Donward

I saw this on the BBC during my crazed last minute packing. Good news. We'll see what sort of crackdowns happen next.

Eh. When I first posted this, there were no links to link. Plus it is rather silly to link to something that a person can find on any news site. The LA Times has a rundown on how the 12 Triple Crown winners should be ranked. http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-ranking-triple-crown-winners-20150607-story.html As for American Pharoah's next race, it seems likely that he will run in the Breeders Cup in October. And maybe one or two more races as a tune-up. But with how crazy horse racing economics are, he's far more valuable as a stud, breeding expensive little baby horses. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/jun/07/american-pharoah-del-mar-classic/

The issue with finding alternatives is that Hollywood just doesn't make good War movies anymore. Or any War movie (good or bad) for that matter. Which I find to be particularly crazy considering the popularity of WW2 themed video games, the number of World War 2 memoirs on the shelves of book stores, the popularity of television documentaries on the subject and the sheer number of stories that can be told. At best you'll get on or two films that are eked out every one or two years with varying degrees of success. For every "successful" film like Saving Private Ryan or Fury, you have dogs like Red Tails and Monument Men. This is in stark contrast to the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s where you had multiple war movies coming out every year plus offerings of varying quality on television. And therein lies part of the problem. Those previous war movies of an earlier generation were generally your standard action shoot-em-up like The Dirty Dozen, Where Eagles Dare, Kelly's Heroes, Force Ten From Navarone or quasi-historic pieces like 12 O'clock High or The Longest Day. For the most part they were fairly cheap to produce since they were 90 percent dialogue coupled with some hokey grimace-and-die battle scenes and at the end of the day, the grizzled sergeant and pacifist private stormed the German machine-gun nest and won the day. I think there is a certain reluctance in Hollywood to do any sort of World War 2 film that isn't a heavy-handed homage to our American heroes who saved Western Europe and we should all go down to the VFW or American Legion Post in order to find anyone left of The Greatest Generation to thank. You just don't get World War 2 action movies anymore other than Quentin Tarantino's alt-history revenge flick "Inglorious Basterds" which is a snuff film wrapped around a smug conversation at a bar. Or you get POW movies which may or may not be interesting but are ultimately downers. No one wants to go see the movie Unbroken unless they want to walk away feeling glum and depressed. Which gets us back to why there aren't more War movies. And it's the same reason there aren't many good Westerns made today either. There are only a finite amount of movies which can be produced every year with X amount of Romantic Comedies, Y amount of Costume Dramas and Z amount of raunchy horror or college humor fart fests. When it comes to the action genre, all the oxygen in the room is being taken up by comic book movies because those make money at the moment. You're not going to make a movie about a squad of soldiers who are trying to capture and hold a strategic pillbox on their own against impossible odds when you can make a movie about a squad of super heroes who are trying to capture and hold a strategic magic thingy against impossible odds.

Yeah. I kept scrolling down, expecting it to pick up elsewhere or wondering where the Jump to next page link was. I'm assuming the author's lower intestine leaped out of his sphincter and strangled him and the War is Boring guys decided to run the piece anyway.

It looks kind of "fun". Of course my mind is already trying to come up with ways to make it more "fun". Solowheel 3-Gun shooting? Solowheel jousting? Solowheel naked roller derby?

While Google is making automated cars, a Washington state company Inventix makes SOLOWHEEL a motorized electric unicycle. http://mynorthwest.com/11/2769838/Solution-to-Seattles-traffic-nightmare-could-be-one-wheel "The Solowheel is just what it sounds like: a small, quiet electric wheel that can take you about ten miles on one charge." "Wouldn't it be awesome if you could surf to work, or ski to work, or in some way get to work in an elevated state of ecstasy instead of the staccato of how most people come to work?" McDonald said. "They're stopping and going, and there's this stress. But if you could show up to work and your commute has actually been recreational in a sense, and inspirational, and actually makes your body have all this feel — good stuff in it — whoa," he said.

I like the bit where the M-14 can shoot through one Viet Cong soldier and kill the one behind it.

I agree Walter. Dog racing is a nasty business. To be fair, horse racing is too. Both for the toll on the humans and the animals. I know the type you are talking about when it comes to the purchasers of the Daily Racing Form. They're the sort who will go fishing in the garbage for a copy because it costs a buck-fifty and they can't afford it. But they won't bat an eye when it comes to dropping $200 on a "sure thing" in the fourth race. But like you mentioned, seeing these animals run and perform in the way they were bred for creates an exuberance that is organic to the human soul.

The Atlantic has an article on Katharine Hepburn's accent (an invention called Mid-Atlantic English) which has disappeared. http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/08/the-rise-and-fall-of-katharine-hepburns-fake-accent/278505/ The thrust was that with the advent of the "talkie" movie, there were a lot of voice schools who coached actors and actresses on their enunciation. The punchline. So how did the accent die? Thanks in part to these sharp-tongued headliners like Bogart, Americans began to see themselves better reflected in film. The Mid-Atlantic accent was very much in vogue until its abrupt decline post-World War II. Taught in finishing schools and society parlors, the accent had become common to off-screen America. But more people spoke as they do today, with regionally developed accents like Boston Brahmin or Locust Valley Lockjaw. The rejection of Mid-Atlantic was also a rejection of classicism. Highfalutin figures in American society who luxuriated in the vernacular were edged out by the everyman. "This idealization of the linguistic behavior of upper class Americans continued, in some Hollywood films, up to the late '40s and '50s," says Dr. Marko Modiano, senior lecturer in English studies at Gävle University. "It lost its position with the rise of a new generation of film stars who, like everyone else, were moving more and more toward the kind of neutral American English which we hear today in the US."

Ketchup, Ketchup Uber Alles, Above every food in the world, From scrambled eggs to hash browns, Ketchup, Ketchup Uber Alles, Above every food in the world! Ketchup, Ketchup Uber Alles, Above everything in the world, when for a garnish or condiments, it always glorps run-illy together . From the french fries to plump hot dogs, From fish sticks to our burgers, Ketchup, Ketchup Uber Alles! Above every food in the world! Ketchup fed women, Ketchup brand loyalty, Ketchup Heinz and Ketchup song Ketchup shall run over the world The old Ketchup bottle glorps. And inspire us to dip our fries In Ketchup all of our life. Ketchup fed women, Ketchup brand loyalty, Ketchup Heinz and Ketchup song!

Ketchup for breakfast on eggs and hash browns. Why be pretentious?

Band of Brothers also had boobs in it. Both are fine from an entertainment perspective. BoB is superior to The Pacific in the fact that it has a more concise narrative of characters who interact with each other through similar difficulties. Conversely The Pacific is split along three separate story arcs that have nothing to do with each other. Both are good. Both feature myths that you've seen before. Both have some nifty fight scenes and decent special effects. And neither should be regarded as historical truths.

Pharoah benefited from a fairly slow first half pace and had enough endurance to pull away there at the final 1/8 mile. Impressive. The closer Frosted didn't have enough to run down the favorite. And Frosted had to contend with traffic throughout. It looks like American Pharoah could have run a faster time if pushed early by Materiality but that is all supposition. And of course, the final time of 2:26 and change was about two seconds slower than Secretariat's momentous run. Which is mind-blowing to think about.

A more official race recap will be up in the future. But here is somebody's YouTube upload. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctss9h26IqY

Those who forget their historical documents are doomed to repeat them!

FTFY

Horse racing, the Sport of Kings, is certainly a relic of a bygone era. Much like boxing, which has seen a similar drop in interest over the past three to four decades, a number of factors has led to its decline. Ironically, horse racing runs at a much slower pace, with a half hour in between races and a much higher learning curve to master. Knowing how to read a racing form and to decipher the inscrutable numbers denoting fraction times for maiden, claiming, allowance and stakes races is an art along with developing your own "system". The explosion of online, sports betting and tribal casinos has bled away the attention of compulsive gamblers looking to get rich quick, squandering their welfare and social security checks in the chase for easy money. Horse racing is a dirty sport. On the other hand, watching thoroughbreds run a circuit around a track, the anticipation of the starting gate opening, feeling the beat of hoofs upon the turf, the feeling you get watching your horse turning for home is a beautiful thing to behold.

And I know that I am one out of a hundred Americans who cares about horse racing anymore. But still, pretty stoked.

A good deal of my youth was spent at horse race tracks. And while that is a separate and long story, I'm happy to finally see a Triple Crown winner. Good job American Pharoah!

I believe the movie I'm thinking of is "Mission over Korea" which was a particularly dreadful offering.

So the mountain climbers must have been fat shaming the over-weight mountain gods by showing off their splendid physiques. Now we get to the heart of the problem!

Also, I'm sad I wasn't able to get up to Everett to meet the Chieftain. We had some last-minute shopping that I had to do to get supplies on the barge north.

Dang it, now I'm trying to remember what was the name of that old black and white war movie which was loosely based off of guys who did this.

To be fair. Are there pictures of the foreigners getting naked? Were these the sort who make frequent appearances at All-you-can-Eat buffets?

I'M PERFORMING A LEGAL ACT! I have a right to Open Crappoast here! Also, sexy looking weapon Virdea.