Other High-profile Clients
After the item about my entertainment clients in last week’s blog, some of you inquired about other high-profile people who had consulted me throughout my career.
Well, there were a lot; but many of them can’t be identified because of confidentiality constraints. However, following is a list of those who are either not so constrained or whose association with me is already on the public record. My association with these clients ranged from a single consultation to relationships lasting many years.
Hockey: Roger Crozier, Glenn Hall, Bobby Hull, Dennis Hull, Mike Keenan, Alan MacAdam, Don MacAdam, Bobby Orr, Mike Pelyk, Norm Ullman, and Tom Watt. (I also advised about fifty other NHL players on tax, financial, and contract matters, but they are subject to the aforementioned confidentiality constraints and must remain anonymous.)
Baseball: John Bateman and Willie Davis.
Olympians: Dave (Eli) MacEachern, Paul Martini, and Barb Underhill,
Radio and TV: Andy Barrie, Jeremy Brown, Don Chevrier, Jack Dennett, Mary Lou Finlay, Hana Gartner, Ron Harrison, Brian Linehan, Pat Marsden, Jack McGaw, Ed McGibbon, Tom McKee, Knowlton Nash, Jacquie Perrin, Jim Perry; and Nancy Wilson.
Writers: Dick Beddoes, Milt Dunnell and Merle Shain.
Two More Entertainers
While searching my memory for the above list I remembered two entertainers I overlooked last week: Colleen Peterson and Gene Di Novi.
Stupid Mistake
The reason I had to search my memory for both lists is because during a period of temporary insanity a few years ago I made the monumentally stupid mistake of throwing out my diaries and appointment books. I also have no client files in my possession because they remain the property of the firms I was with at the time. So the odds are there are other names in both categories that I’ve forgotten.
Ponderables
Has there ever been anyone more in over his head than White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer?
How many more-descriptive adjectives has the word “cool” replaced?
Isn’t it long past time for ad agencies to stop using the so-called “employee pricing” come-on?
When are politicians, human rights tribunals, and most journalists going to admit that not all racists are white?
How could any real baseball fan not like Hazel Mae?
How could any real hockey fan like Gary Bettman?
Was there ever a worse hockey coaching decision than Marc Crawford not using Wayne Gretzky in the shoot-out during the 1998 Nagano Olympics?
Why would anyone go to a medical appointment without taking along something to read or do?
Has anyone ever actually cut off their nose to spite their face?
Is there a more ridiculous name for a ball park than Dunedin’s “Florida Auto Exchange Stadium?”
Is there a more senseless, boring song than “Wichita Lineman?”
Isn’t wearing socks with sandals counterproductive?
Joe Biagini
Most interviews with active athletes are boring, repetitive, uninformative and a complete waste of time. But Blue Jay pitcher Joe Biagini is an articulate, refreshing, and mischievously entertaining exception. Don’t pass up any opportunity to catch one of his interviews.
Sign Of The Times
While picking up one of my grandsons at his school a few days ago, I noticed that twenty of the twenty-one vehicles waiting in the pick-up zone were SUVs.
The Best Observation About Marriage I Ever Heard
One summer night back in the early 60s, during a break in a friendly poker game at the Morell Legion, when everybody else had gone to either the washroom or the bar, I turned to my good friend, the late Al Baker, a seemingly perfectly happy lifelong bachelor then in his early 40s, and asked him why he never got married.
“Well,” Al said with uncommon, but perfectly characteristic, candour, “anybody I ever wanted didn’t want me. And I always figured I’d be happier wanting something I didn’t have than having something I didn’t want.”
Taking The Summer Off
My muses (there aren`t nine, but there is more than one) are taking the summer off. So unless one of them gets particularly exercised about something there will be no more blogs until September.
“Thought for the day” will continue on Facebook and Twitter.
Thanks for following me, and have a great summer.