Bars Reopen In Kerala, To Sell Only Beer & Wine

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Liquor bars in Kerala have resumed operations from Monday though only beer and wine will be sold for now. They were closed nearly a week ago, soon after the latest Covid unlock had commenced, in protest over the hike in warehouse charges by the Beverages Corporation or Bevco which is the wholesale seller of liquor in the State. Bar owners on Monday said no liquor will be sold at bars till their demands are met. The exception has been made for beer as it cannot be sold after the expiry date.

The president of the Federation of Kerala Hotels Associations, V Sunil Kumar, said private bars could resume parcel service only if the government took a decision favourable to them. More than 800 bars and 40 liquor outlets of the Consumerfed across Kerala had shut operations this month citing financial loss. The outlets turned sick as the Bevco increased its warehouse rate and slashed the profit margin of retailers. Bevco had raised the warehouse charge for bars from 8% to 25% and for Consumerfed from 8% to 20%.

Bevco justified the move saying that the increase was needed to recoup the loss it faced during the COVID lockdowns. Following the move, the bars and Consumerfed liquor outlets decided to cease operations from June 21, three days after the sale of liquor had resumed in the state. The profit margin of retail outlets fell to three per cent from 20% after Bevco increased its warehouse rate. Private bar owners said they would incur a loss of Rs 9,000 while selling liquor worth Rs 1 lakh under the revised Bevco rate.

RIP Johnny Solinger

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American singer-songwriter Johnny Solinger best known as the lead vocalist of Skid Row from 1999 to 2015 has passed away at the age of 55. On May 8th Solinger revealed he had spent the past month in a hospital due to liver failure. On Saturday, his former band mates in Skid Row announced on social media that Solinger had died.

Johnny Solinger was born in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, where he was exposed to hard rock and country music, and fell in love with them. In 1990, he formed the rock band SOLINGER in Dallas, recording four independent records: Solinger, Solinger II, Chain Link Fence, and Solinger Live. He enjoyed live performance and radio success throughout the Southwest.

He rose to fame as Skid Row’s lead singer when the band reformed in 1999 following their 1996 split and the departure of Sebastian Bach. The musician featured on two of the band’s albums and two EPs: 2003’s Thickskin, 2006’s Revolutions Per Minute, 2013’s United World Rebellion: Chapter One and 2014’s Rise of the Damnation Army — United World Rebellion. In 2015 Johnny announced on his website that he was quitting Skid Row to concentrate on his solo career but bassist Rachel Bolan stated in an interview that they let him go as they wanted to change the singer due to musical & performance related issues though Snake Sabo stated at the time that the decision was mutual.

A friend of Johnny’s, Brian Lawrence, is believed to have set up a GoFundMe page back in May to raise money for his hospital bills after the rocker was diagnosed with liver failure. However, the page has since updated today confirming that Johnny has died. He wrote: “Update from Paula….Johnny has passed. I was holding his hand. He went in peace. Thank you all. I will take a break from everything but please know I am forever grateful for your love.” Johnny had been married to Argentinian actress Paula Marcenaro, who appeared to pay tribute to her husband on her Instagram stories.

Treats We Enjoyed As Kids

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Share your kid’s favourite summer treats.

Since I don’t have any kids of my own, I’m gonna share the summer treats that I enjoyed as a kid along with my sister and our cousins and what I am sure my cousins’ kids also do. One that is a rarity and I think is only really available in parts of India is the ice cream soda. Not the one that you are thinking of, but this is actually vanilla ice cream flavoured soda that you get in bottles. After a day of playing football or cricket with my cousins and sweating up a storm, going and get a few cold ice cream sodas to quench our thirsts was great.

We had these things called sip-ups – semi-frozen flavoured drink or cola in these plastic tubes that you buy from a street vendor or store and then proceed to suck up the juicy cold deliciousness. It was so popular at one time that they even sold it at my school’s cafeteria. Oh man, it’s so funny but I haven’t though about them in ages and this prompt suddenly brought back memories.

Ice cream floats. There was this one cafe at a hotel in Chullikal (near Mattancherry) that served them and I can’t think of any other place that’ve had it. It was basically a large scoop of vanilla ice cream placed inside a glass of Pepsi or Coca-Cola. I think mostly Pepsi as we had a problem with Coke until the late 90s. Those were the bomb and it was a huge treat for us.

Also near my grandmother’s house we had this small little joint called Cool Of Cools. It was an ice cream shop that specialized in these awesome sundaes and faloodas. Faloodas are basically a South Asian ice cream sundae or dish a South Asian with vermicelli noodles at the bottom along with rose syrup and sweet basil seeds with milk. When served cold ofcourse it is amazingly delicious, if you don’t mind the chewing of the basil seeds and vermicelli. Sure to cool you down.

Blog prompt from 30 Blog Post Ideas for June at The Frangipani Creative