Oil I *%T>I«> J* CAPE MAY |U Wpralfc-JIJispatttf Cape May City Edition of the Cape May County Herald PdbliUwd Ev«ry Wedavsday By TYm Sttuvt Cojporatkon \ r.O. Box 430 c«a« May Court Horn-. NJ 0*210 i J !

*YtX)C?e GivivjGt os -TteGeetsTS a sao kjame J ' Cats: What to Do? To The Editor: That does it ! I just read an article in your Jan. 22 edition about a man having problems with squirrels and birds. How would you like this one : 1 live in Court House. The wild cats and the neighbor's cats all hang around an old dump of a house next door. They kill more birds than the environmentalists can even think of preserving. They tear up my trash every day. We even built a bin to put the trash bags in, and they tore that apart. My flower beds smell like a kitty litter box that has never been cleaned. They urinate all over my window silLs and believe me. there is no stronger smell than cat urine. When we sit at the kitchen table to eat we have to close all the windows, but the odor still comes in. THERE IS NOTHING you can do about cats. The county Board of Health said you can get cat traps. I'm not a trapper or an animal killer. If I were, the problem would have been settled a few years ago. My neighbor's cat comes over to visit and pretty soon there are 10 more cats. The dump of a house next door has broken windows, and they just go in and out to get out of bad weather. Now if these were wild dogs, they could do something; they could shoot them. These cats are wild too. So don't complain about squirrels and birds. The Board of Health at Crest Haven Complex told me there is nothing you can do about cats. A.M. ALEXANDER Court House

Thornton Still Owes Apology To The Editor: In your Dec. 18 edition, you printed my letter in which I concluded that Freeholder Gerald M. Thornton owes an apology to Grace Bielkowski. Deputy Mayor M M "Peg gie" Bieberbach. Councilman Joseph Lonergan and the readers of your newspaper. My thoughts haven't changed. Thornton still owes a public apology to those people, and apparently the freeholders feel the same way since they suddenly adopted a system of "musical chairs" as regards the directorship. They selected the director this year in much the same way they have annually selected inflated increases in their salaries from our pocketbooks. In editions since my letter was published, at least two persons have objected to my public statements. One tells me that ex-Director Thornton need not apologize for calling private citizens degrading names. Perhaps not, but a court of law just might decide otherwise, if requested. In answer to this gentleman's lettered question. "Why can't we debate the issue at hand without resorting to the dictionary for derogatory remarks?." I believe he must be directing his question to Thornton because I called no one names. Judging from his original letter. Thornton drew from his own vocabulary when he called those nic^/^people names. A second person, using my name directly, chastiseaswe for my letter and asked that "everyone start the new year with a new approach." Following this line of thought to completion, perhaps I. too. might ask the taxpayers to give me a $1,000 cost of living refund as. did the freeholders! As an aside: Did I not read somewhere that someone had re-named this noble body "freeloaders"? In closing. I would like tO'flfiake a statement of facts: I am not a Democrat o^ Republican committeeman as stated in someone's letjer. I have never personally met our dynamic Deputy Mayor M M. "Peggie" Bieberbach. but I shall make every effort to do so now. I do not detest the Chamber of Commerce as some people seem to think. These chamber members are an integral part of our financial destiny and are just as important to our community as are other unions of good people, such as the American Medical Association, the teachers union, the Township workers union, the Fraternal Order of Police, the firefighters, etc. EDWARD J. KAMMERER North Cape May

,-And Lots of Black

A Longer , Slimmer Paper

By JOE ZELNIK Many have asked how our new "lean and mean" strategy will affect the Advertising Department. 1 seldom write about Advertising because those people are thin-skinned as salamanders. But the public demand outweighs Advertising's sensitivities.! Some changes are slight. No two aclvertising reps, will be allowed to fly on the same plane as precaution against having our rates, committed to memoV\ destroyed in a fiery crash. \ A hypnotist has been retained to train our ad people to make eye contact while selling. This is based on research that shows our competitors, out there hustling for the same buck, but knowing they have an inferior product, are avoiding eye contact. WE'LL PLACE a new emphasis on service, knowing it is the key to sales. Based on the successful example of the Japanese, our ad people have been instructed to bow before and after talking to clients. If one of our ad persons does not make eye contact and bow, please give me a call and he or she will be disciplined. This is the age of specialization and, armed with new merchandising information from our marketing department, we'll be offering new ways to focus your advertising on the audience most receptive to your products. For example. Philip Morris has learned many people want a full-flavor cigarette in the morning and a lighter one later in the day. We found the same holds true for readers. They prefer deep, provocative stories when they first pick up the paper and. after dinner, like to relax with something breezy. WE'LL M ATCH our stories and a<Js that way and compartmentalize them in the paper. For example: MUA stories. Health Watch, and funeral home ads for early in the day; Sheriff Plousis features, humor columns, and liquor ads for early evening. The same Philip Morris study found that people like longer, slimmer products and almost everybody favors "light" (over fat). We're considering changing our packaging to produce a longer, narrower paper. The slimmer

shape will be more pleasing. The longer shape will put more news and ads on one page. Thus, less pages and less "fat." As a side benefit, the new shape also will make the paper more effective as a fly swatter. The influence of weather on purchasing habits has long been obvious: suntan oil sells in the summer, cough drops in the winter. Armed with more sophisticated data, we are fine-tuning this sales weaponry adding a meteorologist to the staff. He'll stay in touch with preferred advertisers ( who have paid a surcharge for the service) and we will accept last-minute copy changes to take advantage of weather variations. MOOD SWINGS also can be important to buying. Researchers have found that certain products appeal to people when they're glum and cranky; others when they're feeling good. We'll offer to a select group of advertisers (again, for a surcharge) an opportunity to link their ads to reader emotions. For example, if your product goes well when the reader is down, we'll put your ad alongside a tax increase story. If you can better sell people feeling up, the ad can be placed adjacent to a story about a lottery winner. The connection between color and sales is undeniable: the yellow of Perdue's chickens, the red of cola cans, the green of frozen vegetables. We'll be offering more color possibilities to advertisers this year. Fortunately, recent studies show a resurgence in consumer response to black as a color that suggests quality and elegance. Black we've got plenty of, at no extra cost. FINALLY. WE REALIZE you want increased personal service and hate telephone tape machines like ours that answers nights and weekends. So, we've added to our taped message, after the beep, a "yes." "no," and "yes" at 20-second intervals. You will find this most satisfactory if you ask the machine questions to which those answers make sense. To those of you who insist on a real, live response, we'll be offering an 800 number. Trouble is. those things are expensive and we'll be sharing it with some local churches. So if you call, make it very clear whether you're calling to reserve space br gain grace.