Dedicated social mixers Avril Mair and Andrea Baxter sober up to share the wisdom gleaned from years of painstaking research into the mysterious world of parties. This seven—page report has been specially designed to cut out and keep for soaking up the red wine from your flatmate’s sheepskin rug.

You may have little desire to recreate the scenes ofdrunken debauchery depicted in Animal House, but the spirit ofthe late great John Belushi lives on. We are talking. ofcourse. about parties. And after all. the opportunity to talk about a party is a major reason for throwing one in the first place.

No excuse is needed to have a party, but in case the neighbours ask, you can always draw on the ingenuity ofcountless generations of ravers from the time ofGomorrah onwards. Christmas wins hands down as the best all round excuse, comfortablyexplaining away any wayward behaviour from mid-November until at least Easter (you simply have to have parties in the early months of the new year to cheer everyone up after the end of the festive season). Just remember, when it comes to excuses, a birth is as good as a death and there is plenty of human activity worthy ofcelebration

l l

Roman hottey-cokey in Cecil B. 0

between the two. If in doubt, buy a Dictionary of Dates and Events and insist on commemorating the birthdays of obscure European field marshals and little-known rep actors.

Now, organising anything at all may seem horribly, horribly difficult. but don‘t despair— with a little know-how, good parties are remarkably easy to put together. And just to give you a wee bit of help. we‘ve prepared a host of names and numbers which will prove invaluable for party preparation. All you have to do is come up with a few pals to join in the fun and leave the rest to us. As your starter for ten. here is an inspiring resumé. recalled through an alcoholic blur. ot'thc best bashes held recently in Central Scotland. . Happy hangover!

BOOKS 92 FOOO 94 COMPETITIONS 99 lEITEIIS IOO

eMille's 1922 movie Manslaughter

V BEST

I Fringe Film Festival Party at Edinburgh’s lnlirmary Street Baths The elegantly decayed Victorian splendom of this swimming pool witnessed scenes of decadence worthy ofa Cecil B. De Mille movie wine, women and naked bods galore. Everyone took to the water, and even those unsuspecting souls who turned up costume-less soon stripped offand joined the rest ofthe soggy masses. Undoubted highlight of the evening was when the somewhat crusty Director of the Festival in question received an unexpected fully-clothed dip in the pool. But no. surprisingly enough. nobody drowned.

I Schlitz and Slam In Orbit Club Tour at

Glasgow's Winter Gardens Scotland . the final frontier. The voyages ofthe nightclub Slam took it on a mission

to boldly go where no club had gone before. . .a Glasgow greenhouse. >

The List 7 20 December l99tl O5