ESPITE A freshly sprained ankle, North Van's Bar-
bara-jo Mcintosh hosted a lovely Robby Burns
Supper at her downtown restaurant, Barbara Jo" 5.

So while Barbara-Jo sat with a
cane, a tartan-wrapped foat and a
Glenlivet painkiller, her 40 guests
sat for an elegant, relaxing Scats
dinner of smoked salmon, roast
lamb and bread pudding — oh
yeah, and haggis.

Barbara-Jo went to great effort
with the ambience, filling the
raom with heather and tartan,
taped Highland music and the
(live) beautifully played pipes of,
as it happened, my cousin, Shrine
Band pipe-major, former Van-
couver police band pipe-major
and retired Vancouver police in-
spector Bill #aird.

Culinary expert James Beard
performed the address to the hag-
gis — though not the one Burns
wrote,

(Beard may have found Burns’
toast a little daunting so he made
up his own, but that was fine too.)

Among the guests were Narth
Van's Glen Ringdal, the witty
Vancouver Canucks VP marketing,
there with his gal, BCTV reporter
Linda Aylesworth (who’s mourn-
ing her upcoming move aut of
West Van), and Canucks Hockey

’ Operations Director George
McPhee.

While realtor Ashling Delahunt
looked on with the mild revulsion
of a Celt who's had encugh
“’'Warm-reekin’ rich’”’ hageis to

last. lifetime, Ringdal, a
Norwegian-Canadian who'd never
had the stuff before, had three
helpings of the “Great Chieftain
a’ the puddin’ race."

No hockey gossip was forthcom-
ing but Ringdal did say that Pat
Quinn's 50th birthday party was a
great success.

-- Quinn was suspicious that his
wife Sandra was going to throwa
surprise party so he made sure he
was nowhere near their Properties
home on Jan. 29.

Then his security company call-
éd to tell him there’d been a
break-in. When he arrived, 150
friends were waiting for him. Very

‘PAT QUINN: lured to his 50th
birthday party by 2 false alarm.

iM ILEUS

7 FoR
BREAKFAST

1495 Bellevue, W.Van. 826-5115

Louise Aird

BRIGHT LIGHTS

clever, Sandra.
kkk

But back to Robby Burns birth-
day celebrations.

Following the dinner at Bar-
bara-Jo’s, my sister Elizabeth and |
thought we'd attend the Sixth An-
nual Burns Night at the Hotel
Vancouver and write about it for
our columns.

This 500-guest banquet, and its
altendant toasts, songs and recita-
tions, is hosted by the Burns Club
of Vancouver which has 37
members (Burns died at 37), 23 of
whom, including President
Donald Sinclair, five on the North
Shore.

At first, Sinclair was pleased that
we'd be attending. Then word of
our impending arrival got round
and there was a resounding cry of
“There'll na’ be lassies at our
Bearns Suppa!’’ So, we were
disinvited.

Turns out that women aren't
allowed at this function. In 1993!
How odd. Cut of the 555 poems
written by Burns, 202 are for or
about, mostly in praise of, women.

The guy made Don Juan took
like Don Rickles. Adored women.
Revered them. He even wrote The
Rights of Women.

(He also wrote Address to a
Mause and Address to a
Toothache, but that’s beside the
point.)

Come to think of it, he wrote

ast

several gushy poems to same guy
named Jamie. Do you suppose...?

kkk

Still on the Scottish theme ... at
the invitation of West Van sound
engineer Milton Cameron and his
wife Rosalind, we went out to the
WISE (Wales, ireland, Scotland,
England) Athletic Club.

I didn’t know the place existed
— it's tucked into an East End res-
idential area — but if you like
Celtic music, go there.

The packed house was there to
see the Battlefield Band, which is
billed as “‘one of the most ac-
complished Celtic groups around”
and whose motto is “The Future
of Scotland’s Past.’

The four men — one English,
three Scots — masterfully perform
on eight instruments, including the
sax, the bagpipes and the sublime
violin of prodigy (he looks to be
about 17) Glaswegian John Mc-
Cusker -—- who also appears to be
Colin James’ Song-Jost identical
twin,

The band’s tapes are available at
stores (only the latest features
McCusker) and they’il be back in‘
the fall.

in the meantime, WISE Club
supporters should know that it
needs help. {t was built in 1906
and needs major structural work...

kkk

Migitt as well give Burns the last. .

word,

Just before flipping through
Burns to count his romantic
poems, | read the North Shore

News and saw the disgust and

anger with which columnists and
readers view the removal, by the
arrogant Larco Developments, of
the forest beside Park Royal.
Then | spotted a poem which

* Burns wrote nearly 200 years ago

— talk about staying power.

In Verses on the Destruction of
the Woods Near Drumilanrig, the
poet mourns the loss of a healthy
forest and ialks about how it pro-
vided relaxation and serenity for

GEORGE MCPHEE, director of hockey operaticns for the Van-

‘couver Canucks, with North Vancouver’s Gien Ringdal,

Canucks’ VP marketing.

the

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ately Ray ft

Wednesday, Fobruary 10, 1993 - North Shore News ~ 27

photos Louize ‘Alrd

PIPER BILL Baird with BCTV reporter Linda Aylesworth of West

Vancouver.

JAMES BEARD with North Vancouver” Ss Barbara-Jo McIntosh,

its visitors,

The poet then asks the forest
sprite if disease or a storm felled
that trees.

Nae eastlin’ blast, the sprite .
replied;

It blaws na here sae flerce and fell,

And on my dry and halesome
banks

Nae canker-worms get leave to
dwell:
Man! Crue! man! the genius sighed

As through the cliffs he sank him
down — .

The worm that gnaw’d my bonie
trees, “
That reptile wears a Ducal crown.

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