Rule Brittania, Brittania waives the rules.

“This isn't Europe mate, this is Britain”. Such was the answer I got in 1967 on my first visit to London. I moved to England the next year with my family and we lived there till 1972. I was the true innocent abroad and didn't even know how to order in a posh restaurant; steak tartare and a beer got laughs from my English colleagues. I learned the coins and the customs but I was self-taught. The key to understanding Britain and why they want to leave the EU is Orwell. He was the quintessential Englishman. He wrote an essay on how to make a perfect cup of tea (it's the milk, not the sugar) and on the ideal English pub (the mythical Moon under Water). For the upper classes you want Anthony Powell's novels: “Dance to the music of time”. Even though 180 degrees apart politically, they were good friends. Orwell would applaud the “Leave” campaign. I got a taste of British inequality quickly when I took some clients to lunch at the ultra-posh “Maison Prunier” where I finally knew my way around the menu including wine..we'll take the Gevrey-Chambertin. The bill was over 100 pounds ($290). The next day I took my secretary (who was earning 18 pounds a week while I was earning over 10,000 pounds a year) to lunch and the bill was roughly 15 shillings (about $1.80). Different worlds. Check out these wise words from Orwell's wartime booklet: “The English People”:..”they will have to take their destiny into their own hands...England can only fulfill its special mission if the ordinary English on the street can somehow get their hands on power..if England is to survive as a great nation it is the common people who must make it so”. And they did on June 23. We'll see what happens now after Brexit. They'll still sing “There'll always be an England”, and the real lyrics :“Rule Brittania, Brittania Rules the Waves. Britons never, never, never shall be slaves”. Rightly so, mate.

A heat wave brings NHL hockey to Vegas

Order the Zamboni: Vegas joins the NHL for the 2016-17 season. We have a splendid new arena, an owner with lots of money and an enthusiastic local fan base. Actually, a monster fan base since Vegas gets over 40 million visitors a year. Some of them must be from Buffalo and the seven dwarf teams from Canada that didn't see a playoff game this year. I've been to 12 NHL arenas and this new one might be the best one ever. Although running through the snow to the old Olympia in Detroit during the Gordie Howe era certainly furnished the best memories. Now for a name: The Sleepless Knights, The Scorpions, The Cool Hands? Vegas deserves to be in the big leagues and the NBA and the NFL might not be far behind. But now that Vegas has an NHL team Toronto will want one too.