There is a painful joke that Europeans often tell of their Gallic neighbors: God created France, the most beautiful country in the world with so much good in it, and ended up feeling guilty about it. He had to do something to make it fair. And so, he created the French people.

Janine di Giovanni

Rock N Roll Music

Randy Howg, Norman Tremblay, John Holleman and Selman Shaby’s Mr. Fillip makes his next start in the Robert Hilton Memorial Stake for three year olds going 7 furlongs on the dirt for $500,000.00US at Charles Town on Friday August 23, 2024. Junior Alvarado gets the call for Trainer Robertino Diodoro. The son of Mitole is moving up off 2 Stake wins at Assiniboia Downs for trainer Rick Wise.

Later on the same card Robertino has Komorebino Omoide (JPN) a son of California Chrome in the Charles Town Classic GII going 1 1/8 miles on the dirt for $1,000,000.00US for owner Perry Martin, the other half of the Chrome partnership. Ramon A Vasquez gets the mount.

So far California Chrome has not matched Sunday Silence’s influence on the Japanese breeding industry.

Immigrant Song

SportsNet – Nicolas Cage to play NFL legend John Madden in upcoming biopic

Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard

Phil has a question:

Doesn’t Vince Vaughan have more of a Madden style body.

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is a miracle.

Albert Einstein

Chariots of Fire

Phil’s gonna go off on a tangent.

Do you know the difference between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Joe Biden has read and understood Cormac McCarthy’s No Country For Old Men and may have even seen the Coen brothers Oscar winning picture. Demented Donald is waiting for the cartoon version to come out.

I read in the papers here a while back some teachers came across a survey that was sent out back in the thirties to a number of schools around the country. Had this questionnaire about what was the problems with teachin in the schools. And they come across these forms, they’d been filled out and sent in from around the country answerin these questions. And the biggest problems they could name was things like talkin in class and runnin in the hallways. Chewin gum. Copyin homework. Things of that nature. So they got one of them forms that was blank and printed up a bunch of em and sent em back out to the same schools. Forty years later. Well, here come the answers back. Rape, arson, murder. Drugs. Suicide. So think about that. Because a lot of the time when I say anything about how the world is goin to hell in a handbasket people will just sort of smile and tell me I’m gettin old. That it’s one of the symptoms. But my feelin about that is that anybody that cant tell the difference between rapin and murderin people and chewin gum has got a whole lot bigger of a problem than what I’ve got. Forty years is not a long time neither. Maybe the next forty of it will bring some of em out from under the ether. If it aint too late.

Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men

The Old Man Down The Road

TDN – Alabama Leads Saturday’s Graded Parade with Candied as Grand Marshall

Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.

Bruce Lee

Sports Business Journal – Rachel Axon – Mission: Possible

The Soviets and their puppets boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and Russia won’t be allowed to participate in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics unless it ends its invasion of the Ukraine. But the old Soviet satellites that were forced to goosestep to Moscow’s tune will be welcome with open arms.

Little Red Corvette

Phil has a riddle:

Who sponsored the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Soviet Olympics.

Visine. It gets the Reds out.

Back In The USSR

Communism doesn’t work because people like to own stuff.

Frank Zappa

Paulick Report – Weekend Lineup Presented By NYRA Bets: Baker’s Dozen Go In King’s Plate

Bloodhorse – Byron King – King’s Plate Spotlights Canadian Equine Achievement

SportsNet – AP – New lawsuit challenges NCAA’s ban on CHL players

TDN – Tim Wilkin – Saratoga Notebook, Presented By NYRA Bets: Thorpedo Anna Will Go Back To Fillies After Travers

Sports Illustrated – Greg Bishop – Breanna Stewart Is Bridging the Gap in Women’s Basketball