	COLUMNIST A classy dresser and a class act at 86 TOWN TALK I Veteran clothier Murray Goldman passes his birthday wish on to a young lady at his luncheon party MALCOLM PARRY VANCOUVER SUN MURRAY GOLDMAN, the veteran clothier, was feted at an 86th-birthday lunch held in the private dining room of Umberto Menghi’s yellow-house Umberto’s restaurant Thursday. Goldman’s son and Boy’s Co. principal David stick-handled the event. Close family members included Goldman’s wife Shirley, daughter Penny Sprackman and husband Mel, David’s wife Tanis and son Sammy. Also on hand was importer Nick Louie, who received invaluable advice when he began selling to Goldman four decades ago. “What’s the hurry?” Goldman asked him then. “Take it easy.” The result, David said, “is that Nick is still here as a multi-million-dollar importer of major streetwear brands.” As well as the long view, Goldman is known for the quick-wittedness he showed when daughter-in-law Tanis asked: “Are you a Leo?” “I thought you said, ‘Are you for real?’ ” Goldman shot back. Then: “No, I’m a Virgo.” But he doesn’t always crack wise, as he could have when a single-candle confection appeared and son-in-law Sprackman said: “Make a wish Murray. I hear she’s seeing someone.” Letting that ball roll, Order of B.C. member Goldman turned to University of B.C. food-nutrition student Graziella Panessa, 19, who brought the cake, and said: “I want to wish you beautiful things in life ahead. Your life is just starting.” Such a class act. • HAJNALKA MANDULA won one of the B.C. government’s $5,000 Creative Achievement awards last year for the women’s clothes she designs and manufactures here. This week, the native Hungarian opened a downtown retail outlet for her tops, skirts, jackets and pants, many of which incorporate certified organic materials. It’s the former Komakino store on Homer Street off Smithe. That’s the place Campbell Macdougall vacated — lock, stock and bulldog Sidney — to take up further calculatedly impermanent tenancy in the basement of 1 Alexander Street. But he’s still throwing rather stylish parties. Tonight, he’ll feature a six-hour deejay mix by former Micronauts member George Issadakis. Mandula doubtless prefers to exercise her hands at the till. She should get plenty of that with her new long jackets that feature wrap belts, high collars, tailored backs and come in technical fabrics or nubbly tweed. • HARRY LALI, the off-and-onagain New Democratic Party MLA for Yale-Lillooet, will celebrate his 50th birthday at Surrey’s Sangam Palace Saturday. Pal and former NDP cabinet minister Moe Sihota should be on hand for the Merritt native’s beano. As for like-named Squamish businessman Paul Lalli, who hopes to unseat Fleetwood-Port Kells MP Nina Grewal and secure the Conservative party nomination in her place, scrappy socialist Lali said: “Ten generations ago, we maybe came from the same village, but some of us became misguided with time.” • FRANCES HUI’s five-year-old Social Empire outfit — www .socialempire .com — brings singles and couples together for drinks, meals, conversation and charitable purposes. Get-togethers are often held in new restaurants, such as the 52-seat Infinity, which chef Alex Rotherham and four-year wife Lisa opened in June. It’s in Da Tandoor’s old Pacific Street locale, across the alley from Il Giardino. Rotherham, who cooked for years at Earl’s, says one patron calls the two-room eatery’s style of food “new world, but I don’t really know what that means.” His own favourite menu item is a $32 New York striploin steak with blue cheese, roasted taro root, grilled green asparagus and red pepper. Lisa “who doesn’t cook at all,” prefers barbecued baby back ribs with the same vegetables, $29.50. The chef’s secret, if you can call it that, is marinating 28-day Canada Triple-A beef in oil, garlic and pepper for at least 24 hours before grilling it. “That’s what they teach us a cooking school,” Vancouver Community College-trained Rotherham said. “Every chef knows it, but no one actually does it.” • RAJ TANEJA, whose Urban Mixer organization works the same mix-and-mate territory as Hui’s Social Empire, has devised an updated version of romancing by automobile. It doesn’t quite recreate the bench-seat era, when late-night Lotharios invited dates to watch the “submarine races” at Spanish Banks. Indeed, if Taneja’s Sept. 3 speed-dating event involved that kind of amatory exercising, chiropractors might be extra-busy Sept. 4. That’s because the gettingtogether will take place in a fleet of tiny Smart cars parked on the patio of Gastown’s Chili Winston restaurant. Participants — see www .urbanmixer .com — will spend an hour thi-i-i-i-is close in the vehicles, then stretch their legs and innards at a bite-and-beverage session before returning to a final hour in the Smarts. Of course, the really smart ones may be at Spanish Banks by then. • PARRYNOIA: There’ll be chaos at Disney Studios if film footage going back to 1930 must be changed to turn animated character Pluto into a dwarf bloodhound. • DENNY BOYD, the former Vancouver Sun columnist, is a natural humanist, who addresses his own foibles as frankly as those of others. He’s in a bad way now, but I hope not too bad to relish this retelling of words he wrote for Vancouver magazine in May, 1977. They dealt with his being diagnosed with diabetes. A hospital strike had upset many services, and one of Boyd’s pals pulled a monumental trick on him. Pretending to be a diagnostician named Dr. Andrews, the pal phoned Boyd’s hospital room to say that, for speedy access to his pancreas, he would have to inject insulin directly into his penis. Sensing a leg-pull, Boyd demurred. That’s when the pal hooked him. As Boyd wrote: “‘Now look, Mr. Boyd,’” he replied. ‘I’ve got a strike, I’ve got a couple of hundred patients and more trouble than I need. I don’t have time to play games.’ “His tone of voice intimidated me, and somehow, that bit about shooting the stuff where it would do the most good began to make a horrible kind of sense. Still, I was distinctly apprehensive. I croaked: ‘I’m sorry, doctor. Go on.’ “He did. ‘It’s just the first eight shots that you have to take there,’ he said. ‘And it won’t hurt as much as you think. Oh, yes, and they have to be equally spaced in a straight line, half an inch apart, an inch, whatever you can manage.’ “In a whisper, I repeated it: First eight shots in the donnicker . . . straight line, space ’em . . . is that right?” “‘Perfectly right, Mr. Boyd,’” he said with great heartiness. ‘And in about two weeks time, we’ll send a clarinet instructor around to your house and he’ll teach you to pick out a few simple tunes on it.’” I fell out of my chair on reading those words almost 30 years ago. I’m still laughing. Thank you, Denny. Who could ask for anything more? malcolmparry @shaw .ca 604-929-8456 MALCOLM PARRY/VANCOUVER SUN Graziella Panessa, 19, delivered the one-candle cake at clothier Murray Goldman’s 86th-birthday lunch in the private dining room of Umberto Menghi’s yellow-house Umberto’s restaurant. Designer-manufacturer Hajnalka Mandula, winner of a $5,000 creative achievement award, sells women’s wear on Howe Street Former Vancouver Sun columnist Denny Boyd could tell you a story or two about his visit to hospital in 1977. Alex Rotherham’s Infinity restaurant drew Frances Hui’s Social Empire partiers to Pacific Street.