The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 47

he sun THIRD SECTION LIVELY ARTS, LIVING TODAY VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, THURSDAY, MAY 13, 1971 47 Bob HUNTER He had this strange smile an his face. He hardly ever said anything, but the smile was always there a sort of a Mona Lisa smile, except more in- Angry mayors hit prison plan ten se as though was barely holding back an insane fit of laugh-, tag. You got the feeling that if he ever lost control of himself and let that laugh come bubbling and spurting and rumbling out it would be like an avalanche that would never end. He would laugh himself to death. Laugh and laugh until he either died of starvation (you can't eat while you're laughing) or until he finally turned inside out.

He'd be lying there, limp as a warm wet noodle, with belches of laughter shuddering through him like birth contractions. He was always on this verge of this final, total upheaval of laughter. Whenever he was around, I found myself holding back anything funny which I might want to say. I didn't want to be responsible for pushing him over the edge. Other people felt that way.

As a result, he hardly ever got invited to parties or even out to dinner. It was too much like having a bomb around that might explode if you nudged it. Well, what could you conclude? Either he had somehow profoundly damaged his mind or else he was in possession of some piece of knowledge so overwhelming that it could never be put into words only laughter could express it. prime land in Westminster for 80 years. "Sure they (the federal government) keep promising to do something about it, but I can't go to the bank with promises," Evers said.

"knd if they want these centres (small penal institutions) an ideal piece of property would be the British Properties. They have a nice view." Referring to a phone conversation Wednesday with Mission mayor Neville Cox, Evers said he and Cox may go to Ottawa in an attempt to get clarification of the government's intentions. "Maybe we'll embarrass the government into doing something for us out 'here," he said. Cox earlier charged the government with stalling and bad faith in its dealings with Mission. He said the district has installed sewer and water lines on the assumption the complex would be built.

"This is not the way to do business," Cox said. "It's frightfully frustrating because we haven't been consulted or informed of what's going on." Cox claimed Goyer was in Mission Saturday and at that time led Cox to believe there had been no change in the plans to put an institution on the site. "Now we hear he's abandoned the whole idea," Cox said, "he doesn't even tell us. "This upsets the planning of the whole community. We have to know soon what's going to happen.

What about our schools and hospitals? "The complex would have employed about 699 men and we'd have to provide for their families," Cox said. Sun Staff Reporter NEW WESTMINSTER The federal government can build small urban penal institutions anywhere it pleases except here. That was the word Wednesday from an irate Mayor Muni Evers. "We have zoning bylaws the federal government has to obey them, just like anyone else," Evers said. "We will do everything within our power to prevent these facilities from being constructed in New Westminster," he added.

Evers was commenting on a disclosure Tuesday by Solicitor-General Jean-Pierre Goyer that plans for an $18-million prison complex at Mission have been dropped in favor of a system of smaller institutions. Goyer said the Mission plan is being abandoned because of a growing feeling that large institutions are oppressive and hinder the integration of convicts into society. He told the annual meeting of the John Howard Society of B.C. that a group of penitentiary service officials and members of the Canadian Corrections Association is expected to submit an alternative plan in about six months. "This group will be investigating all aspects of prison design, and after its report we will initiate a final plan for prisons in B.C.

to meet the needs of our western region," Goyer told the meeting. Evers, however, said it is clear that Goyer has been "listening to the John Howard Society and other bleeding hearts." He claimed the B.C. Penitentiary has been taking up jp 1 River run-offs good only the snow from the higher elevations to run off. It won't be enough to swell over the banks of anything but small streams, he said, unless the hot spell continues to the point where it melts early, too. Minor flooding was repotred today in some parts of the North Okanagan and Shuswap regions.

Students from Celista and Chase were forced to stay home today because of flood-waters over the road between Ross Creek and Anglemont, 50 miles northwest of Salmon Arm. The creek had overflowed. Crews worked through the night at White Man's Creek to prevent its floodwaters from damaging summer homes in the Vernon area. The provincial water resources branch reports above normal snow packs on Vancouver Island, South Coastal, Lower Fraser and Similka-meen areas. A branch spokesman said no problems are expected unless the warm then cooler weather cycle Is broken with a prolonged hot spell.

Water survey officials are playing down the danger of major floods in B.C. this year, but admit that the wrong weather combination could cause problems. They say they are encouraged by the early hot spell that has started the melting process in the big mountain snow packs. Most rivers are higher than normal for this time of year, and the officials say that's good news, too. A Water Survey of Canada spokesman said Wednesday the Fraser River run-off is considerably higher than normal.

The Fraser River gauge at Hope indicated a level of 24 feet on Wednesday, four feet higher than normal for May 12. "The consensus is that it will be a good run-off year," he said. He said the danger of flooding arises when the run-off is delayed, and the snow at both low and high elevations melts at the same time. The early hot spell has melted much of the low-level snow, he explained, leaving Doncvan flpmsnn Photo JUST ONE TRAIN looks like three as it threads tortuous way ful locomotives haul long Paciiic Great Eastern freight train on through mountainous Fraser Canyon near Fountain. Six power- downgrade between Kelly Lake and Lillooet.

Soviet chess expert has three careers career if he wants to get into it. Never one to let a spare moment go by he made good use of his chess and councert tours to gather impressions of foreign countries. Several years ago he compiled them in a book entitled Encounters Abroad. One month after the first edition came out 30,000 copies had been sold. I wanted to join ahd I decided the chess room appealed to me "It was there that I came under the instruction of Mikhail Botvinnik, then chess champion of the U.S.S.R.

and later world champion for 11 years. "Even now I consider him a great authority and consulted him before I left on ways of tackling Fischer. "Fischer is one of the great chess players of the world so it has been a challenge and a pleasure preparing for him." Taimanov said in recent weeks he has been studying Fischer's style of play and personality. "After that it is just a matter of being rested and in good physical condition." Taimanov made little mention of it, but he has a third "HE'S CEAZ SOME people said. They were really bothered by him.

And I could understand it. But others insisted that he was a saint. At the very least. There was even a theory that he was the Reincarnation. He seemed to have a power lurking in him.

Then, one evening not long ago, he dropped in. As usual, he didn't say much. Just plunked himself down in the living room. We gave him a beer and continued to watch whatever TV program it was that we had been staring at. Finally, the commercial break came.

This is the time you usually talk to your guests, right? So I opened my mouth to say something to him something safely gloomy when I saw his face. The smile was gone. He was staring in horror at the TV. "Are you all right?" I asked I could feel the rage pouring off him in waves, as though a boulder had been dropped into the middle of his being. "What's the Haven't you ever seen a commercial?" He didn't answer until the commercials a string of four in a row were over Then he said, "No," and his voice was far away, like a man in shock.

"No, I never really realized what was going on in those things." He looked at us and his face was livid. "They're trying to poison our minds!" "Well, no kidding. You mean you just figured that out?" "That's evil!" he cried. And with that he jumped to his feet. He was transformed.

It was awful. I thought, oh, oh, here we go, he's finally snapped. He's going to freak out all over our living room. But all he did was become rigid. His complexion changed abruptly from red to pure white.

He was holding his breath. As though concentrating furiousl yon something. His eyes were closed. "HENCEFORTH," HE bellowed and his voice was gigantic, it filled the room, I had never heard such a loud voice "THIS EVILNESS WILL BE BANISHED FROM THE EARTH, FROM THIS HOUR NO ONE WILL BELIEVE ANY OF THESE POISONOUS THINGS! IN THE NAME OF THE WHOLE OF ALL BEING, BY LIGHT AND BY VIBRATIONS, I CAST THIS SPELL IT IS ENDED! DONE! NO MORE!" He looked down at us. We were sitting, frozen in alarm, our mouths hanging open, The smile came back.

Then It widened, like an egg cracking. And he started to laugh. He left. And went down the street howling with laughter, sending huge fits of laughter out into the night. He turned the corner and was gone, but we could still hear the laughter.

We haven't seen him since. Nobody has. And yet, you know, I've asked dozens of people since whether they still believe the commercials they see on television. They all say "No." Not a single person seems to believe commercials any more. Some say they used to, but they don't any longer.

I know that I don't believe any of them, at least not since that night. Strange. Allan POTHER INGHAM OTTAWA THERE IS THE POR- trait of a gentle, wistful scene hanging on the wall of the ninth floor of the National Press" Building where I bat out this priceless prose. It depicts the essence of a more gentle By ALEX VOLKOFF When Robert Fischer of the United States meets Mark Taimanov of the Soviet Union across the chess table here he will be facing more than a chess grandmaster. Besides being one of eight qualified for the quarter-finals of the world championships, Taimanov is also a professional concert pianfst and a successful author.

He and Fischer will play a 10-round match at the University of B.C. graduate centre, the first of the challengers' round matches. Winner of the series earns the right to play world champion Boris Spas-sky of the U.S.S.R. Perhaps the first noticeable difference between the two players is their At 28 Fischer is 17 years younger than Taimanov but the Russian does not see this as an advantage. "In a match of only 10 age doesn't make much of a difference," he said in an interview Tuesday.

"It's like a short-distance race. If it's a question of endurance perhaps it would be significant in a 25-g a match, but each age has its own advantage." Endurance is one thing Taimanov himself has never been short of. At the same time that he has been active in the chess world he has found time to write three volumes of an en-cyclopeida on chess openings, give 60 concerts per year with his piano-playing wife and bring out "about 10 long-playing albums" of piano duets. "Every year I spend five months giving concerts, five months travelling on chess tours and six months preparing for both. "I have no Idea how it all fits into one year, but somehow it does." He added he has always lived this way and cannot imagine any other tempo of life.

"I was writing the last volume of the encyclopedia during the U.S.S.R.-World match last April," he said. "All the other players would go back to the hotel to have dinner, rest, but I would go back and work on the book." Taimanov said he finds the combination of two professions complicates life but considers himself very fortunate at the same time. "Both of these professions really require total devotion and I am happy to be successful in both. "If I meet reverses in one I always have the other to fall back on. If you are a onesided person and meet a reverse the whole world falls apart." Taimanov started learning to play music before he started playing chess.

"I attended a special music school as a young child and it was there I met my wife (Lubov Bruk). We had the same instructor and it was his idea that we play pinao duets together. "Since then we invariably play together at concerts. "Wednesday my son graduated from the conservatory. He also studied with the same instructor.

Our happiest days are when we play three pianos together." His introduction to chess came indirectly from his in-v I in the music world. I was 10 years old I was the hero of a film called Beethoven Concerto. The story was about a gifted musical child and how he was being brought up. "Strangely enough I didn't play the piano in the film, but the violin." As payment for his role Taimanov received a grand piano. More important he became a child celebrity and received invitations to meet with many different groups.

"Once I was invited to a gathering of Pioneers just after the opening of the Palace of Pioneers. (Pioneers are the Russian equivalent of boy scouts.) "The palace was a place which provided the opportunity for young boys to exercise whatever talent they had. "I was asked which activity Week for aged The week of June 6 to 12 has been proclaimed Pioneer and Elderly Citizens' Week by Minister Without Portfolio Isabel Dawson. ill one Jonn Diei-e a strolling down Parliament Hill on a soft summer evening, grouped around him perhaps eight or 10 middle-aged correspondents resplendent in their flowing cuffs and sports heavyweights, George Bain and Mr. C.

Lynch, who have been particularly unenamored lately of Mr. Trudeau's lofty attitude toward the world and lesser objects. His idea of accountabilitytaping a controversial interview which he will not be here to defend is not admired greatly. It should be an interesting, cosy trip. Goodnight, George.

Goodnight, Charles. Goodnight, Peter. I MAY SEEM OBSESSED WITH this final subject but you must bear with me. The National Capital Commission, attempting to make something beautiful out of this dull little town, has cleared out the railway yards along the river and has created sweeping green vistas to carry the civil servants out to the suburbs. From my hotel window I look down upon this tremendous sweep of what I assume to be soil spreading across the green area.

I assume it is fill for a new hill-to-be. It is black, perhaps 150 yards long, some 40 yards wide, a good 20 feet high. Yesterday, in driving by, I am informed that it is snow, dumped there from the street cleanings and so impacted with dirt that It comes out as a South Wales coal tip. There are three such monstrosities I now see from the hotel window stretching along the river. Only Satan knows how many are tucked away in other corners of the city.

You cannot begin to understand Ottawa and the state of mind that governs Ottawa until you understand that these slag heaps of ice-compacted sludge 10 times as big as the monster that sank the Titanic will be melting slowly away and will not be completely gone until the end of June. Happy July 1. accepted the blame for high unemployment. And that he still believed Claude Ryan and buddies had wanted to take over the Quebec government. Safe and convenient, since he would be 35,000 feet aloft by the time the cryptic hit the fan.

However, Webster and that station on the Fraser, which ain't got no couth, were so rude as to release some actual evidence that the event had taken place. In this era of pre-recorded, pie-taped, pre-pretending that what has happened has not in fact happened, this was heresy. The PM's office, looking nervously toward the airport, was forced to release the entire tape of Himself's remarks and the Toronto and Montreal press (Ottawa has not yet awakened to the fact that yesterday was Wednesday) blatted it a)l over the front pages. Which leaves the CBC Sunday night with the greatest anti-climax since Robert Stanfield delivered the valedictory address at Halifax high. There are complications here.

The PM's aides are trying to stuff him aboard that plane for the Steppes pretending that he didn't say what he said since it isn't official until Those who live by the tape are destined to die by the tape. As it happens, the prime minister's press secretary, Romeo LeBlanc, is finally wearing down at the edges and is stepping out. He's not everyone's low-key cup of tea, but he does have the credentials of a career in CBC, news. The new man, his replacement, is Peter Roberts, who is out of external affairs, complete with that department's well-known gift for suffering fools. He will cut his teeth in interesting fashion.

Also on board the plane will be the two press gallery Who Diddled Mother Corporation. Mr, Trudeau, drifting along on the swell of his own ego, has ben increasingly reluctant to face the grubby minions of the press in full conflict. In fact, he has held fewer press conferences in the past eon than did that reluctant tiger Lester Pearson, never exactly a Georgie Jessel before the mike. What the current PM likes to do (and one sometimes wonders if he confuses current with eternal) is to bypass the accepted pipeline, short-circuit the system and rocket over the top, straight to the thinkboncs of the people. Such was the strategy leading up to his quick take-off for the Slavic Onion.

Last Friday he sitb-mitlod to an hour-long interview, wrestled to earth by J. Webster, Pierre Nadeau and two other spear carriers. The condition was that the interview would not be inflicted upon the public until Sunday night, on the CBC Weekend mind-crusher. Which was interesting since, as luck would have it, Mr. Trudeau and entourage of 21 (mit 40 press) would be taking off for Russia early Monday morning and would be safely off into the wild blue yonder, oblivious to flak and counter-fire over the interview.

THIS WAS VERY CONVENIENT since Mr. Trudeau, as it turns out, said some rather controversial things in that retroactive little interview. Such as the fact that he would do the War Measures Act all over again if he had the chance. And that he shirts, confident in the knowledge that they comprised the total inner group of the Ottawa press gallery who traded gossip, confidences and cabinet leaks with the chap who ran the country, more or less, Things were more straightforward (or illusory) in those' days not so long ago. Today there are 150 bodies accredited in the press gallery and if the PM is so foolish as to stroll through the grass, he's in danger of having his molars rearranged by the electronic devices of the teen-age hot-shots who have read one chapter of Marshall McLuhan and feel qualified to probe the national psyche.

So be it. Those of us flirting with the pension deadline are uncouth to complain, since the name of the game is changed and the chap who realizes it more than anyone is Trendy Trudy, king of the retroactive headline. BY EXAMPLE WE HAVE THE case of TopDog-by-the Fraser, or.