We got the.

Another press day interruption

CONTRARY to popular belief, it’s not all just
bylines and glory in the newspaper business.
There are actually a few people out there who
don’t always like what we do.

Sometimes they tell us
about it. There’s someone
who sends us little scraps of
paper with nonsensical
abuse written all over them,
about twice a year. There's
the guy in Lyndon,
Washington, who clips out
Bob Hunter columns and
news stories about hookers
and gays and mails them off
to us, with his own com-
ments attached. Like the,
note scribbler, he forgets to
put a postage stamp on.
Occasionally we get abuse
over the telephone and then
there’s also the rare bomb
threat.

It doesn’t usually bother
us, except that it has a way
of occurring on press days
when we're rushing to put
together the last stages of the
paper.

But last Tuesday's scare
was just a little too realistic
even to be ignored by the
cynics in the news depart-
ment.

My colleague, Andy
Fraser, came over to me
while I was wording the
headlines for the front page,
holding a large brown cn-
velope he was looking into.

“Got a present for you,
Chris,” he said. “It's
dynamite, There's one for
each of us.”

I looked in the envelope
and there they were. Three
sticks, with labels attached
to the fuses specifying which
stick was for which editor.
Onc for Editor-in-Chief Noel
Wright, one for Managing
Rditor Fraser, and (gulp) one
for News Editor Lloyd.

We wondered if they were
live. No one voluntecred to
find out. They looked real
cnough. I told Fraser I

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: $ 00 + tax

com-

101-1615 Pemberton
985-5115

By CHRIS LLOYD

thought it would be an idea if
he stopped holding them in
his sweaty hands. He told me
he thought it would be an
idea if I called the Mounties.

Twenty minutes later we
were still waiting for the
RCMP. I called again and
told them we were waiting to
go to lunch. I was given the
reply: “We're a tad busy
today, we'll be over shortly.”

They were. They
questioned the receptionist
about the woman who had
handed her the brown en-
velope. They looked at the
sticks and wondered if they
might only be Chinese fire-
crackers, decided it wasn’t
worth taking the chance and
called in the bomb disposal
squad.

An hour after the en-
velope had arrived, the
RCMP decided it was an
emergency situation and
ordered the building to be
evacuated.

We stood outside in the
rain while the bomb disposal

1444 Lonsdale
North Vancouver

experts delicately went
about dismantling the sticks.

They found they came
apart in two pieces. Though
there was no explosion, the
message from the sender was
clear.

It was printed on a curled
up piece of paper imside.
“You are invited to attend a
preview of the 1982 Pacific

National Exhibition on
Friday, August 20th, at 11:00
a.m.”

A second note explained
the packaging. “The Betel
Nut container that holds
your invitation is the
Philippine way of saying
MABUHAY -_ extending
their friendship to you. It is
traditionally used to transmit
gifts and as a gesture of
friendship.”

Aw shucks. We shoulda
known. After all, most of our
post is fan mail.

Just one thing, though.
Next time the PNE wants to
send us presents to Iect us
know we're their friends, it
might save a few nervous
breakdowns if the envelope
looks a bit more official,
with a label in the top left
hand comer showing who it's
from.

We'd hate for people to
think we're paranoid.

980-4536

A3- Sunday, Angust 15, 1982 --North Shore News

ONE FOR EACH of us.
Plain brown envelope is
torn open to reveal
these three little
beauties, sent to us by a
fan as “a gesture of
friendship”. (lan Smith
photo).

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INSIDE

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PAGE Al2

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