6 - Friday, May 4, 1990 - North Shore News Off-base sales ORTH VANCOUVER City Nees made the right decision Monday when it turned down the proposal from the Lonsdale Quay Hotel to open a beer and wine store. While the hotel, which is an asset to North Vancouver and a unique adjunct to the Lonsdale Quay, would surely have created a first-class wine and beer outlet, the need for such a facility is question- able. The hotel already has three liquor licences for its restaurant, pub and bistro components. Off-sale beer is available at its pub. And wine is available at other outlets within the market. Proponents of the new beer and wine store argued that a greater variety of im- ported wine and beer would have been~ made available in the new store. They also maintained that there was a community need for ‘‘an upscale beer and wine boutique.”’ But the community does not need greater availability of alcohol: its ac- companying problems are far too great and its social costs are far too high. Beer, wine and alcoholic spirits are al- ready available in wide variety in numerous government and private outlets around the North Shore. Associating ‘upscale’ and ‘boutique’ with the sale of alcohol is good for mar- keting but poor for raising public awareness of the devastation caused by alcohol abuse. In a funk over feng shui ALTHOUGH RENOWN- ED for my massive tolerance and my keen interest ia foreign nations provided they are as clean and well- ordered as my own — and we can use a little dusting here and there ourselves — there is the matter of the moonscaping of ¥ anccuver. I suppose it is the busybody in me. My immediate neighborhood is, aftez all, unpocked. But it grieves me to see pustules elsewhere in our grand metropoli- tan area. The place is being butch- ered. It is touching to see that so many Vancouverites care deeply about this, although, of course, they are helpless. The stout old saying that a man’s home is his castle — apart from inviting in- stant action by the Feminist Lan- guage Police — is coming back as a kind of haunted house: the sanc- tity of privacy transmuted into screw-you-the-public impiety. But enough of this idle musing. Ever eager to widen my under- standing, I have been consulting a book on feng shui. This is not a household term throughout Vancouver. But it is well known to alert realtors. It is sharply influencing the Vancouver real estate market. Which means it is shaping the city’s appearance, its character — dare I suggest, without angering humanists, its soul? Feng shui is taken very seriously Tut, tut. | will not mention race. The fact is that I have working- class contempt for wealth-flaun- ting arrivistes of all colors and stripes. So what follows may be classist, but isn’t racist. Let us press on. Publisher |. Associate Editor Peter Speck Managing Editor Timothy Renshaw Noel Wright Advertising Director Linda Stewart North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an indenencent suburban newspaper and qualited under Schedule 111 Paragraph Ul et the Excise Tas Act. 1s published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Trevor Lautens Feng shui says — often through the mouth of a professional feng shui adviser — that bad spirits may inhabit certain trees or shrubs. Naturally, if the trees are removed, the spirits will have to find a new home. Feng shui says that the shape, the placement, the color of a building can bring good ch’i — I will translate that, perhaps insen- sitively, as luck — or bad ch’i. So can addresses. Nine and one are good-ch’i numbers. Poor you, if you are endeavoring to sella house with a very bad-ch’i address like -'24. Those numbers suggest death. Feng shui teaches that lots should be square or rectangular. Ch’i, again. This belief boosts sales, and prices, in already popu- lar and costly areas like Point Grey and Shaughnessy. Bad ch’i, how- ever, lurks around the irregular properties of places like the North Shore. But take heart: the placement of a fountain or a lamp in the right place can restore smooth ch’i to such lumpish plots. So can cutting THE VOICE OF NONTH AMO WEST FANCOUVEN SURRY « WEONESDAY - OHIDAY 1139 Lonsdale Avenue. North Vancouver. BC V7M 2H4 Far Display Advertsing Classified Advertising Newsroom Disinbutron Sudscnouons down trees near doors. They im- pede the flow of ch’i. Pity the property owner directly at the end of a cul-de-sac. This is very bad in terms of feng shui. However, the placement of a mirror in front of the house can help put things right. Mirrors also can ward off bad ch’i in the house, such as by restoring the imbalance caused by an unfortunate align- ment of doors along a hallway. Mirror-like objects on a person have a similar effect. Believers provide sober examples of repeated family deaths and chronic business failure caused by bad feng shui. In a city that will not be identified here, but from which come many of the pur- chasers who have helped heat up the Vancouver real estate market, the branch of a certain famous bank is said to have never been successful because it is wreathed in bad feng shui. Also, watch the ratio of win- dows to doors! More than three to one can cause family disruptions — as can windows that are too large. They encourage children to ignore their parents. For further advice, a feng shui expert should be consulted. Yes, I have read respectful descriptions of feng shui as an an- cient science, and of the higher feng shui and the lower feng shui, and so forth. Would such sym- pathetic defences be raided, and accepted, if Vancouver were being trashed by an influx of rich Manhattanites sincerely motivated by their horoscopes? Trevor Lautens is a well-known B.C. newspaper columnist and a West Vancouver resident. Today’s guest column from Mr. Lautens represents an ongoing commitment from the News to provide the North Shore with the best in local editorial content. 980-0514 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 MEMBER Will media showbiz stifle free speech? AH, THE paradoxes of modern life! One of the more alarming being that the mass media — the self-avowed champions of free speech — may actually be creating a growing threat to it. Never a week passes without TV and the daily tabs regaling their audiences with at least half a dozen cases of alleged sexism, racism, gay-bashing and other so-called “‘bigotry.’’ Self-appointed guardians of the One-And-Only-Truth — from fighting ferninists and human rights rabble-rousers to anguished ethnics and outraged academics — promptly charge into battle, shrieking protests, waving placards and urging dire penalties for the wretched sinners. And knee-jerk politicians, who'd sell their own mothers for a couple of extra votes, duly rush to their support. April, which kicks off with All Fools Day, brought us a par- ticularly rich menu. For appetizers, the wicked UBC engineers with their ‘racist’? newspaper. The naughty Meraloma rugby players with their ethnic skit during a * private club bash. The ‘‘sexist’’ hockey team of (good grief!) the Manitoba atterney general’s department, which hired a stripper to entertain its jocks. And for the main dish, of course, the REAL Women’s con- vention newsletter attacking gays, lesbians and ferinists, and labell- ing Vancouver ‘‘Sodom North’”’ for hosting the upcoming Gay Games. Asa result the Socred govern- ment was blasted for Victoria’s long established practice of en- couraging conventions by paying the postage for their mailings — without, alas, censoring the con- tents. Women’s minister Carol | Gran was ordered to the conven- tion hall to administer a stinging public rebuke. And REAL Women’s B.C. president Peggy Steacy, author of the offending missive, received death threats on her answering machine. Overall, it was a wonderful month for TV and the tabs. The one thing they value as much as free speech is the drama of con- flict, the ENTERTAINMENT element which boosts circulation and ratings. Happily, this also has a built-in safeguard for all con- cerned — though the battling ad- versaries never seem to recognize the fact. Today’s sophisticated viewers and readers are mostly quite aware they are being entertained as much as informed. So their normal reac- tion is simply: ‘‘Interesting show — what’s on tomorrow?’’ Memo- ries of yesterday’s show melt away faster than ice cream in the Sahara. The downside of this media showbiz is the growing demand by today’s radical bigots — sparked afresh by the latest incidents — for “limits to free speech.’’ Ina society providing generous and instant media exposure to everyone who sounds off, the price of free speech is always offence to some group. But unless it directly incites violence, the price of stifl- ing it is infinitely higher. Those death threats on Peggy Steacy’s answering machine could just as well be a death threat to democracy itself. cnt BACK AT THE BARN: Con- gratulations to Coho Festival founder Mike Nicell on a well earned honor. Last week he was summoned to Government House, Victoria, to receive from Lt.Gov. David Lam the B.C. Premier En- vironmental Award for his decade of dedicated work in support of the salmon enhancement program .»» Head for the Armoury, 1513 Forbes, by 2 p.m. Sunday, May 6, and salute the North Shore’s con- tribution to tomorrow’s army, as Brig.Gen. The Hon. Henry Bell- Irving inspects 6 Field Enjineer Squadron Cadet Corps at its an- nual ceremonial parade ... And West Van Chamber of Commerce is gearing up for its annual gala evening, the President’s Dinner, June 12 at the Hollyburn Country Club with former Expo 86 com- missioner Patrick Reid as guest speaker. Tickets $25 and you’d be smart to reserve right away by call- ing Joan Foster at 926-6614. wee WRIGHT OR WRONG: Discon- tent is the penalty we pay for being race horses instead of cows. Press Lic and distributed to every door cn the North Snore Second Class Mal Registration Number 388% Subscriptions Narin and West Vancouver. $25 per year Mailing rates avaiable on request Submissions are welcome bul we cannot accept responsipiity tor 59,170 (average. Wednesday Friday & Sunday) unsollcdted Maternal including Manuscnpts ang pictures ry which should be accompanied by a stamped. addressed SDA DIviSiOn envelope Entire contents © 1990 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. environmental Bell-Irving MIKE NICELL honor. BRIG. GEN. checking tomorrow's army.