dimanche 26 decembre
There is a longing among people and creatures to have a sense of purpose and worth. To satisfy that common longing in all of us we must respect each other.
Chief Dan George
The Globe and Mail – Beaulieu-Kratchanov – The last ride for Montreal calèche drivers
I hung a WELCOME KEITH RICHARDS banner down here every day for forty years. Eventually I just gave up.
Satan
You Can’t Always Get what you want but Sal says that you can exchange it for something you need the day after Boxing Day.
Next to a circus there ain’t nothing that packs up and tears out faster than the Christmas spirit.
Kin Hubbard
From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere!
Dr. Seuss
New Scientist – Sparkes – Robotic fish scares invasive species so badly that it cannot breed
Sunday December 26, 2021
Santa Anita Park
| American Oaks (GIT) | $300k g | 3yo f | 10f | Turf | |||
| La Brea S (G1) | $300k g | 3yo f | 7f | Dirt | |||
| Mathis Brothers Mile (GIIT) | $200k g | 3yo | 8f | Turf | |||
| Runhappy Malibu S (GI) | $300k g | 3yo | 7f | Dirt | |||
| San Antonio S (GII) | $200k g | 3&up | 8.5f | Dirt | |||
| San Gabriel S (GIIT) | $200k g | 3&up | 9f | Turf |
Bloodhorse – Santa Anita to Honor Sherman Dec. 26
Discover new beers & ciders on Opening Day at Santa Anita Park!
The tradition continues – Opening Day, December 26!
Fairgrounds
| Blushing K.D. S | $75k g | 3&up f/m | abt 8.5f | Turf | |||
| Buddy Diliberto Memorial S | $75k g | 3&up | abt 8.5f | Turf | |||
| Gun Runner S | $100k g | 2yo | 8.5f | Dirt | |||
| Richard R. Scherer Memorial S | $75k g | 3&up | abt 5.5f | Turf | |||
| Tenacious S | $100k g | 3&up | 8.5f | Dirt | |||
| Untapable S | $100k g | 2yo f | 8.32f | Dirt |
My wife never knew I was a drunk till the night I came home sober. Some jokes come out when I least expect it. When I get the cue, the joke comes out.
Esquire – What I’ve Learned – Jake LaMotta
Sal says that there’s a lesson there.
Esquire – What I’ve Learned – Muhammad Ali
Esquire – What I’ve Learned – Satan
Esquire – What I’ve Learned – Joe Frazier
Esquire – What I’ve Learned – George Foreman
I like to box. How I like to box.
So every day I box a Gox.
In yellow socks I box my Gox.
I box in yellow Gox box socks.
Dr. Seuss
A horse is not like a dog. It don’t love ya.
Robert Duvall
ESPN – Shilton – What you need to know ahead of the 2022 World Junior Championships
The Ringer – The Best Performances of 2021
Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.
Mark Twain
The three toughest fighters I ever fought were Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Robinson and Sugar Ray Robinson. I fought Sugar so many times, I’m surprised I’m not diabetic.
Jake LaMotta
Chaotic Neutral Zone – The Ministry of No Fun
Sal says that he hopes that everyone received a grammar lesson for Christmas so that they know the difference between your shit and you’re shit.
Vogue – On Self-Respect: Joan Didion’s 1961 Essay from the Pages of Vogue
TSN – Meet Team Canada’s Forwards
TSN – NHL postpones return to play to Dec. 28
The Ringer – Fennessey and Nayman – The Best Movies of 2021
TSN – Garand to start for Canada vs. Czechia
And she’s got brains enough for two, which is the exact quantity the girl who marries you will need.
PG Wodehouse
Southern Living – Markham – Cook Up Some Good Luck With These Traditional New Year’s Day Recipes
Speed is often confused with insight. When I start running earlier than the others, I appear faster.
Los Angeles Times – AP – Webb telescope launches on daring quest to behold first stars
TDN – Formidable Pair Could Put Baffert Back in La Brea Winner’s Circle
If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough.
There’s no pensions for old prize fighters.
Jake LaMotta
TDN – ‘Charlie’ Looms Large in San Antonio
Driving – Kana – ‘Wheel of Fortune’ denies prize after contestant stalls, but Audi gifts car anyway
Somewhere Down the Crazy River
Boxing is like jazz. The better it is, the less people appreciate it.”
George Foreman
TDN – Can Flightline Handle a Dogfight in Malibu?
SportsNet – Sadler – 5 bold NFL predictions for 2022: Russell Wilson, king of NYC?
Now, a very great man once said That some people rob you with a fountain pen.
Bob Dylan
Food and Wine – Castrodale – Is Olive Garden Ending the Never Ending Pasta Bowl?
samedi decembre 25 joyeux Noël
When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.
Tecumseh
Sal says that you’re not quite out of time as your local 7-11 still has a few gift cards left.
Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.
Mark Twain
Sal says let us listen to Roger today instead of the Queen. Sal says that Roger understood that the fans weren’t paying to see him sing the National Anthems and got the job done tout de suite. Sal says that in another time another place another Forum Roger’s worked some Mohawk or Ojibwa or Cree or Blackfoot lyrics in. Ask Jean or Fred.
Sal says that Roger understood the Rocket’s red glare.
Sal says that while you’re picking up a gift card for the ones you forgot you can lay a couple of shekels on the NBA or NFL Christmas Day games.
There is no me. I do not exist. There used to be a me, but I had it surgically removed.
Peter Sellers
Sal says that if you must listen to the Queen.
Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Sal says that if you must listen to the Queen.
LA Times – Merritt – Op-Ed: This may be the year to have yourself a stoic little Christmas
It is quality rather than quantity that matters.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Sal says that if you must listen to the Queen.
NBA announces 2021 Christmas Day schedule
The Ringer – Devine – Suns – Warriors Is the Best the NBA Has to Offer
My favorite traditional Christmas movie that I like to watch is All Quiet on the Western Front. It’s just not December without that movie in my house.
Tom Hanks
All Quiet On The Western Front
Smithsonian – Sauer – The Most Loved and Hated Novel About World War I
It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it.
Robert E Lee
Detroit Metro Times – DrVito – This Christmas, be like Alice Cooper
Esquire – Kirkland – The 60 Best Christmas Movies of All Time
Vogue – Specter – 55 Thoughts I Had While Rewatching Love Actually
If they were starting their careers today, Rockwell and Picasso would probably both be painting on black velvet.
Brad Holland
The New Yorker – Khullar – How to Think About the Risks of Omicron
Revelation can be more perilous than Revolution.
Vladimir Nabokov
Twin Spires – The ultimate Kentucky Derby quiz
Christmas doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more.
Dr. Seuss
Southern Living – The Southern Fried Chicken Recipes We’re Always Craving
CNN – Springer – How KFC became a Christmas tradition in Japan
Taste – How Much Do You Really Know About the Food You Eat?
There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization. If there are such things as angels, I hope that they are organized along the lines of the Mafia.
Kurt Vonnegut
Smithsonian – Wetzel – Mammoth and Horse DNA Left in Freezer Rewrite Ice Age Extinctions
I disconnect the telephone to keep the outside world in it’s correct place.
Chuck Palahniuk
NPR – Greenfieldboyce – Astronomers find a new planet that’s mostly made of iron
You must write for children in the same way as you do for adults, only better.
Maxim Gorky
Today is gone. Today was fun.
Tomorrow is another one.
Dr. Seuss
vendredi 24 decembre
Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Sal says that if that’s your Christmas shopping theme song you’re in deep water over your head fighting against the current up the creek without a paddle.
There’s man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet.
The Verge – Wetsman – FDA authorizes first COVID-19 antiviral pill
An expert is a person who avoids the small errors while sweeping on to the grand fallacy.
Steven Weinberg
Discovery – 50 Christmas Stories for the Holiday Season
Food and Wine – 33 Christmas Brunch Recipes to Add to Your Menu
If you saw a heat wave, would you wave back?
Steven Wright
SportsNet – Spector – Hockey Canada, Oilers tackle late logistic challenges ahead of World Juniors
The Globe and Mail – New York Times – Shoalts – Arizona Coyotes weighing future options
Wine Folly – 16 Stylish Wines For Upscale Breakfasts
Resist the temptation to subject yourself only to that which re-affirms what you already think.
Jake Tapper
Bon Appetit – Beggs – It’s Supersized-Everything Season at Trader Joe’s Right Now
Bon Appetit – 89 Christmas Dinner Ideas That Rival What’s Under the Tree
Toaster Oven Love – Brie – Toasted Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
Neighbour Food – Courtney – Grilled Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
Sal says to remember Bill Belichick and use raisin bread with peanut butter on both sides so the bread doesn’t get soggy.ic
Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by stupidity.
Robert J. Hanlon
Saveur – Our 21 Best Christmas Breakfast and Brunch Recipes
If you tell a joke in the forest, but nobody laughs, was it a joke?
Steven Wright
TwinSpires – Criscola – The best teams in NHL history
Let’s have some new cliches.
Samuel Goldwyn
AEON – Hesketh – What Big History Misses
We can learn from history, but we can also deceive ourselves when we selectively take evidence from the past to justify what we have already made up our minds to do.
Margaret MacMillan
ListServe – DeVries – 10 Surprising Ways Christmas Is Celebrated in Japan
TopTens – Best Race Horses of All Time
Bloodhorse – Allen Jerkens Stakes Tops Gulfsteam Christmas Eve Card
ESPN – Thomson – Mayfield tornado recovery gets boost from sports figures returning to help
New York Times – Segal – Welcome to the Charles Dickens Luxury Apartments
SportsNet – Cosentino – Three players to watch on every team at the 2022 World Junior Championship
ListServe – Estelle – 10 Unconventional Christmas Traditions From Around The World
It’s Christmas Eve! It’s the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we smile a little easier, we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year, we are the people that we always hoped we would be.
Bill Murray
TopTens – Best Sports Movies of All Time
Canadian Thoroughbred – How Canadian Racetracks Battled On Through the Pandemic
Bon Appetit – Bernabe – How Eating Hawai‘i’s Invasive Deer Saves Its Ecosystems
jeudi 23 decembre
Bloodhorse – HISA Announces Suspension of Negotiations with USADA
TDN – Ross – USADA Unable to Reach Deal With HISA Authority
Brisnet – Scully – Concert Tour returns on stakes-packed Fair Grounds program
Southern Living – Cribb – The South’s Best Bourbons for Gifting This Christmas
Bloodhorse – Gantz – Flightline, Dr. Schivel to Face off in Malibu Stakes
The Guardian – Williams – The 50 best wines for Christmas 2021
The Globe and Mail – Waters – Twelve Canadian wines to order now for the festive season
If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.
TSN – CP – Vancouver, Whistler and First Nations expected to explore 2030 Olympics bid
The Ringer – Surrey – ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ Is the Anti-sequel Sequel
Chaotic Neutral Zone – E. – Days Like These
NPR – Acovino – Need to break up with someone? Baboons have found a good way to do it, study finds
Financial Post – David Clement: Happy Festivus, for the rest of us
Bloodhorse – Never Surprised the One to Beat in Tropical Park Derby
I wanted an electric train for Christmas but I got the saxophone instead.
Clarence Clemons
Sal says that if you’re too busy to cook you can always order delivery from your local 7-11.
Twin Spires – Dacus – Art Sherman’s lifetime horsemanship hit the stratosphere
Taste – 100 Questions for My Friend the Chef
Sal says that with all those questions this site should be a thrill for Phil
I’m always looking, and I’m always asking questions.
Anne Rice
Is it really not possible to touch the gaming table without being instantly infected by superstition?
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Brisnet – Hanson – Best of Hanson: 2021 Anthology
Texas Monthly – O’Neal – Texas Could Sure Use a Man Like Hank Hill, I Tell You What
The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason.
T.S. Eliot
The Bitter Southerner – The Wild Horses of Shackleford Banks – Darrough
ESPN – Hale – Is momentum real? An in-depth investigation of sports’ most overused term
p = mv
It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near one.
J.R.R. Tolkien
Brisnet – Scully – Going Global, Hit the Road highlight opening-day turf stakes
Bloodhorse – Eric Mitchell – Judge Vacates Order to Sell Ramsey Horses at Keeneland
TDN – Thornton – Two Weeks From Crucial Hearing, NYRA Adds to Arguments Against Baffert
SportsNet – Engels – Top 5 Canadiens prospects: All eyes on Canadian WJC captain Guhle
SportsNet – Kelly – 2022 World Junior Championship Primer: Strengths, weaknesses, X-Factors
Bloodhorse – Ehalt – Gait Sensors at NYRA Could be Game Changer for Injuries
National Post – Diane Francis: Make the unvaccinated pay for their own health care
Sal says that sometimes when a writer like Francis thinks she has a good idea she should think a little more before she puts fingers to keyboard. If we’re gonna make the unvaccinated pay for their own healthcare, then how about the smokers, the overeaters, the drinkers ad infinitum.
The world doesn’t need any more mediocrity or hedged bets.
Anne Rice
mercredi 22 decembre
Food and Wine – Pomranz – NYC’s $1 Pizza Is No Longer a Dollar
A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.
Yogi Berra
Green Matters – Hirsh – This Farm Rents Out Christmas Trees, Then Replants Them for Next Year
108th – Grey Cup Halftime 2021
Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.
Ray Bradbury
The Ringer – Nayman – Something Wicked This Way Comes
Sal says that Sal will be using Dave Grohl’s favourite word a few times to give Dave a plug for his book.
The Globe and Mail – Hertz – The Matrix Resurrections is the whoa-level blockbuster 2021 deserves
Bloodhorse – Kieckhefer – San Gabriel Stakes Gets Santa Anita Opening Day Started
DRF – Andersen – Dr. Schivel works for Malibu; Hernandez picks up mount
FiveThirtyEight – Koerth – The Science Behind Those Comfy, Cozy Holiday Feelings
Texas Monthly – Gold – The Dead Sea of West Texas
Life is like an ice-cream cone, you have to lick it one day at a time.
Bloodhorse – Johnson – Analyzing Kenny McPeek’s Derby Contenders
Bloodhorse – Rollins – Beyond Brilliant Carries Momentum Into Mathis Mile
Atlas Obscura – Brown – The Hidden, Magnificent History of Chop Suey
Thrillist – Alexander – Why ‘Authentic’ Food Is Bullshit
Bloomberg – McArdle – ‘Authentic’ Food Is Not What You Think It Is
Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.
Peter de Vries
Bloodhorse – Ehalt – Going Global Heads Field of 11 in American Oaks
FiveThirtyEight – The NFL Keeps Chugging Along Through The Chaos, On And Off The Field
Horse Racing Ireland – HRI announces increases to minimum and maximum weights
He says he still owns and uses guns, and he believes in Americans’ right to do the same.
But, he says, “I also know that every right that we enjoy has to be balanced with the appropriate amount of responsibility. And I believe that over time … that has gotten badly out of whack.”
NPR – Davies – Former gun industry insider explains why he left to fight for the other side
Sal says Busse hit the nail squarely on the head. Too many people screaming their fucking idiot lungs out about their rights, but failing to acknowledge any responsibility.
Politicians were like talking dogs in a circus. The fact that they existed was uncommonly interesting, but no sane person would actually believe what they said.
Alan Furst
Bloodhorse – Oser – Hot Rod Charlie Caps 3-Year-Old Season in San Antonio
California is a place where they shoot too many pictures and not enough actors.
Bloodhorse – King – Private Mission Sprints in La Brea After Distaff Fade
Canada’s National Observer – Logan – What will save the mainland moose?
Bloodhorse – Cash – Beholder’s First Foal to Debut Dec. 26 at Santa Anita
Esquire – Rense – The 38 Best Gifts for People Who Take Their Whiskey Seriously
Don’t be too harsh to these poems until they’re typed. I always think typescript lends some sort of certainty: at least, if the things are bad then, they appear to be bad with conviction.
Dylan Thomas
Liquor.com – Flicker – The Best Cheap Alcohol of 2021, According to Bartenders
Liquor.com – Flicker and Porter – The 12 Best Bourbons to Drink in 2021
Sal says that you can purchase a 750ml bottle for about the same price as some of those exotic cocktails.
Under certain circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.
Mark Twain
Thoroughbred Racing Commentary – Juddmonte mourns loss of outstanding sire Dansili
Esquire – Kranc – The Esquire Editorial Board Endorses: The First Half of a Beer
There are no real Californians. There are only people who live there and people who don’t.
Liquor – Willsky – Bourbon and Root Beer
Sal says that he’ll leave the Bourbon and Root Beer for Smoky and Yogi’s pal Rooty, but Sal’s gonna try natural cola this year.
The Bitter Southerner – Wooddell – A Child’s Christmas in Carrboro
It snowed last year too: I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea.
TDN – Thornton – Owner Who Filed Remsen Protest Surprised NYSGC Won’t Hear It
National Post – Rex Murphy: How are Alberta and Quebec treated differently? Let me count the ways
Sal says that if Murphy had some balls his article would point out that the reason they’re treated differently is decades of brutal leadership in Alberta.
I am dying from the treatment of too many physicians.
Alexander the Great
DRF – Welsch – Trio of locals gearing up for Kentucky Derby preps
I don’t give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.
Mark Twain
mardi 21 decembre
Garden and Gun – Howard – Beware of Howards Bearing Gifts
The only good reason to ride a bull is to meet a nurse.
Cowboy wisdom
Sal says that the cowboys with more cattle than hat watch and enjoy, the ones with more hat than cattle use their communication device to show off to the world just how truly fucking stupid they are.
Sal says the favourite for Christmas shoppers in 2021 was:
LA Times – Haberkorn – Democrats eye massive shift in war on wildfires: Prevention
Music is the shorthand of emotion.
Leo Tolstoy
Ahead of Thyme – 30 Best Christmas Appetizers
Would you eat them in a box? Would you eat them with a fox?
Dr. Seuss
The Ringer – Gonzalez – The House Always Wins … Unless
Texas Monthly – Cardenas – The Texan Who Saved the Beatles
Je suis comme ça. Ou j’oublie tout de suite ou je n’oublie jamais.”
Samuel Beckett
Paulick Report – Boisterous Moves To Alberta For 2022 Breeding Season
Sal says that Poirier thinks a 3 person committee could control racing in France. Sal says that Marcomm thinks we need a committee 5 times that big in Alberta to report to a Board that’s only sort of controlled by the government. Sal says the $400k given to Marcomm was an absolute waste of Alberta taxpayers’ money.
TDN – Indiana Grand Offers ‘Road to Louisville’ Contest
Sal says that with all the no show marketing positions at Horse Racing Alberta why didn’t one of them come up with an idea like that for Alberta. Were they expecting a biplane with a banner behind it to fly by the window they look out.
Paulick Report – Paulick – Takeaways From Tucson: HISA Talk Dominates Global Symposium On Racing
Sal says that HISA may be a boon horse racing industry regulation in the US, but far too many US thoroughbred participants seem to have borrowed the QKB HRA issued rose coloured glasses viewing HISA as a one stop solution to all of US thoroughbred racing’s problems.
HISA is a step forward in uniform regulation of horse racing across the US. That’s all it is.
Reading is a journey like no other. By simply opening up a book and beginning to read, you will be able to transport yourself back into history to be a part of someone else’s story. A good author will have you feeling like you are right there with Babe Ruth, Muhamed Ali, and some of the other amazing sports figures that highlight the different sports books on this list.
List For All – Best Sports Books: The Top 40 List
Sal says that a pretty representative list and for 2021 Sal adds:
Sal says that thoroughbred racing in the US still has miles to go post-HISA.
The only important statistic is the final score.
Bill Russell
The Ringer – Parker – The Magician in the Checkered Shirt
Nostalgia is a beast of fiction: It’s an act of selective editing, of carving out just the bits you want, in order to tell the story you want to tell. It’s the kind of forgetting rampant in country music. Seeking nostalgia is seeking a mirage, for its beauty, yes, but also for its safety. Isbell is not in the business of safety. His music paints the image of a man who’d sooner shout a thousand uncomfortable truths than take refuge in one lie.
Buzz Feed News – Abdelmahmoud – Jason Isbell Is Tired Of Country’s Love Affair With White Nostalgia
Remember when is the lowest form of conversation.
Tony Soprano
Horse Racing Nation – Shifman – Kentucky Derby Scouting Report: 15 to know on the East Coast
Bloodhorse – Johnson – Which Region Will Produce the 2022 Derby Winner?
Sal says that dreaming on another winter’s day that a California based horse can win the 2022 Kentucky Derby is complicated by the CDI – Baffert spat.
Sal says that it’s not unreasonable to foresee the CDI – Baffert spat affecting the Oaklawn based horses as well.
The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely the one who dropped it.
Lou Holtz
TDN – Bill Finley – Court Allows Ruis to Pursue Justify Matter
Bloodhorse – Ehalt – Baffert Awarded $109K in Attorneys’ Fees From NYRA
TDN – Thornton – Baffert vs. NYRA Fight Grinds On
Bloodhorse – King – Baffert, NYRA Continue Legal Tussle in Court Documents
Sal says better not forget about the Baffert – NYRA legal tussle.
Garden and Gun – Ellis – All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Fake Trees!
Where is all the knowledge we lost with information?
T. S. Eliot
TDN – Monmouth Moves Friday Post Time, to Add Five Monday Cards in 2022
Sal says that the exploding heads that Phil derided recently need to pay attention to other larger tracks moving into the niches where they perceived their handle exploding. Sal says that the big tracks didn’t get to be big by misjudging the market.
TDN – Thornton – CDI Denied Illinois OTB Licenses
Don’t tell your problems to people: eighty percent don’t care; and the other twenty percent are glad you have them.
Lou Holz
Bloodhorse – Santa Anita to Honor Sherman Dec. 26
Nature – Callaway – Beyond Omicron: what’s next for COVID’s viral evolution
Sal was wondering if any of the gaming houses are making book on what SARS-CoV-2 will evolve to.
The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more.
Jonas Salk
The hard soil and four months of snow make the inhabitants of the northern temperate zone wiser and abler than his fellow who enjoys the fixed smile of the tropics.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
TSN – Westhead – Beach, Blackhawks reach confidential settlement
SportsNetwork – Grant – Kyle Beach, Blackhawks reach mediation settlement
You should never be proud of doing the right thing. You should just do the right thing.
Dean Smith
This Christmas Will Be Different
The Ringer – Nayman – There’s Nothing Behind the Curtain in ‘Nightmare Alley’
The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones.
John Wooden
Love has been described as a three-ring circus: First comes the engagement ring, then the wedding ring, and after that the suffering.
Bob Phillips
Bloodhorse – Ferrari Bonus From Coolmore Australia for Justify Foals
The rare dose of perfection is far better than the consistent drip of mediocrity.
Joe Ray
Bloodhorse – Justify Season to Generate Aid for KY Tornado Victims
Garden and Gun – Gomez-Misserian – How You Can Help Victims of the Tornadoes in Kentucky
New Westminster Record – Labbe – Want to help B.C. flood victims? Here’s how
The other Dons in the room applauded and rose to shake hands with everybody in sight and to congratulate Don Corleone and Don Tattaglia on their new friendship. It was not perhaps the warmest friendship in the world, they would not send each other Christmas gift greetings, but they would not murder each other. That was friendship enough in this world, all that was needed.
Michael, if you can’t pass, you can’t play.
Dean Smith
427 Sports – Hughes – Michael Jordan Framed His $200 Check From Dean Smith
Adversity is the state in which man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.
John Wooden
The Ringer – Clark – The Urban Meyer Experiment Has Passed the Point of No Return
Sal says that Clark looks to be taking HolyBull.ca research lessons.
All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Garden and Gun – Adler – Requiescat In Pace, Anne Rice
Garden and Gun – G&G’s Favorite Books of 2021
When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.
Erasmus
The Guardian – No ho ho: Italian church apologises over bishop’s claim about Santa Claus
The age of chivalry is past. Bores have succeeded to dragons.
Charles Dickens
To shorten winter, borrow some money due in spring.
W.J. Vogel
There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.
Ray Bradbury
Polygon – Clark, Gennis and Robinson – The best science fiction and fantasy books of 2021
Southern Living – Wells – Southern Holiday Dishes Everyone Should Know How to Make
Bloodhorse – Eric Mitchell – Successful Consignor, Breeder Jerry Bailey Dies at 78
The telephone will be used to inform people that a telegram has been sent.
Alexander Graham Bell
lundi decembre 20
Sal says that during the run-up to the Big Day the first song each day is dedicated to Christmas Shoppers .
Sal says that Sal never said that the dedicated songs would pertain to either Christmas or shopping.
A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.
Mark Twain
A gentleman is someone who knows how to play the banjo and doesn’t.
Mark Twain
Sal says if you didn’t get that one read on in bliss.
Music is the space between the notes.
Claude Debussy
Garden ans Gun – Wilmes – Epic Bourbon Auction Supports Tornado Relief
Canada’s National Observer – Sharp – Staying fierce and sober over the holidays
Everything in moderation, including moderation.
Oscar Wilde
The Atlantic – Heller – The Explosive Song That Liberated Tina Turner
Southern Living – Learn How to Play Dirty Santa – The Best Christmas Game Ever
The Chaotic Neutral Zone – E. – Catch a Collapsing Star
Psychlopaedia – Trounson – Why kids genuinely can’t wait until Christmas
Three o’clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do.
Jean-Paul Sartre
It takes two to tango, and if you dance too long, implosion is inevitable.
Sunday December 26, 2021
Santa Anita Park
| American Oaks (GIT) | $300k g | 3yo f | 10f | Turf | |||
| La Brea S (G1) | $300k g | 3yo f | 7f | Dirt | |||
| Mathis Brothers Mile (GIIT) | $200k g | 3yo | 8f | Turf | |||
| Runhappy Malibu S (GI) | $300k g | 3yo | 7f | Dirt | |||
| San Antonio S (GII) | $200k g | 3&up | 8.5f | Dirt | |||
| San Gabriel S (GIIT) | $200k g | 3&up | 9f | Turf |
The other day I started to take a course in psycho-ceramics. What is psycho-ceramics? It’s the study of crackpots.
Joey Bishop
Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.
Kurt Vonnegut
Introducing someone as a “Negro poet with a University degree” or again, quite simply, the expression, “a great black poet.” These ready-made phrases, which seem in a common-sense way to fill a need-or have a hidden subtlety, a permanent rub.
Frantz Fanon
The Ringer – Lazic – How Steven Spielberg Unlocks ‘West Side Story’ for Film
LA Times – Swed – Commentary: Does ‘West Side Story’ work best as a film? An opera? Neither?
Sal says it works best in whatever form you enjoy it.
‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy.
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
Juliet
William Shakespeare
Sal says Ashley Lee is one of those fucking idiots out to destroy the last vestiges of fun left in the world in their quest to make everything authentic. Sal says she probably doesn’t put pineapple on her pizza. Sal says she’s just another ivory tower mouthpiece with -0 street cred who thinks she can talk for the spics and the wops.
Certain things need to be said if one is to avoid falsifying the problem.
Frantz Fanon
TDN – Nine Organizations Join Diversity and Inclusion Commitment
TDN – Joseph Eyes Triple Crown Trail With Make It Big
Paulick Report – Donk Eyes Longer Distances For Geno After NYSSS Great White Way Win
The Ringer – The 50 Best Movie Soundtracks of the Past 50 Years
The Guardian – Perry – Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell review – a musical journey
Garden and Gun – G&G’s Favorite Cookbooks of 2021
Garden and Gun – Lotz – One Outdoorswoman’s Delicious Love Letter to the Wild
The Smithsonian – Py-Lieberman – Smithsonian Scholars Pick Their Favorite Books of 2021
Literary Hub – Temple – 10 Famous Book Hoarders
Yule is when the dark half of the year cedes to the light half. Known as Solstice Night, Awaiting the rebirth of the Sun God. Bonfires, wassailing crops with toasts of spiced cider a time of madness and awesomeness.
In Anglo-Saxon times, according to Crippen, it was customary for someone offering a drink to say, “Wassail!” and for the recipient to respond “Drinkhail!” and for the participants to repeat the exercise until comfortably horizontal.
Bill Bryson
Southern Living – 11 Classic Christmas Cocktails That You Should Definitely Make This Holiday Season
Cookie and Kate – Homemade Wassail
Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth. This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. One thing we know: our god is also your god. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.
Chief Seattle
Sal says that he thought that the first requirement of obtaining a restaurant license was that you had to be selling food.
The Circle Sanctuary – 13 Ways to Celebrate Yuletide
The Goddess and the Greenman – Yule/Winter Solstice December 21st
Southern Living – The Tradition of the Yule Log at Christmas
If the triangles made a god, they would give him three sides.
Montesquieu
Cherry-and-Chocolate Bûche de Noël
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Sal says that Sal would love to see the miles of Last Waltz footage that Scorsese shot get the Get Back treatment.
The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.
Plutarch
Sal says that only the fools in the US bureaucracy would make up a divisive holiday like Kwanzaa when everyone residing in the Northern Hemisphere can celebrate Yule.
Sal says that those who tout and allegedly celebrate something they know nothing about need to take their asshats off.
I wanted to have the adoration of John Lennon but have the anonymity of Ringo Starr. I didn’t want to be a frontman. I just wanted to be back there and still be a rock and roll star at the same time.
Curt Kobain
NJ.com – Kwanzaa: Fake news about a fake holiday that I debunked long, long ago | Mulshine
The Jewish Press – Dunetz – Kwanzaa: A Fraud, Racist Holiday, Created By A Criminal Madman
Sal says that the Kwanzians should all head to a Quonset hut a few kms south of the Antarctic Circle for their Kwanzian celebrations.
Sal says it time that our holiday seasons became times of unity and reconciliation not further division.
When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong – faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thoughts of obstacles and forget the precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it’s too late.
Frank Herbert
Garden & Gun – Liles – Saying Goodbye to Winter, a Very Special Dolphin
The Bitter Southerner – Wells – Where the Tupelo Grows
CBC – The best Canadian fiction of 2021
CBC – The best Canadian nonfiction of 2021
Washington Post – Heil – Publisher pulls Singaporean cookbook ‘Makan’ amid plagiarism allegations
The New Yorker – Schulman – Mel Brooks Writes It All Down
But I have bad taste with a deep fount of intellectuality.
Mel Brooks
Literary Hub – Bob Spitz on Writing the Definitive History of the Greatest Rock Band of All Time
Sal says that them’s fighting words to many.
Foreign Policy – Musgrave – The Doomed Voyage of Pepsi’s Soviet Navy
I don’t paint things. I only paint the difference between things.
Henri Matisse
Ahead of Thyme – 50 Best Christmas Side Dishes
I do so like green eggs and ham. Thank you! Thank you, Sam-I-am.
Dr. Seuss
Sal says its time that the Catholic Church returned these artifacts back to the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints!
Chief Seattle
Bloodhorse – King – Woodbine to Keep Queen’s Plate in August
The Chaotic Neutral Zone – E. – Try
I’ve never understood why artists, who so often condescend to the cliches of their own culture, are so eager to embrace the cliches of cultures they know nothing about.
Brad Holland
Thoroughbred Raving Commentary – Stabell – Is Del Mar really a suitable venue for the Breeders’ Cup?
The tiger and the lion may be more powerful, but the wolf does not perform in the circus.
Earl Derr Biggers.
Southern Living – Our 61 Easiest Ever Christmas Cookie Recipes
Food & Wine – Youngman – This Holiday Season, Join the League of Cookies
Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Cookies
Would you like them in a house? Would you like them with a mouse?
DR. Seuss
Sal says that bus songs are not favourites in Phil’s repertoire ever since that bus did an Acme Anvil on him.
A Cork, Fork & Passport – 12 Days of Christmas Cocktails
Food & Wine – Nieset – 18 Festive Cocktails to Master for the Holidays, According to the Pros
It is all very well to copy what one sees, but it is far better to draw what one now only sees in one’s memory. That is a transformation in which imagination collaborates with memory.
Edgar Degas
Sommelier Tries 16 Celebrity Wines
You may like them. You will see. You may like them in a tree!
Dr. Seuss
The Guardian – Finney – Fromage fictions: the 14 biggest cheese myths – debunked!
Wine Folly – 12 Classic Wine and Cheese Pairings You Must Try
Sal says that Sal doesn’t think André Hueston Mack is a real sommelier as he’s not an arrogant condescending asshole jerk.
My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) everybody drinks water.
Mark Twain
Roberto On Wines – ROBERTO’S TOP 10 MOST ANNOYING, RUDE AND ARROGANT THINGS SOMMELIERS DO.
It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others.
Michel de Montaigne
Sommelier Shops For Holiday Wines: Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve
If you surround yourself with clowns, don’t be surprised when your life resembles a circus.
Steve Maraboli.
Sommelier Tastes the Same Wine at 5 Ages (1978-2016)
Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.
William Safire
She looked as if she had been poured into her clothes and had forgotten to say “when”.
PG Wodehouse
Nevermore
The Raven
The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
When the Oakies left Oklahoma and moved to California, it raised the I.Q. of both states.
Will Rogers
Bon Appetit – Karim – What Is the Best Mayo and Why Is It Kewpie
Inside Hook – Diamond – I Tried 30 Mustards This Summer. These Were the Best.
Inside Hook – Bleier – How to Make a Michelin-Starred Chef’s Chicago-Style Dog
One of the great things about kids is, they haven’t heard a lot of the old jokes. You can get away with corny ones.
Fred Willard
While you’re waiting for Yule, Christmas, Boxing Day and the opening of Santa Anita’s winter meet enjoy a few of Sal’s favourite readings, Carols, Christmas and other songs.
Sunset – Farrell – How to Celebrate the Winter Solstice, the Shortest Day of the Year
The Cremation of Sam McGee
I cremated Sam McGee.
Christmas is a time when everybody wants his past forgotten and his present remembered.
Phyllis Diller
Sal says that sometimes Sal just has to be Sal.
How many observe Christ’s birthday! How few, His precepts!
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
by Dr. Suess
…So he paused. And the Grinch put his hand to his ear.
And he did hear a sound rising over the snow.
It started in low. Then it started to grow.
But the sound wasn’t sad! Why, this sound sounded merry!
It couldn’t be so! But it WAS merry! VERY!
He stared down at Whoville! The Grinch popped his eyes!
Then he shook! What he saw was a shocking surprise!
Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!
And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: “How could it be so?”
“It came without ribbons! It came without tags!”
“It came without packages, boxes or bags!”
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!
“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store.”
“Maybe Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!”…
Want to keep Christ in Christmas? Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the unwanted, care for the ill, love your enemies, and do unto others as you would have done unto you.
The real reason Jews don’t have more Hanukkah music is that, historically, American Jewish singer-songwriters were too busy making Christmas music. ‘White Christmas,’ ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,’ ‘Silver Bells’ and ‘The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting)’ were all written by Jews.
Matisyahu
Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want – and their kids pay for it.
Richard Lamm
Winter
by Robert Munsch
Oh the great Canadian Winter
Is not so very cold.
I once knew a kid who didn’t freeze
Until he was ten years old.
And just last year in Ottawa,
When they cleared away the ice,
They found two people still alive
And they said Winter was nice.
On Baffin Island the Inuit
Go swimming with polar bears.
Of course they always come back dead.
That’s why they go in pairs.
So don’t stay inside when it’s snowing,
Don’t stay inside when there’s ice.
Go out and get frozen like a brick,
And then you’ll think Winter is nice.
Roses are reddish,
Violets are bluish,
If it weren’t for Christmas,
We’d all be Jewish.
Benny Hill
Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral
It is my heart-warm and world-embracing Christmas hope and aspiration that all of us-the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage-may-eventually be gathered together in heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss-except the inventor of the telephone.
Mark Twain
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children,
Sitting Bull
Journey of the Magi
by T. S. Eliot
“A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.”
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.
Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.
Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minnesota
Snoopy’s Christmas vs. The Red Baron
One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six.
Dylan Thomas
When the Earth is sick, the animals will begin to disappear, when that happens, The Warriors of the Rainbow will come to save them.
Chief Seattle
Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind
William Shakespeare
Blow, blow, thou winter wind.
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remember’d not.
Heigh-ho!
I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, toys not included.
Bernard Manning
Why did Chicken Little cross the road?
To warn the people on the other side that the sky was falling.
Too many new writers dress up old cliches.
Christopher Fowler
Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.
Oren Arnold
Santa is very jolly because he knows where all the naughty girls live.
Dennis Miller
I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas
Santa Claus has the right idea – visit people only once a year.
Victor Borge
What kind of Christmas present would Jesus ask Santa for?
Lessons from A Christmas Tree
by Jane Lee Logan
- Be a light in the darkness.
- We all fall over sometimes.
- You can never wear too much glitter.
- Bring joy to others.
- Sparkle and twinkle as much as possible.
- It is okay to be a little tilted.
Alas! How dreary would be the world if there was no Santa Claus! There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.
Francis P. Church
What do you call a kid who doesn’t believe in Santa?
A rebel without a Claus.
Ho Ho Ho
Santa
Hawthorne Sal
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.