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THE HERALD OUTLOOK Saturday November 25 1989 Page Book review Morningside radio show works on paper By EX BARKIS Regular listeners to CBC Radios have become familiar over the past five years with the warm and perceptive reports of Stuart McLean who has a knack for finding fascinating people and talking about them in an appealing way Some 30 of these pieces have been translated into print and assembled into the Momingside World of Stuart McLean Viking pages 95 and the best news is that for the most part the transference from sound to reading matter works McLean s listeners may be startled to leam that his weekly conversations with host Peter Gzowski are more or less scripted because McLean had long since mastered the art of getting the words off the paper so that they sound impromptu Also the easy receptive manner of Gzowski adds Grey Lady still preys Continued from Page one murder no one knows to this day how many victims there were estimates range from to 30 and he died on the scaffold in January 1829 Hare went to England and Burke s body was given over to the students for dissection His is a the Medical School ghoulish exhibit for anyone interested A small purse made from his skin was recently sold at an auction for a good sum our Caches tour guide v as the Leaving Edinburgh and its gruesome tales we find a coun tryside supplied with ghosts Glamis Castle mentioned last week in this series hosts no less than nine ghosts The most famous is Lady Jane Douglas who as the beautiful widow of a late Lord of he castle was courted unsuc by William Lyon He later accused her of trying to kill King James V by poison and sorcery She was brutally tortured until she confessed and in July 1537 she was burned on Castle Hill m front of her son and second hus band who were being held prisoner in the tower nearby She is now known as the Grey Lady and has been seen praying in the lovely little chapel in the Cas tie The Queen Mothers sisters have seen her although the Queen Mother has not and is said to be quite envious There is also the legend of Earl Beardie who played cards with the Devil on a Sabbath morning and was walled in for his pains The room has not been open ed for several On Skye near Come ghostly soldiers in kilts have been seen on a spot known as the Bloody Stone where the MacLeods and fought i vicious bat tie 300 years ago Another Skye phenomenon is a phantom car a Austin that careens around the roads a driver How about Castle in Perthshire where the up per half of a woman has frequently been sighted The graveyard in the park houses the lower half A long ago supposedly murdered his wife and cut her in two and was in the process of the bits when he died either of shock or murder At Castle Douglas in there is a bridge on the Kelton road where the cries of murdered baby buried there can be heard Around Carleton Castle in Lendalfool cries and screams can be heard It seems a baron kill ed seven wives by throwing them over a nearby cliff but wife number eight managed to get him first And of course there s always Scotland s number one mystery the Lock Ness Monster There are mary tales like this to be found seen heard and shivered over Scotland Those of us living in a country so short on history especially supernatural history can be forgiven our fascination with these ghastly stones No one can promise that you will see or hear any of these tions but there s always the chance And don t we all want a lit tie shiver down our spine now and then Happy hunting PAMPER YOURSELF With Facials Centre 877 1924 MOLLY MAID Your Dependable Home Cleaning Service Specializing in House Cleaning For Particular People CALL US FOR A TE or 8731386 TEACHERS SUMMER OPPORTUNITY Are you well organized Enthusiastic and resourceful Do you enjoy meeting people Do you have ESL experience If the answer is YES International Student Exchange Programs wants you I is looking for a Program Co ordinator for a day Homestay and Language Program in your community this summer for a group of teenage students from Mexico Base compensation is 500 US Dollars Responsibilities include Recruitment and screening of Host Families organizing and chaperoning field trips curriculum development and planning a Welcoming and a Farewell Party If you are interested please call 8003613214 toll free to the feeling of spontaneity But McLean is enough of a professional that he goes into the studio well prepared with quite detailed in formation and the resulting reports have justifiably become among the Monday morning highlights of But for those who are not familiar with his radio work what McLean has done is revise slightly his broadcast formula committing to paper all the information con in those verbal reports without jeopardizing the informah of his radio style And valuable though Gzowski is to the success of the radio version his absence in the printed version in no way diminishes its value On the air Gzowski serves as a combination audience and cheering section for McLean reacting with wonder or delight at the results of McLean s pursuit of this or that arcane topic In print McLean works alont eliminating the middleman com municating directlj with the reader and somehow he seems more confident that his message is getting across He right it is What makes McLean s appeal so is his natural curiosity the innate curiosity of a good jour He is interested in people and their pursuits from a woman who is a country pedlar to high school teacher ho ers newspapers early each morning from two old friends who walk around sandy beaches pushing metal detectors to an Ontario that started flag making business POIGNANCY To get these stones McLean wanders about Canada with his tape recorder and his radio reports usually include the taped voices of he people on whose activities he is focussing The excerpts however brief often add both authenticity and poignancy to McLean s pieces So it is with the printed versions The story about the two old timers who comb beaches for lost jewelry or coins Is titled Something About Buried Treasure It includes this quote from one of the men which is kind of treasure in itself I 74 you know but don t fee my age I figure as long as you ve got something active to do like a good hobby you re okay In the spring summer and fall I alive because of this hobby In the winter I die I terspersed with these word portraits of interesting people are some of McLean own musings on a of topics from his nostalgia about old fashioned rub ber boots to The Shocking Truth About Household Dust He can become almost rhapsodic about the art of shovelling snow and he can make you appreciate his own enthusiasm for visiting an old fashioned hardware store Bui mostly it is his boundless in in people and the work they do that makes the Stuart McLean book so enjoyable He finds romance in the manufacture of wooden pencils in the attractions of barber shops in the history of the and he popsicle He has cunositv to wonder what it like to a construction crane the courage to attempt it and the honest to admit his failure One cannot help but be impress ed by the range of his interests A baseball addict he explores and explains the in which ground skeepers can effect the fortunes of the teams thev serve A dedicated defender of things past as opposed to things present although his age sings the praises of Meccano metal toys as against todays plastic building toys NOSE He also has the reporters nose for the unusual He sets up a monopoly game with the man who is regarded as the best monopoly player in Canada He joins a milkman on his early morning rounds He observes and reports on the competition between two hot dog vendors outside Institute in Toron to where McLean teaches broad cast journalism He listens to the story of a woman alcoholic at the Scott Mission and the skaters at a roller rink reunion Apart from his natural curiosity and his acquired skills what makes McLean a successful jour on air or in print is his compassion He often finds humor in the world around him but he does not laugh at the people he writes about As you go through his book you mav verv well decide that you have found quite early on your favorite in it But you will change your mind again and again as another slory and yet another succeeds previous favorites A reader can hardlv ask more of any collection of light essays B arris is the author of several books on films and televi is only somewhere around he RECYCLING II if pari Please Remember to Recycle This Newspaper GRAND OPENING All This Week Nov 20th to 25th system weight loss centres GRAND OPENING SPECIAL All The Weight You Want To Lose ONLY We Succeed Where Diets Fall You We Provide Satisfying and delicious meals without calorie counting Maintenance for continued success Professional individual supervision Guaranteed weight loss CALL TODAY FOR A FREE NO OBLIGATION CONSULTATION I lost and gained a new Image Schroeder Client CALL Guelph St Georgetown In The Georgetown Marketplace 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