Pagan A MERRY Christmas, you say? Well, a merry some- thing. For the rites that the Christians stole from the pagans are on their way back to the pagans. The gods must be laughing. of things to come, pagan-wise, some of them having become a Dbit- shy about Christmas and we now being a pagan society, helped along by multicult, etc. pleased. “Merry Christmas” signs are up at Boundary Community School. And there was no Christmas party ©} as such, although after a lot of pressure from parents a Christmas carolling session was organized. in order, though, that being what the kids put on the windows. There was a tree, but fir trees and greenery were also the style in Druid days. theme at Boundary was ‘‘Peace and International Friendship,”’ peace on earth and goodwill toward men being sexist, no doubt. At Lynnmour, too, there was no usual Christmas party because, as they told me, ‘‘we decided to do it different (sic) this year.”’ sorts of reasons for these changes, including teacher job action and fire regulations. But there are suspicions that the schools didn’t want to upset the multiculters, who see Christmas as alien honsense and an invasion of their rights. North Shore schools are signs A lot of parents are not too A furious mum reported that no A Happy Winter seemed to be Instead of Christmas, the trendy Parents have been given all Watch for the toad and witches. Doug Collins “ Have you taken a good look at some of our Christmas stamps? The 34-cent one shows a fetus at- tached to a sperm or something, the fetus being bordered by a couple of ovaries. I have never seen an ovary or a fetus, bul have been assured that that is what they are. Must the season be that clinical? They'll be having neat designs of condoms next. In the interests of ‘‘safe homo sex,’’ of course. Have another drink. Speaking of which, let’s raise a glass to the folk who write letters. But of the ones that appear in the paper, it must be said that the standard has dropped, especially where those who wish that Doug were a dead Druid are concerned. Be original, ye scribes. It takes little talent to state that Doug yearns for the days when brighter pens were at work. i think fondly of Mr. Alan Regan who once wrote: ‘‘He (that’s me) is a blustering oaf eee from West Vancouver, that elitist THE OTHER HAND enclave of inherited wealth, colo- nial sludge and ostrich mentality.” And of Peter du Plessis, who boomed: “‘He is simply a gentle old man who has exceeded the legally permissible level of hor drops down the leg.” On general subjects, though, people are still writing some good lines in personal Jetters. In November, when | went to Washington, D.C., to address heretics, a Vancouver reader had this to say on my return: “In your short absence, RCMP. head-man instar, who must be Stephen Lewis’s brother-in-law or one of June Callwood’s ex-hus- bands, declared that native Injuns on the Force can now wear their hair in braids. Personally, I will not feel we have arrived as a na- tion until the RCMP is riddled with saucer-lipped Ubangi women.”* The same correspondent wrote that he was disappointed that Stan Persky, Nicole Parton, David Suzuki and Rosemary Brown were not on Keith Spicer’s unity com- mittee, He thought, too, that Botswana’s Hamilton Mangrove, president and founder of JAM- CAN, the Jamaican-Canadian Congress of Racial Equality, should also have been on it, so should Mohinder Singh Bumgas, who could have brought his kir- pan and pet cobra to the meetings. But he was sorry that Jean-Guy Le Puck was passed over, M. Le Puck being a political science professor in Montreal, a former FLQ terrorist, and author of the best-selling Quebec novel, “‘Mangez merde, Anglais! Mangez merde!!”” Wednesday, December 26, 1990 - North Shore News ~ 9 society changing Interchange Xmas into Druid holiday landscaping input sought PUBLIC input on the land- scaping of the $22-million Lonsdale and Upper Levels Highway interchange will be sought at a Jan. 14 North Vancouver City Council policy committee meeting. By Pamela Lang Contributing Writer The provincial highways ministry will also be invited to present its proposed interchange landscape plan to the commitiee, although the ministry has in- dicated that it would prefer not to take the plan to a public meeting. In his Dec. 12 report, city de- velopment planner Frank Ducote said the ministry's landscape plan includes $750,000 in greenery. ‘The most relevant public con- cern,’’ Ducote said, ‘‘is the poten- tial impact of the proposed land- scaping on private views from res- idences located in the 100, 260 and 300 blocks of East 25th Street, immediately north of the affected area.”’ The ministry hopes to create an “urban forest,”’ based on the one that once covered the North Shore, by using indigenous coni- fers such as Douglas firs and Western red cedars, the report ex- plained. . ‘There is support for the con- cept of continuing the forest that was used in preparation of the NORTH VANCOUVER CITY COUNCIL landscape plan,’’ Ducote said in a Dec. 4 letter to the ministry. Because the landscape tender has already been awarded by the government, ‘‘planting could start very soon,’’ Ducote said. The highways ministry has in- dicated that any problems with the plan raised by the city could be dealt with in two ways: © changing the type of planting material; *or making provision for maintenance when necessary for the protection of private views. The first option would replace taller firs and cedars with lower growing trees; the second option would commit the highways ministry to topping trees when they block views. A highways spokesman said he hoped the issue could be resolved without a public meeting. . Concerns raised by the city’s advisory design panel included the use of some exotic plant material that doesn’t suit the indigenous forest character outlined by the highways ministry and the lack of opportunity for city input at the conceptual design phase of the landscaping plan. karlier input, the panel said, would have avoided the current limit on options for changes to the plan. Copies of Ducote’s report are available to the public. 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