This song always makes me think of the Kentucky Derby:
Who do you like in the race? I picked Tapwrit, so if you’re betting, take that into account and mentally add 15 points to the odds.
Open thread! ???????
PS: I did pick Limousine Liberal in one of the earlier races, and he or she won!
PPS: One virtue of horses that is too rarely noted is that their poop is among the least offensive in the animal kingdom. It doesn’t really stink much (at least outdoors and in single doses), and sometimes it shapes vaguely like dinner rolls.
smintheus
But horse manure is pretty much useless as fertilizer.
efgoldman
mrs efg picked the one-eyed horse.
It’s aspirational.
I’m not paying attention. Watching local news and weather. I can’t stand an hour and a half or more of buildup and bullshit before the race goes off.
Shalimar
“My dinner roll looks like horse shit” is something I never had to think about before now.
Lapassionara
@efgoldman: I haven’t watched since the year the filly broke her leg and I heard the gun shot on the TV.
Have not missed it at all.
smintheus
And what is with all these media losers posting rebuttals to the valid point that rape will qualify as a pre-existing condition under the AHCA waivers? They seem not to understand what a pre-existing condition is; or maybe they don’t actually care that there are actual consequences for real people when insurers are allowed to price them out of insurance.
Like this idiot:
The real point, if the author has one at all, is that most states currently have their own laws protecting survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse. Evidently, those are presumed to be unchangeable.
Librarian
I remember back when CBS had Heywood Hale Broun covering the triple crown.
Omnes Omnibus
I picked Limousine Liberal as well. For the big one, I’m going with Thunder Snow.
Gindy51
@Lapassionara: Me either, I can’t stand horse racing or any kind of animal racing. Let people run if they want to but leave the critters alone.
debbie
Are there any grays this year?
Mike J
@efgoldman:
The odds are probably not as long as they should be, since many people will make a sentimental bet.
Just made some ro-tel dip (Steve made me realise I couldn’t get Panchos) and am starting my second julip.
Gindy51
@smintheus: It isn’t if you let it sit for a while. We had horses and where we had our manure pile, years later the trees grew FEET taller than the ones not located where it sat. The trick is to let it heat up and break down before you use it. A couple of years of sitting and it is nicer and easier to use than cow poop and doesn’t smell at all.
smintheus
@Gindy51: But it’s full of seeds that will sprout and clog whatever you’re fertilizing. Sheep manure is easily my favorite.
NotMax
Five unusual horse breeds.
Baud
We share that in common.
Betty Cracker
I had hoped this thread would evolve into a discussion of the merits of various categories of shit, and y’all did not disappoint!
dance around in your bones
Not being a horse race follower, when I think of the Kentucky Derby I always think of Hunter S. Thompson fearing and loathing.
That stupid link thingy better work. o.O
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
So drunk, and not even at a party. Had two Grey Goose martinis, then wife mentioned that I had mint and bourbon.
I didn’t object, but I was vaguely offended at using my craft made Michter’s bourbon in a cocktail I consider inferior. Anyway, my bar skills are superior, and I used turbinado sugar and the mint to make a couple of rounds of really good juleps, two shot each. made some more bets over TVG.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gindy51: If you eliminate horse racing, a lot of horses will become dog food.
rikyrah
REMINDER:
Profile in Courage Award – Live Stream
On May 7th, former President Barack Obama will accept the 2017 Profile in Courage Award at the Centennial May Dinner. Join us by watching the ceremony on live stream, beginning at 8:30pm with a special performance by James Taylor.
https://profileincourageaward.org/Live/
smintheus
@Betty Cracker: Or trying to prevent the thread turning into a discussion of the best horse racing films? My own favorite is the ’58 Stanley Kubrick film “The Killing”, with a great turn by Sterling Hayden.
Ohio Mom
@smintheus: They are taking everything completely literally: it is true, the law does not specifically state that exclusions for pre-existing conditions must be reinstated.
To take into account that the exclusion is an almost certain possibility because of how the proposed lawn is structured, and to extrapolate from that, is higher-ordered thinking. Not everyone makes it through all of Piaget’s levels, some people’s cognitive development stalls out.
rikyrah
We all need ‘self-care’. Part of my self-care is entertainment.
I have been looking forward to this show ever since they dropped the first trailer a few months ago.
MAY 29TH, FOLKS!
New Promo: ‘Still Star-Crossed’ (Debuts May 29)
When ABC announced its mid-season 2017 premieres earlier this year
(January), to the surprise and disappointment of many, the
much-anticipated post-“Romeo & Juliet” TV series from Shonda Rhimes’
Shondaland, titled “Still Star-Crossed,” which stars British actress
Lashana Lynch, wasn’t included on the schedule. It was expected to
premiere this current season, but it appeared that the network would
push it back even further with a premiere date announcement to
eventually be made.
Speaking at the TCA (Television Critics Association) in January, ABC
entertainment president Channing Dungey had this to say about the
ambitious period drama: “It has taken us a little longer than we thought
it would’ve taken us… I’ve seen the first three episodes, and the
fourth one is coming my way soon. It has all of the great hallmarks of a
Shondaland project, but it also is very epic in terms of its scope and
scale, and we did not want to rush it into a place where we felt like it
wasn’t ready.”
And as for when she thought it would eventually premiere, Dungey
said: “We are talking about summer; there is also a possibility that it
becomes something for fall… It’s a bit TBD .”
Fans can relax now as ABC announced its summer 2017 schedule earlier this month, with a number of new scripted, reality competition, and game shows included in the lineup. And one of the scripted series is of course “Still Star-Crossed,” which will premiere on Monday, May 29, airing from 10:01-11:00 p.m. Now you know. Mark your calendars.
https://youtu.be/8o3Li_K3v2M
https://youtu.be/dOcW97ImqY0
satby
Good mornin…wait! Missed you all this morning, woke up late and had to scramble to get all the herd pottied and me ready for work. I hate Saturdays because we start an hour earlier.
@Lapassionara: I don’t watch horse racing either for the same reason. Though for a little while we used to go to the harness races, which seemed less likely to end in tragedy for the horse.
NotMax
Was part of a group one time dragooned to hold a horse while a large boil just above its tail was lanced.
First step was to put a blindfold on him. Which slightly upset him enough that he lunged forward, whacking his head into the side of the barn.
However, that move temporarily stunned him enough that the rest of the procedure could be quickly done with no fuss, no muss.
(Have three stories involving horses. The other two are much more odoriferous so will refrain from relating them just now.)
rikyrah
https://thinkprogress.org/at-event-in-beijing-kushner-family-uses-promises-of-a-u-s-visa-to-raise-money-cf1d4987ed3b
At an event in Beijing on Saturday, Nicole Kushner, the sister of White House senior advisor Jared Kushner, made a hard sell to wealthy Chinese investors to pour funds into the family’s new real estate development in New Jersey, according to The Washington Post.
But Nicole Kushner offered the ballroom full of well-heeled Beijing residents more than just returns on investment: Invest with us, she told them, and you could get a highly desirable type of visa to the United States.
“Invest $500,000 and immigrate to the United States,” a brochure for the event reportedly declared.
SFAW
I’m having a tough time choosing between Paul Revere, Valentine, and Epitaph.
Betty Cracker
@debbie: I believe Fast and Accurate is gray.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@smintheus:
Best one capturing the atmosphere? Let It Ride, 1989.
Booger
@smintheus: useless as fertilizer, decent soil amendment, with the added bonus of carrying any herbicides used on the hay.
Omnes Omnibus
@rikyrah: Good fucking god.
NotMax
@SFAW
Well played.
Trivia: In the film version, Nathan Detroit was a part of that song because, unlike the actor who played him on stage, Frank Sinatra could actually sing.
Baud
If I had a horse in the race, I’d name it Grab Her By The Pussy in honor of our president.
smintheus
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I admit I’d never heard of that one. Are you from Miami?
Juju
You wouldn’t say that about horse poop if one of your dogs rolled in it. It may seem milder, but it’s hard to get rid of the smell in the same way that skunk smell is difficult to get rid of. I had a dog who rolled in some once and she was bathed a number of times and she smelled until she dried completely, and the smell perked up every time she got wet, for weeks.
Omnes Omnibus
Well, that’s it; I’m out.
piratedan
@Ohio Mom: the other item that I have not heard anything about was that the ACA mandated that the insurance companies had a threshold that they had to meet that must be spent on patient care… Haven’t heard anything about that or that these fuckers think that the insurance companies won’t reinstate their old methodologies of killing people with denials and reviews and denials of the reviews etc etc etc, because they’ve learned their lesson, just like the GOP in not making every piece of legislation about gifting more money to the 1%……
Juju
@Baud: Are you hard to wash off too?
Omnes Omnibus
@Juju: People just hose him down.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Well, damn – wettest track I ever saw.
Can’t say that I’m shocked….
dm
In an earlier open thread I mentioned this article about how Black Lives Matter is switching from protest to policy with a strong focus on solving local problems.
Here’s another article about them, from The Atlantic.
Going through my old email, it turns out I didn’t have to wait for the Washington Post to tell me about them — DFA had sent me a message about the Movement for Black Lives. It was refreshing to land on a page that doesn’t talk about money, it talks about action.
That said, if you go looking for it, it turns out they have an ActBlue page, too.
Also in that thread, hitchhiker told me that DeRay McKesson — BLM activist, candidate for Baltimore mayor, and now staffer for Tom Perez — has a new podcast, called “Pod Save the People”.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@smintheus:
Louisville…
Baud
@Juju:
I call it Eau de Baud.
NotMax
@Baud
Among the rules governing the naming of thoroughbred horses, names with more than 18 letters (including spaces and punctuation marks) are not permitted.
Also too, per the rules laid out by the Jockey Club:
No names that are suggestive or have a vulgar or obscene meaning; names considered in poor taste; or names that may be offensive to religious, political or ethnic groups
efgoldman
@smintheus:
@Betty Cracker:
See, THAT’s why I come to Balloon Juice.
Tons of information I really didn’t need to know!
SiubhanDuinne
I would have picked — and actually pulled in a blind draw — Irish War Cry.
Sigh…..
Juju
@efgoldman: Just be happy there was no mention of corn.
debbie
Jeez, wet tracks make me very nervous.
Baud
@NotMax: When did horse racing become politically correct?
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
WORSE THAN TWITTER!!
ETA:
Never mind.
jl
@piratedan:
“ACA mandated that the insurance companies had a threshold that they had to meet that must be spent on patient care…”
I think you mean the Medical Loss Ratio. In ACA they varied by program. I think individual policy lines issued by large insurers on federal exchanges had the highest required MLE: 85%. Some more regulated state programs like Medicaid, it varied and some demonstrations waivers didn’t have a minimum MLE. Original AHCA allowed most ACA MLEs to be dumped by regulatory actions in Dept of Health and Human Services. I’d guess the same in new version the House passed this week.
jl
@Betty Cracker:
” I had hoped this thread would evolve into a discussion of the merits of various categories of shit, and y’all did not disappoint! ”
The blog needs an ‘animal poop’ tag.
Just One More Canuck
@NotMax: Go ahead – unless Balloon Juice has “Smell-o-vision” we should be ok – and depending on which trolls show up tonight, it wont be the most disgusting thing that will be posted
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Just for shit’s sake, I’m pulling out the greatest display of runaway athleticism in all sports – Big Red (Secretariat) at the Belmont Stakes.
It is incredible, and worth the time to watch. He had a congenital condition – a heart much larger than most. Gave him a hell of an advantage.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
The name This Is Not A Horse would make it in just at the wire.
:)
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
I will watch, and will probably tear up.
Then I shall await the tweet storm from the current occupant of the WH.
efgoldman
@jl:
Well they had to throw SOME kind of bone to the insurers, who are among those getting screwed if this dog vomit passes.
I can understand, sort of, that they’ll screw their own voters in order to find money for the tax cuts; there’s an odd kind of “logic” to that. I still can’t understand how and why they went ahead and [potentially] screwed scads of their traditional contributors – insurance companies, doctors, hospitals. medical device and drug manufacturers – and their associations/lobbying arms.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
I know two things about the horse,
And one of them is rather coarse.
SgrAstar
@Lapassionara: With you on this. Can not stand horse racing. Riding, yes.
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
Heh. I read that as “I believe Fast and Accurate is gay” and thought, “How do they know?” and “Why does it matter?”
NotMax
@NotMax
And, I miscounted.
This Isn’t A Horse would be legal.
jl
@jl: @efgoldman:
Health Affairs journal’s blog has a summary of new fangled just passed AHCA provisions.
The connection is very slow right now. I had to wait a while for a text version.
House Passes AHCA: How It Happened, What It Would Do, And Its Uncertain Senate Future
Timothy Jost
May 4, 2017
http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2017/05/04/house-passes-ahca-how-it-happened-what-it-would-do-and-its-uncertain-senate-future/
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Just now remembered, and not one of the two more distasteful stories: visiting Brazil way, way back when was out riding horses when we decided to race parallel to the tracks versus a steam locomotive.
The horses won.
SiubhanDuinne
@jl:
Cole posted an awesome close-up photo of Walter poop a few months ago. That should be the logo of this place.
Gvg
@smintheus: horse manure works fine for me. I can grow great roses in it. Yes you need to compost it. Generally it’s easiest to make a really big pile so it self heats well. I make a hollow up at the top, so that I can fill it with water which will soak down into the pile instead of running off. You get the pile wet all the way thru and it can heat up hot enough to kill the weed seeds. To be really sure you can cover with two layers of clear plastic to solarize it thoroughly. The best thing about horse manure is it’s usually available for free even in the city. People beg you to take it away. I only once found sheep manure. It worked fine, but I don’t think it grew anything better. Cow manure is supposed to be safest because the cows four stomachs kill all weed seeds but stinky, not in my yard, and I haven’t seen it available unless you buy the composted stuff. Chicken is supposed to be good but again, it’s access. Also chicken can be too strong and burn plants in Florida’s sun and I have never had that problem with horse.
One time I found a road building crew hit a peat seam which they dug out and left in huge piles beside the road. Can’t build anything on peat. No fertilizer value, but boy did that improve my soil. Every night after work I drove out and bagged peat to take home. So did other gardeners.
efgoldman
@NotMax:
As long as you didn’t decide to race the train to a crossing.
rikyrah
Bradd JaffyVerified account @BraddJaffy 5h5 hours ago
Bradd Jaffy Retweeted New York Times World
Jared’s sister notes his WH role as she woos rich Chinese: invest big $$$ in Kushner projects, get controversial path to citizenship visas
raven
@NotMax: I had a team in one of my softball leagues name “9 jerks and a squirt”!
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
I count 19.
jl
@piratedan: @efgoldman:
Kaiser Family Foundation has a lot on the AHCA.on its front page
http://kff.org/
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Apostrophes. Gotta love ’em.
jl
@jl: Kaiser Family Foundation has a detailed pdf on AHCA provisions.
Not sure whether the link will work, though.
Summary of the American Health Care Act
http://files.kff.org/attachment/Proposals-to-Replace-the-Affordable-Care-Act-Summary-of-the-American-Health-Care-Act
House AHCA itself doesn’t change minimum Medical Loss Ratio rules, no mention of allowing regulatory actions to change them.
SFAW
@NotMax:
Interesting trivia, especially since Nathan Detroit is not in that song in the movie, either.
I agree re: Sam Levene’s “ability” to “sing.” He was probably worse than the worst American Idol contestant. Hell, he makes/made ME sound like Pavarotti, and I’m pretty bad.
Mike J
@NotMax: Bobby Drop Tables.
NotMax
@Just One More Canuck
A concise version of one of those stories, related here in 2014.
jl
@SiubhanDuinne:
” Cole posted an awesome close-up photo of Walter poop a few months ago. That should be the logo of this place. ”
I had the pleasure of missing that post. Was that pic after he stepped in it, or before?
efgoldman
@jl:
Depends. Which time?
MoxieM
@Just One More Canuck: Well, in that case I won’t chime in on the experience of cleaning up after two healthy Newfoundland dogs, in early spring, just after the snow melts. There comes a point in my northern clime when the snow just makes it too darn difficult to clear properly, and if you have a fenced yard, let’s just say it becomes booby-trapped in an especially noxious way. (But there’s no choice between dog mess and love, eh?)
NotMax
@SFAW
Regarding the film, you are correct. Faulty recollection on this geezer’s part. The song Sinatra was inserted into was “Guys and Dolls.”
For a very, very short time, informally hung out with Sam Levene’s daughter, circa 1971
jl
Important tweet for BJ commentariate citizen action; link to the google doc spreadsheet in the tweet.
marisa kabas
@MarisaKabas
I compiled a list of the house members who voted YES on AHCA and whether or not they have upcoming town halls:
https://twitter.com/MarisaKabas/status/860530668106919941
Edit: looking at my territory (CA),
Nunes, McClintock, McCarthy, Denham, ISSA, the nutcase Rohrabacher, Hunter, all voted yes, but don’t have townhalls.
Central Valley from Sacto down to Bakersfield was for Clinton, so a some of those goobers will be in trouble in 2018.
eclare
@rikyrah: Thank you!
SFAW
@efgoldman:
The time when he was naked-mopping and slipped in it, with disastrous results. *
*Not meant to be a factual representation of what actually happened; just trying to burnish Cole’s legend.
SFAW
@NotMax:
OK, thanks.
Three out of the four actors playing Nathan and Sky (B’way and film) couldn’t sing worth shit, so I can see why they’d want to give Sinatra more air time.
debbie
@jl:
Should anyone really be clicking on a Google doc?
Enzymer
@Gvg: My grandma swore by chicken shit. Her garden & lawn was always lush even though they were on nearly soil that was nearly 100% sand. We grandkids quickly learned to ask how recently they’d spread the shit, ideally a few weeks earlier.
But it stinks to hi heaven, lots of ammonia. Worst chore on the farm was cleaning the stuff out of the chicken houses.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
I just saw him the other night in a bad but amusing film, The Opposite Sex — musical version of The Women with June Allyson and Joan Collins.
NotMax
@NotMax
Did learn from her that at home, Sam had cases akin to the ones libraries used as card catalogs, filled with topically alphabetized and cross-indexed cards of jokes.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Just watched it yet again – 25 lengths that big, sweet lunkhead won by, and was still pulling away at the line.
germy
@Enzymer: Someone told me they have a chicken coop on wheels. When the chickens have pooped enough, he wheels it to a new location, and they poop there. After a few weeks the poop is spread around.
Shana
@Baud: LOL. Wait, the smell or the shape?
jl
@debbie: I got no clue. I almost always on over VPN thingee through work computer, which is all firewalled and securitied up. Anyway, the link is in the tweet, not my comment.
lumpkin
@Juju:
Horse poop doesn’t have as much odor as many other varieties because horses excrete a greater portion of their body waste via their urine. If you’ve seen and smelled horse pee you would know what I’m talking about. The poop your dog rolled in probably had pee in it too.
germy
@SFAW: Interesting tribute to Sam
http://doriantb.blogspot.com/2013/11/sam-levene-what-character.html
jl
@lumpkin: Thanks. Animal pee is a sadly neglected topic on this here blog.
NotMax
@SFAW
IMHO, movie would have played out much better had Brando played Nathan and Sinatra played Sky.
@
zhena gogolia
Agreed. Not a good film, on multiple levels.
germy
@NotMax: From what I’ve read, Sinatra was pissed he didn’t get the role. He referred to Brando as “Mumbles.”
debbie
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I remember crying, watching him as he glided into the finish like it was no strain at all.
MaryRC
@Betty Cracker: You’re right about horse manure; if it had the consistency and smell of cow manure, the internal combustion engine would have been invented centuries earlier.
gbbalto
@germy: I am not a farmer, but the chicken tractor as part of a grazing scheme seems to work really well:
http://www.polyfacefarms.com/
NotMax
@jl
The mammalian Law of Urination
jl
BTW, I hope the comments on the AHCA are included in the contributions to talk about poop. Not off topic at all!
JMG
All my trifectas, which had winning horse, went up in smoke when Thunder Snow pulled up. Fortunately, Thunder Show is OK. On the bright side, Battle of Midway, my longshot, came in third. I had him across the board, so show money was 20.20 for 2. I ended the day up $18. No champagne, but at least carfare home.
Enzymer
@germy: for a few hens that is a cool ideal, it would also keep the chickens from obliterating the vegetation. Gran kept several hundred hens. In a fenced yard, even a big one, the hens eliminate any ground level plants. My sis-in-law keeps about 40 hens in a space that’s about 200’x 40′. Not a weed or grass to be seen. Trees do OK.
jl
@NotMax: Great. If I remember your damn link later today, I’ll end up timing my pee.
Thanks for the link, I guess.
germy
@Enzymer: That’s a lot of chickens!
Whenever my wife brings home supermarket eggs, the carton always boasts “vegetarian fed” but I thought chickens were happiest eating worms and bugs, etc.
Best eggs I’ve had were from our local farmer’s market.
Another Scott
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I don’t think I’ll ever forget seeing that live (on TV) at the time. It was just such an overwhelming victory, it seemed impossible.
But I haven’t cared about the “sport” in a very long time.
A friend won about $1500 at a trotter (or was it a “pacer”) track in SW Ohio many moons ago. Won a quinella or something. He was happy then. ;-) . Otherwise, he (like his father before him) was miserable at the track. Stories about Lasix, and drivers conspiring to box sulkies in, and all the rest didn’t make me too enamored of it either….
To each their own, but it would be much better for the animals if there was stronger independent oversight, etc., etc.
Cheers,
Scott.
SiubhanDuinne
@jl:
Took me a while to track it down, but this is the poop post. Scroll down a few images for the glorious technicolor close-up of Healthy Walter Poop.
efgoldman
@jl:
Sadly?
jl
@SiubhanDuinne: Can’t see it. I’m not here anymore. I’ve already gone off to time my pee. But, thanks.
ThresherK
@NotMax:
@zhena gogolia:
They made a musical out of The Women?
This is the kind of thing I should have known about for at least a quarter century. Vaguely interested in it, in an examining way to see where it went wrong.
I mean, aside from the (well-stolen) idea that if a work is already complete, adding songs to it usually won’t make it better.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@JMG:
Cocky. LOL.
I’ve made my Churchill Downs Mother’s Day reservations for me, mom, dad (she’s a horrible RWNJ), and my oldest daughter. Wife will be in Sydney, and I’ll join her there a few days after. Betting should be good – those are some shit races, and I shine at betting shit races – may make back some of the $380 I’m blowing on Mothers Day.
May even pop out some afternoon this week after getting wife to airport.
Right now I’ve opened a bottle of the Brunello de Montalcino, 2010 (suck it, wine snobs) we had shipped back from Tuscany last year. It’s as delightful as can be. Also grilling some thick assed streaks and lobster tails…
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
While on the subject (more or less) of things nasally offensive –
Loo! Up in the sky! It’s a rotten egg!
And quite pretty, at that.
JMG
@Another Scott: I grew up about a mile from a harness track, now long gone (Brandywine Park if you must know). Even as a small child of eight or nine I knew the trotters were the crookedest kind of gambling going. Except maybe for jai-alai. As a friend of mine once said. “You’re gonna bet on a sport where the players speak a language only they know?”
Enzymer
@germy: Gran had a lot of chickens, Granpa kept sheep. Sellling eggs, wool & lambs was their retirement income (+Soc.Sec).
The sis in law sells eggs, hens & roosters as a income supplement. The old hometown is now about 50% Hispanic (Mexican, Guatemalan +). She has developed a nice business catering to the immigrants who prefer older,, more traditional type chickens. She could probably double the number of chickens, but that would start to be more like a real job.
NotMax
@ThresherK
More egregiously, perhaps, they added men to the cast.
Enzymer
@germy: p.s. Chickens are omnivores. They’ll eat almost anything. They do like bugs, but nobody in their right mind would let them into the vegetable garden because they’ll all the veggies too.
ThresherK
@NotMax: Rhetorical “What”.
SFAW
@NotMax:
That might work, although I think Brando should have been punted altogether. Maybe that Dino Crocetti guy instead? Although not sure playing Sky (or Nathan) would have been “in his wheelhouse” or whatever.
Be that as it may, I think Vivian Blaine was the best out of all the performers.
Another Scott
@ThresherK: DANGER! DANGER!
Time Sink Alert!
DANGER! DANGER!
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
Hello buds. So a never heard of him before won the Derby. Good. And all the horses survived. Even better. And the horses were running in “slop.” It happens.
Just winding up a dinner party in Barcelona. How is life treating you?
efgoldman
@SFAW:
Can’t believe there’s a discussion of Guys and Dolls on Derby day and nobody posted this.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
A similar duration
Rules the Law of Urination,
At your work or on vacation
Your pee time you may ignore.
Maybe not in volume splendid,
But in total time expended.
If your bladder is distended
You’ll just pee a little more.
Twenty seconds, more or less,
Through the urethral egress.
Other species, nonetheless,
Seem to pee a great deal more.
NotMax
@Enzymer
A chicken scene to remember.
“Gonna need a bigger crock pot.”
Elizabelle
FWIW, it’s the 20th anniversary of LA Confidential, a fine flick. LA Times link. Rolo Tomassi, peeps.
Sorry that neither Curtis Hanson (its director) nor Jonathan Demme are with us. They were last year at this time. Fine filmmakers, and human beings.
efgoldman
@NotMax:
That chicken could have eaten the ants in Them
ThresherK
@Another Scott: Thanks, but I think you’re too late. I have a few bookmarks there and I do a touch of editing also.
Chris T.
@SiubhanDuinne: Yes, but as with the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald where the waves turned the minutes to hours, BPH turns the seconds to minutes…
Elizabelle
@NotMax: So Trump Pussy Grabber comes in just under the 18 character limit, but might have some other probs.
OK. Life is so unfair.
efgoldman
@Elizabelle:
But “Life is so unfair” works.
MomSense
@Lapassionara:
Me either. We had a long discussion about Ruffian this morning. I’m still devastated and it’s been more than 40 years.
Enzymer
@NotMax: But think of how many great tamales you could make with one of those!
SFAW
@efgoldman:
I referred to it at @26, I was too snooty to link to Stubby et al.
But HAD I linked, I would have at least had one with the right song title.
ETA: Just trying to keep my curmudgeon skillz sharp.
Elizabelle
@efgoldman: Why yes, it does.
@MomSense: re Ruffian: yes, that was heartbreaking. But name 3 other horses that ran that race. She did not live long enough, but achieved immortality in a sad way. As did my beloved Barbaro.
hope
Been gone for 7 months. Returned to find 4 bags of horse doo on my compost heap. Nothing says welcome home like horse poo
SFAW
@Elizabelle:
Jonathan Demme’s gone? Shit.
gbbalto
@jl: But there is more! BBC reports on poops:
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170427-why-do
efgoldman
@hope:
But who’s counting?
SiubhanDuinne
@MomSense:
Ruffian and Barbaro both. I gave up on watching horse racing for years after those tragedies; have just, gingerly, returned over the past four or five years, and make a point of not becoming emotionally invested. Don’t think I could take it again.
NotMax
@Enzymer
But only after what I guess might be deemed a clusterpluck.
SiubhanDuinne
@SFAW:
Very recently. A week ago? Maybe two.
EDIT: Link to NYTimes obit:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/movies/jonathan-demme-dead-movie-director-oscar-winner.html
Elizabelle
@SFAW: Yeah. Last week. Esophegeal cancer. Good guy, 73 years old.
Yutsano
Well put this on the list of things that make me feel better. Awaiting tweetgasm from the Hairy Yam in 3…2…1…
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
:)
Ogden Nash calling on line 2.
amk
what a shitty thread.
Another Scott
@Yutsano: Excellent. And obviously extremely well deserved.
Cheers,
Scott.
satby
@Elizabelle: I was scrolling through the archives here in my Kindle to delete old photos and came upon my Barcelona pictures from 2011. Since I was working most of the time I only had two days to sightsee and the pictures remind me of all the things I missed. Enjoy that wonderful city!
efgoldman
@Another Scott:
He also endorsed Macron today in the French election. He wouldn’t have done that as president.
SFAW
@amk:
But some of the comments are, as they say in New England, “wicked pissah.”
schrodingers_cat
Not related to the Derby but has gorgeous horses and breathtaking scenery, title track of Mirzya.
Lapassionara
@MomSense: how is that possible? I remember as if it were yesterday.
Steve in the ATL
A horse named Tapwrit finished 6th. When I was stuck at Logan Airport for days, I chatted with a woman from Palm Beach who had probably the most tragic story of the entire air travel fiasco. She had stopped in Boston to visit a friend and was desperately trying to get to Kentucky to watch her horse race. She was part owner of Tapwrit and was going to miss his race. I wept for her.
Hopefully she made it to the Derby today to see her horse run a good race.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Ogden Nash is one of my four lyricist heroes. The others are W. S. Gilbert, Ira Gershwin, and Stephen Sondheim. Many others I admire lavishly, but those are the Big Four.
efgoldman
@Steve in the ATL:
Really? Right there in the airport? Wouldn’t have had anything to do with spending a month in the airport that week? And maybe alcohol, in quantity?
SFAW
@SiubhanDuinne:
I will never forgive him for “The Bronx? No thonx.”
Hater.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Just got back from a Derby party where I have my 2 mint juleps of the year, in authentic frozen silver cups made by a native Louisvillean. Next level.
Has greennotGreen checked in this afternoon?
Taylor
Since people have talked about fleeing to Ireland: Irish police are investigating a complaint against Stephen Fry under Ireland’s blasphemy laws for making negative comments about God:
Note that this law does not date from the time when the Ayatollahs were running things.
efgoldman
@Taylor:
What else would you call the pedophile Bishops?
SiubhanDuinne
@SFAW:
“While swimming in the sea just now,
A jellyfish approached my brow.
Who wants my jellyfish?
I’m not sellyfish.”
SiubhanDuinne
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
Last I heard, mid-afternoon, she was getting ready to take a shower.
She should be clean by now, I reckon.
JPL
@Steve in the ATL: I can remember being so touched by that story. It was so sad that it didn’t even qualify as a first world problem. There has to be another word for that particular situation.
Geeno
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Officially, it’s listed as 31 lengths after review of the film. His record at Belmont still stands.
MomSense
@Lapassionara: @SiubhanDuinne: @Elizabelle:
I actually cried a little bit today thinking about that race. I saved up for what seemed like forever to buy a collector’s picture book about Ruffian.
I used to live near a horse farm. They had a special field for mustangs they adopted/saved. No one rode them. The owner just wanted to give them a safe place to be.
I visited that farm many times with my kids. We would just watch them. When they ran – pure beauty.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Thanks. I’m in vigil with her too.
SFAW
@SiubhanDuinne:
“Look at Number 53,
Dennis Gaubatz,
That is he,
looming 10 feet tall
or taller
above the Steelers’
signal caller …
Since Gaubatz acts like this
on Sunday,
I’ll do my
quarterbacking Monday.”
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Caps woke up and are starting to pour it on.
MomSense
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
Same here. I think she had a really nice visit with family yesterday.
Anyone here from Yarrow today?
If you are lurking, hi Yarrow. Hope you are having a better day today.
efgoldman
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
Won’t matter in the long run. They yam what they yam, it’s all what they yam.
SiubhanDuinne
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
As are we all, I think.
I am incredibly moved by her mindfulness at this most profound and mysterious of moments.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Gotta give some kind of props to:
It’s a wonderful day
For an auto-de-fé
Speaking of Sondheim musicals, an unexpected venue..
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@MomSense:
This business of dying and having all of your mind in a peaceful place is something to behold. All of my experience has been with loved ones dying in crisis or demented.
ETA: Actually, that’s not true. My mother in law did it the same way as greennotGreen, in grace and in peace with her family.
SiubhanDuinne
@SFAW:
That’s wonderful!
MomSense
@SiubhanDuinne: @the Conster, la Citoyenne:
It’s a gift that she is sharing it with us.
SiubhanDuinne
@MomSense:
So generous. I feel honoured and very privileged to be along for even a small part of the journey.
cynthia ackerman
@jl:
Thanks to jl!
Anyone in my district (OR 2) please note that Greg Walden has a town hall day after tomorrow, Monday 5/8, at 2:30 in Wallowa.
Walden is a special type of dickwad and needs to start feeling heat for being Number 3 in the House leadership in support of AHCA. And something like 30% of his constituents will lose coverage under the bill as it stands.
Any BJ’ers who can make it please make Greg miserable.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Candide is a sadly overlooked musical. I adore it.
efgoldman
@cynthia ackerman:
Hmm. Middle of a work day. Not quite hiding, but….
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Even the genius Gilbert had an off day now and again.
Thinking about his rhyming west wind with maidenkind in Ruddigore.
efgoldman
@SiubhanDuinne:
Because it is unbelievably hard. Requires singers with operatic voices/skills and good “legit” stage acting skills. Some of the music on its own is very hard, too.
MomSense
@cynthia ackerman:
Go get him!
Mike J
Who gave Josh Marshal a tablet and can they take it away from him?
Taylor
@efgoldman: I don’t think any bishops were accused of buggering altar boys, but they were covering it up.
It was actually cases like Eamonn Casey, a popular bishop who spoke out in favor of liberation theology in El Salvador, who it was discovered was making payments to the mother of his secret love child, that turned people off the Church for its hypocrisy. That would have had a lot to do with the country giving the Ayatollahs the middle finger when they spoke out against the gay marriage referendum.
We’ve more recently learned about some truly horrific things done in the name of Christianity. Like dead babies in orphanages buried in concrete.
cynthia ackerman
@efgoldman:
Wallowa is about as far from Greg’s center of constituent gravity as you can get, and in reliably RWNJ kuntry.
JPL
@MomSense: That’s the same thing I have been thinking about. She’s always shared her journey with us, and somehow her strength and courage will stay with us for a long time. It’s her gift to us.
efgoldman
@Taylor:
I come from Boston. I don’t know how anybody can trust the institution for anything.
efgoldman
@cynthia ackerman:
But he’s not hiding.
These guys ought to at least have the courage of their betrayal. Hope he enjoyed his “beer” bash.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Bernstein’s rhythms in, e.g., “Glitter and Be Gay” and “I Am Easily Assimilated,” to mention but two, are incredibly tough, even for trained and experienced singers. Some of the ensemble pieces, too, are really challenging. But if you can get together a cast that can both act and sing, it is a brilliant, brilliant piece of musical theatre. I’m lucky enough to have seen it twice in professional productions. The performance at Stratford Festival (Ontario) was extraordinary.
rikyrah
Say it over again people. Spread the word: Never forget. And, this should be the way to pound Trumpcare:
The GOP stole your health care so they could give a trillion dollars to the richest people in our country.
cynthia ackerman
PS — OR 2 is huge, larger than some states, but sparsely populated relative to other Oregon districts.
Walden going to the far corner is not an act of bravery.
To his credit, he held two town halls last month in the lion’s den, but that was in the face of a failing bill.
He’s pretty secure based on recent elections, but I know him a bit personally and he’s scared.
NotMax
@NotMax
On a different and lighter note, proof that the patter song is not dead yet.
(And educational, to boot.)
J R in WV
OK, now. Been a very long day. Are preping to fly to Florence, IT Monday. But cargo plane crashed at local airport yesterday, so airport was closed, no idea how to know when it will reopen.
This morning Mrs J left to go to the post office. Then I get a call from a guy who tells me she drove off the road and the car is down the hill, but she’s OK. Actually he rescued her from the disabled car, it was so far over on the passenger side she couldn’t open the driver’s side door.
So I go fetch her home (this was about 2 miles away) and call AAA who organizes a tow truck. I tell them we need a truck with a crane, not a flatbed, as the car is over the hill, fortunately there was a small bench below the road, so it didn’t roll and was only 6 or 8 feet from the pavement. I tell them where, it happened on a one lane country road, so I volunteer to wait at the intersection of the country road with the state highway.
2 hours later up pulls an elderly tow truck (International truck) and an older than that driver, who follows me the mile and a half up to the top of the ridge. Hour and a half later the car (VW’s little SUV) is on the road, I go home and get a neighbor to drive me back up to fetch the VW, I drove the old PU truck up for the expedition.
Just now we finished a fritata of asparagus, peppers, onions and tomatoes. Now pooped. Will have a bourbon soon, go to bed early. Packing tomorrow, if Delta tells me CRW is really gonna be open Monday.
Oh, yeah, left out last Tuesday at 6 am Mrs J yells out in the bathroom, fell, hit her head… no major damage, but a couple of hours later, enormous black eyes, purple nose, now fading and drifting to mouth and chin. She plans to wear sunglasses 24/7 as needed. OMG he says…. I say. What a cluster!
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
I take it you don’t know The Grand Duke very well. There are some horrors in that (mercifully) last of the collaborative operettas. Example:
I worship Gilbert, but this is just embarrassing.
A Ghost to Most
Has Yarrow checked in today?
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Possibly apocryphal but it’s been said that Sondheim has been known to take a Sharpie with him to the greeting cards aisle to correct the scansion of the interior sentiments.
efgoldman
@SiubhanDuinne:
You have to start with a soprano with Mozart/Rossini level coloratura, who’s also physically attractive enough to be credible, physical enough for all the stage business, and at least a decent spoken word actress. Tall order.
JPL
@A Ghost to Most: I don’t think so. Hopefully soon though.
@J R in WV:
I say. What a cluster!fuck. Finished your statement for you. I’m glad your wife is okay, and have a wonderful time on your trip.
A Ghost to Most
@J R in WV
I don’t believe in omens, but all that would give me pause. Be careful out there.
rikyrah
Never mind the hack of the French candidates…
Anyone else read about this man’s personal life?
It would qualify for a Lifetime movie…yet, the French are like..
” eh”
LOL
MomSense
@JPL
For such a common experience, it’s one that is still kept hidden too often. I’m just really grateful to gnG for showing us the way.
Redshift
Caps win!!!
Bill Arnold
@Omnes Omnibus:
This bothers you? True Evil Capitalists consider countries (with low-permeability borders) to be basically pens for non-mobile labor[1]; she was just making sure that they understood that such borders don’t apply to the Evil Capitalist class. (“People’s Republic of Capitalism”, it is called.)
[1] Evil Capitalists also supplement border impermeability with other techniques to discourage labor mobility within-country.
(Not entirely unserious, though these guys assert (with a (simple) model and lots of scary math) that the effect is modest: Efficiency gains from liberalizing labor mobility)
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Thank you greennotGreen for sharing your last best thoughts and your indomitable clear spirit with us. Many many many blessings.
MomSense
@J R in WV:
What the hell? Did you and Cole do a WV version of Freaky Friday???
zhena gogolia
@ThresherK:
Late to the thread. It has luscious color, beautiful costumes, and the WORST SONGS EVER WRITTEN. So, no, doesn’t work. But I enjoyed every minute of it. Agnes Moorehead too.
efgoldman
@Redshift:
Just prolongs the agony.
NotMax
@Siubhan Duinne
Also too, pre-Gilbert Sullivan, from Cox and Box:
My master is punctual always in business
Unpunctuality, even slight, is in his
Eyes such a crime that
On showing my phiz in his
Shop, I thought there’d be the devil to pay
re: your example – “Be evermore dead/Thence legality goest” would scanned just as well and kept the sense intended without puncturing the envelope, as it were.
A Ghost to Most
@Redshift:
Thanks. After 30 odd years suffering through one playoff collapse after another, I can’t watch this series. I’ve seen this movie too many times.
SgrAstar
@jl:
Wow! This is a fantastic opportunity for us. Please keep us posted on how we can help to squash these bugs.
zhena gogolia
@ThresherK:
The best thing about it is that the hero is a young and handsome Leslie Nielsen, and you keep expecting him to say, “Stop calling me Shirley.”
Shalimar
@Elizabelle: Re: Trump Pussy Grabber, I think you could make a good argument before whoever judges name appropriateness that this past election means the Southern religious crowd no longer finds that phrase obscene or morally objectionable. They’re proud of pussy grabbers now.
satby
@J R in WV: so glad Mrs.JR isn’t badly hurt from all her recent bits of bad luck. You take care and have a safe and lovely trip.
Redshift
@efgoldman: Will, I’m hoping they prolong it through the next two games. I have tickets for Game 7.
J R in WV
@JPL:
We’re OK. Still don’t know if the airport will open, cargo plane over the mountainside, Emergency crews carrying chainsaws to reach the wreck, both pilots DOA. NTSB investigating, but debris scattered over the mountainside, springtime brush already up.
Called Delta 800 number, got a computer that thought May 8th was Friday !!! Not so, computer. Then offered to connect me to a human,Yes, please! Current wait time is… long pause, wait for it… 3 hours. Good bye.
Looking at flights on Delta website, clicking a link from an email from Delta, all looks well arranged. Then I notice there are only 5 flights, here to Atlanta to Charles de Gaulle, to Florence. Then a week later from Charles de Gaulle to Atlanta to home. Nothing from FLR to CDG.
OMG!!! Will work it out.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Cox and Box has a couple of engaging tunes, but there’s no question that Burnand simply didn’t inspire Sullivan the way Gilbert did throughout most of their careers (and of course C&B was early). G&S are both so terrific in tandem, each bringing out the best of the other, that when one of them stumbles it’s particularly noticeable.
JPL
@J R in WV: Sad..
Just one more canuck
@MoxieM: a friend from university invited a group of us to crash at her parents house after we had been at a concert – they had FIVE Newfoundlanders – she told us to ‘tread carefully’
Another Scott
@J R in WV: Zooks!
You both need a vacation!!
Fingers crossed that both of you have used up all your bad luck for the next decade or so. Have a great time and enjoy yourselves!
Cheers,
Scott.
Quaker in a Basement
@rikyrah: Joke’s on her. It’s emigrate from China and immigrate to the U.S.