Affirmed - The last Triple Crown Winner

In 1978 Affirmed and Alydar dueled each other for the Triple Crown. They went head to head down to the wire in The Kentucky Derby, The Preakness and The Belmont.
Affirmed is to date the last horse to win Horse Racing's Triple Crown. Several have won 2 of 3 but none have yet to win all 3 again.
The Belmont Stakes was the greatest duel ever seen in horse racing and it was over the longest track in the Triple Crown.

Seattle Slew

The 1977 Kentucky Derby was won by the undefeated Seattle Slew. He would go on to win the Triple crown, the 10th horse to do so since 1919 and the only undefeated Triple Crown winner.

2010 Kentucky Derby Lineup

Yesterday was the draw for starting positions for the 136th running of the Kentucky Derby.

here is how they will start and their jockey. #1 will be the inside post and #20 will come from the outside.

1. Lookin At Lucky (Garrett Gomez)
2. Ice Box (Jose Lezcano)
3. Noble’s Promise (Willie Martinez)
4. Super Saver (Calvin Borel)
5. Line of David (Rafael Bejarano)
6. Stately Victor (Alan Garcia)
7. American Lion (David Flores)
8. Dean’s Kitten (Robby Albarado)
9. Make Music for Me (Joel Rosario)
10. Paddy O’Prado (Kent Desormeaux)
11. Devil May Care (John Velazquez)
12. Conveyance (Martin Garcia)
13. Jackson Bend (Mike Smith)
14. Mission Impazible (Rajiv Maragh)
15. Discreetly Mine (Javier Castellano)
16. Awesome Act (Julien Leparoux)
17. Dublin (Terry Thompson)
18. Backtalk (Miguel Mena)
19. Homeboykris (Ramon Dominguez)
20. Sidney’s Candy (Joe Talamo)

In Case You Missed It (Animal Edition)

Saw this today at the Daily Mail website. Its like Marlin Perkins and Wild Kingdom but without the editing.
2 of the most dangerous animals in Africa go head to head, its not a good outcome so be warned.

Water Buffalo and Lions see who is King of the Jungle.

Secretariat returns to Derby in movie form

Secretariat returns to Derby in movie form - KansasCity.com

With the derby just a couple of days away I thought it would be interesting to read about the new movie project from ESPN about Secretariat.
I hope they do him justice because he was one of a kind, a true superhorse that after his death the autopsy showed that he had a heart twice the size of a normal horse. It should have been a early end due to that but it was probably what made him superior to all other horses, he was a living, breathing locomotive.

Big Red indeed.

New #1 on the NYTimes Bestseller List

This week we have new #1 books on both the Fiction and Non Fiction list.


Topping the fiction list with her 16th #1 bestseller is Mary Higgins Clark with The Shadow of Your Smile. M H Clark returns to the top after having topped the chart in April of last year with Just Take My Heart which spent one week at #1.

The new #1 on the Non Fiction list is not a surprise considering all the hoopla surrounding it in the weeks leading up to the release of Oprah by Kitty Kelley.
This is Kitty Kelley's first #1 bestseller since October of 2004 when she hit the top with The Family : The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty.

2000 Kentucky Derby

The favorite of the 2000 Kentucky Derby was a japanese owned thoroughbred called Fusaichi Pegasus and it had been 20 years since the favorite had won the Derby. The last favorite was Spectacular Bid in 1979.
He came on in the final stretch to break the jinx of the favorite.

In Case You Missed It (Weekend Edition)

"Avatar" made its entry into the DVD world this week to record numbers.

Utah once again to use the firing squad to carry out an execution.

Meth will make you do just about anything....EWWWWW

Your mugshot round up from The Smoking Gun

The last of the "Idaho Cavemen" has passed at age 94.

The Pittsburgh Pirates make history and not in a good way. And it was all for the enjoyment of the 50 fans who bothered to show up.

2006 Kentucky Derby

Today we look at the 2006 Run for the Roses and the undefeated and popular champion Barbaro. Coming into the race Barbaro was the second favorite at 6-1 odds and by the time he was done, Barbaro had won the Kentucky Derby by 6 and half lengths and became on the 6th undefeated Derby champion.
That was the largest margin of victory in the Derby since 1946 and Assault (who won the triple crown). Sadly the wildly popular horse was struck down with a broken leg during the running of the Preakness Stakes that year and never recovered.

In Case You Missed It for April 21st 2010

In an overlooked news story yesterday we found out that accused serial killer and all around NUTJOB Charles Manson is allegedly a father. A man in California who had been adopted very young, decided to track down his birth parents and maybe find a little of his heritage.
What happened next should be a movie of the week next year if not a bestselling book.

He found his birth mother and she provided evidence that his father is Charles Manson.

Read on a and be prepared to go WHAT??!?!?
and
in the NYPost

38th Academy Awards

Today in 1966 the 38th annual Academy Awards ceremony was held at the Santa Monica Civic Center with Bob Hope handling the hosting duties and broadcast by ABC television. It was honoring the films of 1965.
The Best Picture winner was "The Sound of Music" with Robert Wise, the producer and director won the Best Director award, however it shared the big winner of the night title with the highly acclaimed "Dr Zhivago", both winning 5 awards on 10 nominations each.
There were 2 Julie's battling it out for Best Actress with with Julie Christie winning for her role in "Darling". and Julie Andrews, who won the award in 1965, settled for best picture.

New #1 on the NYTimes Bestseller List - Fiction

This week is another first timer to the top spot. This week's new #1 Fiction Bestseller is "Changes" by Jim Butcher. This is book 12 of the Dresden Files series which is about a wizard detective in Chicago.

2010 Pulitzer Prize Winners in Letters

The 2010 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced Monday April 12th and here are the winners in Letters.

Fiction - Tinkers - Paul Harding
History - Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World - Liaquat Ahamed
Biography - The First Tycoon : The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt - T.J. Stiles
General Non Fiction - "The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy" - David E Hoffman
Poetry - Versed - Rae Armantrout
Drama - Next To Normal - Brian Yorkey

Jack Benny and Bing Crosby (and Bob Hope)

In Case You Missed It

Last night in several midwestern states there were reports of a large fireball in the sky. Around 10pm central time.

CNN has some video of the event.

The Trailer Park (Burl Ives Edition)

Today in 1995 Burl Ives died at the age of 85. Known as the Great American Balladeer he was also a great actor and won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1958 for his role in "The Big Country" as Rufus Hannassey.


His biggest success in mainstream music was with his hit song "Little Bitty Tear", from 1962 which peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Hot Country Chart.

Procol Harum

In 2009, Procol Harum's ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ was the most played song in public places in the past 75 years, according to a chart compiled for BBC Radio 2.
Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' was at number two followed by 'All I Have To Do Is Dream' by the Everly Brothers. Wet Wet Wet's 1994 hit, 'Love Is All Around', was at number four followed by Bryan Adams's 1991 hit '(Everything I Do), I Do It For You.'

Van Cliburn

Today in 1958 Van Cliburn of Kilgore, TX earned 1st prize in the Soviet Union’s Tchaikovsky International Piano Contest in Moscow.
He won the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, at the height of the Cold War. He came home to the USA to a ticker tape in New York City.


Here he is as the Mystery Guest on What's My Line?

2010 Kentucky Derby bit for 04/11/2010

the Arkansas Derby winner was also a longshot bet in Line of David. He was a 17-1 and knocked off Kentucky Derby hopefuls Dublin and Super Saver at the wire.

Read the story here.

44th Academy Awards

Today in 1972 the 44th annual Academy Awards were handed out celebrating 1971 in film. The ceremony was noted for the special Oscar given to Charlie Chaplin, who returned to the US after 20 years of self imposed exile in Switzerland.
Watch the great moment

The winners that year included Best Picture "The French Connection" starring Best Actor winner Gene Hackman and also won Best Director for William Friedkin
Best Actress went to Jane Fonda for "Klute" and "The Last Picture Show" took home Best Support Actor honors for Ben Johnson and Best Supporting Actress for Cloris Leachman.

2010 Kentucky Derby bit

Another horse made its presence known for this year's Kentucky Derby to be run May 1st.

Stately Victor is the upset winner of the Blue Grass Stakes today at Keeneland.

40th Academy Awards

April 10th 1968 was the date for the 40th annual Academy Awards honoring 1967 in film.
Originally scheduled for Monday April 8th this ceremony was postponed 2 days due to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr in Memphis TN.
Bob Hope again was a great host from Santa Monica Auditorium and saw the Best Picture award go to In The Heat of the Night starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger.

New #1 on the NYTimes Bestseller List

This week the new #1 book is on the Hardcover Fiction list.
Its "Silver Borne" by Patricia Briggs.
This is the first #1 book for Ms. Briggs. Read more about the author on her Amazon page.

From Booklist

The fifth Mercy Thompson yarn has the garage mechanic-to-coyote shape-shifter, who could use a little relaxation after whacking all those vampires in Bone Crossed (2009), up to her armpits in romantic and supernatural trouble. Her housemate Sam, a lone werewolf, has developed suicidal depression from the conflict of his two natures. Mercy herself is still working out the relationship with Adam, her bonded mate and the leader of a werewolf pack, which has been put in the danger posed by a jealous female werewolf. Then Mercy gets a call asking her to check on a comrade who may have gone missing. The Fae may be involved. Ai-yi-yi. There’s a lot going on in Silver Borne, but its pacing is practically perfect as it shifts between introspection and sudden action. Mercy is back in the West after the New Orleans setting of Bone Crossed, so most of the characters will be familiar to readers of the first three of Mercy’s now eagerly awaited adventures as well as their graphic-novel prequel, Homecoming (2009). A must for anyone following the series, one that should also be popular among fans of paranormal romance. --Frieda Murray

Jack Benny & Mel Blanc

35th Academy Awards

April 8th 1963 the Academy Awards honored the year of 1962 in film at Santa Monica’s Civic Auditorium in Los Angeles, California.
Seven Oscars including the #1 award for Best Picture went to Lawrence of Arabia (Sam Spiegel, producer) at Santa Monica’s Civic Auditorium (Los Angeles). The epic production earned Oscars for David Lean (Best Director); Freddie Young (Best Cinematography/Color); John Box, John Stoll, & Dario Simoni (Best Art Direction/Set Decoration/Color); John Cox with Shepperton SSD (Best Sound); Anne V. Coates (Best Film Editing); Maurice Jarre (Best Music/Score - Substantially Original).
Ol’ Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra hosted the festivities honoring the films of 1962 (including the film Sinatra starred in, The Manchurian Candidate.) Other notable films of that year including some award winners, and some not: Taras Bulba, Mutiny on the Bounty, Walk on the Wild Side, The Longest Day, The Music Man, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Birdman of Alcatraz.
Those that won the top awards other than Lawrence of Arabia were
To Kill a Mockingbird (Best Actor - Gregory Peck;
Best Art Direction/Set Decoration/Black-and-White - Alexander Golitzen, Henry Bumstead, Oliver Emert;
Best Writing/Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium - Horton Foote);
The Miracle Worker (Best Actress - Anne Bancroft
Best Supporting Actress - Patty Duke) ;
Sweet Bird of Youth (Best Supporting Actor - Ed Begley);
and Days of Wine and Roses [title song] (Best Music/Song: - Henry Mancini (music), Johnny Mercer lyrics).
courtesy 440.com/twtd/today.html
Watch Joan Crawford presenting David Lean with the Oscar® for Directing "Lawrence of Arabia" - the 35th Annual Academy Awards® in 1963.


An overview of all the winners

31st Academy Awards

Today in 1959 the Oscars celebrated the year of 1958 in film by awarding the Best Picture prize and 8 more Oscars to Gigi, breaking the record of 8 Oscars won by Gone With the Wind in 1940.
The record would stand only one year as we saw in yesterday's post when Ben-Hur captured 11 Academy Awards to set the new standard.

The hosts for the ceremony were Jerry Lewis, Mort Sahl, Tony Randall,Bob Hope, David Niven and Sir Laurence Olivier. This show was infamous for the end where the producer had cut performance numbers to get the show in under 3 hours but he cut too much and left Jerry Lewis with 20 minutes of air time to fill. NBC eventually cut to a sports program for the remaining time.

New Arrival in the library

He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back: The True Story of the Year the King, Jaws, Earnhardt, and the Rest of NASCAR's Feudin', Fightin' Good Ol' Boys Put Stock Car Racing on the Map


I haven't started this one yet because I am in the middle of the Magic Johnson/Larry Bird book at the moment.

What I am Reading

I have been reading the recent release "When The Game Was Ours" by Earvin Magic Johnson and Larry Bird with Jackie McMullen. So far its been a great read of my early teen years watching basketball with my dad.
The memories and insight these two legends is just great reading and the names that come out of the past have made me smile to remember them.
It of course starts with the 1979 NCAA season and the most watched Ncaa National championship game ever and then goes into the 1980 NBA Finals where the rookie Magic steps in for the legendary captain of the Lakers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who was nursing a badly sprained ankle. Game 6 of the Finals shows us the bright future of Magic but also a glimpse of what made Dr J, Julius Erving a legend. He kept the 76ers from getting run out of the building with some of the sweetest moves ever seen.




I can vividly remember my dad watching this game (it was on tape delay on a friday if I remember right) and I had fallen asleep and my dad woke me up to tell me I was missing one of the greatest performances ever in Magic Johnson's game that night.

32nd Academy Awards

Today in 1960 the Oscars honoring 1959 films were presented at the RKO Pantages Theater in Hollywood. Bob Hope was the host and it was carried nationwide on NBC television.

This night would be the night that Ben-Hur would set the record for most wins by a single movie with 11 Oscars.

(Stick with this one, the sounds drops in and out)

New #1 on the NYTimes Bestseller List

This week have new books atop both the Fiction and Non Fiction list.



#1 on the Fiction list this week is Caught by Harlan Coben
This is the second novel by Harlan Coben to reach #1, the first was Hold Tight. That book spent one week at the top in May 2008.



The new #1 on the Non Fiction list is The Big Short : Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis.
This is the first #1 for Michael Lewis.
From Amazon:
A brilliant account—character-rich and darkly humorous—of how the U.S. economy was driven over the cliff. When the crash of the U. S. stock market became public knowledge in the fall of 2008, it was already old news. The real crash, the silent crash, had taken place over the previous year, in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn’t shine, and the SEC doesn’t dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can’t pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren’t talking.

The crucial question is this: Who understood the risk inherent in the assumption of ever-rising real estate prices, a risk compounded daily by the creation of those arcane, artificial securities loosely based on piles of doubtful mortgages? Michael Lewis turns the inquiry on its head to create a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 best-selling Liar’s Poker. Who got it right? he asks. Who saw the real estate market for the black hole it would become, and eventually made billions of dollars from that perception? And what qualities of character made those few persist when their peers and colleagues dismissed them as Chicken Littles? Out of this handful of unlikely—really unlikely—heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our times. .

Happy Birthday!!!!

To one of my very best friends..Rick Scott!