Ghetto Cat Loop/Orange Street Loop

I walked the Ghetto Cat Loop at lunchtime today in 31:23.
This evening I alternated one-minute jogs with four-minute walks through the first and third miles and jogged every other minute through the second to complete the Orange Street Loop in 43:36. My splits were 14:58, 14:12, and 14:26. My legs are dead. I don't know why.

Paragraph(s) of the day from A Different Closet

Keith wasn’t surprised by Ronald Hardman’s visit. In fact he expected it, but he would later marvel at the extent to which it pleased him.

Hardman wore a shiny black suit and placed his black fedora on top of the television near the foot of Keith’s bed. He sat in the chair Karen vacated when she left.

“I’m glad you’re in one piece,” he said. “Someone told me President Reagan called you.”

“He did, and you know what, he was funny. He said something about us comparing bullet holes someday. We didn’t talk for more than maybe two or three minutes. That was it, but it was nice. It was fun.”

“Well, what do you know?” Hardman said.  “Me and you on equal footing. He’s been in Washington for six years, and I think me and him have talked for a total of exactly that, about two or three minutes. Anyway, the real thing I wanted to know is whether or not you’re still running.”

Hash

There's a small park not too far from the airport, just off a stretch of interstate highway most people take to get to there, called Granite Heights Park. That's where our Hash run was, our third from there in the last eight or nine months. I walked and jogged it in 47:24, mostly with Elaine.

Paragraph(s) of the day from A Different Closet

“Did you say, ‘Bill Lee,’ or ‘Billy?’ ’’ Green said.

“Bill Lee. His last name was Lee. He was from Baltimore. I’m telling you, that guy was funny as hell.”

Keith’s door faced the street, and Green saw him withdraw the key from the ignition, and then, through the driver’s side window, Stephen Lardner thirty feet away rushing toward them from across the street. Lardner slowed to let a car pass, then continued forward, running. Green would remember that he was in no way frightened, merely curious. Keith would remember hearing Green say, “What in the world.”

Keith turned to Green, who watched Lardner from five feet away. Keith smiled, turned toward the street to see what had drawn Green’s attention, and then back in the instant before blood burst from his face, propelled by a deafening explosion from Lardner’s hand. There was another and a shattering of windshield glass, and Green knew. He shouted, “Stephen!” He jerked up his hands up to protect himself. Shots continued. Green could see Keith’s left arm stuck through the window, gripping Lardner’s wrist. Lardner’s pistol was pinned against the roof of the Chevette. Keith reached with his right arm to Lardner’s throat, and the gun fired twice more through the roof as Keith fought his way out, leverage established between his right foot and the console. Green reached to open his door. He ducked and rushed around the rear of the car and saw three men sprinting toward them from the restaurant. Keith was out of the car but had lost his hold on Lardner’s throat. Before he could get both hands around the gun, Lardner fired a shot into his left arm and then two more into the door. Keith at last forced Lardner’s hand and the gun onto the car’s hood. “Let it go!” he screamed.

Levy Trail South/Oaklawn Park

It's 56°F at 10:21 a.m. in Levy. There are no clouds or wind. It's a good day to go to Oaklawn Park with Z Man and to walk Levy Trail South in 33:58.
Somehow today I picked five of nine winners and still lost $4.00. After nine trips, I'm behind $10.00.

Chandler Street Loop/Morrilton

I walked the Chandler Street Loop early this afternoon in 48:56. Man, it's beautiful today.
At 7:16 p.m., I'm in the Dawg Pound, the basketball gymnasium for the Morrilton High Devil Dogs, here to watch them host the Little Rock Christian High Warriors. This gym has been here at least since I was in high school,* and it's my first time inside. It's beautiful, in a Hoosiers sort of way. I got here in time to take a 33:36 walk.
*the building has not been there since I was in high school. A girls coach told me she graduated in 1979 and that it wasn't built then. I failed to ask anyone else about it when the game was over, but several people said they're building a new gym in the next year or two, which seems nuts to me

Paragraph(s) of the day from A Different Closet

NOEL KELLEHER

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A prominent gay rights activist told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Monday that a candidate for the U.S. Congressional seat in Missouri’s first district has maintained a lie throughout his campaign.

Stephen Larder, who resigned as director of Social Advocates for Gay Advancement Midwest on Jan. 18, said Keith Ingram is not homosexual, as Ingram has claimed since early in 1985, nearly a year before he announced his intention to run as a Democrat for the seat in the U.S. House of Representatives occupied by Ronald Hardman since 1969.

“It’s far past time for the truth to be exposed, before further damage to the gay rights movement is done,” Lardner said.

Ingram vehemently denied Lardner’s allegation. “It’s based on nothing more than my supposed lack of stereotypically gay characteristics,” he said. “[Lardner] should be ashamed of himself.”

Ingram said he is “involved in a relationship with [SAGA founder and President] Bobby Green.”

Green said Ingram moved into his downtown condominium on Monday, which Larder said was no more than a ruse.

Ingram’s climb to his current status began when he knocked unconscious St. Louis Cardinals All-Pro defensive back A.J. Carmichael after a confrontation at Busch Stadium following a football game on Nov. 24 of last season. Carmichael was videotaped as he verbally bashed Ingram with a barrage of epithets based on Ingram’s well-documented declaration of homosexuality. Carmichael shoved Ingram against a row of lockers, after which Ingram rose from the floor and landed a punch that knocked Carmichael unconscious and broke his jaw. Millions watched replays of the event on television.

Ingram, then a sportswriter for the Post-Dispatch, subsequently was interviewed on several nationally televised broadcasts and was featured on CBS’s news program 60 Minutes. He resigned his position at the Post-Dispatch and joined SAGA on Jan. 3.

Lardner travelled last December to Little Rock, Ark., where Ingram was employed by the Arkansas Gazette before he began work at the Post-Dispatch in June of last year. While in Little Rock, Lardner interviewed several former associates and intimates of Ingram’s, including his ex-wife Julie Hopper, and Gazette copy editor Jay Quattlebaum. They both said they told Lardner in December that they did not believe Ingram was homosexual, but both recanted Monday.

Hopper said she divorced Ingram, on Nov. 10, 1982, after she learned of an affair involving Ingram and Quattlebaum.

Quattlebaum said his relationship with Ingram continued until Ingram moved to St. Louis in June of last year. “If someone asks me to tell them something that’s none of their business, then I don’t feel obliged to tell them the truth,” Quattlebaum said. “And my involvement with [Ingram] was none of [Lardner’s] business.”

“I didn’t tell him that Keith [Ingram] wasn’t gay,” Hopper said. “I did tell him that I didn’t think he ‘acted’ gay, which I think kind of offended him [Lardner]. The fact is, my ex-husband is gay. That’s why he’s my ex-husband. But regardless, I certainly didn’t go into the details of our divorce with Lardner or anyone else.”

Lardner said something must have compelled Quattlebaum and Hopper to alter the stories, and that he suspected it might have been the influence of billionaire California real-estate developer Lance Dornfeld, a significant supporter of Ingram’s political campaign.

Dornfeld was on board his private jet when it flew out of Love Field in Dallas for Little Rock’s Adams Field on Monday morning. Dornfeld flew from Little Rock to Lambert International Airport in St. Louis on Monday afternoon.

“I was in Little Rock on private business,” said Dornfeld on Monday night, speaking from a mobile telephone. “I have never met either of the people that he mentioned and have no idea what he’s talking about.”

Lardner first spoke of this matter in a meeting at the Post-Dispatch, which began at 9 a.m., Monday.

“I find it a fantastic and unimaginable coincidence that [on Monday morning] I talk to [the Post-Dispatch] about this, and that by Monday evening all the stories have changed, and that [Ingram] has moved in with Bobby Green,” Lardner said.

Hardman, reached at his office in St. Louis, said he had no comment, though he did say, “I don’t personally care whether or not my opponent is gay. It doesn’t make any difference to me. The only thing that matters to me is whether or not he’s telling the truth.”

Green said Lardner might have been motivated by envy.

“I know that [Lardner] has long aspired to hold public office,” Green said. “He told me more than a year ago that he wanted to become the first openly gay man to be elected to Congress, and it’s been clear to me since last winter that he has been terribly jealous of Keith Ingram, and that’s too bad. Stephen Lardner had a great future with SAGA and within our movement and perhaps still does, but he’s certainly put it in jeopardy now.”

Lardner, after he was told of Green’s comment, said he was not jealous of anyone.

“All I want to do is stop this fraud before it does perhaps irreversible harm to our movement,” Lardner said. “I will do anything I can to stop it.”

Burns Park Loop

We Geezers walked the Burns Park Loop this morning. Biil Brass and I finished about a minute behind the bulk of the group in 1:43:14.

Paragraph(s) of the day from A Different Closet

“If you decline?” Dornfeld said. “Well, I don’t believe you will, but in that unlikely event, I will simply take this money, return my rental to Hertz, and fly away to St. Louis. And also, I’ll be very disappointed.”

“And that’s it?”

“Yes, that’s it,” Dornfeld said. “Please, don’t misunderstand me. This isn’t a threat. We’re not making another Godfather movie here. No one will hurt or damage you in any way. No one’s going to burn down your house. Your friend and I need your help, that’s it. So, that said, would you like a few minutes to think about it?”

Quattlebaum would never know which emotion was more acute for him at that moment, fear or excitement. “No, I don’t think that will be necessary,” he said. “All I know is that I miss Keith very much. He was my greatest love. I hope he’s happy, but I was crushed when he moved away. There is no one else like him.”

“Very good,” Dornfeld said. “Now, one more thing. I spoke earlier with Julie Hopper, the former Ms. Ingram, and I can’t make any sense out of the directions she gave me. Would you please tell me how to get to her house?”

Ghetto Cat Loop

Though I knew going in that the Ghetto Cat Loop was not at all designed to encourage big, fat, out-of-shape people to attempt to run it nonstop, I did this evening. I made it to the long, steep hill up 35th Street, said the equivalent of fuck it, and walked most of the rest of the way home. It took me 27:14, with splits of 11:20 and 15:54.

I WAS INCORRECT...
...when I stated last summer that Jeb Bush would be the Republican nominee for president. Now I predict it will be Trump. To modify a phrase from Baseball Hall of Fame announcer Mel Allan, "The great Trump. There's no stopping him." The motherfucker somehow inspired Marco Rubio to say today that he "was more than happy" to do something. In this particular case, to say on PBS that he was more than happy to introduce differences between himself and other republican candidates. Yes. He said "more than happy." More than happy. What the fuck kind of state of mind would be required for someone to achieve something that was happier than plain ol' happiness? I know there's not a word for it (though it does conjure thoughts that include "insane" and "loaded"). Point is, Trump now has his best-looking rival speaking gibberish, and he's gotta be fucking happy about it

Paragraph(s) of the day from A Different Closet
In twelve years as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s managing editor, and now in his fifth as publisher, Bill Seale had never scheduled a meeting more than however far ahead of time it took him to get whoever he needed into his office. Stephen Lardner watched as he arranged this one. Seale walked past him to the door, which opened into the newsroom, and loudly said, “Hey, Noel. Do you got a minute?”

He then picked up his desk phone. “Frank, I know all y’all’s busy today, but I got somebody in here I think you might oughta take a listen to.”

Seale and Lardner were joined by political editor Frank Glass and Noel Kelleher. Lardner had never met Glass but had convinced Kelleher a month earlier to ask Keith Ingram about his voting record and his agnosticism, both of which were exposed in the Post-Dispatch, after which Ingram’s poll numbers plummeted. Ronald Hardman led by eighteen percent after the story was published. But then came editorials in the Post-Dispatch, on KMOX-AM and two St. Louis television stations, and finally on NBC’s Meet the Press, each extolling the virtue of honesty as it applied to Ingram. Hardman’s lead dropped to ten percent, and Lardner, six weeks and one day before the primary, decided the time had arrived to play what he believed was his long suit and perhaps final hand.

“Fellows, this is Stephen Lardner,” Seale said. “I know I don’t have to tell y’all who he is. Mr. Lardner, I’m sure you’ve met Noel Kelleher. This here’s Frank Glass, one of our editors. He’s Noel’s boss. Now boys, I’ll cut straight to it. Mr. Lardner come in here to tell me that Keith Ingram ain’t gay. He told me he went down to Arkansas and interviewed all sorts of people that know Keith, and that they all said they couldn’t believe it or was shocked when he said he was. He told me Keith was married, before his wife up and left him, and that he apparently had a love affair with that girl jockey that got killed a couple of years ago over at the racetrack down there. He said they’s a homosexual copy editor at the Arkansas Gazette that knew Keith real well and said they ain’t no way he was gay. Now obviously it could be that all that ain’t nothin and don’t prove nothin, but I think ya’ll oughta hear him out.”

Levy Trail 5K

I walked the Levy Trail 5K on this gray, soaking-wet afternoon in 50:09. I went through three miles in 48:28.

Paragraph(s) of the day from A Different Closet

“OK, then what are your religious beliefs?”

Keith looked away, toward the court. No one spoke. Kelleher became aware that several teenagers were about to start another basketball game. He smelled chicken frying somewhere nearby and began to wonder whether he had understood Lardner correctly.

“Man, I love fried chicken,” Keith said. He appeared to watch kids as they took random jump shots with a half dozen basketballs. “To answer your question, I don’t have any religious beliefs. You asked if I were an atheist. I’m not, because to be an atheist demands the acknowledgement of a belief. I don’t think anything created us, or cares about us, but I don’t know that. For me, belief or disbelief of that sort takes more imaginative effort than I’m capable of. I understand that people are generally disposed to believe something, so I’ve chosen to limit my beliefs to tangible, measurable, concrete matters about which there’s no room for debate, the kind of things people hardly ever kill each other over. It goes back to the reason I haven’t voted. Now, did Lardner want you to ask me anything else?”

“Pardon me,” Kelleher said.

“Oh, forget that, Noel. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said it. But, please, let me add this, whether you use it in the paper or not. I want to make it clear that I’m a huge supporter of religion, of churches, synagogues, mosques, whatever, religion in general. I think it’s what’s saved us all, going all the way back to the dark ages. Without the moral compass of whichever god people believe in, most of us would still be enslaved somewhere. I mean, religion is at least indirectly responsible for all of our hope, despite some of the people who tend to serve as its spokesmen. It has to be allowed to flourish, perhaps foremost among our freedoms. Heck, I think religion is why we’re here, and it’s why here is what it is.”

Maple Street Loop

I walked the Maple Street Loop at lunchtime today in 31:30. At 12:31 p.m., it's 73°F in Levy. It's nice to see that global warming has finally started to work out for us.
This afternoon I walked from a parking lot of Dickey-Stephens Park for 42:21 with Bob Marston, Basil Julian, and a handful of other Little Rock Hash House Harriers.
According to blogspot statisticians, forty-eight people looked at my entry from yesterday, the second most ever. Of them, 38.8 percent were from Russia and 30.7 from Poland. How encouraging. My Pam's Boy password now includes exactly nine-million characters.

Paragraph(s) of the day from A Different Closet

They watched Karen trot up the steps and heard the click of her shoes fade into a soft rumble of traffic.

“She’s perfect, isn’t she?” Kelleher said.

“Lardner is convinced I’m not gay,” Keith said. “He thinks everyone’s going to find out, and then all this stuff will backfire on us and destroy everything he and Bobby Green and every participant in the gay right’s movement has accomplished since we finally got cops to stop beating us to death. That’s why he quit.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. Wow. And also, he’s jealous. I think that’s the main thing, though I believe that’ll be a little harder to confirm. He thinks he should be the gay guy running for office.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“I can’t help you there.”

They never stopped looking at Karen. She stood at the top of the steps, fifty feet above them, a hundred yards away, her hands tucked firmly in the pockets of her coat. She’d put on a white stocking cap. With the lights of the Arch behind her, they watched clouds of her exhalations form and float away. “You’re right, you know,” Keith said. “She is perfect.”

Ridge Road Loop

I walked the Ridge Road Loop this afternoon in 1:04:54. It's 71°F in Levy. I guess I'll spend the afternoon sunbathing in my back yard.

Paragraph(s) of the day from A Different Closet

Bill Seale approved the final run of the Sunday edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the night before, after he read the major stories on a computer screen and then on a proof, but somehow this paper before him on his kitchen table, with coffee boiling and bacon and grated potatoes sizzling under Elsie’s direction fifteen feet away, seemed as fresh to him as Sunday papers had when he was a boy in Alabama, when he first began to dream the glorious dreams of a reporter. This front-page story by Noel Kelleher came close to reproducing exactly what Seale witnessed the previous afternoon. “Elsie, I’m here to tell you that what I saw and heard yesterday was the best reaction to a speech I ever eyewitnessed, and you can feel that in Noel’s story here. Keith was like a rock-and-roll star out there. I ain’t sayin he gave any kind of great speech. I’m hardly a judge of that, but his timin was dead on the mark, and he told them people exactly what they wanted to hear.”

Oaklawn Park

HOT SPRINGS—I completed a loop from my car around the barns and to the New York Room at Oaklawn Park at lunchtime today in 37:40.
Next I lost $24.00 betting the Thursday card. I didn't cash a ticket. After eight trips, I'm $6.00 in the hole.

Levy Loop

Tonight I jogged the Levy Loop non-stop in 23:50, with splits of 11:41 and 12:19. The last half mile was hard. My calves got tighter than two you know whats.

Paragraph(s) of the day from A Different Closet

“You aren’t gay, are you?”

“Do what?”

“You’re not gay,” Green said.

Keith wasn't sure what to say, though he knew his ruse was up. Having checked the shelves and racks of his imagination for more than a year, he had been unable to find any guide to his dishonesty. There were no manuals, no set of instructions. He was unwilling to put on a performance, and theretofore none had been required. It was enough in his crowd, with most of these men around him, to simply say he was gay, but with Green, and Lardner, and now Dornfeld, it was a different matter. He looked at the television screen above him, saw two announcers bundled in their booth and then one drawing marks on a play run in slow motion from the week before, and he sensed a surge of embarrassment that reminded him of moments from childhood when people who had earned his respect were armed with evidence contrary to something he’d said or maintained. Prepared or not, it was time. “Yes, that’s correct,” he said. “I’m not gay.”

And so it was over. He wondered whether he could return to his job at the Post-Dispatch. Green looked up at the nearest television. The game was underway.
“That’s fine,” Green said. “Believe it or not, as odd as this may sound, your sexuality is irrelevant.”

Oaklawn Park

HOT SPRINGS—I walked around the barns and parking lots at Oaklawn Park at lunchtime today for 48:22.
I won $35.00 and am up $18.00 after seven trips. For a $6-total bet, I hit a $2-exacta on the Southwest Stakes that paid $48.60.
My story from tonight, written under deadline in an hour and a half, pleased me.

BY PETE PERKINS

HOT SPRINGS — It seemed as if there were two winners.

Suddenbreakingnews and Whitmore both came from far back in the 1 1/16-mile $600,000, Grade III Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Monday. But Suddenbreaking News, the eventual winner, behaved as if his preference were to pass every other entrant in the field of 14.

On the other hand, Whitmore’s jockey Mike Smith had his hands full of a horse so eager to cut and run that his only choice was to hold on as tightly as possible.

Before a crowd estimated by Oaklawn management of 22,500, Smith had to use most of his strength to prevent Whitmore from bolting just past the half-mile pole when he was 11th, nine lengths behind longshot leader Siding Spring.

But next, just like that, Smith’s ride appeared geared to win. He took to the middle of the track and reeled in the field around the final turn, was third at the top the stretch and took command with an eighth of a mile to go.

“We was very rank, very rank, I mean extremely rank,” Smith said. “Five jumps out of the gate he jumped on the bridle way too hard. I mean it was b---- to the wall, that rank. I had to really, really hold him. Once I finally got him to settle, man that was a lot of pulling on a horse. I was surprised he ended up running as well as he did.”

Unknown to Smith, Suddenbreakingnews coasted along under rider Luis Quionez and was last of all through the half, far back of frontrunners Siding Spring and American Dubai as they opened through a quarter mile of 23.10 seconds and a half in 47.06.

Quinonez said he was pleased by the relaxed state of his gelding and decided to take the long way home. “My horse was running nice,” he said. “I didn’t have nobody around me. This guy is just long-strided. With this crowd, I just knew it was going to be hard to go through horses that weren’t going anywhere, so I took him outside.”

He took Suddenbreakingnews who, coupled with Synchrony started at 4-1, wide on trip that took him past seven horses in the last turn. The winner was fifth at the head of the stretch and Quinonez said his confidence soared.

“I knew we would win at the top of the lane,” Quinonez said.

Suddenbreakingnews trainer Donnie K. Von Hemel laughed when told of Quinonez’s early faith. “I felt good at the eighth pole,” Von Hemel said. “I might not have been as confident as Luis was, but you could see he had some momentum going. He’s a big, long-striding horse, and once he got that going, it looked like he was going to have a big chance.”

Suddenbreakingnews passed Whitmore with 100 yards left and pulled away to win by 2 3/4 lengths. He had followed Whitmore as they passed American Dubai and the 5-2 favorite Collected near the 1/8th pole.

“When I finally got him out and I was able to drop his head, instead of just folding like most horses would do, he took off,” Smith said. “I thought, ‘Wow, I still got a shot to win this.’ Then I thought, “I’m gonna win this. I’ll just win easy. He’s already tired. I’m not going to beat him up too much. I got this.’ And then I heard the footsteps on the outside and it was like, ‘Ah, man.’ But I’m just beside myself that he continued to run as well as he did.”

American Dubai finished third at 21-1, 1/2 length behind Whitmore, gambler’s second choice at 7-2. Collected, trained by Bob Baffert, was fourth.

Suddenbreakingnews, a son of Mineshaft, paid $10.20, $4.40, and $3.20.

Last year Baffert-trainee American Pharoah won Oaklawn’s Grade II Rebel Stakes and Grade I Arkansas Derby as his final preps for the Triple Crown, which he became the first horse to win since Affirmed in 1978.

Baffert’s assistant Jimmy Barnes sounded disappointed by Collected’s result. “A lot of horses in the race and you get shoved around,” he said. “You’re in the gate forever. But the bottom line is you’ve got to get out there and run, and he didn’t.”

Fields of 12 or more at Oaklawn require couplings for betting purposes. Suddenbreakingnews and Synchrony were coupled because of their common trainer in Von Hemel. American Dubai was coupled with Torrontes, who finished last, because Oaklawn authorities estimated they had the most likely chance to start with similar odds.

Von Hemel said Oaklawn’s Grade II Rebel Stakes, scheduled for March 19, would be Suddenbreakingnews’ next target.

“I think this horse pedigree-wise can go a mile and a quarter, a mile and a half, however far he wants to run,” Von Hemel said.

Considering the trouble overcome by Whitmore, his connections seemed delighted.

“Mike knows there’s tons of room for improvement,” trainer Ron Moquett said. “We know we didn’t get all of our best today.”

“It was a great effort,” owner Harry Rosenblum said. “He’s still inexperienced. He had a little trouble in the race, and if he didn’t have it, he might’ve had a different outcome. We’re pleased by the effort and pleased we have a horse to run in this kind of a race.”

Smith said he thinks there may be better things to come for Whitmore.

“Man he really wanted to take it to them,” Smith said. “If we had started well, I would like to see what would’ve happened, though he still ran very well. I think there’s a lot of room to improve, so he’s going to get better. You’d hate to see he had a picture-perfect race and was all-out and just got run down. Then you’d think, ‘Well, it probably is what it is,’ but it’s clear he has room to grow.”

Perhaps things were a bit easier for Suddenbreakingnews, but Smith said he was nevertheless greatly impressed.

“For all the things I’ve said, man, that winner looked very, very good,” Smith said. “He was so relaxed.”

“I had a good, great trip,” Quinonez said. “I could see everyone in front of me, and they were all bumping, and my horse was just relaxing. Every stride he was just reaching out.”

Oaklawn Park

HOT SPRINGS—I walked for 1:02:14, mostly in the Oaklawn Park barn area, but also to Regions Bank and to my car and from my car with a bag loaded with shit to the elevator. I might have covered three miles, maybe. Some of the time was spent standing completely still so as not to have horses stomp on or kick me.
Afterward I wrote a decent story and lost $4.20 to bring my losses after six trips to $17.00.
I made two Kentucky Derby futures bets in pool 2, one for $10 on Whitmore at 78-1 and another for $20 on Smokey Image at 22-1. Some may remember that I lost a $100 futures bet last year after Competitive Edge failed to qualify for the race. My hope this year is that at least one of those horses starts the goddamn Derby. That alone will be worth the $30 I most likely pissed away at roughly 5:30 this afternoon.
I love Smokey Image. Look at him on YouTube winning the California Cup. He's a sexy chestnut who reminds me of Joe Namath before Super Bowl III and California Chrome from two springs ago.

Maple Street Loop

I walked the Maple Street Loop this morning in 33:08.

Levy Trail Loop

I alternated one-minute slow jogs with with four-minute slow walks to complete the Levy Trail Loop this evening in 30:36.

Paragraph(s) of the day from A Different Closet

“How about two Budweisers?” Keith said.

“Hell, I’ve already drunk six, but if you insist,” Junior said, laughing as he reached into an ancient, dark green cooler. “Who’s your buddy?”

“This is Bobby Green, my boss over at SAGA. Bobby, meet Junior Tinker. He owns this piece of shit.”

“I’m darn proud of it, too,” Tinker said. “The only problem is the crappy clientele that comes in here. Speaking of which, how’s this turd working out for you?”

“So far he’s done very well,” Green said. “And I must say, I like his taste in bars.”

“He’s a good man, not that I’m any judge of character,” Junior said. “I mean, take a look around.”

“Ignore him,” Keith said. “The bullshit never stops.”

Levy Trail

I walked from my house to Camp Robinson and back at lunchtime today in 1:22:31.

Paragraph(s) of the day from A Different Closet
Hardman walked to a window overlooking the midday traffic on Grand and leaned forward, his weight supported by palms pressed against the sill. “Let me ask you something else, one more thing,” he said. “What exactly are you looking for out of this? I mean, everything included. What all do you want?”

Lardner wasn’t sure, but he suspected Hardman wondered how much his help would cost. “I just want one thing, and that is for you to win your next primary, assuming Ingram is in the race. That’s it.”

“What about the money? You gotta want some, right?”

“No, not a cent.  You can think of me as a campaign volunteer. Of course, there may be expenses involved, but I haven’t come to you to make money. That has nothing to with it.”

“Well, obviously I’m going to have to think about this for a while,” Hardman said. He stepped from the window and leaned back against his enormous desk “I know you’ve heard about how politics makes for strange bedfellows. I saw that right from the start, twenty years ago. But I’m telling you, this takes the damn cake.”

Hardcastle Loop

I walked the Hardcastle Loop this afternoon in 47:58.

OVERHEARD
"The chips was moved, too. Goddamn."
—woman on the former chip aisle at Kroger, where they now sell picnic supplies. They moved the chips and almost everything else in a complete store rearrangement four months ago. It's been awhile since Pete last heard anyone complain about it

Maple Street Loop/Oaklawn Park

I walked the Maple Street Loop this morning in 32:51 as a warmup for Z-Man's Pre-Super Bowl 50 Beer Mile. I hope to break twenty minutes.
Late this afternoon I walked and jogged Z Man's Beer Mile in 18:51.
Yesterday I lost $2 at Oaklawn Park before I wrote a story about the Martha Washington Stakes, which is sort of like the Southwest Stakes except that it's for three-year-old filles. The Southwest, open to any three-year-old, is a week from tomorrow. After five trips, I have lost a total of $12.80.

I PLAN TO STAB...
...the next person who says "last rodeo," unless they're talking about a last rodeo

Paragraph(s) of the day from A Different Closet

She laughed and again leaned back but this time involuntarily, and he watched her begin a descent along the refrigerator door. He saw Post-it Notes and recipes and snap shots once secured by magnets and tape scatter in a quiet cascade. He stood to help, but it was too late. Momentum carried her to an inevitable landing, which Keith hoped had been adequately padded by her old cotton corduroys and all the Milwaukee’s Best she’d drunk.

She was still laughing, to his relief. “You know, it’s always fun to see potential disaster reduced to slapstick,” he said.

Seated on the dark blue kitchen tile, the cans of beer still in place in her hands, Karen turned her reddened face toward his. “Shut up. I have a beer for you.”

He sat beside her on the floor. They gathered notes and photographs and a collection of decorative magnets. “Are you sure you’re OK?”

“I’m fine, just a little embarrassed. Do you know how much I love you?”

“I think so, yes.”

“Why do you have to be gay?”

“I don’t know. It’s a matter of genetics, I guess. Anyway, that’s what they tell me.”

“But you were married, and there was Cam. Didn’t you compromise for them?”

“I guess I did, yes.”

“Why can’t you for me?”

“I don’t know. If I could, I would.”

“But you can’t.”

“No.”

“Rats.”

Burns Park Loop

I walked the Burns Park Loop this afternoon in 1:35:49. The weather is perfect here. We need at least two more days of this.

Paragraph(s) of the day from A Different Closet

Keith felt his chest tighten. To see Karen did this to him sometimes. As always it felt new, though with little effort he could remember similar responses to Cam Luru and his ex-wife and a girl from the fourth grade whose name he’d forgotten thirty years earlier. Here it was again, and it scared him, as always.

Orange Street Loop

I walked the Orange Street Loop late this afternoon in 46:43.

Paragraph(s) of the day from A Different Closet
“May I answer that?” Keith said.

Dornfeld was by then beyond surprise. He nodded. “Of course.”

“Reaganomics is a fine program for the rich, who’ve seen their taxes literally cut in half. But the thing is, just because they’ve been given these tax cuts doesn’t mean they’re going to invest in their employees, which they haven’t. And it doesn’t mean they’re going to hire more people. They haven’t done that either. All it means is that their profits have increased. Additionally, there’s just no way government can cut spending enough to match the lack of tax coming in, so our fiscal deficit soars, which will eventually cripple us all, except for the richest among us. The people here who have jobs are making on average about four dollars an hour, so they barely get by. The cliché is true; the rich get richer and the poor get fucked. So in a nutshell, the answer to Stephen’s question is that Reaganomics isn’t at all compatible with the interests of the bulk of the people living in this district.”

Dornfeld stood. “You’re correct, and I have the money to prove it. Keith. Will you run?”

His doubt persisted, as it had since he was old enough to reason, but for the moment it was compromised by this great gust of encouragement. “I will,” he said.

River Trail

We walked about five miles on the River Trail from Burns Park Golf Course this morning in 1:30:02. We were in light, comfortable drizzle for the last half hour. It's warm here.

Chandler Street Loop

I walked the Chandler Street Loop this morning 49:01.

Paragraph(s) of the day from A Different Closet

St. Louis always appealed to Lance Dornfeld, staged as it was on the western edge of America’s first step toward world dominance, when black-and-white photographs of smokestacks and factories and a thousand men marching in dark suits, felt hats, and black leather gloves combined to reflect industrial might. He liked that St. Louis still wore it’s red-brick outfit donned a century before. It was similar in that way to other midwestern and northern satellites of New York, like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Detroit and Milwaukee, Cleveland and Cincinnati, now poised with their significance in varying degrees of decay but hinged so firmly to the past that nostalgia secured for them present and future roles. When possible, Dornfeld always requested his pilots plan their flights to St. Louis to include a view of the Gateway Arch. On this morning he saw its east side reflect bright sunlight, though someone in the cockpit suggested he might want to bundle up since it was twenty-two degrees at Lambert International.