Noteworthy: Great lineup of shows, even if some of us are getting up there

By Bruce Penton on May 8, 2024.

What, no Strawberry Alarm Clock? Tickets are on sale for the 2024 night shows for the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede, and history suggests the infield and grandstand will be jam-packed for all three performances.

Bret Michaels, the frontman for the rock group Poison, leads if off on Wednesday, July 24, followed by The Washboard Union on Thursday. Saturday’s finale will feature the James Barker Band (is Ma still in the back row singing harmonies?). As for the Strawberry Alarm Clock reference, that was a one-hit wonder rock band who delighted people my age with their hit Incense and Peppermints in 1967. Fifty-seven years ago. Man, where has the time gone? Speaking of that year, the Toronto Maple Leafs, again, won’t win the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1967.

â€¢ Individuals and groups named Norman Whitfield, MC5 and A Tribe Called Quest are three of the 2024 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but Winnipeg’s The Guess Who, with a couple of dozen top 10 hits in the 1960s and 1970s, have yet to get the call. American Woman, Undun, These Eyes, No Sugar Tonight, No Time … Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman are more than deserving of their rock group to be included with the best of all time. Maybe they’ll get the honour in 2025.

â€¢ There are major differences between life in the United States and our comparatively quiet existence in Canada, but one of the most stark differences was shown in a recent New York Times story that said Tennessee’s legislature passed a bill toÂ allow teachers to carry concealed handgunsÂ on school grounds. It’s another world down there, folks.

â€¢ Babe Ruth hit his first home run as a New York Yankee on May 1, 1920 but the most interesting aspect of the homer is the description of the blast used in the New York Times: “A colossal clout” and labelled a “sockdolager.” The word ‘sockdolager’ – one I’d never heard before – shows up as a legitimate word in most dictionaries, meaning “something unusually large, heavy, etc.; a decisive reply, argument, etc.; a heavy, finishing blow.”

Sounds about right.

Here’s hoping James Tubb of the News sports department uses sockdolager at least once this summer to describe a mammoth round-tripper by one of Greg Morrison’s Mavericks.

â€¢ Have Hatters ever been as excited about a heavy rain forecast as they were this week? Forecasters began telling us last weekend that southeastern Alberta would be hammered by heavy rain, especially on Tuesday. The cheers were heard everywhere. With incessant talk about drought and possible water restrictions this summer, any talk of heavy rain is music to most of our ears.

â€¢ Good news, I guess. A recent headline in the Globe and Mail: “Italy’s mafia turns to white-collar crime as murder, extortion fall out of favour.” The story said tax evasion and financial fraud have replaced blood-stained murders and car bombings, etc. The mobsters are getting kinder as they age, I guess. Only 22 mob-related murders were reported last year in Italy, down from a high of more than 700 in 1991.

â€¢ Short snappers: The price of a first-class stamp has gone up. It’s now $1.15, a hike of eight cents. … Great to hear that Donna Serr has been honoured as the Make A Wish Foundation’s volunteer of the year in the Western region. It’s about time the Hat woman was the recipient of something nice after all these years of giving of herself to help brighten the lives of those who need it most. … The pool at the Big Marble Go Centre (the Kinsmen Aquatic Centre, to be precise) will be closed from May 15 to Sept. 15. The Cenovus Arena across the lobby from the pool is currently closed and won’t be open again until sometime in July. … One positive aspect of the Oilers and Canucks meeting in Round 2 of the NHL playoffs is that a Canadian team is guaranteed to reach the Western Conference final. … Did you know a parking ticket in Medicine Hat must be paid within seven days or the dollar-value penalty is doubled? And if it still isn’t paid after 21 days, the perpetrator will receive a summons for a court date. … Ray Marco of Dunmore sent along a note with mild, but friendly, admonishment for my use last week of the word ‘Taylorphobe’ in describing people who knew absolutely everything about Taylor Swift. The word should have been ‘Taylorphile,’ said Marco, who says he is a “long retired Lethbridge Herald reporter and a weekly paper editor and a verbivore who loves the Medicine Hat News.” In hindsight, use of the word ‘Swiftie’ would have been better.