Here and there

The old guys are out in the buses, counting the money at the end of the big arena shows these days as the bands from the past, one by one come out of retirement to try it once again. Although, many of them never gave up the road as a way to make a buck. Look at our next show here. You have Randy Bachman born in Sept. 1943 and Burton Cummings, Dec. 1947, so both of the Canadian stars are in their sixties and still commanding the big bucks at the gate.

The summer of 2009 and the aging rockers are rolling across the land with their concert tours. The majority of them are in there sixties. Crosby (67), Stills (63) and Nash (67). Bruce Springsteen (60) at $90 a ticket, Elton John (62) at $130 for an average ticket. Tina Turner (69) says this isn’t her “goodbye” tour and her seats are over $100. Leonard Cohen the oldest of the touring pros at 74 is commanding over a $100 also for a ticket and that surprises me.

The summer calendar dominated by 60 something rockers. Stars like Paul McCartney (67), Joe Cocker (64), Steve Miller (65) and Blondie (Debbie Harry) who turns 64 in July. These are just some of the old timers making the bus journey this year because that’s were the cash is.

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I wrote about his back in April when we returned from holidays and one of our daughters called to ask about her car rental bill. It was loaded with extra charges after they had signed off after their stay. We noticed items listed that we didn’t quite understand except it was a fee and was in many cases charged daily. Included were many items that were the cost of doing business.

CBC must have been informed by one of their viewers about these charges as it seems renting some wheels was the same in Canada. Surcharges like License fee, Road Tax, Air-conditioning Excise Tax. But how about this one at 83 cents a day? The Energy Recovery Fee. This, according to the report, covers utilities, oil and grease.

It just means you have to ask some questions because no one can read the small print on those contracts. In most cases you have just arrived and want to begin your holidays or get to work after being on a plane for hours. You just want to get out of there and you’ll sign anything. These days you have to take a minute and see what you are signing. Ask some questions.

Just take something like that Energy Recovery Fee and multiply that by thousands of cars and you’ll quickly work out how profitable these small fees can be for an industry that is suffering a bit because we aren’t traveling as much.

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It is the 40th birthday of the Canadian superstar cocktail, the Bloody Caesar. It was all about a new drink needed for a new restaurant in the Calgary Inn hotel (now the Westin Hotel) in Calgary in the 60s. In 1969 bartender Walter Chell invented the cocktail and his original design contained mashed clams.

When I used to travel west back in those days I stayed at the Calgary Inn many times and certainly did try the drink in its original form. I remember writing down the recipe and bringing it home to try on my friends. This was before the Duffy Mott Company started producing Clamato juice.

According to the juice maker who makes seventy per cent of all the Clamato Juice, the Caesar is our most popular cocktail with more than 350 million served each year. That includes 40 million litres of Mott’s, 10 million litres of vodka, a lot of celery, celery salt, limes and Worcestershire sauce.

South of the border they say that it all happened in Las Vegas when Tony Bennett was performing there and needed something to perk him up and the bartender came up with the idea for the Caesar at the bar in the Caesar’s Palace.

I like the Canadian story better because we all know it takes more than that to come up with a cocktail people will drink.

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It was good to see by the media sources out of Toronto that Maple Leaf defenseman Luke Schenn, former Kelowna Rocket, was not bothered by all the rumours that he was going to be traded. The story was floated out there because the Leafs are looking for new bodies to make this club a contender. Schenn, just up from a junior, had a very positive year.

But the phone rang for Luke and it was the boss Brian Burke and he told the young newcomer that the story was all false and he wasn’t going anywhere and to ignore the rumours.

Burke likes the limelight and press but he was adamant about this story with the words “in no way” ending his comment on the Schenn rumour.