The lorth Shore Mews Is poblished try Mert Shore Free Press Ltd, Polisher Pater Speck, from 1139 Lonséste Aveoue Be Publisher 985-2131 (101) 905-2131 ‘Maples ley & Roa! Estate Fax Accoretiag & Main Office Fax Michael Backsr-Hews Editor 885-2131 (114): 805-2128 (147) Freres ie Lejifers must include your name, full : ‘address & talephone number. - -ViA intemet: trenshaw @ direct.ca ~ COMPUTER B8S - 969-8027 . ircutation, Wednesday, Friday #. Suritay) Entire contente © 1997 North Share Free Press Lid. All rights reserved. oe ‘ SRE RN Ra HE devaluation of racism as a meaningful term continues apace. It is already used routinely to describe virtually anything a person of right-wing sentiments says or writes. As if that were not cnough to render it almost meaningless, it is now being forced into service as a term to describe actions taken by one group against another in almost any issue. The most recent example is taxi safe- ty checks. ; The provincial government ha: rightly embarked on a program to crack down on unsafe cabs in B.C., most of which are in the Vancouver area. cent A SLIGHT . PARENTAL SUPPORT FOR EXTENDED SCHOOL HOURS — ‘Some heavy applause for light opera BURDENED as I am with the task of advising mankind on how better to conduct its affairs, and gently pointing - out ways in which governance can be improved, even here in Greater ‘ Tiddlycove, the Eye of Paradise, I seldom ar entertained. - I spend my life among my dusty tomes and papers. _ Well may you won- der how I have managed to have five children (and gencrously distributed among three different mothers at that). I do too. In fact I don’t remember a thing. . But in recent months my good wife and I have staged a mini-revolution. We decided there should be more to life than Ken's excellent take- out Chinese food on Saturday nights. (‘The truth discovered: There isn’t. Not much more. But it makes for a livelier diary than whether we had . shrimp-fried or chicken-fried rice that night.) We have witnessed operas, plays, ballet and other incursions into the land of make-believe such as Canucks’ hockey and Grizzlies’ basketball. And hast weekend — Friday, to be sure, so that we got culture and Ken's fried rice on Saturday — my wife and I attended the opening perfor- mance of the North Shore Light Opera Socicty’s The Gondoliers at North Vancouver Centennial Theatre. And a milestone it was: NSLOS's 50th annual production. ?’'m ashamed that, after a dozen years living on the Vancouver Riviera, 'd never seen an NSLOS performance. Such is my loyalty to those dusty tomes and papers and Ken's Taxi stop The program calls for taxis to be tested in ICBC garages and their dri- vers’ permits and licences examined at the same time. Good move, right citizens? A moth- erhood issue if ever there was one. Safe cabs with knowledgeable drivers should be de rigueur across the land. Objections from the cab industry and cab drivers, however, were immedi- ate. Inconvenient, they said. A waste of time. And then the catch-all label for any- thing perceived to be nasty or distaste- ful: Racist. i] § MISUADERSTANDING RESULTS IN cuisine. Never again will I let duty, or even the gratification of egg foo young, Buddha’s Feast, or House Special chow mein, stand in the way of such a delight. Thank you, Roger Nelson, president of the executive committee; producer Sherry Bryant- Herlos; artistic director Rob Santo; musical direc- tor David Millard, and stage manager Mike Millard. You have widened my horizons — from West Vancouver to North Vancouver. Next week, the world, (The week after that Surrey.) But of course, thanks mostly to the cast. (Amateur critics are allowed to thank amateur casts, That is one of the benefits of amateurism. It would be very unprofessional of professional critics to thank professional casts, since they’re only doing their jobs. You don’t thank your baker for his buns, do you? Well maybe depending on whether he’s got good buns, I suppuse.) But back ro my column. It really warms the heart and gives an added dimension to the evening that these performers are our own North Shore neighbors. It is astonishing that they find the time to accomplish this. How did they devel- op such voices? And such quick tongues? The librettist W.S. Gilbert, expected a Jot from his audience of a century ago: equally quick ears, and quick minds to catch the then-current allusions, marched swiftly along by the music of Sir Arthur Sullivan. Some enthusiasts believe The Gondalicrs was the best collaboration of Gilbert and Sullivan. The two names go together like jam and peanut butter on French bread, but, as my well-informed readers know, they and their producer, Sir Richard D’Oyly Cart, quarreled a lot — arbitrat- ed by Richard's wife, Helen, who deserves more than a walk-on part in the G&S chronicles. The Gondolicrs followed and preceded two such quarrels, and when the collaborators got OTRAS ESSN TAL WE That’s right. The .government, too often a blun- dering bureaucratic beast generating red tape and inefficiency, wants to establish a good, clean, safe cab indus- try to service the province and that effort becomes racist. B.C. citizens want to be able to get into a taxi anywhere in the province and be assured that the vehicle is at least structurally safe and that its driver can drive and knows at least somewhat where he or she is going. That is hardly too much to ask and it is hardly racist. Whatever the word means today. maibox Dear Editor: a oo I've been ‘on-line since. August’ 1995. ae - The one constant in my réading . habits has been routincly.down- | - loading the pair.of Doug Collins’ .° articles thar come With with every ° new posting of the North Shore News. cag OB ae In terms of reader satisfaction, Mr. Collins is batting 1,000 in my ~ records book:: rn If 1 wasn’t always very ‘richly ..- informed by. his ‘articles; at least. I: . can say I was entertained by the Keep him on, by all ‘means. Tens of thousands of , readers,’ like me, will be eternally grateful to the North Shore News.” He’s a onc. of a kind, ‘after all. When they made Doug: Collins, they broke the mold. 2 0-)" Orest Slepokura’ 0, slepokuco@cadvision.com —*, back together after sulking, for three years never regained their old magic. ee History records one of the splendid mom of peace between them. When Gilbert wrote Sullivan the morning after the operetta’s debut in’, 1889: “I must thank you for the magnifice: work you have put into the piece. It givés onc the: chance of shining right through the 20th century with a reflected light.” ; whey eta Sullivan warmly replied: “Don’t talk of reflect ed light. In such a perfect book as The Gondoliers you shone with an individual brilliancy which no”: other writer can hope to attain.” ©, And that light has indeed shone through th 20th century. Go see. (Performances continue. tonight, tomorrow night, and next Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.) Jt would be ‘invidi ous to single out some performers for special mention. But I will invid anyway. In brief: Love interest provided by Leanne Page as ... Gianetta and Shannon Sterling as Tessa, and Adam. Kozak as Marco and Larry Doan as Guiseppe: Good singing, light-hearted fun. _ Outstanding comic turn: Mitchell Mackay.as-, the bloated, slug-like Duke of Plazo-Toro (and Mackay was dreadfully sick and ghastly white under his white makeup on opening night.) Catch his hilarious aside about the Internet and the North Shore News. es Most polished moments: When Mackay and his stage wife and daughter on stage. Daughter, played by Mary Marter-Williams: Lovely voice. Wife, played by Irene Leviton: Best lungs. And she sings too. Oops. Did I say something naughty? _... — The North Shore News believes strongly in free dom of speech and the vight of all sides in a deba to be heard. The columnists published in the New! present differing points of view, but those views a not necessarily those of the newspaper itself.