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Monday, July 07, 2025

stubby beer bottles
 

Bottle benefits

"The stubby is being reinterpreted ... as a discreet way of protecting a national industry," CBC News reporter Colin Butler writes in a recent story about a long-gone (but once ubiquitous) style of beer bottle.

Research by Heather Thompson at Carleton University inspired the article, which says the stubby "was the keystone in a closed-loop Canadian bottling system that kept costs down for domestic brewers while it kept foreign brewers out." 

A 1984 report on the stubby's demise, by Fred Langan for CBC's The Journal, focused less on the bottle's economic benefits and more on why brewers began to favour long necks. "The brewers wanted to stand out, to be unique," he said.

Close shot of audience at a music festival
 

All-day picnic

Back in May, CBC Music compiled a list of 46 music festivals you won't want to miss this summer, including the Cavendish Beach Music Festival in P.E.I., Ottawa Bluesfest and the Winnipeg Folk Festival this week alone. 

In the summer of 1981, CBC News attended the Police Picnic, a one-day event in Oakville, Ont., which could have been on such a list. A review in the Globe and Mail said musical acts that performed at the concert included John Otway, Killing Joke, Nash the Slash, The Specials, the Police and Iggy Pop.

"The promoters of this show had to sell 16,000 tickets, at $20 each, to break even. By 2 o'clock, they'd made their money back," said reporter Dana Karkheck. "It was a great day for everyone." 

IMan with face covered by white bandages
 

Stage presence

The aforementioned Nash the Slash is having a renaissance, CBC Radio's Commotion recently learned. The enigmatic musician, whose real name was Jeff Plewman, was active in the 1970s and '80s and died in 2014.

As a guest on the CBC youth program Switchback, Nash the Slash told host Dale Martindale he got his name from a Laurel and Hardy movie. 

"They were playing these two detectives looking for this maniac killer named Nash the Slash," the musician said. "Made a good stage name, you know."

graphic showing sun surrounded by ice pops

The sweet taste of summer

"Parents are pressured to give kids an '80s summer," reads the headline of a recent CBC News story. One way to do this would be to recreate some of the frozen treats reporter Kathryn Wright reviewed on CBC's Midday in 1987, including Fruit Fantasy yogurt bars and the Chipwich ice cream sandwich.

Handmade sign reading

Day 1

Last week, music, colour and rainbows filled the streets when Toronto hosted what CBC News said was the "largest Pride celebration in the country." Long before that event though, Canada's first public march in support of gay rights took place in Ottawa on a rainy day in August 1971.  
Headbanger type with sign

Welcome to Wayne's World

Mike Myers recently told CBC News he'd benefitted from growing up in Canada and said he'd even worked for the public broadcaster. His acting roles at CBC included dramas and playing the metalhead Wayne Campbell, whom he made famous on Saturday Night Live and in the comedy Wayne’s World.

Man with pale hair on black background

The real Rob Ford

Last month, Netflix released a new documentary in the series Trainwreck, revisiting the tumultuous mayoralty of Toronto's Rob Ford, who admitted to smoking crack cocaine in 2013. In 2005, as a city councillor, Ford told CBC News: Sunday how he thought the authorities should deal with drug users.

 
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