Mayor John Hickenlooper is headed back to his alma mater, Wesleyan University, to deliver the commencement address Sunday. He is both honored and surprised.
(Sen. Michael Bennet and I also are graduates of Wesleyan, which proves it has an eclectic student body.)
“I was not the best student there,” Hickenlooper tells me. “I was a slow reader, and I was always behind. I dropped out, err, took time off, two times.”
He took nine years to earn a bachelor’s degree in English literature and a master’s in earth and environmental studies.
So what is he going to tell the class of 2010?
“I think I’ll talk a little bit about hard work, a little bit about persistence and then give them a little Lincoln.”
Abe Lincoln?
“Yes,” Hickenlooper says. “I’ll quote Lincoln. ‘I do the best I can, the very best I know how and I mean to do so until the end. If the end brings me out right, whatever is said against me won’t amount to anything. But if the end brings me out wrong, 10 angels swearing I was right won’t make any difference.”
On Sunday, alumni have organized a fundraiser for Hickenlooper’s gubernatorial campaign at 8 a.m. at O’Rourke’s Diner, the legendary home of the Steamed Cheeseburger.
I have dropped many of those gut bombs into my beer-filled tummy, and I advised Hickenlooper not to start the big day with one. He promised not to.
When dogs fly
George Stranahan, the Woody Creeker who brought us Flying Dog Beer, Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey and, through his years of support, Hunter S. Thompson, was in town last week to talk up his book “phlogs: Journey to the Heart of the Human Predicament.”
A big crowd showed to see George at 5 p.m. at the Flying Dog’s new Denver tasting room at 2330 Broadway.
I have always been fascinated by the name of his beer company, Flying Dog. According to George, it was inspired by a painting of a flying dog that years ago he saw above the bar at Flashman’s Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan. The hotel still exists. I told Stranahan that he should send someone out there, a quest to find the painting. I volunteered.
Stranahan was not that excited about finding the original Flying Dog and underwriting a story about it. “Make it up,” he told me.
Sliders
The slider competition at Elway’s Cherry Creek on June 16 is the official start of my summer — a benefit for Denver Health with plenty of drinks and sliders from the best chefs in Denver.
It also kicks off the summer music series at Elway’s, a time to celebrate. Chris Daniels & the Kings will play — minus Daniels because he is in Houston fighting cancer. Here’s a prayer for Chris. Paul Soderman is sitting in.
City spirit
The Denver Post Cheyenne Frontier Days Train, running to the rodeo July 24, sold out 72 minutes after tickets went on sale Sunday. That’s a record. . . . Sez who: “Nothing is so rewarding as a stubborn examination of the obvious.” Oliver Wendell Holmes
Bill Husted’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Friday. You can reach him at 303-954-1486 or at bhusted@denverpost.com. Take a peek at Husted’s next column at .
