First of all, Lew Cady celebrates his 70th birthday today with a party at the Wynkoop. He’ll probably be the first one there. He likes being first. And last.
The retired Denver adman has even kept a log of these achievements, which often are associated with beer.
Among the examples: First beer at Duffy’s at Court Place in 1974; last beer there when it closed Dec. 1.
Last ticket on last horse in last race at Centennial Race Track.
First beer at the “new” Oxford Hotel in 1983.
First to place a bet in every casino in Central City and Black Hawk on opening day, Oct. 1, 1991.
Last to drive over the 16th Street Viaduct barefoot before it was torn down in 1994.
First to drink a beer in every bar on Colfax in one day on Aug. 29, 1994.
First beer at Denver ChopHouse, March 23, 1995.
First customer at Wines Off Wynkoop, June 25, 1997.
Wrote first letter to John Hickenlooper complaining about a pothole, 10 days before he was elected.
First person to eat a prow of Spam while being the first person driving under the prow of the Hamilton Building at the Denver Art Museum.
First person to sneak a beer into the Ellie Caulkins Opera House and drink it during an aria.
First person to drink a beer in a brew pub in each of the 50 states.
At the party, Cady plans to deliver a State of the Lew Address. “It’s mixed,” he says. “Like the state of everything else, some things are OK and some things are are failing – like knees.”
Batter up!
More than 250 men and one woman sent demo tapes to the Rockies to become the new Voice of Coors Field (Alan Roach stepped down after 14 years at the mic). About 25 of them got callbacks to try out Monday night at the Sports Column. You can vote for one of the Final Three at coloradorockies.com this week.
Water, water everywhere!
Terry Oaks shut down his Bolderdash clothing store last Sunday – and emptied the place. Good thing. On Monday, a water pipe broke outside his building and totally flooded the bottom floor, to the roof. “Normally, it would have been stuffed with merchandise,” he says. He did lose his press clippings from his years in the biz. “What a mess. It’s a little painful, but what are you gonna do?”
City spirit
Coming to Vail’s Ford Celebrity Cup on Friday and Saturday: “Bachelor” Lorenzo Borghese, Robert Carradine, “Young and Restless” star John Castellanos, ESPN’s Merrill Hoge, Robert Kennedy Jr., Ryan Sutter … “Desperate Housewife” Felicity Huffman grew up in Aspen and returns to her roots to appear (along with her mother Grace Huffman) in the play “The Aspen Soap” at Aspen High School on March 31 … Westword editrix Patty Calhoun turned 53 on Thursday and is on her way to have “53 Days of Fun” … Sez who: “I always give homeless people money, and my friends yell at me, ‘He’s only going to buy more alcohol and cigarettes.’ And I’m thinking, ‘Oh, like, and I wasn’t?”‘ Kathleen Madigan
Bill Husted’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Husted also appears Tuesdays and Fridays on “Good Day Colorado” on Fox 31. You can reach him at 303-954-1486 or bhusted @denverpost.com. Take a peek at husted’s next column at denverpost bloghouse.com/husted.
