FUNDS NEEDED TO IDENTIFY DEEPLY HIDDEN CANCERS
PET PEOPLE: An embroidered cushion in Hanna Hoyos-Molnar’s Shaughnessy living room reads: “Money isn’t everything but it sure keeps the kids in touch.” Two million dollars’ worth of it would also help keep kids alive. Adults, too. That sum is needed to upgrade a decadeold PET/CT scanner, a high-tech cancer-diagnostic device “that is a really critical tool,” according to B.C. Cancer medical oncologist Sharlene Gill. Gill was addressing donors who will backstop the B.C. Cancer Foundation’s Hope Couture fundraising luncheon on Sept. 18. Forgive the personal aside, but a then-rare PET (positron emission tomography) scan in 2003 showed that an esophageal tumour I had developed had not metastasized. Doing so would have guaranteed my death. That welcome diagnosis cleared the way for treatment. Gill prescribed chemotherapy. Dr. John Hay ordered radiation. And surgeon John Yee eventually removed the tumour they had killed. A pet dog may be one’s best friend, but a “clear” PET scan of cancer’s tiny details is even better.
SPIRIT MOVED: Supporters of the June 22-24 Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival gathered recently at Concord Pacific Place. The Legacy Gala held there recognized the annual racing series’ 1986 origins and its late co-founder, Milton Wong. The financial-management firm boss established the Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival Society in 1988, and succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2011. His widow, Fei, attended the gala along with nephew Peter K. Wong, who is the society’s chair. Fei recalled the family racing as a team named Paddlin’ The Wong Way. “We weren’t very competitive,” she said. Then, reflecting on a more characteristic Wong way, “But we had spirit.”
FISH STORY: Nathan Wong boarded the dinner-and-sightseeing cruiser Pacific Yacht recently to promote the 12th annual B.C. Seafood Festival he’s produced since 2014. The June 8-17 festival will be in the Comox Valley. Global chefs are expected, and city restaurateurs Tojo Hidekazu and Pino Posteraro will judge a $5,000 prize event. There will also be a sold-out, all-female-chef-and-bartender dinner for 400 at Filbert Heritage Lodge. “I called 13, expected eight, and they’re all coming.” Fong said. He’s good at that. In 2003, Fong founded the Scotiabank Passions gala to benefit the Dr. Peter Centre, and has had top city restaurants send their kitchen squads ever since.
THE PAUSE THAT RELAXES: How long before Coca-Cola brings us the booze-spiked “chu-hi” fruit beverages it has launched in Japan?
BATON PRACTISED: “I’m the oldest and she’s the youngest,” Vancouver Chamber Choir conductor Jon Washburn said as mezzo-soprano Dinah Ayre sang Benjamin Britten’s Tell Me The Truth About Love at the choristers’ annual Divertimento dinner-concert. The work reflected attendees’ opinion of Washburn, who’ll retire in 2019. Meanwhile, he and the choir will tour Ontario in July, then pack throat lozenges for a February performing whirl from Alberta to Newfoundland. Washburn’s swan song will be at a Chan Centre concert on July 6, which he and the choir will end with Canadian composer Murray Shafer’s The Love That Moves The Universe.
FEET AND INCHES: Polaroid OneStep 2 cameras churned out 10.8-by-8.9-centimetre photos of attendees at the opening of South Granville’s Grail sneaker store. Such “instant” cameras almost vanished with the rise of digital photography. But they flashed and whirred at Grail because CEO Bill Jordan’s 11-year-old daughter Kate calls them “retro and cool.” He’s likely happier when shoppers say the same for the store’s New Balance 247 and Endavour Voile Blanche sneakers at $160 and $280 a pair.
SAY CHEESY: With phone-camera advertisements bamboozling buyers that they’ll “shoot like a pro,” maybe keyboard manufacturers will claim their products automatically turn out bestselling novels.
STILL ON FIRE: Two decades ago, painter Ross Penhall’s landscapes were bright as the flames he doused as a West Vancouver firefighter. His rows of trees suggested cotton candy. Green predominated, not least in the large sums collectors soon paid for his works. Other than the sustained prices, it’s a different scene today. Penhall’s recent exhibition at Gallery Jones still features landscapes, albeit darker and moodier. Mist and rain-heavy clouds dominate such works as a large canvas of Indian Arm’s northern reaches that would have kayakers checking their rain gear.
COMING ATTRACTIONS: Look out for the Architecture and Design Film Festival now being funded.
TOLLED YOU SO: Mobility Pricing Independent Commission vicechair Joy MacPhail’s living room overlooks a once-public thoroughfare that cars can’t access at any price. It’s the eight-block Mobility Pricing Independent Commissioner Joy MacPhail and James Shavick’s home overlooks a street where car mobility is banned. stretch of Point Grey Road that city hall closed in 2014 to all but residents and cyclists. With his now-insulated mansion there assessed at $78.8 million, Chip Wilson and other waterfront homeowners face hefty hits from the NDP government’s “school tax.” That exaction would likely have nettled ocean-sider and former NDP attorney general Alex Macdonald had he lived.
DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Taxpayers may weigh whether $4.5 billion for an established enterprise is less prudent than a half-billion for fast ferries.
A pet dog may be one’s best friend, but a ‘clear’ PET scan of cancer’s tiny details is even better.