Maclean's

Cover Story

The days of judgment

Close contacts described him as a “Hamlet figure”—and there was more than a hint of tragedy about the Shah’s indecision in the face of the ignominious options left him last week. For he faced them alone. In the crunch, the U.S. advisers who had helped him rule with despotic power for more than a quarter of a century were silent when it came to choosing whether to stay in Iran or leave.

48

Books

Poetry: capsule comments on Canada

They make relatively little money. Their children, wives or husbands are supported on the tenuous stints they wangle as writers-in-residence at universities or the proceeds of onenight stands in basement halls. One of their works may become part of a school’s required curriculum and, suddenly, they know the small financial caress (perhaps $5,000 a year) that steady royalty cheques can bring. By Barbara Amiel8 min

6

Frontlines

To see a world in the grain of wood

Luciano Direnzo’s workshop is about the size of a modern, two-car garage. All similarity ends there. The frame, wooden building and all that it contains, from the foot-powered lathe to the rows of moulding planes and carving chisels lining the rough, pine walls, is a throwback to the 19th century; and so is the man who works there. By John Plaskett5 min

34

People

On the off chance that all work and no play might make a dull boy out of even a flamboyant head of state, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau spent a few leisurely days in Runaway Bay, Jamaica, last week, following a summit meeting with six other world leaders to discuss economic order. By Jane O’Hara5 min

14

Canadian News

The once and future King

While couples kissed to the tune of Auld Lang Syne and church bells chimed in the New Year of 1948, William Lyon Mackenzie King, 73, soon to retire as prime minister, lay asleep in his bed at Laurier House. That winter night in Ottawa “Willie” had a dream. By Julianne Labreche5 min

44

Law

Southern sheriffs: less misbehaven’

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA — Sheriff James G. Beck Jr. is built like a barrel with arms like hams and a balding bull head. He carries a little aluminum alloy .38 on his right hip and keeps a long silver .44 magnum in the office. Folks don’t mess with big Jim Beck. By William Lowther5 min

8

Frontlines

When the oil machine rolls into town

A classic 1960s confrontation is being played out these days in Northern Alberta, pitting the birds and bunnies people (the environmentalists) against a seemingly insensitive multinational corporation (in this case, Esso Resources Canada Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Imperial Oil Ltd., Canadian offshoot of Exxon Corp.). By Wayne Skene4 min

16

Canadian News

The verdict that left a mystery

Canada’s longest and strangest kidnapping-extortion case brought a conviction last week, but it was a verdict that left more questions unanswered than it resolved. Claude Valence was found guilty of attempting to extort $l-million ransom from the employers of Charles Marion, loans manager of a Sherbrooke Caisse Populaire. By Janet Cotton4 min

‘With one ear protected by the warm left breast of his versatile secretary...'

52

Column

‘With one ear protected by the warm left breast of his versatile secretary...'

One April evening in 1968 in the Otdays after Martin Luther King was shot and the night they decided to burn down Detroit—I witnessed one of the more astonishing sights of my youthful malehood. The sight was Judy LaMarsh, in thigh-high plastic boots, appearing in the Paul Hellyer cheering section in the fight for the Liberal leadership. By Allan Fotheringham4 min

Elementary, my dear Watson, especially if you pay writers for decent scripts

46

Column

Elementary, my dear Watson, especially if you pay writers for decent scripts

The corpse bobs face down on the oozy waters of a swamp, as though peering below where, murk-bound, ancestral fish flit. Revolving like bloated sea wrack, the body turns in a grisly slow-motion reel of death. Minnows nibble, then dart from the gaping mouth. By William Casselman4 min