Maclean's

Cover Story

THE NEW BELIEVERS

It stirs memories of penumbral chapels and candlelit visions. The image, imprinted like a photograph on a long piece of linen, is a brownish hue. The face is that of the icons, the holy pictures tucked in purses, the marble statues half-hidden in vaulted niches. By Angela Ferrante12 min

18

World News

Jimmy starts his two-year stump

President Jimmy Carter’s list of New Year’s resolutions reads like the battle plan for Balaclava. There are cannons to the right and to the left of him so he will need to be especially nimble as he charges down the middle toward his elusive objective—re-election in 1980. By William Lowther6 min

24

People

The bump and grind was for charity and even though Bach’s Air on a G-Striny wasn’t played for the occasion, the event was designed to give a classier image to Montreal’s strippers and raise money for crippled children. Called a Celebration of Nudity, 43 Montreal strippers donated their time, took off their clothes, flogged their underwear and passed a tin cup amid patrons last week to raise money for Montreal’s Children’s Hospital Tiny Tim Fund. By Jane O’Hara5 min

42

Music

Face to face with the ghost of country

There was no mistaking the pedigree: Hank Williams: The Show He Never Gave was a thoroughbred all the way. Having opened at the Beacon Arms Hotel in Ottawa in November, 1977, it eased on down the road to the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto and stood the town on its ear. By Wayne Grigsby5 min

4

Frontlines

Culture on the rock

When the four members of The Wonderful Grand Band recorded their first album this year—a mix of traditional Newfoundland jigs and reels and their own songs—they worked at Clode Sound Studios in Stephenville, Newfoundland. The facilities were basic (“Do another take, boys, there’s a plane landing in the driveway”) but the choice of an eight-track local studio over a 24-track Toronto outfit was typical of many other high-calibre Newfoundland performers. By Robert Plaskin5 min

6

Frontlines

A brand-new, improved ‘rafshooned’ president

Among Washington’s power elite the darkly handsome Gerald Rafshoon is known as “Rasputin.” In a way it is justified, for he has been given complete and ruthless control of President Jimmy Carter’s public image. Inevitably that has meant tinkering with policy. By William Lowther5 min

They shall be known by the scars of torture

36

Justice

They shall be known by the scars of torture

The call came from a hotel near Toronto International Airport where visitors to Canada who are suspected of being illegal immigrants are detained. “There’s a man here who needs help,” said the voice. “He’s a refugee from Chile, and I think he might have been tortured. By Judy Dobbie4 min

A whole new dimension to Western hospitality

10

Frontlines

A whole new dimension to Western hospitality

Vancouver restaurant owner Umberto Menghi and two of his restaurateur cronies wanted to get in a little hunting in the mountains. They drove to an isolated wilderness camp and began to unload provisions for a four-day stay. Before the widening eyes of their guide they produced two hams, a leg of lamb, two sirloin strips, cold lobster, coffee beans, a grinder and drip unit, cognac, nine cases of wine and stemware to drink it in. Unfortunately their quivering pack horse couldn’t carry it all so they were forced to lug the balance of the grande bouffe to a cabin at 11,000 feet. By Thomas Hopkins4 min

Lifting the veil on centuries of mystery and awe

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Cover Story

Lifting the veil on centuries of mystery and awe

The Shroud of Turin, once described by Pope Paul VI as “the most important relic in the history of Christianity,” is without doubt its most defiantly mystifying. For skeptics, the eerily faint image of a crucified man on an aged linen cloth is just one more artful bit of merchandise from the medieval religious trade that produced hundreds of splinters from the cross of Jesus and countless thorns from his crown. By Angela Ferrante4 min

40

This was the year the future began to unfold, an Invisible Man become visible

The press release invited me to an evening at Toronto’s Ryerson Polytechnical Institute to celebrate the publication of a booklet titled Taking What ’s Ours. The booklet, sponsored by an inter-church group “to promote social justice in Canada,” is a guidebook to help women on welfare get (a) wages from the government for doing their own housework, (b) more welfare, and (c) additional wages for going to college. By Barbara Amiel4 min