News: Smarty Jones and Smiling Reagan

[monk222]

~
A blogging friend got Monk interested in the story of Smarty Jones, the little horse that went for the Triple Crown today. Now Monk feels some of the heartbreak of that failure and disappointment. Although Monk prefers that he didn't become emotionally involved, one supposes that such passion enriches life.

In more historic, if less passionate, news, President Reagan dies today at the exhausted age of ninety-three - the man who effected the Right-turn in American culture, ending the dominance of the liberal paradigm of Roosevelt and Johnson, so that we are left today with this full-fledged Culture War raging in America now, the quasi-civil war between the Blues and the Reds.

Comments

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

The weird thing was just early this morning, there was a report that his health had taken a sudden turn for the worse, and his spokespeople were denying it.

RIP, Mr. Reagan. I wish I could feel more affected by it. But really, he lived a very long life, even granted that Alzheimer's must have really made the last ten years difficult.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Smarty Jones came close - a strong second, I understand. Any downturn presumably would be the difference. Tough, especially after reading some of my linked article, about how he had collapsed once from running himself out - some feared to death. The little power going for it all.

I know what you mean about Reagan. We are talking about more than a person. This is history - for better and certainly for worse.

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

Oh, in the first paragraph, I was talking about Reagan, not the horse. The Yahoo! News from AP headline was: "President Reagan Said Ailing: Aides Refute Report."

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Sorry for imposing my form on you - having both stories on my mind. (And being more interested in the horse story, lol!)

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

Heh.

Me being a girl, I'm not much interested in the actual ins and outs of horse racing.. I'm much more interested in (as I'm doing now) looking at Yahoo! Photos slideshows of the Belmont and cooing, "OOOOOOOOHHHH!! LOOK AT THE PWETTY PWETTY HORSIES!!!!!!"

Come to think of it, that's exactly what I do when I actually GO to the racetrack.

Me: "OOOH! LOOK AT THAT ONE! IT'S SUCH A PWETTY HORSIE!!!"

Friend: "Melissa, that's not the one we bet on."

Me: "BUT... HORSIE! HORSIE!"

I'm like a six year old girl when it comes to horses.

[hewet-ka-ptah.livejournal.com]

The Alzheimer's could have been easier on him had he not cut funding for NIH research while he was President. Funding that was, in part, for Alzheimer's research.

I'm not particularly sympathetic, as horrid as that is. I despise Alzheimers with a passion. It's a horrible, cruel, mean disease, and I don't think I will soon forgive Ronnie, despite the fact that he was hoist by his own petard.

Deb <--former worker for Alzheimers research projects

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

Well, in a twisted way, it's good that he got it... since it got Nancy Reagan and Ron's associates to start lobbying the right to rethink their position on stem-cell research, though I haven't heard how well that's going... she's been fairly vocal about stem-cell.

I used to volunteer in the GMU of a local hospital for several years, where I worked one on one with a lot of end-stage Alzheimer's patients. I agree with everything you're saying. It's horrific. I still can't shake a lot of those memories, and it was years since I worked there.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Are you actually home on a Saturday night?!?

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

It's only 11:20... I'm heading out in a bit.

And surprisingly, it's not all that uncommon for me to stay home on weekend nights. I do it quite often, actually... I'm something of a hermit, remember. Nobody ever calls me. :P

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I know you often describe yourself as a hermit, but I always got the impression that your weekends were all-nighters with friends, especially at Daasheekee.

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

You'd think. Sometimes it's a lot of me watching my friends hang out with other people, and beg me to call up two particular girlfriends of mine who they think are hot.

Oh, it seems the first comment to your debate post is attacking you, but arguing the same side.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean, but I suppose it's some kind of signalling move, coopting my comment. At least he didn't call me a fag, lol.

Ah, Melissa, I can't imagine that you aren't getting hit on often. I can only think they know your answer is either 'no' in the end, or that you demand a serious relationship.

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

Ah, Melissa, I can't imagine that you aren't getting hit on often

Actually, you'd be shocked. It NEVER happens. NEVER. I can't remember the last time I was hit on. Remember: someone else is "the hottest girl in the room." I'm a "retard dyke."

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I wish I had money, so that I could go there, without you knowing me, and see for myself what this can be about. You are not some obese, deformed person, and men are men - hungry for every hawt thing before them.

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I'm not so hawt as you assume nor imagine from pictures. Most guys want a very specific archetype... which I consider to be unbelievably bland... not some outspoken, gap-toothed, big nosed chick with weird hair and too many ideas.

I never get hit on. And that's a fact that you can take to the bank. Meanwhile, all my guy friends consider me "asexual." True story.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I can see how the outspokenness can do it, as this has to do with the idea about being 'girly' that we have discussed. Guys get intimidated easily, wanting someone 'weaker.'

But I'm very weak myself now this late, and I'm going to bed. Good night, Melissa, and thanks for the discussion - and the help at Debate!