Maclean's

THE BATTLE FOR THE CHILDREN

Nobody won-but the children lost By JON RUDDY17 min

His thoughts:on leaving Canada on Ottawa cocktail parties on Gerda the national "identity" the writer's lonely craft clever civil servants dull politicians literary show-offfs and other sundry Canadian matters

12

NEW HUSTLE IN THE HOLY LAND

Crammed with new hotels, cars, and spruced-up shrines, this Christmas it becomes a tourist-agent's dream, featuring the biggest-ever pilgrimage of the pious and the curious By BLAIR FRASER10 min

36

MAILBAG

Out with it, Bobby! / Howe now

24

If Houdini could do it, Levinson can do it

Escape from chains and sealed bays, predict the future... you name it, it's a piece of cake for this young Montreal businessman and part-time magician. His secret? (Are you ready?) The Master talks to him from the grave By Fred C. Johnson8 min

20

A SURPRISING SECOND LOOK AT THOSE "FACTS"ABOUT CANCER AND SMOKING

Doctors cite statistics to "prove" tobacco may kill you. But C. Harcourt Kitchin, author of the widely discussed You May Smoke; takes a hard look at these figures—and finds they tell a different story

18

Nightcap

THERE IS THIS prostitute being interviewed about inflation. “Well,” she confides, leaning against her lamppost. “It is getting harder to make ends meet.” Dissolve to: Scottish-castle horror movie starring Brigadoon Simpleton, “the village girl who goes out in any heather," and the evil Arturo Slime, "a retired Spanish flyer.” By Sandra Peredo8 min

12

HAROLD TOWN CREATES THE CONNOISSEUR'S CHRISTMAS TREE Here’s the scene when a famous artist grapples with a grand old custom. His secrets? Next page

IT’S ONE OF THOSE devastatingly crisp December mornings in Toronto’s Rosedale Ravine, and here comes this tall, lean man dressed in a military fieldjacket and a deerstalker cap, scudding along through the woods talking — that’s right talking — to the trees. By MARJORIE HARRIS7 min

44

MACLEAN’S REVIEWS

SAY, JUST WHAT DID HAPPEN TO JUST MARY?

WHEN PARENTS who were growing up during World War II go shopping for children’s books this Christmas they’ll find a whole new literature at their disposal — nursery tested and psychologically sound. There are no Grimm fairies or traumatic dragons in this crop. By SANDRA PEREDO5 min

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ARGUMENT

German-born Peter Lust warns that Hitler’s ghost still haunts Western Germany. He predicts the Nazis will be back in power in seven years By PETER LUST5 min