Sunday Morning Coming Down

I've now watched the movie Secretariat at least as many times as I've watched any other movie.  Casablanca, Easy Rider, The Longest Day, Patton.  I'm sure it is not an academy award winner like the Cider House Rules but the Secretariat deserved a movie to be made of his life. Lawrence Scanlon called him "The Horse God Built" in his biography of the horse and groom. The movie was about the horse, the owner, the trainer and the Triple Crown.  A coin flip, more than a little bit of luck and the rest was history. I saw the race with an uncle who knew his way around a race track.  He told me a story about past posting his barber/bookie once.  I watched the movie The Sting and imagined Uncle Wil beating the barber out of a couple of bucks on a .25 bet. The Belmont in 1973 was a once in a lifetime race according to my uncle.  I'd never seen one like it before or since.  The movie filled in some lapses in my memory of the Triple Crown that year bu...

Originally from Chicago, the pro football season was defined by the Bears and Packers.  If the Bears beat the Packers the season could be considered at least a partial success.  There were no playoffs, but there were rivalries.  It was a much simpler time before fantasy football teams, there was the AFL but it was a while before the Super Bowl.  In Miami, the yearly ritual is the 1972 Dolphins drinking a toast to their perfect season and breathing a sigh of relief that the record will last another year.  The guys on that team are getting a little bit long in the tooth and the record of the Patriots and this year's Packers overshadows whatever the "old Dolphins" did.  I'm of the opinion that the game has changed enough that this yearly comparison is as irrelevant as how I used to look at Green Bay versus Chicago. Dolphins! What have you done for me lately?

I had a good day on Saturday.  I placed third in a handicapping contest and got my picture taken in the Winner's Circle at Hialeah Park.  Had the favorite won would have won first prize of $2,500.  I picked three winners and a 2nd in five races .  I studied the program dilegently and did better that I usually do but wonder if I was just lucky or really smart.  I think I was a little smarter than the average player and lucky.  It is rarely an either or question.

This is a repeat of some old news.  Trailer is left to burn to the ground because the owner did not pay for fire protection from the local fire department.  The trucks came but when they realized the owner had not paid the fee and there was nobdy in danger from the fire it was left to burn to the ground.  The fire department's response was what incentive would any one have to pay the $75.00 fee if they could get the service for free or pay only after the fact. If there ever was a reason for some things being mandatory.  Isn't that the reason that some properties are sold on the courthouse steps because the "owner" did not pay the property taxes.  This issue doesn't come up often in more urban areas because the danger of fires spreading is much greater.  Rural Tennessee is pretty close frontier land and I'm sure that people think it will never happen to them.  What if the poor person in a trailer paid his rent and the owner did not pay the fire fee....