I Come To Drink Caesar Not To Praise Him

Bloody Caesar! No that's not an editorial comment on a Shakespearian tragedy. Bloody Caesar is a uniquely Canadian cocktail, invented by a Calgary bartender 40 years ago. The ingredients back then: a mixture of hand-mashed clams, tomato juice, vodka, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper and garnished with a celery stick. Mmm nectar of the gods...well at least of Roman emperors.

The popularity of the drink has been single-handedly responsible for Mott's fruit juice company raking in the revenues after inventing and then mass producing first Clamato juice - a pre-mixed concoction that replaced the hand-mashing of those clams each time the drink is prepared - and subsequently a Mott's Clamato Ready-To-Drink Caesar.

You know, Canada has a long, proud history of inentiveness, associated with our many national symbols. Things like the walkie-talkie, standard time, java programming language, the blackberry, the Canadarm, the electric wheelchair, pablum, and peanut butter.

And now, on the 40th anniversary of it's inception there's a move afoot to make the Bloody Caesar Canada's national cocktail. Yep, there's a petition out there aimed at just that. The aim is to present it to Canada's Parliament and to push for legislation proclaiming the Bloody Caesar Canada's national drink. Of course the petition is sponsored by Mott's. So even if the proclamation efforts aren't successful, I'm sure the resulting publicity won't hurt sales. But, hey, good on ya Mott's! And if their efforts are successful? "Friends, Canadians, countrymen lend me your clamato juice!"

The Polka Dot Door

A long time ago, when I was 22, my first child was born. That kid grew up on a little Canadian kid's show called Polka Dot Door, produced by the TV Ontario network. And Dad, more often than not, sat through those shows with his little one. Nine or so years later when a brother, and a year after that when a sister came along number one son was moving on to Knight Rider and The Dukes of Hazzard. But there was a nice overlap where his siblings picked up where he had left off with Polka Dot Door. And Dad was right there to welcome them. So you're looking at a Polka Dot Door veteran. The show began in 1971 and ran to 1993. I didn't watch the full run but I did get in my fair share. The formula was pretty simple. A young male and female host, which seemed to change every week, sang songs, told stories, made crafts and generally did their best stimulate little brains. The show opened as follows... Imagination Day! Oh boy! You know what happens on Imagination D

My Back Pages - November

I know, I know, I know I should have reported in before now. But sometimes real life just gets in the way. I attempted 5 books in November. I say attempted because I slapped a big DNF (did not finish) on Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. I just can't seem to get into this guy. It's the second or third of his I've given up on, Not so the other four, starting with a biography of Stephen Stills called Change Partners. This followed by a hilarious biography of the guy responsible for National Lampoon called A Stupid and Futile Gesture - How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever. I ended the month reading yet another biography, this one of the man behind Rolling Stone magazine,. It was called Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine. A fascinating read. So last month I hit the magic number 50 I'd imagined for myself back in January. If I roll this month into my yearly total I'm at 54 books. And I still hav

30 Days of Photos III #4 Sour

Check out Ziva's Inferno for the rest of today's photos.

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