TIDBITS® ATTENDS SOME MEMORABLE
CONCERTS
by Kathy Wolfe
Calling all music lovers! This week, Tidbits recalls a few memorable concert events in the world of musical performance.
• The Moondog Coronation Ball is considered to be the first-ever rock concert. Held in a Cleveland, Ohio, arena in 1952, it featured headliners Paul Williams and his Hucklebuckers, along with Tiny Grimes and the Rocking Highlanders. All 10,000 seats sold out on the first day of advance sales, but on concert day, counterfeiting and printing errors led to upwards of 20,000 spectators showing up. Fans broke through the gates and the police shut the concert down after just a single song.
• In December, 2024, Taylor Swift concluded the Eras Tour, which set the record for the highest-grossing concert tour. Ticket sales grossed a record $2 billion, doubling that of any other tour in history, with more than 10.1 million people attending the 149 shows across six continents. Average ticket price was $204. She toppled the previous record of $1 billion set by Coldplay in 2024’s Music of the Spheres World Tour. The first tours to pass $100 million in revenue were Michael Jackson’s Bad World Tour and Pink Floyd’s A Momentary lapse of Reason Tour, both of which ran between 1987 and 1989. turn the page for more!
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CONCERTS
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• There’s nothing rare about a musical artist falling on or off the stage during a concert, some more than once. In 2008, Katy Perry jumped on top of a giant cake, and slipped and fell on the frosting that covered her. She tried to stand up several more times, each time resulting in another fall. Justin Bieber limped off the stage after falling in the midst of stunts, and a few years later fell into a stage hole. Beyonce suffered a huge fall at an Orlando concert when the tail of her long coat got caught under the heel of her shoe, sending her down a flight of stairs leading to the stage. She fell again a few years later during a concert in Brazil. Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler incurred serious injuries to his head and neck, along with a broken shoulder, when he fell off the stage while performing at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota, forcing the remainder of the band’s tour to be cancelled. The following year, Tyler tumbled again, this time in Toronto, coincidentally while performing the same song he had been singing when he plunged off the stage in Sturgis.
• The record for the largest outdoor concert was set in 1997 by French musician JeanMichel Jarre, an artist known for his impressive light and laser shows. The concert took place at the State University of Moscow in celebration of the 850th Anniversary of Moscow, Russia. More than 3.5 million people attended the event. Jarre broke his own record with the Moscow concert, having set the record for largest attendance in Paris in 1990, with a draw of 2.5 million fans. Jean-Michel is a second-generation musician, with father Maurice Jarre composing the movie soundtrack of many films, including “Doctor Zhivago,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Ghost,” and “Dead Poets Society,” and winning three Oscars for his compositions.
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CONCERTS
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• In August, 1965, The Beatles performed a packed concert at Shea Stadium, home of baseball’s New York Mets. They sang on the stadium’s infield before 55,000 wild and screaming fans using the same P.A. system used to announce baseball games. They played just 12 songs in a brief 27 minutes, receiving $160,000 for their efforts. One year later, the Fab Four returned to the Queens stadium, taking home $189,000 from that show. The group’s final public performance, known as the Beatles’ Rooftop Concert, was performed on the rooftop of their London Apple Corps headquarters in January, 1969. The idea had been conceived just a few days before the performance and was unannounced to the public. The event began at 12:30 PM, playing before “an audience of chimneys” until workers in the area on their lunch break began to gather in the streets and on nearby rooftops. The 42-minute set was filmed and recorded and used in the 1970 documentary “Let It Be.”
• Tragedy struck during a Rolling Stones concert at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival in 1969, resulting in the deaths of four attendees. Two fans were killed by a car that ran into a group huddled near a campfire next to the road. Another died when he launched on a slippery slide down an irrigation canal. Violence erupted when an 18-year-old spectator was killed during the concert. Onehundred Hells Angels members had been hired as security for the event, and one member grabbed the young man and stabbed him several times when he attempted to run away. The killer was later acquitted. Several other people were beaten by the Angels, and artist Stephen Stills was stabbed in the leg with a sharpened bicycle spoke.
Musician to concert-goers: “If you have requests, write them on a $20 bill, and send them up to the stage. We’ll see if we can work them in.”
CONCERTS
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• The show must go on! That was the mentality of Weird Al Yankovic on April 9, 2004 when he was scheduled to appear at an Appleton, Wisconsin, venue. That afternoon, Al had received word that his elderly parents had perished in their home from carbon monoxide poisoning, the result of a closed fireplace flue. Yankovic chose to take the stage, saying, “Since my music had helped many of my fans through tough times, maybe it would work for me as well.”
• Only one band has played on all seven continents. Metallica set this Guinness World Record in 2013 after completing the final concert at Antarctica’s Carlini Station, performing for 120 scientists and winners of a contest sponsored by the Coca-Cola Company. The concert was played without amplification in order to preserve the local environment from noise pollution. All the spectators heard the music through headphones. Metallica not only completed those concerts on all seven continents –theydid it all within one year.
• Milwaukee’s annual Summerfest music festival has been the scene of performances by hundreds of renowned artists, including Frank Sinatra, Prince, Whitney Houston, Fleetwood Mac, Maroon 5, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Johnny Cash, and the Rolling Stones. First held in 1968, the event takes place downtown next to Lake Michigan. Attendance is about 800,000 each year, although it has topped one million on occasion. Six-hundred artists are slated to appear this year on 12 different stages over three different weekends.
• During 2023, a Maryland couple nabbed the Guinness World Record by attending 135 concerts that year, including Beyonce, Sam Smith, Billy Joel, and Stevie Nicks. Tijan and Matt Brown spent $18,407.24 throughout the year. Although they take pictures before the concert, as soon as the music begins, the couple puts their phones away and lives for the moment, and engrossing themselves in the music.
St. Patrick's Day Leftovers
Reimagined: Make These Tasty Hand Pies
Next Monday is St. Patrick's Day, and if you're like so many people, you'll be wearing green, attempting an Irish brogue and enjoying a traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner. I usually find I have leftovers, but not quite enough to make an encore meal for the family. What's a lass to do? Take a cue from classic Irish pub grub and make hand pies, or pasties, with the leftovers to make them go further. First, a little fun foodie history. These hand pies are very similar to Cornish pasties (PASS-tees). The Cornish pasty originates with the tin miners in Cornwall, England, during the 1800s. The underground miners couldn't come to the surface for lunch, so a portable lunch was required. Also, the miner's hands were very dirty (and tin contains arsenic!), so the large crimp of the crust served as a handle. The pie could be eaten, and that part of the crust discarded.
Also, the people making the pies would sometimes put sweet jam filling in one corner of the pie for dessert. The person making the pie would pinch the miner's initials into the pie crust at the end with the sweet filling so the miner would know to start at the opposite end. This way, if the miner wanted to leave some pasty to enjoy later, his initials could identify which pie belongs to whom. Such a clever idea!
For convenience, I'm using purchased refrigerated pie crust, but you could certainly make dough from scratch if you desire. Make enough for a twocrust pie.
This recipe uses leftovers, and since your leftovers are probably different from mine, use this recipe as a guideline, because it's totally adjustable. For example, you might have more cabbage, less potatoes and no carrots. No problem! If the total volume is 4 1/2 cups, you can fill each of the six hand pies with 3/4 cups filling.
ST. PADDY'S PASTIES
Yield: 4-6 servings
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
1 1/2 cups corned beef, cubed 1 cup carrot, cubed 1 1/2 cups potato, cubed 1/2 cup cabbage, well drained 1 tablespoon mustard, optional Fresh ground pepper
1 egg
2 (9 inch/15 ounce) pie crust rounds Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using the leftovers from your corned beef and cabbage dinner, or freshly cooked equivalent, cube and measure the corned beef, potato, carrot and cabbage. Into a large bowl, combine the ingredients above, adding mustard and a few grinds of pepper, if desired. Crack an egg in a small bowl and beat with 1 tablespoon water to make egg wash. Set aside. Working with one pie crust at a time, place the crust on parchment and cut into thirds, like a clockface at 12, 4 and 8 o'clock. Working one piece at a time, roll each piece into a rough rectangle. They won't be perfect; don't worry. It's part of their charm. Place 3/4 cup filling slightly off
center. Brush egg wash over the edges of the dough. Gently pull the pastry over the filling and crimp to seal the edges. Brush the egg wash over the top and crimp of each pie. Place on a parchment-covered baking sheet. Repeat with remaining pies. Bake for 3540 minutes, or until the pies are golden and gorgeous. Of course, this hand pie could contain any filling you wish. Imagine them with shredded chicken, ground beef or simply cooked vegetables. These pasties are perfect picnic fare or lunches on the go.
Lifestyle expert Patti Diamond is the penny-pinching, partyplanning, recipe developer and content creator of the website Divas On A Dime Where Frugal, Meets Fabulous! Visit Patti at www.divasonadime.com and join the conversation on Facebook at DivasOnADimeDotCom. Email Patti at divapatti@divasonadime.com (c) 2025 King Features Synd., Inc.
These golden, flaky pasties turn St. Patrick's Day leftovers into a handheld feast. PHOTO CREDIT: www.JasonCoblentz.com
MOOD RINGS
Can you really tell your frame of mind from a piece of jewelry? Lots of folks in 1975 believed you could, purchasing millions of the latest craze, mood rings. This week, Tidbits has the details on this popular fad.
• The stories differ a bit as to the invention of the mood ring. Some say that in 1975, an American jeweler named Marvin Wernick came up with the idea of using liquid crystal elements that changed color in pendants and rings. He claimed that the color of the jewelry was an indication of the warmth of the wearer’s character. But Wernick failed to patent his invention, and that same year, a 33-year-old Wall Street executive named Joshua Reynolds and his colleague Maris Ambats stepped in.
• Reynolds was burned out on his stressful New York City job and began studying biofeedback as a means of relaxation. He devised a “mood ring” to determine individuals’ emotional states to help them reflect on and control their anxiety. The ring’s “stone” was a hollow glass or quartz shell filled with thermotropic liquid crystals, which responded to changes in body temperature that changed their molecular structure and, subsequently, their color. The inside of the ring conducted heat from the wearer’s finger to the liquid crystals.
• A person’s normal peripheral (skin level) temperature is 82 degrees F (28 C). At this temperature, the liquid crystals are a pleasing green color, reflecting “average” mood. When peripheral temperature increases in response to calm and happiness, the crystals turn a deep violet blue. When a body is stressed, blood flow moves toward the internal organs, which cools the fingers. When this occurs, the crystals turn yellow or amber. Being nervous or anxious can cause the stone to turn brown or gray. Cold weather brings about a black color, as will taking a mood ring off. (Continued page #7)
Are big dogs passe? Smaller, indoor dogs gain popularity
DEAR PAW'S CORNER: Why are so many people opting for small, yappy dogs these days instead of big dogs? That seems to be all I see when folks walk their dogs around here. A small dog won't protect you or your home. Bobby T., Oak Ridge, Tennessee
DEAR BOBBY: While it may seem that most dog owners are choosing smaller breeds, the number of small vs. large dogs varies greatly depending on where you live. So you may observe that most of your immediate neighbors have small dogs but their popularity is not as universal as you think.
The American Kennel Club, for example, annually lists the most popular dogs by number of registrations per breed. In 2023, the most recent year of published data, the French bulldog was the most popular registered breed in the U.S. However, among the top 10 breeds, only four including the French bulldog, Dachshund, Beagle and Bulldog could be classified as "small." The remaining six most popular dogs, including the Rottweiler, Golden Retriever and German Shorthaired Pointer, are all large breeds.
Not all U.S. households that own dogs have registered breeds, of course, The American Veterinary Medical Association in 2024 reported that just under half of U.S. households own dogs, while 32.1% are cat owners. So, while the French bulldog may be the most popular AKC-registered pet, that statistic doesn't take into account all of the dogs that are being walked through their neighborhoods nationwide.
Security-wise, having a dog of any size can be a deterrent for potential intruders (or attackers). Large breeds, often gentle giants, can deter people with bad intentions easily, but smaller breeds should not be underestimated.
Send your tips, comments or questions to ask@pawscorner.com.
(c) 2025 King Features Synd., Inc.
MOOD RINGS
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• A September, 1975 issue of “People” magazine touted the ring’s benefits: “The mood stone you can trust…Mood Stone reveals all.”
• First-year sales exceeded $20 million. Reynolds’ sales would have been higher if other manufacturers hadn’t flooded the market with cheaper versions than his product. Although most of the rings were cheap, low quality, and one-size-fits-all, some fine jewelers jumped into the market, producing rings out of precious metals, such as sterling silver and gold. Pendants, chokers, and bracelets were also created. Some rings sold for $2, but Neiman-Marcus had styles that retailed for $250.
• By the end of 1977, the market was saturated, the demand for mood rings fell, and within two years, the fad was over. Joshua Reynolds made a small fortune in a short period of time, but when the mood ring hoopla concluded, he went on to invent the Thigh Master exercise machine.
• How accurate were mood rings in detecting emotional sensitivity? Truth be told, the rings were more sensitive to outside elements and exterior temperatures than changes in mood. Taking the ring off, sitting on it, or running it under hot or cold water would create a color shift much more quickly and effectively than changes in emotions. Never mind that finger temperature is not a reliable gauge of mood. Additionally, mood rings had a limited life span, as the liquid crystals would only create color changes for about two years before settling permanently into dark gray or black.
• Mood rings experienced a revival in 1991 when two young women established a business that sold 100,000 rings in less than three months to buyers that included Walt Disney World.
* Have your carpets cleaned. High-traffic areas may require it as much as every three or four months, but bedrooms can go as long as 18 months. Use runners and area rugs to safeguard spots that may be vulnerable, like under a vanity or by your sofas.
* "I had some residue on my bathroom ceiling from hard water condensation. I happened to have a set of crutches lying around. I used a hair elastic to secure a hand towel to the arm rest of one crutch. Then I sprayed it with water and used it to scrub the ceiling. It worked really well. I was done in no time."- A.A. in Florida
* A baking soda and water mix is great for tile floors if you want a quick mop up. If a lot of your floors are tile, do yourself a favor and invest in a steam mop. They clean and sanitize, leaving your floors brilliant.
* "One of the things I do each spring (and fall) is to go through my makeup and toss the old items. I also freshen up my first aid
kit, and get new bottles of sunscreen and bug spray to keep in my car kit, so I will always have it around."
E.A. in California
* Be sure you use a trivet or other protectant when placing flowerpots on wood floors. Also, purchase felt pads for the bottoms of furniture. This will eliminate divots or other kinds of depressions or scratches in the floor.
* "Tiny tears in your window screen can be secured with clear nail polish. I dab the spot, then use tweezers to line up the tiny wires, then dab again. Just make sure the window is open, or the screen might stick to the windowpane."
T.T. in Indiana
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(c) 2025 King Features Synd., Inc.
