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The AIH Transcript for December 31, 2018

Hosts: Helen Mann and Jeff Douglas

Prologue

HELEN MANN: Hello I'm Helen Mann, sitting in for Carol Off.

JEFF DOUGLAS: Good evening. I'm Jeff Douglas. This is As It Happens.

[Music: Theme]

JD: Tonight...

HM: New Year's lack of resolution. After an election plagued with irregularities, voters in Congo anxiously await the first results -- and prepare to ring in a potentially turbulent year.

JD: No laughing matter. A popular Uighur comedian has gone missing in China -- and his family worries that authorities sent him to a re-education camp because of his Muslim faith.

HM: Snapping a cold one. A NASA spacecraft will celebrate the New Year in the distant reaches of our solar system photographing a mysterious frozen rock nicknamed "Ultima Thule.".

JD: Review-viewing that voodoo that he sued to quell. We celebrate the end of 2018 by revisiting past New Years on this program -- including a 1982 interview with a man who filed a lawsuit over a voodoo curse.

HM: We took a risk -- and it paid off anthemly. 20 years ago we gambled that you would be able to come up with a new version of "O Canada" -- and your changes to "we stand on guard" caught us off-guard.

JD: And...lapses of honour. Even As It Happens hosts sometimes make mistakes on air -- and tonight before the ball drops, we will hear how those hosts dropped the ball. As It Happens. The New Year's Eve edition. Until we're toast, this radio will keep raising one.

[Music: Theme]

Part 1: Family fears missing Uighur comedian taken to Chinese detention camp

Congo election follow-up

Guest: Tom Wilson

JD: There is celebration in Kinshasa tonight as revellers ring in the New Year. But there is also trepidation. There are still no official results out yet from Congo's presidential election. And Sunday's vote was marred with problems -- including massive delays at some polling stations like this one.

SOUNDCLIP

[Crowd noise]

JD: Some voters in Kinshasa, DRC on Sunday -- they described waiting in line for nine hours to cast a ballot. And there were also reports of broken voting machines and absent voter rolls. Not to mention the torrential rain. And today there was yet another hitch in the capital, no internet. We did however manage to reach Tom Wilson earlier today. He is a reporter for Financial Times in Kinshasa.

HM: Tom for much of the day there has been no internet connection in Kinshasa. What are we to make of that?

TOM WILSON: You're quite right. The government hasn't made any official statement yet but it is certainly true that all of the local telephone providers, the mobile Internet that comes along with that, seems to have been shut down. I mean what one argument of the government might make in its defence will be that this is to potentially help prevent the dissemination of fake results during this delicate time as the population waits -- however that argument is ultimately flawed and the election observation missions called on the government to reinstate internet connections to allow the population to continue to exchange information and follow the vote count process.

HM: You were crisscrossing the city yesterday visiting polling stations. What did you see there?

TW: On the one hand you have an electoral commission that has really lost all the public trust over the past two years due to successive election delays, paid decision making, and then finally the selection of electronic voting system to use in this vote for the time -- the population didn't understand and didn't feel comfortable using. Voters turned out in huge numbers in spite of heavy rains in the morning -- in incredibly difficult conditions -- sometimes for as long as six-seven hours to vote. At the end of the day when I was in voting stations as night fell, voters were still waiting there in the dark trying to squeeze their way into the voting stations as electoral officers tried to shut the doors. And so Congolese people really wanted to express their democratic right and there was a big outpouring of faith in democratic process -- on the one hand but then on the other this dichotomy that actually people's confidence in the electoral commission is going to run [inaudible] votes and that the outcome will be fair is very very low.

HM: You describe being at a polling station where voters weren't able to start casting their ballots until Sunday afternoon. Tell us about that.

TW: At 1:00 p.m. the voter registers that the actual officials need to tick off the voters when they come to vote still had not arrived so people have been waiting for six hours. And bear in mind that this is not a remote part of the country, this is a voting station which is about three miles from the electoral commissions headquarters -- and still had not been able to get [inaudible] simple sheets of paper delivered. And there was a similar story across other parts of the city where materials arrived late or were incomplete or the machines malfunctioned -- some voting machines ran out of charge too quickly. In one case at a voting station I was at -- the ballot paper that the voter presented into the machine and became jammed and that prevented voting happening in that voting station for about two hours. So there were definite problems right cross the city. And [inaudible] the frustration for Congolese voters was that more often than not, those problems occurred in areas where the opposition was likely to perform well.

HM: Well in fact one of those areas the opposition had expected to do well in was an area of the country where people who were not even permitted to vote ostensibly according to the government because of fears about Ebola but I understand many of those residents came out and voted anyway. How did they do that?

TW: The government decision relating to Beni and Butembo these two big eastern cities was really quite shocking. There was a decision last week to suspend the vote in those places. Three months -- they won't vote until March and as a result their votes will not count in the presidential election and about 1.2-million people have been disenfranchised as a consequence. And really in a fantastic display of public defiance and civic duty, voters in Beni turned out to vote anyway -- using the old election materials, old ballot boxes, and writing their papers by hand, posting them in the ballot boxes. Now that those votes won't count. But it was a great demonstration of Congolese democracy.

HM: On Friday we spoke to Martin Fayulu, the leading opposition candidate, and he told us despite the irregularities he still expected that he would win. Are he and his supporters are still as confident today?

TW: They're very confident. We have to take their confidence with a pinch of salt -- I mean the game right now in Congo if you're a major candidate is to kind of claim victory. So from all we can see from the vote tallies from individual polling stations is that Mr. Fayulu who has polled incredibly well and probably much better than many people might have suspected three months ago. There has been somewhat of a Fayulu phenomenon in this election which is the fact that he was a lesser known figure -- it meant that he really represented a vote for change and I think that is resonating with voters certainly in the capital Kinshasa.

HM: In past years we have seen violence there around election problems -- the electoral commission CENI has said it is not going to investigate any voting irregularities despite these reports of some problems. How do you think that will go over with the electorate if they're not happy with the result or if they're just not confident that this was indeed a free and fair election?

TW: When results are announced large sections of the electorate are going to be disappointed. If the electoral commission does announce a victory for the ruling party candidate that will be a real risk of violence in the major cities but also across the eastern part of the country where you still have this huge collection of different armed groups to control different parts of the territory there -- some of which have become increasingly politicised in the last few months. So I think that is really the big risk factor here -- and the risk of violence will suddenly escalate.

HM: We will be watching for those results along with everyone else. Thank you very much Tom Wilson for filling us in.

TW: Thanks a lot.

JD: Tom Wilson is a reporter for Financial Times in Kinshasa. And that is where we reached him.

[Music]

Uighur comedian missing

Guest: Arslan Hidayat

JD: Adil Mijit has not been seen since early November. Mr. Mijit is a high-profile comedian in China. He is also a Uighur Muslim -- and that is why his family is worried that he has been arrested and put into a detention camp. The Chinese government has been restricting religious freedoms in the north-eastern Xinjiang province where Mr. Mijit and many Uighurs live. Thousands have been rounded up for what Chinese officials call "re-education." But the learning they're subjected to is all done behind guard towers and barbed wire. Arslan Hidayat is Adil Mijit's son-in-law. We reached him in Istanbul.

HM: Mr. Hidayat tell us about your concerns for your father-in-law. How are you and your family coping right now?

ARSLAN HIDAYAT: With me, I'm not used to this sort of thing because I was born and raised in Australia. I grew up in a liberal society so to speak. So I don't get how these communist kind of system works. But it's really affecting my wife's, my mother-in-law's, and my brother-in-law's mental health. I mean my wife has just given birth. So on November 1 she gave birth -- the second day my father-in-law goes missing. And as the weeks go on the more that we don't hear from him I mean it's getting worse, especially for us. I mean he has a heart condition. Mid October he had just come out of a double bypass surgery and he was recovering in hospital for 70 days. And upon his release he was suspended from work from where he works at the Xinjiang Theatre Arts Company. And two weeks after that he's gone missing.

HM: So it has been almost two months then? What was your last communication with him? Did he say anything to cause you concern?

AH: Well the thing is for the past two years, I'm sure you're well aware, there are figures anywhere between 1 million to 5 million people now where recently they've been locken up for the past year or so. Locking up scholars. Locking up poets. Locking up the cultural figure heads of society. And so in mid-2017, my father he actually came to Istanbul for two weeks and he actually told us that he was if anything were happen to him he was prepared and he is mentally prepared and stuff -- but we told him why don't you just stay here? Leave everything and just stay here, if this is your concern. And he said no I can't. He felt guilty that he was going to leave his people. He goes, you know what the Uighur people are going through? At least let me be there to cheer them up one way or another. And so he went back knowingly that something could happen to him.

HM: How are you so certain that he has indeed been detained by the Chinese government -- are there possible other explanations?

AH: Well the thing is I won't mention any names but we have spoken to some people --again there is nothing official that has been sent by the Xinjiang authorities or the Chinese authorities and this is quite typical for a lot of the people -- I haven't heard of any official sentences of anybody. But we have seen his colleagues, again I won't mention those colleagues names: certain scholars, certain poets, the people around him have been in and it was just in our hearts we knew it was only a matter of time before they would take him as well.

HM: Have you spoken with anyone from the Xinjiang government or from the Chinese government about where he might be?

AH: So the only people that we've spoken to is his workplace -- they didn't mention their name and they said look you've got to speak to someone higher up and they wouldn't give us any information as to who we should speak to. We've gone to the Chinese consulate here in Istanbul, they wouldn't give us any answers. And when you mention things like to them concentration camp and internment camps they go 'what are you talking about? These things don't exist.'

HM: Give us a sense of your father-in-law's presence in China -- as a performer in the Uighur community and in China more broadly, how high profile is he?

AH: He's a very high profile. In the 80s he studied at the Central Academy of Arts. Most of today's Chinese stars study there and he's actually classmates with say the Hollywood equivalent of the top actors in China -- he knows, he's been in movies with them. And he's actually a representative of the Uighur people as well. Every year I think it's either yearly or once every two years, certain representatives of the minority cultures are sent to Beijing to kind of give a report or to give a speech of what's happening in their region -- so they'll get a couple of Uighurs, a couple of Mongols, a couple of Kazakhs, everyone. So he is actually not just a performer but he's actually at a stage where he represents the people at a national level.

HM: Are you worried that speaking out might be putting your father-in-law at even greater risk?

AH: How can I put this...There is always a risk. It's not just my father-in-law anymore. There are other family members. I mean for any we get to speak out in this manner, puts the rest of the family in danger as well. I mean the situation now is where do we as the Uighur people draw the line? Do we say -- I mean I know of people who have their whole family locked up in internment camps and they'll probably have one or two relatives outside of the camps and for the sake of those one or two relatives they will not speak up. If you're not going to speak up then when are you going to speak up? When the bodies are given to you? When they're cremated? Like when? So we've drawn the line. If I'm not mistaken we are actually probably the first to speak up in this manner. And I'm calling upon other people especially a lot of the other scholars and actors and singers who are locked up -- they have family here in Turkey. So I'm urging them to speak up. I'm saying we have to draw the line somewhere. We can't just keep remaining silent while they go and you know ethnically cleanse.

HM: Well Mr. Hidayat thank you very much for speaking so openly with us and I hope you find out what has happened to your father-in-law.

AH: Thank you so much.

HM: All right. Bye bye.

AH: Bye.

JD: Arslan Hidayat is Adil Mijit's son-in-law. We reached him in Istanbul. We did reach out to the Chinese embassy for comment on this story, we hadn't heard back by the time we went to air.

[Music]

New Horizons probe

Guest: Kirby Runyon

JD: Tonight in the wee hours of 2019 a little spacecraft will fly by the most distant world ever visited by a human creation. It is called Ultima Thule -- a space rock approximately 6.5-billion kilometres from here. And soon we will have photographs of that space rock transmitted back those billions of kilometres by the New Horizons mission. Kirby Runyon is part of the team behind NASA's New Horizons probe. We reached him at the mission's control centre of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Baltimore.

HM: Kirby Runyon what does it feel like knowing that New Horizons is within cosmic spitting distance of Ultima Thule?

KIRBY RUNYON: With New Horizons being so close to Ultima Thule it feels like I'm standing on the bow of a ship sailing into unknown waters. And every time we get a new image back from the New Horizon spacecraft and we see Ultima Thule looking just a little bit bigger, it just feels that much more exciting.

HM: For the layperson like me what is the significance of this flyby?

KR: The significance of New Horizons flyby of Ultima Thule is several. For one thing Ultima Thule represents a class of world that has never been explored before. It's a natural time capsule from the earliest time period of the solar system's history -- four and a half billion years ago, and it's never been warmer than a few degrees above absolute zero and so it's frozen in the early processes of when the solar system was so young. Also New Horizons flyby is the furthest planetary encounter ever by any spacecraft making Ultima Thule as of tonight the furthest explored object ever.

HM: So give us a sense of how deep into space New Horizons has traveled? It's almost mind boggling.

KR: Yeah indeed. So New Horizons flew past Pluto in 2015 after traveling 3 billion miles from the sun. And Ultima Thule is another billion miles beyond Pluto. So Pluto really does not represent the edge of the solar system as many people were taught growing up in school but rather marks the beginning of the third zone of the solar system beyond itself where we have hundreds of small Pluto sized planets and potentially billions of small Ultima Thule sized worlds.

HM: When it was launched did anyone even know where it was going and how far?

KR: When New Horizons was launched in 2006 we knew roughly where it was going mainly Pluto and that we would be going beyond Pluto -- but Ultima Thule wouldn't be discovered until 2014, eight years after New Horizons launched. Once Ultima Thule was discovered in 2014 we stayed on course for Pluto and then after Pluto we were able to just puff off a little bit from our rocket engine and alter our trajectory on the spacecraft just a little bit so that we could fly past New Horizons and as orbital mechanics would have it New Horizons was destined to rendezvous with Ultima Thule on New Year's Day.

HM: So this isn't as simple as taking a picture of a standing object from another standing object. How challenging is it going to be for New Horizons to get a picture of Ultima Thule?

KR: The New Horizons engineering team has really worked their magic in figuring out exactly how to precisely point the spacecraft so the New Horizons cameras will exactly centre Ultima Thule in the frame. This has not been easy at all. Just a few days ago what's called a knowledge update was sent to the spacecraft to help New Horizons figure out exactly how to point out as we fly past Ultima Thule at 14 kilometres per second from a distance of 3500 kilometres. So New Horizons looking at Ultima Thule is kind of like looking through a narrow coffee straw at an object a long ways away and absolutely centering exactly in the middle of that straw the thing you want to look at.

HM: If something starts to go slightly wrong it's not like you can send controls immediately from Earth either is it?

KR: That's correct. New Horizons is on her own. At this point she is operating from preprogram commands onboard her computer and she'll point herself exactly where she needs to point. And we're actually out of contact with the New Horizons spacecraft during this time and that's actually good because the spacecraft can concentrate on pointing its instruments at Ultima and once New Horizons has past Ultima then she'll turn her radio dish back towards Earth and start transmitting back the data. And in fact Ultima is so far away it takes a radio signal six hours to go that distance between Earth and Ultima and so even if something did go wrong the team would not be able to respond in any timely fashion.

HM: When are you going to see those first images?

KR: The first images will be received on the ground from New Horizons on the January 1st right around 6:00 p.m. eastern time -- it will become publicly available sometime in the afternoon of January 2nd. And because the spacecraft is so far from Earth it'll take 20 months to get all the data back. So actually we'll get some of our highest resolution views of Ultima back at the end of February but we'll have some really mouthwateringly good images to look at on January 2nd and 3rd.

HM: Wow! So what's going to happen once the images start coming in? In terms of the initial analyses.

KR: Well I'm a planetary geologist and there's a number of us planetary scientists on the New Horizons team and as soon as we have the images back from New Horizons we're going to start analyzing the images and comparing notes with what we think we're interpreting, what we're seeing in the images. We are all on the science team represent lots of scientific disciplines and we're going to bring our scientific backgrounds to bear on really deciphering the current geology and also reading the pages of the geologic record on Ultima to try to piece together the history of the solar system from four and a half billion years ago. We can tell a lot from looking at images and deciphering the geology from photographs.

HM: This is just extraordinary when you think of the distance and what you're trying to reveal -- you must just be overwhelmed.

KR: Sometimes there's a lot of coffee and some short catnaps that get taken to deal with how overwhelming this can be. But it's a lot of fun exploring the outer reaches of the solar system. The emotions for this kind of exploration range from "oh my gosh I can't believe I'm actually here and we're actually doing this!" to excitement, to periods of boredom while you're waiting for the next thing to happen. It's a broad range of emotions but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I am not complaining at all to be working on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

HM: I heard the guitarist from Queen, Brian May, who is also an astrophysicist has composed a song to accompany the flyby.

KR: That's right. And at 12:02 a.m. Brian May is going to be performing his song inspired by New Horizons and that will be broadcast live on NASA TV.

HM: So you'll be jamming to that in the new year?

KR: Absolutely we'll be jamming to that.

HM: All right Kirby Runyon. All the best to you. I know this is an exciting time for you, I hope it lives up to all your expectations.

KR: Thank you Helen.

HM: Okay bye bye.

KR: Bye.

JD: We reach Kirby Runyon at New Horizons mission control centre-- Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

[Music]

Part 2: As it Happens New Year's Special, Part One

SOUNDCLIP

[Auld Lang Syne - Jingle Cats].

JD: The definitive version of New Year's Eve classic Auld Lang Syne hauntingly performed by the Jingle Cats. You know when Mike Spalla released the first Jingle Cats album back in 1993 he could not have known he had created a timeless classic that everyone would love forever and never be irritated by. And back in 1968 when the CBC powers-that-be-green-lit a radio show called As It Happens they similarly could not have known that they were creating a program that would still be ringing in the new year fifty years later. But here we are saying goodbye to the year where in we hit the half century mark and we're going to do it the way most 50 year olds do it, by looking back and muttering 'how the heck did we wind up here into a glass of flat champagne?' We spent part of 2018 -- celebrating our past, listening to the episodes and hosts who made As It Happens continued to happen. And we're going to do that again tonight starting with the opening to the program 42 years ago tonight on New Year's Eve 1976.

SOUNDCLIP

ALAN MAITLAND: Through the CBC network, satellite, shortwave, and the kind permission of the management, this is the New Year's Eve edition As It Happens.

[Music: Theme]

BARBARA FRUM: Happy New Year. Hello I'm Barbara Frum.

AM: Happy New Year. I'm Alan Maitland. Tonight...

BF: The best, the worst, and the most unusual. Our special way to see the old year out.

AM: We'll have more of the best of As It Happens like the Newton gang -- they robbed banks for a living and loved it, and they never even killed.

BF: Spring 3100 the magazine where cops talk shop. Tough talk from the street beat.

AM: The year wouldn't be complete without a replay of our finest hour. The unrelenting talent search we conducted to help out mother corporation when Lloyd Robertson defected in September.

BF: We'll even let you take a peek at some of the stories that happened this year that were so tacky even we couldn't handle them and that's tacky.

AM: We've collected a list of noteworthy newsmakers to honour with our annual awards.

BF: Our final holiday theatre will feature another adventure with Holmes and Watson in the case of the Copper Beeches.

AM: And especially for you who don't feel like staying up late we have a sneak preview of the big show guy Guy Lombardo has promised to hum Auld Lang Syne just for you. As It Happens. The New Year's Eve edition. A one. And a two. And a three.

JD: Sounds about the same -- except for the woeful or merciful lack of puns. Now as I said we will be looking back tonight. And on past New Year's Eve episodes they also looked back often at some of the odder stories that ran in any given year. Here's an example -- an item rebroadcast on New Year's Eve of 1982 in which Michael Enright interviewed a Louisiana man who was suing an ex because she had put a voodoo curse on him.

SOUNDCLIP

MICHAEL ENRIGHT: I don't think I've ever heard of anyone suing over a voodoo curse. What prompted you to do it?

VOICE: Well sir a voodoo curse a very serious matter. The lady left a note and a mahogany idol on my doorstep and the note basically stated a curse upon my dog who is named Fidel Castro -- and upon myself and upon my sex life and upon all the ladies whom I was presently going out with or would in the future and that covers a lot of waterfront. And I just got to thinking about it -- I've had a rather stormy relationship with this lady over a 20 year period and it seem to me it was rather appropriate way to hopefully seek some kind of resolution of the matters.

ME: Is she going after the sex life of the dog or yourself?

VOICE: Well sir now you'd have to ask her and the dogs.

ME: Well now what is she got against you? Why is she so angry with you?

VOICE: I suppose one of the reasons is that she feels that because I hung her out a window 15 years ago naked which was really a joke I mean she was standing on the ledge and I just hung her out the window -- she said let me back in. I said sure as soon as you say the password. And she said what's the password? And I said, How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if woodchuck could chuck wood? Said the password. And I brought her back in. And she said it was cold.

ME: That would sort of make her a bit angry wouldn't it?

VOICE: Well certainly not too angry -- I mean you know I've gone out -- that was in the '60s. I went out with her 1975-76. And then she called me and said [inaudible] 1982 -- I'm not really sure what I want to say restart the matter but I'm not sure what she wants.

ME: Mr. Hardison how did you come up with the figure of five hundred dollars.

VOICE: Well somebody asked me that and I said well I sued for medical expenses because I went to a doctor when I start having trouble sleeping. And then I sued for another 250 dollars for compensatory damages and punitive damages. If someone asked me if that was what I thought the value of my sex life was worth and I said oh no, not at all. And I think the next suit we're going to file is probably going to be for somewhere around a 100-thousand dollars because it really constitutes a tort under Tennessee law. And you know this is not the first time that this state's been possessed of a voodoo artist. We had a lady that was very famous during the year of Andrew Jackson the bell witch -- great deal written about her. Andrew Jackson made comment -- in fact he ran into the bell witch in the bushes and backed off with his troops. I just you know didn't have any troops with me and didn't have to back off from the bushes. Had I known what I was running into I would run like a snake. Her last note and she made the allegations that I was gay but I really it [inaudible] just a principle sir -- I don't think that you would appreciate a voodoo artist, and I consider this lady to be a local voodoo artist Mambo queen. I don't think you would particularly appreciate a voodoo putting a curse upon your sex life.

ME: How's the dog?

VOICE: Oh the dog is fine. I talked to him a little while ago. He was sleeping very well. I have gone to watching his diet. He's down to Kroger. I cut him off Alpo dog food so he's not getting any indigestion. He's very happy. And I talk to him very seriously about the voodoo curse and he said well you know [chuckle] go with it and smile.

ME: Do you think if the curse were removed and say you promised not to dangle Ms [inaudible] out of any more windows you might get back together.

VOICE: But I wouldn't promise that. I mean I'm not sure that I wouldn't be dangle out of a window this time.

JD: Michael Enright speaking with William Hardison about his lawsuit over a voodoo curse. That conversation was re aired on New Year's Eve 1982. Surprisingly Mr. Hardison's suit was thrown out. Now obviously that interview was a coup. One can only assume that everyone on earth was chasing the Hardison voodoo story so that New Year's Eve show was a celebration of a job well done. And 11 years before that in 1971, As It Happens celebrated on December 31st as well with a look back at the achievements of that year. Here's how that party started. And before you ask, yes this music was apparently considered a great way to kick off a radio show back then.

SOUNDCLIP

[Music]

BF: Hi I'm Barbara Frum.

CY STRANGE: And Cy Strange.

BF: And this is a special edition of As It Happens.

CS: A year end special.

BF: Happy New Year. All right well let's have a little bit of telephone noise so people see how we operate around here.

[Telephone noise and voices]

CS: That's the way the world sounds to our busy telephone people isn't it?

BF: I think for the story editors that have to lineup people -- it must a very frustrating job -- I'm surprised [inaudible]. I hear there are two of the toughest places in the world to call -- one is Cuba and that is because the routing has to go through Miami where there are a lot of Cuban exiles now running the phones they don't like to put calls through apparently through the island. This is what we're told. We know that's difficult. The other thing that we tried and finally succeeded at was calling Peking. There were no lines from Canada to China at the time so we thought and thought and finally put the call through our CBC Washington studios with the aid of Jack Rutherford.

CS: That's right. That was an exciting night.

BF: I think that has to be high for me -- all time high.

CS: We wanted to talk to John Burns -- he was the Globe Mail correspondent there.

BF: Jack can you cut your feed down apparently...

VOICE 1: Now Barbara this is John Burns on the line can you hear each other? Hello John. Hello John?

VOICE 2: I can't hear the voice at the other end.

VOICE 1: Barbara would you speak...

BF: I'll try that. John Burns in Peking can you hear me in Toronto, Canada?

VOICE 2: I can hear you now yes. You'll have to speak up a little bit so I can hear you.

BF: I'm saying how exciting this is for us.

VOICE 2: Well it's exciting for me too.

BF: Can you tell us what the reaction has been in Peking to the admission of Peking to the United Nations?

VOICE 2: [Distorted voice]

JD: As it happens host Barbara Frum and Cy Strange marveling about reaching Peking, and now Beijing of course, on New Year's Eve in 1971. And they had reason to be pleased about finally connecting that call because phone lines were a lot if you're back then. Later that same night they aired an example a case of cross lines on a live radio program.

SOUNDCLIP

[Phone ringing]

VOICE 1: Bill?

VOICE 2: Hello.

VOICE 3: Hello.

VOICE 1: Who's on the line there?

VOICE 3: Oh I think we have a cross line.

VOICE 1: Who is that? You know who you're talking to the moment?

VOICE 3: I'm trying to guess [inaudible].

VOICE 1: You know where I am?

VOICE 3: No.

VOICE 1: I'm in Canada on the radio -- you're on the radio right now.

VOICE 3: I'm on the radio.

VOICE 1: You are on the radio.

VOICE 3: Jolly good.

VOICE 1: What's your name?

VOICE 3: Martin.

VOICE 1: What do you do?

VOICE 3: I'm in England.

VOICE 1: What do you do in England?

VOICE 3: I work for the electricity board.

VOICE 1: Oh yeah. Who are you trying to call?

VOICE 3: I'm trying to call uncle.

VOICE 1: Well listen [chuckles] can you hang up? Oka you hang up.

VOICE 3: Okay.

VOICE 1: Bye Martin. Hello Mr. Bate.

[Phone noises]

JD: That was hardly the end of our phone trouble. Nine years later on New Year's Eve of 1980, As It Happens aired another unfortunate telephone related moment. Here are Barbara Frum and Al Maitland.

SOUNDCLIP

BF: The line between As It Happens is success is only as strong as Bell Canada's cable.

AM: And as one of Bell Canada's best customers As It Happens usually receives red carpet service.

BF: But there is nothing as zealous as a monopoly in pursuit of its profits says Peter Zazaki, Dick Beddoes, and Montreal sportswriter Bernard Brissette discovered to their amusement.

VOICE 1: There's a strong feeling in Montreal that Canadians should go for a local boy who was a bit of a local hero here since he played his junior years, three years at least in Montreal.

[Phone cuts]

AM: Hello?

[Operator]

[Laughter]

AM: I didn't know they did that any more. Hello Operator?

VOICE 2: I don't know...

AM: Oh there she is.

VOICE 2: Are we schedule for three minutes? [Laughs]

AM: No I don't know what happened. Operator? [Laughter] So I'll start from the top again. Sorry about that. Will they [inaudible] make their first draft pick.

VOICE 2: This is not a vintage year for juniors the way it was say last year.

VOICE 3: Well I agree because of that... [phone cuts]

AM: Hello?

VOICE 2: Are we still on the line?

AM: Operator this is all paid for.

OPERATOR: Yes but you have to deposit...

[Laughter]

VOICE 2: It's a collect call Miss.

AM: It's a collect call. We're paying for it here operator.

OPERATOR: Before? It was a collect call before?

VOICE 2: Oh yeah.

OPERATOR: At the beginning?

AM: Yes.

VOICE 2: It's a three minute warning buzzer we've just received.

[Laughter]

AM: We're in overtime.

OPERATOR: Just a moment.

AM: We're all fine. It's on the billing code.

VOICE 2: And we're almost finished.

AM: We're almost finished.

OPERATOR: Just a moment.

AM: What for?

OPERATOR: Because you appear like you have a surplus of 10 minutes and you have to deposit...

VOICE 3: It's a collect call.

OPERATOR: I know it's a collect call. That's what you told me sir. But I have to call the supervisor. Just a moment. Okay.

AM: It's really nice to [Laughter] Can we get back in case -- maybe the operator has some views on the Canadians -- everybody else in the country does. [Laughter].

JD: Peter Zazaki, Dick Beddoes, and sportswriter Bernard Barasat, struggling with the Bell operator in 1980. Now one thing that becomes clear to you as you listen to these old New Year's Eve programs is that As It Happens was not always the flawless-high performance machine that it is today. They made -- and it pains me to say this, mistakes... sometimes on the air. And worse yet at the end of the year they pointed out these mistakes as though they were hilarious somehow instead of deeply shameful. On December 31st of 1981 without an audible hint of embarrassment Elizabeth Gray and Al Maitland revisited some of these grotesque errors.

SOUNDCLIP

ELIZABETH GRAY: As you know we have to pre-record some of our interviews because it's impossible -- with different time zones around the world to have people available when we go to air.

AM: We track people down to all corners of the earth to get interviews and sometimes they're not exactly thrilled to give us an interview -- even after they agree to talk to us they're not always quite as forthcoming as we hoped. As an example here's one that didn't make it to the air for reasons that would become quite obvious. It involves a conversation with a leader of Northern Ireland's Ulster Defence Association.

[Interview]

EG: Hello Mr. Little.

VOICE: Uh-huh

EG: Mr. Little what is meant by this day of action as Mr. Paisley has called it?

VOICE: [inaudible]

EG: Why was this day of action called?

VOICE: Well I wouldn't say I well know.

EG: Do you think the day of action may lead to violence?

VOICE: No.

EG: I wonder as well if you can tell us what is meant when there's talk about teaching Mrs. Thatcher a lesson -- I'm not sure what this means. Can you talk about that?

VOICE: No.

EG: Are there meetings going on tonight that you know of?

VOICE: [Chuckles] No.

EG: What would you say? You don't really want to talk to us at all eh Mr. Little?

VOICE: No.

EG: And that was that.

[Music]

EG: As all of you Alan Maitland fans know he's the real mainstay of this program. His style and aplomb are unmatched anywhere. Just how difficult a job his is becomes evident when he's away -- when a guest fills in for him. Russ Germain found out.

RUSS GERMAIN: As It Happens. Bulletin: If you still think The Beatles was a funny name for a rock band hang onto your electric bass... [Laughter] As It Happens. Bulletin: If you still think The Beatles was a funny name for a rock band hang onto your electric bass -- the bright lights in the newest punk groups have pulled out their safety pins and clips such oh...

[Music]

VOICE: Russ Germain wasn't the only one to have trouble with his tongue. One of our guests hosts Michael Enright had trouble saying good night.

ME: As it happens returns tomorrow. Good night. [Laughter] Good night.

JD: Disgraceful. And regrettably we will have more of that kind of disgracefulness later on in this very program. Now in these modern times there is less of that kind of thing. Every night Carol and I help put a flawless program on the air. We shake hands briskly. Stretch out a bit. And then go home. But once in a while something does happen during one of those interviews that catches even my extremely professional co-host off guard. Now this did not air on a previous New Year's Eve special it's airing on this one and it first aired in May of 2014. Carol is speaking with Al Magnieh, a member of city council in Windsor, Ontario. They were speaking about the "Windsor hum" a mysterious low frequency noise that was disturbing residents. Some more than others.

SOUNDCLIP

CAROL OFF: I understand there is one man who actually thinks that the hum might have caused some dysfunction.

AL MAGNIEH: We don't like to joke about these things all the time but you know I've heard a wide range of how it's affected people's lives whether it's created stress or I can't sleep. And so there was one gentleman who you know wanted to share a little bit what they called TMI and he maybe said his performance in the bedroom was affected a bit by the Windsor hum which it's one of those times where you are like okay you just take a step back from the seriousness of this and be able to have a quick little laugh. [Dog barking]

CO: [Laughter] Somebody agrees with you. Maybe he's being affected by this hum too.

JD: Carol and former Windsor city councillor Al Magnieh both surprised by the interjection of Mr. Magnieh's dog in 2014. Surprise has always been an important element on As It Happens even when you book a guest expecting to be surprised you can still be surprised by how surprised you are. For example this re-airing of a memorable interview which aired on New Year's Eve 1986. Here are Al Maitland and Dennis Trudeau.

SOUNDCLIP

AM: Dennis do you know how to whistle?

DENNIS TRUDEAU: Sure I do. You just put your lips together and blow.

AM: Okay put your lips together and blow.

DT: Right now. [Whistles] How's that?

AM: Hate to break it to you kid but I don't think you'd be much competition for two guys we spoke with in April.

DT: Who's that?

AM: Ralph Giza and Peter Hersel were attending the 13th Annual National Whistlers Convention in Louisburg, North Carolina.

DT: Hello Ralph Giza.

VOICE 1: Hello.

DT: Hi Peter Hersel.

VOICE 2: Hello.

DT: Would you like to start by giving us your best winning whistle before we start the discussion? Ralph would you start?

[Whistles]

DT: Peter Hersel can you top that?

VOICE 2: Well I do a different kind of whistle -- I whistle with my hands and I can give you some special sounds. I can give you an alarm and a couple of police sirens.

DT: All right.

[Makes alarm and police siren sound]

VOICE 2: An alarm and two police sirens.

DT: You've got a machine there -- you didn't do that with your hands.

VOICE 2: I did that with my hand. Yes. I put my hands together by interlocking my fingers as opposed to cupping my hand.

DT: Ralph you're a music whistler. What's your act?

VOICE 1: I just whistle songs you know, rock n roll and blues. I love the blues. They got me doing classical stuff.

DT: Can you give us a bit of classical and a bit of rock?

VOICE 1: I guess.

[Whistles]

JD: You are listening to As It Happens. The New Year's Eve edition on CBC Radio One and on Public Radio International.

SOUNDCLIP

DT: How about some rock n roll now from you Ralph or from Peter.

VOICE 1: Come on Peter.

VOICE 2: No that's your category Ralph.

DT: Give us some rock n roll.

VOICE 1: I got one right here -- it's a greasy two step. And it's called the flying liplock.

[Whistles]

Part 3: As it Happens New Year's Special, Part Two

JD: "I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." That is of course Walt Whitman -- an American. That is from "Song of Myself" -- but it also applies to this 50 year old radio program. We have spent our anniversary year celebrating ourselves but really every atom of this program belongs to you as well. Over the years we have relied on our Talkback Line and email. Mail once upon a time. Twitter. Facebook. To find out what you think of this program. And this next item ties together one song and Talkback so neatly it will almost seem like I knew what I was talking about when I started this whole Walt Whitman bit. 2018 of course saw an official change to the lyrics of that most frequently sung song of ourselves "O Canada." Instead of "in thy all my sons command," it now goes "in all of us command." And that gender-neutral language has been a long-time coming. On New Year's Eve of 1998 Barbara Budd introduced a look back at a story that galvanized listeners that year.

SOUNDCLIP

BARBARA BUDD: O encore. O Canada. Probably one of the most popular items we ran in 1993 was a call to you, our listeners, to come up with a new version of our national anthem and the response was overwhelming. But this is how it all began. One night Judith Olson a Toronto music teacher told us that O Canada was a sexist anthem -- and she was a woman with a mission to change the offending lyrics. In fact Ms. Olson had written to almost every member of the House of Commons to do that very thing. Here is Michael's first conversation with Judith Olson.

ME: Ms. Olson first of all what is the change that you'd like to see in O Canada?

VOICE 1: Well I would like to see the words "thy sons" replaced with the words "our hearts" so that it reads "in all our hearts command."

ME: Instead of "all our sons," it would all our...

VOICE 1: Our hearts.

ME: Just sing that little phrase.

[Singing]

ME: That's not bad. And it scans all right doesn't it?

JD: Judith Olson had written to every single member of parliament and heard back from only about a hundred and then -- well...here's Barbara again.

SOUNDCLIP

BB: Well after that we asked what you thought and did we get a response.

CALLER 1: Hello Mike My name is Leo O'Brien. I live up here in Sudbury. I'm a member of Royal Canadian Legion Branch 76. I sort of pride myself in singing the anthem because I really love it. And I've been using -- I'm going to sing that little bit for you. But even my comrades up here don't even know that I'm changing it but I do. And this is the way it goes Mike. [Sings: O Canada, our home and native land. True patriot love in all of us command.]

CALLER 2: Hello [inaudible] family from Oakville, Ontario. And we're phoning to comment about your piece on the national anthem being sexist and we just like to say that if you say "in all our hearts command" but you have like hearts in the next line so we're going to sing what we think you should do. [Sings: O Canada, our home and native land. True patriot love in all our lives command.]

CALLER 3: Hello my name is [inaudible] and I'm calling from Ottawa. ([Sings: Paving the way for a new way to live, sharing our values and learning to give. Born on First Nations and two founding states that's what makes Canada -- Canada great. So yes Canada for a land so proud and free. Sing it out loud! [Singing in French]) Thanks for this lovely idea.

BB: Well now if that doesn't warm your patriotic heart we don't know what will. But there was more. We had Americans calling, rap singers, people who thought they could sing, even an entire grade school class.

CALLER 4: Hello caller from Nova Scotia with a more upbeat form of the national anthem proposal. Here we go with Hockey night in Canada set to the new national anthem. [Sings: We are all Canadian and proud of it. From the west coast to the east coast we are all proud folks. We fish and we farm. We mine and we cut [inaudible]. We play hockey, baseball, and [inaudible]...We stand true and proud -- we stand for our land and we are outstanding in our own field of golden. You get the idea.]

CALLER 5: Hi I'm Justin and I'm calling from Minden, Ontario. I just would like to say for As It Happens that our national anthem is pretty boring and I just thought this might be a way to spice up the national anthem. Okay here goes. [Raps: O Canada] Thanks.

BB: Thank you. You may now be seated.

JD: Just a few of the many, many responses to an interview about changing sexist language in O Canada back in 1998. It would take another 20 years for that to actually happen. If you're just tuning in: we are celebrating this New Year's Eve by listening to As It Happens programs from past New Year's Eves. Hey, we just turned 50. Did you not expect us to spend this night of all nights flipping through photo albums and sobbing "were we ever so young?" We were. And as I mentioned many many years ago we occasionally experienced what the kids today would call bloopers. Here are a few which As It Happens aired on December 31st, 1979.

SOUNDCLIP

BF: Nominated for this award are: Michael Enright guest host -- last summer while interviewing the co-editor of a newsletter about contests, Michael discovered that some interviews come to unexpected ends.

ME: How many subscribers have you got?

VOICE: Well we have over a hundred thousand.

ME: And of those how many do you think are winners?

VOICE: I've never done a documented study but I know that I have people writing me every single day telling me about...

ME: Now contests and sweepstakes things are big business. I mean these prizes aren't puny, are they?

VOICE: No -- listen Mike it's lighting here. And I'm thinking I better hang up because I've been told by my neighbours who is a doctor that it's very easy struck by lightning when it's the telephone. Can be call me back? I hate to do this but really I think it's not safe -- in fact one of my friends got killed [inaudible] lightning.

ME: Sure absolutely. Yeah we'll call you again.

VOICE: Storm last about 30 minutes. So if you want to call back. But I really think it's not too safe.

ME: Yeah okay just hang on.

BF: The next nominee is a little closer to home. In fact he's a lot closer to home.

AM: I wonder who that could be.

BF: I'll give you a hint. Night after night he reads the introductions to our interviews flawlessly -- pronouncing words no matter how misspelled they are. Al Maitland unflappable, uncomplaining, but one evening last summer when he could take no more... Al struck back.

AM: Comedians know their reputations are made when other wits steal their jokes and make fun of the author. It's the old adage among up and coming comics you don't peak until you're pokin to. To stay on top funny men know that puns are the last resort because like the speckled cat in Africa they are the lowest form of humor. Now I find it appropriate at this time -- even necessary to make it known that I do not write this material. But I am compelled by contract to read it. Comedian Art Moger is author of The Complete Pun Book. We reached him in Boston.

AM: [Laughs] That introduction had more puns than the entire book we were talking about -- I could take no more.

BF: No more punishment.

AM: One more nominee -- my turn. There appears on As It Happens a certain host and among her other talents she has a special instinct for double entendre. Most of the time she doesn't even know she's doing it until someone reminds her. Earlier this year guess who was interviewing the organizer of an oddball car rally involving bizarre vehicles and passengers with this result.

BF: In that ambulance I think one of the drivers mounded his wife as the patient -- all wired up.

VOICE: They had a legitimate...

BF: Oh excuse me I have to do that again. [Laughs] Excuse me. I believe that one of the drivers in fact had his wife on the stretcher.

VOICE: That's correct.

[Laughter]

AM: And the winner...

BF: I should tell you before we announce the winner that Don McDonald has forgiven me for the one I pulled on him. The winner is Charles Linge head [inaudible] news and our other inside Ottawa regular -- in that same conversation with John Grey in fact in the same breath he offered this assessment of Joe Clark's fortune.

VOICE 1: He has an ace up his hole... [laughs] strike that.

AM: One of the great metaphors, mixed or not, of the year.

BF: Or any year.

AM: And he wrote it himself I understand.

BF: Charlie's award what else a pack of playing cards -- all aces.

AM: And that brings an end to our Special Achievement Awards for 1979 to the winners and to the nominees, thanks for the memories.

[Music]

JD: Al Maitland and Barbara Frum sharing the only times they ever screwed up on air. Now that was aired before midnight on New Year's Eve 1979. But as you know after midnight the numbers on the calendar are not the only things that change -- people do too. Sometimes because they get shaken up and explode not unlike a bottle of cheap champagne. Now near the beginning of the year 2000 we called up an accountant in Wales named Howard Potter. Mr. Potter had just taken out a full page ad to apologize for his behaviour on New Year's Eve 1999. As the BBC put it quote "among those named in Mr. Potter's apology were members of a folk dance group. Several city centre landlords. Residents in a Cardiff street. Two passing police constables. Cardiff Council's cleansing department. And a man called Tony at a city centre chip shop." When Mary Lou Finlay spoke with Howard Porter he was extremely pleased to talk at great length about the behaviour he could remember although he never really did get to the point. We'll pick it up from the part where his wife went to bed around 3:00 a.m. when Mr. Potter was dressed as a Victorian policeman for festive reasons.

SOUNDCLIP

VOICE: When it was about 3 o'clock the inevitable headache I think I'll go to bed reared its ugly head. I was striding forth as one does when one's five foot seven but has got a bottle of champagne inside one -- to take the world by storm. And then we went partying. And the funniest thing according to one of my colleagues who was with me was -- I was trying to hail taxis and to get them to stay I'd give them some money to stay by the curb and then I'd come in and try and get the ladies into their coats and out into the taxi. Taxis were like you know walking horse I think is probably the expression they were few and far between. And it was a bit difficult. And as fast as I was bribing the cabbies to stay, they disappeared with the bribe -- getting another fare around the corner and thinking what a jolly good payday it was. Of course after the third occasion that this happened my wife got a bit tired and she decided to go to bed. We went off to this other party and then I came back at about -- quite late in the evening. Anyway one thing led to another and the jolly good times had by all but the following morning of course I took a lot of ribbing because I got back to the hotel still in costume and my wife decided that she may as well go home and she left me asleep on the bed still in the costume. So I then had to come down -- from down from the hotel and I had to run the gauntlet of all the people who were in the breakfast room. And the people in the breakfast room regrettably all seemed to know my name. And I must admit, I have to admit, I couldn't recall some of them. And of course it was a good story and it became embroidered and embroidered and embroidered -- and people were telling me all sorts of things that I hadn't done which frankly...

MARY LOU FINLAY: But you weren't?

VOICE: Sure that I might not have because I mean if somebody says I cloak danced on a table I'm quite willing to believe that I could have probably done it but I'm not sure that I did.

MARY LOU FINLAY: Were many of them short with you? I mean had they been offended?

VOICE: No. I mean I didn't get involved in any -- I mean there was a couple of verbal lashings one or two things that perhaps should not have been said and wouldn't have been said except through the administration of tongue loosening liquids.

MARY LOU FINLAY: So what did that put in the ad in the paper?

VOICE: Well unfortunately one or two people were clearly upset by my behaviour -- well I say upset -- my wife is talking to me in a vague fashion but even though she thinks this is the final straw that breaks the 32 years back...

MARY LOU FINLAY: What did you say in the ad?

VOICE: Well I mean I describe what we had done because during the course of the evening I had had one or two a slight altercation with the gentleman who looked after the gate of the Cardiff Castle because he was threatening to lock the gates because he wanted to go off to his party and he wanted to lock the gates but unfortunately our van with our instrument cases was inside the castle. So I had one or two words with him. And then we had a couple of police constables. I found myself now in charge of a van in the middle of a street which had now got a road closure order on it -- I couldn't move the van.

MARY LOU FINLAY: [Chuckles] But what did you say in the ad?

VOICE: What did I say in the ad? Well I had to hire these two passing police constables and persuade them delicately... [Fades out].

JD: Welsh accountant Howard Potter he never told Mary Lou Finlay what he'd said in that ad by the way. And now a brief interlude from As It Happens on New Year's Eve in 1982 in which they revisited Elizabeth Gray's attempts to get a dog named Brutus to speak to her.

SOUNDCLIP

EG: What should I say to him? Does he respond to any words? Meow. [Laughs] Brutus you won't get another chance like this. Brutus! Speak to me. [Makes barking sound] Oh you're breaking my heart Brutus -- come on talk to me. Mr. Sprague.

VOICE: Yes.

EG: I think he won't do it.

VOICE: The only thing I can do is lay the phone down and see if he'll bark when I try to get him to go out.

EG: Tell you what -- why don't you go outside and ring your own doorbell.

VOICE: Okay.

EG: [Chuckles] But leave Brutus near the phone. Hey Brutus. Brutus answer the door. Answer the door Brutus for god sake. Okay Mr. Sprague I think we give up. He will probably stay out there for an hour knocking on the door. [laughs] Maybe he's locked himself out.

VOICE: No I don't think I can get him to bark.

JD: A common theme over the 50 year history of this program: a brilliant radio interviewer who can coax answers out of even the most difficult human failing to elicit a single sound from a so-called talking animal. And sometimes a brilliant radio interviewer gets a surprisingly effusive response from someone you'd least expect to say something unexpected, a politician. Earlier this year we called up Democratic Virginia Senator Mark Warner. He had just co-written a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warning him about the Chinese telecom company Huawei. Little did he know. Anyway when we got him on the line he did eventually talk about the things we called him about but first he said some other things.

SOUNDCLIP

CO: Hello Senator Warner.

VOICE: Yes.

CO: Pleasure to speak with you. How are you?

VOICE: Well I'm very well -- we're not on yet?

CO: No we are not. We are just doing a pre-talk.

VOICE: I just have to -- I don't want to sound you know weird or obsequious. But you know for like forever I listen to As It Happens -- all my mom's family is from Ontario -- you know this sounds a little goofy sounding but like my family have known for years on my political bucket list was to be on your show at one point come up and do it. So I have been a huge huge fan. I know this is going to sound a little bizarre but this is --like my press person came in and goes "oh Senator if I'd known that they've been asking you to go on for like months."

CO: That's right. [Laughter]

VOICE: So anyway I'll be professional once we get to the interview. But I just wanted to tell you there's a lot of folks in the United States that listen to your show. And I especially love how you do with -- so many things with the Native people in Canada and some of the stories you've done and so many kind of interesting quirky news stories.

CO: I appreciate that very much. One thing we do need you to do is to move the mouthpiece of the phone slightly away from your lips.

VOICE: All right. Is that better?

CO: Oh that's much better yeah. Thank you. That's the sweet spot. And you know that this is our 50th anniversary of this show.

VOICE: I know that. I know that. I've been... How long have you been on?

CO: Have I been on? For about 13 years.

VOICE: Because I've been listening about 20 because it comes on a lot -- our NPR station is the American University station that you know A1 and Diane Rehm and all were all kind of hosted out of -- and you guys have been on an 11 o'clock timeslot for probably the last 25 years. And also just please tell everyone else I love the fact that you've still got that slightly out-of-date funky 60s theme music. [Laughter] Let me get back in my professional political...

CO: Get back to being Senator Warner.

JD: Carol speaking with enthusiastic Virginia Senator Mark Warner before their interview earlier this year. Now as Carol mentioned and as we might have mentioned once or twice this year -- As It Happens turned 50 in 2018 which means that in 1978 we turned 10. Someone did the math for me before the program. And on December 31st, 1978, Al Maitland related the tale of trying to keep the giant 10th anniversary cake away from Barbara Frum. A cake which later would contain then Minister of Defense Barney Danson.

SOUNDCLIP

BF: 1978 was an exciting year for As It Happens because it was the year we celebrated our anniversary.

AM: And the highlight of our anniversary show was Defense Minister Barney Danson jumping out of a cake to surprise you. Now I can tell you though the surprise was almost blown. You have a knack of extracting information from the most unwilling people.

BF: I do.

AM: Now the producers upstairs are very good at keeping their mouths buttoned. But this time just about everybody in the whole CBC Radio building knew about this cake.

BF: I guess everybody in Canada is amazed at the boldness and nerve of the people around here. But I would never have imagined they'd have the gall to call a cabinet minister and ask him to jump out of a birthday cake. Barney Danson was a tremendous support.

AM: Well our big problem was the cake, not Barney Desson. It was about four feet square and had to be spirited into a studio with as few people as possible seeing it. From the day we ordered it, everything seemed to go wrong. The cake was almost delivered a day early. In fact it was already in the truck and on its way but fortunately they managed to stop the delivery in time.

BF: I gather I gave everybody upstairs -- I arrived -- this is unbelievable, I arrived for once in my life two hours earlier than usual.

AM: Well anyway we thought we'd get the cake in early but all our plans threw out the window when you arrived. We had to divert you away from the studio into the upstairs office and we figured in ten minutes we could hide at a nearby studio out of sight.

BF: I understand though it wasn't that simple.

AM: Nothing is simple. You're absolutely right. The cake was too big to squeeze through the doors so it sat smack dab in the middle of the building lobby. The busiest part of the radio building for 20 minutes and even said "Happy Birthday As It Happens" on it. There was only a small cover hiding it and everybody and their dogs knew what it was and probably what it was for. Well by that time we had made an emergency call to the people that set designed to dismantle this cake so it would fit through the door.

BF: Keeping me preoccupied for over an hour is no mean feat. I couldn't figure out why they're being so nice to me -- they kept getting me coffees but it was part of the mood of the anniversary I thought.

AM: Well finally it was hidden in the studio and everybody except Barbara Frum knew about it but we all know you have a knack for overhearing pertinent conversations. So we were never really sure that you were surprised.

BF: I was. I was. Well now that everybody knows how they tricked me let's listen again to that portion of our 10th anniversary show.

AM: Looks it's a birthday cake.

BF: That looks like one of those awful things that Al Capone got... [Laughs]

AM: It's beautiful.

BF: I hope nobody's going to jump out of it.

AM: You hope not.

BF: I hope not [Laughs].

AM: Pretty girls.

BF: Well it's big enough to hold a car.

AM: Yes it really is. [Laughter]

JD: Oddly enough this year we could not get a cabinet minister to jump out of a cake or even slowly raise herself or himself wearing a hat as was apparently the case in 1978. Now we are approaching the end of our program for tonight and the end of 2018 so I have precious little time left to focus on the rich tradition of dignified powerful journalism that is despite all this tomfoolery what has really given As It Happens its longevity and made it such a loved and respected radio program. For example here are excerpts from Carol's important scientific interview with Jean-Baptiste Leca last December. In which Professor Leca explained recent research into the relationship between snow monkeys and Sika deer at a park in Japan. A relationship in which the monkeys uh... hump the backs of the deer.

SOUNDCLIP

VOICE: Yeah surprisingly the male deer are extremely tolerant towards the behaviour of these -- they have a monkey on their back [Laughter] and they seem to like it. They are extremely tolerant. They don't move much and sometimes they even keep on foraging so it's almost like they pretend that nothing is really happening.

CO: Now -- the deer are not getting sex out of this so I mean how can you actually call it having sex with a deer? I mean this is like -- I mean if your dog is humping your leg you're not having sex with him.

VOICE: Well it's a sexual behavior because it's engaging in thrusting -- pelvic thrusting --the females clearly they derive some sexual gratification from thrusting their genital area onto the back of the deer. We found that female mounting behavior among monkeys is a form of sex. So we have no doubt that we are dealing with a sexual behavior that has apparently no social function. In other words the females don't do that to display dominance or anything.

CO: What have your colleagues said to you about your discovery?

VOICE: They are intrigued, but also they're interested because it's not often that interspecies sex is reported just because -- even some scientists are reluctant to acknowledge the occurrence of a hetero-specific sex...

CO: Because it's so weird.

VOICE: Yeah exactly. Either they view it as insignificant 'oh well it doesn't really matter. Why should we report it?' Or it's not readily explained in terms of natural selection so we don't really know what to make of that.

CO: Professor Leca you've made my day.

VOICE: All right glad to hear that. [Laughter]

CO: Thank you so much. We will get mail.

VOICE: Good.

CO: Take care. Bye bye.

VOICE: All right. Bye bye.

JD: Fortunately we did not get mail because you dear listener understand the importance of science. I could go on and on but it's New Year's Eve. We're 50. I'm not saying we're tired. We've just learned when to stop. So thanks for listening this year and every other year. And we will leave you with the sweet sounds of the late legendary Guy Lombardo -- first singing "Auld Lang Syne" to Barbara and Al in 1976 and then performing it.

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December 31, 2018 Episode Transcript

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