April 17, 1978

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Interview

Melvin Kaminsky, better known to his legion of fans as Mel Brooks, has been making people laugh for 51 years, from his first da-da-ba-ga-ba-ba at four months to his recent Hitchcockian film spoof, High Anxiety. Although Brooks is hard put to explain the source of his comic genius (even after six years in psychoanalysis), he remains one of North America’s most durable and funniest comedians. By Mel Brooks13 min

Letters

What Canadians don’t know does hurt them

I feel upset that no mention is made of the fact that five Canadian films were nominated for the Oscars, in the cover story by David Cobb, They Have Faces Again! (March 20). The National Film Board is recognized as one of the best short-film makers in the world, except perhaps by Canadians.

Showbusiness

All About Craig

Craig Russell is crying in the Montreal afternoon. He holds a crumpled newspaper review of the previous night’s performance in his right hand, offering his left in greeting and lightly brushes his lips across my cheek. “Please,” he says, gesturing toward a chair piled high with Judy Garland records in his suite at the Chateau Champlain hotel. By TOM HOPKINS8 min

And now here’s the sports news (except for anything that would offend anybody)'

When this year’s National Newspaper Awards were given out on April 8, there was one moment that should have been of particular interest to the very chummy, very tight little world of Canadian sports. Ironically, it had nothing to do with the award that went to the Montreal Gazette's Brodie Snyder and Dick Bacon for sportswriting. By Roy MacGregor5 min

The Referendum Debate

Quebec’s ‘freedom’ is a vital concern, but freedom itself is that and more

In the Canadian unity debate, what is beginning to concern me greatly is the question of civil liberties and civil rights. We now discover that the Security Service of the RCMP has been carrying out, for some years, a host of illegal activities. By Margaret Laurence5 min

The people who throw stones are about to be moved into glass houses

For all the navel-gazing and literary justifications done by the inmates themselves—all those crooked lawyers involved in the most analyzed election in history—quite the most interesting book on Richard Nixon’s 1972 victory had little to do with politicians. By Allan Fotheringham5 min

Lifestyles

How to talk stupid and influence people

It came to Archimedes in his bath, but Boston writer Richard D. Rosen was in a bar when the insight loomed before him, large as the proverbial pink elephant. The young lady drinking with him set it off. “I’ve really been getting in touch with myself lately,” she confided. By KASPARS DZEGUZE4 min

April 31978