PAUL:	Our run on the CBC Radio network is soon to end for the season.  
	BCN bean counters and CBC budget cutters are trying to hammer out a 
	deal for next year and I'm told it's ... there's still hope ... but 
	it's not looking good.

	We have received hundreds of letters from across Canada, many of them 
	with questions about this show.  Today we will address some of your 
	queries while we still can.

	Here to read the letters with me is our weather watchdog, Erling Biggs.

ERLING:	Hello, Paul.  Now, if The Great Eastern is not picked up by the 
	CBC, will it continue on the BCN?

PAUL:	Jeez I had assumed ...

ERLING:	Our first letter is from Winnipeg, Manitoba.  Mrs. Alan Switzer 
	writes: "Dear Paul, Several weeks ago I heard you refer to the late 
	Deng Xiaoping as your former bridge partner.  We here at The Linden 
	Woods Duplicate Club were wondering if this was true."  Paul?

PAUL:	Yes, I was, in fact, Deng's bridge partner.  Back in the sixties I, 
	like many young people, got tangled up in radical politics.  In 1969, 
	I misappropriated funds from an OFY grant to attend the ... people's 
	congress in Beijing.  While there, I signed up for some recreational 
	bridge, there not being a whole lot else to do in the evenings.  Quite 
	by accident Deng ended up as my partner.  And, as a team, we crushed 
	all in our path.  We worked so well together that we remained a competitive 
	squad for six years, ultimately reaching the finals of the Singapore Invitational.

ERLING:	How did you make out?

PAUL:	We were humiliated by the Bulgarians, Riche and Svetkov.

ERLING:	I had no idea you were in China.

PAUL:	Oh yeah.  Ended up being paraded around in a dunce cap with my typewriter 
	hanging around my neck.  It was a scene, Erling.

ERLING:	And Deng?

PAUL:	He died.  Just the other day, Erling.

ERLING:	No, your partnership.

PAUL:	We split over The Unity and Struggle of Opposites and the Takeout Double.

ERLING:	Playing any bridge these days ?

PAUL:	Bah.  But, if you were interested in a little dime a point action ...

ERLING:	Dime a point ?  Doesn't sound like much.

PAUL:	Nah ... bit of fun.  Maybe after the show ?

	The next letter is from .... in Nunavut.  Arvo Murley writes:  "I love the 
	music you play on your show.  Back when you were on in the summer a couple 
	of years ago, you played this song by some Nfld band called the Hardenuff, 
	or Hadenough Somethings ... anyway, I forget their name.  Their song blew 
	my mind.  Who were they, and can I please hear the song again."

ERLING:	We're sure you are referring to the Hardship Past, though it could be 
	one of several songs. I suppose we could oblige by playing a request ?  

PAUL:	If it's not a little too deus ex machina.  Here they are ...

ERLING:	The Hardship Post with ...

PAUL:	"I Got A Secret."

MUSIC:	FROM CD

PAUL:	We're back with more letters.  Here's one from Ralucca Constantinescu 
	in British Columbia.

ERLING:	And Ralucca writes:  "There was mention of your ex-wife on a program 
	some weeks ago, yet when I checked your biography on the Great Eastern 
	Web Site, there was no mention of matrimony.  Why are you avoiding this?"

Well, Paul ?

PAUL:	It's very personal.

ERLING:	You pride yourself on being open with the audience.

PAUL:	Let's move on, shall we ?

ERLING:	Tom Ze of Burlington, Ontario writes:

PAUL:	"How many people work on the Great Eastern, I can't believe 
	Paul does it all."

ERLING:	Well, there's me.

PAUL:	Yeah, for the weather.

ERLING:	I sub.

PAUL:	Granted.  Otherwise, there's Hollis manning the board, Reanes our 
	secretary, and ... That's it, I guess.

ERLING:	Probably a good time to read this letter.  Jay Sullivan of Toronto, 
	Ontario, writes:  "You often refer to your technician, Hollis Duffitt.  
	On a couple of occasions, I've heard his voice and found it very stirring.  
	Just what kind of a man is Hollis Duffitt ?"

PAUL:	Not an easy question to answer on the air, but Hollis is a great man of radio.

ERLING:	Found, as an infant, abandoned at the BCN transmitter site, and raised 
	more or less by this station.

PAUL:	And none the worse for it.  How are you today, Hollis ?

HOLLIS:	I've never felt better.

ERLING:	I can hear Hogtown swoon.

PAUL:	Here's a letter from Canada's other solitude.  Arthur Craven of Rigaut, 
	Quebec, writes:  "I didn't at first believe your show was broadcast in Iceland.  
	I assumed this claim was another of your" ... I can't read this ...

ERLING:	"Dadaist strategies."

PAUL:	" ... Dadaist strategies, until, on a business trip to Reykjavik, I 
	garnered from the papers there that you had received some kind of medal from 
	Eva, Dowager Empress of Iceland. So it's really true."

ERLING:	Medal?

PAUL:	Small thing.  For work in water safety.

	Next, a note from Labrador.  Harlan Panasheway writes:

ERLING:	"You call your program 'Newfoundland's Cultural Magazine.'  Are you 
	deliberately excluding Labrador?  If so, why, and does this mean you endorse 
	Labrador separatism ?  Or perhaps giving the land back to it's rightful owners, 
	the Innu and Innuit ?"  Politically sensitive query, Paul, let's see you dance 
	round it.

PAUL:	Well, Mr. Panashaway, it all goes back to that cornerstone of political 
	correctness, the issue of voice and its appropriation.  Having overlooked 
	Labrador for years, we decided we could hide behind cultural sensitivity, 
	claiming not to appropriate your voice.  Abracadabra, ignorance becomes wisdom.
	Re: Labrador separatists, I think - and this is not the view of this station - 
	they can all jump in Lake Melville.

ERLING:	Innu and Innuit land claim issues?

PAUL:	I was avoiding the question.

ERLING:	I'm putting it to you now.

PAUL:	I'll bet you're right in with them, aren't you, Erling ?

YES!  Give them the land, they couldn't make more of a mess of it than we have.  
	And well ... we did steal it from them.  

	Still, start down that road and we're, all of us pink folk, well, we're on a boat 
	back to Europe.  History ?  A stumper.

ERLING:	That's Labrador, what of the rest of Newfoundland ?  This show has been 
	accused of being Metrocentric.

PAUL:	That's not a letter.

ERLING:	For my personal satisfaction.

PAUL:	Look, Labrador wants in but wants out.  The rest of Newfoundland 
	thinks we're urban snobs.  Canadians think we're too regional.  In Iceland, 
	people aren't even sure if this is a real show!  We do what we can.

ERLING:	Not only Iceland.  Here is a letter from St. John's.  Donny Lawson 
	writes, "I don't know whether The Great Eastern is for real.  What gives?"

PAUL:	Erling?

ERLING:	I'm not sure I understand this oft posed question.  I'm here.

PAUL:	Me too, flesh and blood.

ERLING:	We're for real.

SFX:	THEME OUT