Burns Park Tournament Course/River Trail

Ed Pennington and I played the Burns Park Tournament Course this afternoon. I scored 92 and Ed 94. I had nines of 45 and 47 and used 33 putts.
Immediately afterward, I started south on an out-and-back River Trail walk that took 34:13. I went out in 17:35 and came back in 16:38.

Levy Trail

I walked on the Levy Trail early this afternoon for 50:28.

Levy Trail South

I walked Levy Trail South at lunchtime today in 34:41.

Levy Trail North

I walked Levy Trail North this moring in 33:30.

Levy Trail Loop/Burns Park Championship Course

I walked the Levy Trail Loop this morning in 33:03.
Ed and I played the Burns Park Championship Course this afternoon. I scored 91 and Ed 96. I had nines of 43 and 48, with 4 pars, 10 bogies, 3 doubles, and 1 quadruple. I used 35 putts. This was the best I have played in a while. I hit a bunch of good shots.

Levy Trail

I walked about 4.2 miles on the Levy Trail late this morning in 1:09:12, with mile splits of 16:33, 16:30, 16:25, and 16:43.
At dusk, I walked Levy Trail South in 34:40. My legs are deader than Kobe's thirteen-year-old daughter.

Oaklawn

HOT SPRINGS—I walked for 52:11 before racing began today at Oaklawn. Afterward, I lost $2 on one bet. After two trips, I'm down $4.

OVERHEARD
"One, three, and ten are the only horses that are winning today. Don't forget it. I'm gonna be your third partner now."
—cat selling parking spots as Pete walked past within a block of Oaklawn's front doors

"Shit, I don't know. I haven't been drinking, and I feel like I have a hangover."
—A 30-something woman, dressed in black jeans, sweater, and skull cap, kind of pretty in an ordinary, very weathered, tired, blonde-headed sort of way, walking as if she were lost near the intersection of Central Avenue and St. Louis Street, a quarter of a mile north of Oaklawn. She asked Pete how he was and responded to his response, "I'm fine. How are you?"

Oaklawn Racing

HOT SPRINGS—I walked for 36:31 around the barns the parking lot at Oaklawn Racing* this morning. I meant to go much further, but I was held up longer than I expected as I attempted to find trainers.
I lost one $2 bet on my first day at the races.
*they have changed the name of this facility from Oaklawn Park to Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort. For the sake of horse-race reporting, I have decided to cut it to Oaklawn Racing. After nine days of stories, no one at the racetrack or the paper has said a word

Maumelle Walmart

I walked through and around a good part of the Maumelle Walmart complex tonight for 36:17.

Fort Roots Loop

Several other Geezers and I completed the Fort Roots Loop from the Burns Park Golf parking lot this morning in 1:35:40. Bill Brass and I alternated twelve one-minute jogs with one-minute walks most of the way back to our cars from the North Little Rock skateboard park on the river. I'll conservatively guess we went about five and a half miles, or maybe a bit more. It rained the last couple of miles and is just barely over freezing.

Little Rock McClellan

Before I watched the Little Rock McClellan Lions beat the eStem Mets 67-64 in a basketball game at the Lion's Den tonight, I walked for 34:19, including two laps of the McClellan track that I truly believe has the same rubberized asphalt surface on which I won the McClellan Lions Relays half-mile run back in 1977. I jogged about 20 yards just so I could say I ran on it for the first and probably last time since the spring of 1979, back when I lived about a mile away on Baseline Road as a college sophomore. I did intervals out there that semester.
The school will close at the end of this semester to be combined with Little Rock Fair next fall at a new school on Baseline, right where I lived way back then. Maybe the City of Little Rock will maintain the track for the poor neighborhood it has served for the last fifty years or so.

Levy Trail South

I walked Levy Trail South this morning in 36:31. It felt good to walk so slowly.

Pam's Path

I walked Pam's Path at lunchtime today in 1:08:37. My legs are deader than Ukrainian and Malaysian jet setters.

Chander Street Loop/Levy Trail South

I alternated four-minute walks with one-minute jogs to complete the challengingly-hilly Chandler Street Loop early this afternoon in 44:20, with splits of 14:39, 15:15, and 14:46.
It was the first time I have run or walked this loop since February 2016.
This evening, beginning at about 6:45, I walked Levy Trail South in 31:16.

Levy Trail

I walked about 4.2 miles on the Levy Trail this afternoon in 1:12:10.
Earlier today, I walked for 20:24 at Oaklawn Racing, where I interviewed a few people and, by the way, made my first-ever legal bet on a football game. Oaklawn Casino now has a sportsbook, and I bet $5 on Tennessee +8 points against the Kansas City Cheifs. This could put me over the top.

OVERHEARD
"Change is hard, and change is not always easy."
-Congresswoman on National Public Radio, demonstrating linguistic skill on par with that of former Indianapolis Colts general manager Ryan Grigson, who provided this Overheard to Pam's boy on Jan. 17, 2012: "Change isn't always the easiest transition to make."

Levy Trail 5K/Burns Park/Tournament Course

I alternated four-minute walks with one-minute runs to complete the Levy Trail 5K this morning in 43:19. I went through three miles in 41:54, with splits of 14:28, 13:42, and 13:45.
Ed and I played Burns Park Tournament Course this afternoon. Ed scored 86 and I scored 90, with nines of 46 and 44. I used 33 puts and froze my rear off. We were, literally, the only morons on the course, not counting a kid with a skateboard.

Levy Trail/Riverfront Wyndham

I walked the first four miles of the Levy Trail 10K, a new route I have yet to complete, in 1:05:16, with splits of 16:12, 16:07, 16:57, and 16:00. It took me 2:58 to walk from the four-mile mark to my house, so I guess I covered a bit less 4.2 miles.
That mark is on the trail behind what used to be a Payless Shoe store, between Taco Bell and Senior Tequilla on Camp Robinson. It's now a laundromat.
This evening, before I reported on the Oaklawn Kickoff Banquet, I walked a loop from the Riverfront Wyndham Hotel in downtown North Little Rock for 33:21.
Here's the unedited story Pete wrote, in which he used "fashion" as a verb for the first time, he thinks:

PETE PERKINS

Jockey Mike Smith flew in from California to help introduce the 2020 season at Oaklawn Racing, which begins Jan. 24 at the 116-year-old racetrack in Hot Springs.

Smith, 54, a member of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, was presented the first Jack Van Berg Horse Racing Award at the Oaklawn Kickoff Banquet at Wyndham Riverfront Hotel in North Little Rock on Wednesday night.

“I rode for Jack since I was 16 years old,” Smith said. “When the award came up, and I found out I was a recipient, I was thrilled to death, to be honest with you. It’s always an honor to receive any award, but when it’s in honor of a man like him, it takes it over the top.”

The award, fashioned for notable people of racing connected in some way to Oaklawn, was named after the late Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg, who moved his stable to Oaklawn from California for the final four of his 51 seasons as a trainer. Van Berg died in Little Rock on Dec. 27, 2017.

Smith, a regular among Oaklawn’s riders from 1983-89, is now based in southern California and primarily races at Santa Anita Park during the Oaklawn season, but his flights to Arkansas aren’t limited to banquets. He frequently rides in Oaklawn stakes races, particularly those during the Racing Festival of the South, long a feature of mid-Aprils at the track. Last season, Smith rode Omaha Beach to victory in Oaklawn’s Rebel Stakes on March 16, 2019, and the Arkansas Derby on April 13.

“I hope I get asked to come back,” Smith said. “I love going there. I love the town first of all, and the track, it’s just a hidden gem of horse racing, man. You walk through the front door and then you walk out the back toward the track, and it’s just gorgeous. It’s a great place to race. You always have a full grandstand, and it just makes you feel good.

“I’m kind of based in California now, and I have some pretty powerful outfits that I ride for there, so I get the best of both worlds when the Racing Festival rolls around. I get to go out to Hot Springs on a bunch of horses that come from California.”

Omaha Beach began its 2019 Kentucky Derby prep campaign at Santa Anita, but the track suspended training and racing on March 5 last season after a total of 21 horses were injured and euthanized while training or racing on the track’s dirt surface, damaged by record winter rainfall. Oaklawn president Louis Cella committed to split the Rebel into two divisions to make room for Derby hopefuls displaced by Santa Anita’s trouble.

Santa Anita was declared safe this winter. Indeed, Smith rode Fox Hill Farm’s filly Jolie Olimpica to victory there in the Grade III Las Cienegas Stakes, a $100,000 5 1/2-furlong race for fillies and mares four-years-old and up on Saturday.

Smith said riders feel safe at Santa Anita this season, but he understood concerns after the multiple equine deaths from Dec. 2018-March 2019.

“It was worrisome,” he said. “For a jockey, a horse’s life is your life, but the track is in good shape right now. Really, it always has been. The only time we had a whole lot of trouble was when we had all that weather there, you know, for two and a half months. That rain for two months straight was very unusual, but we’re trying to get back on the upswing out there. We’re working hard at it. We seem to have things going in the right direction right now, so we’ll see where it takes us.”

Danger is inherent in racing for horses and riders alike, regardless of the track they race on, but Smith said he has never been concerned for his safety at Oaklawn.

“I haven’t ridden out there on a regular basis in a long, long time, but I have never heard of anything out of the ordinary there,” Smith said.

Oaklawn has dug out its racing surface of dirt, sand, and silt to the base once a year since the fall of 2017, and replaced portions of each of the components incompatible with safe racing, Oaklawn general manager Wayne Smith said. Oaklawn’s now-annual process is similar to the one undertaken by Santa Anita last fall that allowed the track to pass safety standards needed for certification to reopen.

Smith said a safe track is best for Oaklawn, its horsemen, and their horses.

“We bring in fresh material, and we mix it, mix it, mix it for months, and then we test it, make sure it’s what we want, and then we bring it back onto the track and spread it an inch at a time,” Smith said. “That takes about a month. We do all of that, we test it, we work it a little bit,  and put it to bed for about a month. Then, right before horses get here, we work it again, test it again, make sure it’s the mixture that we want. We want to make sure it’s the best track people can possibly come to.”

Mike Smith rode for Van Berg on tracks in California and Arkansas. He said Van Berg was, in part, a father figure in his early development.

“He was just a wonderful man,” Smith said. “For a lot of riders, he was a big part of their careers early on, including mine. Larry Snyder comes to mind. Pat Day, Angel Cordero, Laffit Pincay. I mean, all the guys, [Willie] Shoemaker, everyone rode for Jack.”

Burns Park Championship Course/Arkansas School for the Deaf

I walked for 35:36 around the campus of the Arkansas School for the Deaf—in the sort of rainfall so light it affects nothing save an awareness of it—before I watched Little Rock Mills defeat the eStem Mets at the Nutt Athletic Complex on Tuesday night.
Earlier, Ed and I played the Championship Course at Burns Park. I scored 94, with nines of 44 and 50. Ed scored 88.
This is hard to explain, but it was the first time I have ever explored that campus. One of the buildings, a small one, is the Arkansas School for the Deaf Historical Museum. All I know about the school's history is that it opened in 1850 and it once had a basketball player named Bennie Fuller who held the state scoring record. Oh, and former Arkansas Razorbacks football coach Houston Nutt's father, Houston Nutt, Sr., coached its basketball team for somewhere in the neighborhood of forty years.

Levy Trail

I walked out and back, north and south, about 3.3 miles on the Levy Trail this morning in 55:10.
Professor Pete went 2-2 on his NFL playoff point-spread selections through the weekend, so exactly the same as an average gambler flipping a coin.

Levy Trail 5K

I walked the Levy Trail 5K early this afternoon in 48:04, with splits of 15:44, 15:31, and 15:20.

OVERHEARD
"I like Taco Bell, but they can't match the Doritos Loco Tacos my grandmother always made for us."
—panelist on National Public Radio's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me

PROFESSOR PETE'S STONE-COLD BIG-BANG PICKS FOR ETERNAL GRIDIRON GOLD II

Houston Texans +10 at Kansas City Chiefs, 2:05 CST today, CBS: Take the points and Houston. The Texans won at Kansas City, 31-24 on Oct. 13. They were in the middle of a significant roll at that time and are probably incapable of duplicating that performance, but this point spread strikes as an unwarranted nod to mythical factors, among them magic (in regard to Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes) and destiny (as in Kansas City Coach Andy Reid, a longtime playoff loser, being due)

Seattle Seahawks +4 at Green Bay Packers, 5:40 p.m., FOX: Take the Packers and give up the points. No one seems to know what to do here. My kneejerk pick was Seattle to win outright, not because they have played well, but because the Packers have not. Neither has Seattle. It is 2-3 over its last five games, including a nail-biter of a win (17-9) at the Philadelphia Eagles last Sunday in the wildcard round. The very mediocre Eagles had no business in the playoffs. The loss of running back Chris Carson to injury late in the regular season has handicapped Seattle since, but the Packers are 3-3 this season against teams of the Seahawk's caliber. In their last game, two weeks ago, it was all they could do to beat the pitiful Detroit Lions, 23-20. There is no way I would risk my money on this game, but if I had to, I guess I'd take the Packers, who I hope don't get the shit beat out of them

Yesterday's result: Professor Pete finished 1-1

Ghetto Cat Loop

I walked the Ghetto Cat Loop late this morning in 34:02.

PROFESSOR PETE'S STONE-COLD BIG-BANG PICKS FOR ETERNAL GRIDIRON GOLD
Minnesota Vikings +7 at San Francisco 49ers, 3:35 p.m. CST today, NBC: Take the points and Minnesota. San Francisco clearly established itself as the best team in the NFC, and perhaps the NFL, through the first half of the season. However, since its 37-8 pummel of the Packers on Nov. 24, San Francisco has won three of its last five games, none by more than 26-21 over the Seattle Seahawks. Each of the five games was decided in the final minute of play. Minnesota enters off its wire-to-wire wildcard victory at the New Orleans Saints, a team many experts believed were Super Bowl-bound. Minnesota might win outright.

Tennessee Titans +10 at Baltimore Ravens, 7:15 p.m. today, CBS: Take the points and Tennessee. This should be a slow-paced game. Both teams run first and indeed will not pass unless they are forced to. Consequently, the Ravens will likely have no opportunity to run up the score.

Levy Trail South

I walked Levy Trail South at lunchtime today in 32:47.

Levy Trail South

I walked Levy Trail South this morning in 30:54.

Levy Trail Loop/Burns Park Championship Course

I walked the Levy Trail Loop this morning in 31:57.
Beginning at about 11 a.m., Ed and I played the Burns Park Championship Course. I scored 44 and Ed 47. I had 3 pars, 3 bogies, 3 doubles, and used 14 putts.

Levy Trail South

I walked Levy Trail South this morning in 30:38.

Levy Trail

I walked out and back on the Levy Trail this morning for 40:26.

Pam's Path/Burns Park Tournament Course

I walked off a five-hole back-nine tour of Burns Park's Tournament Course just in time to hear the review of the Minnesota Vikings' opening drive fumble against the New Orleans Saints at the Super Dome. My Green Bay Packers would really like for the Vikings to win since it would put either Seattle of Philadelphia in Green Bay next Sunday rather than the Saints.
I played Nos. 10, 11, 15, 17, and 18 in +5, with 1 par, 3, bogies, and 1 double. I used nine putts.
Immediately before I started, I stepped in from a walk of the newly-designed Pam's Path 1:05:47.

Levy Trail 5K

I walked the Levy Trail 5K late this morning in 51:19.

I PLAN TO STAB...
...the fellow with a pleasant British accent who provided as evidence on National Public Radio this morning that President Trump's frequent rounds of golf indicate he has not paid close attention to his role in U.S. governance this holiday season.
Apparently, this fellow considers my plans to stab as no more than idle threats. Otherwise, I believe he would've reacted properly to the following from Sept. 5:

I PLAN TO STAB...
...the next motherfucker who says anything negative about how much any U.S. president golfs. The brainwashed conservatives wouldn't get off President Obama about golf, and now the brainwashed liberals won't get off President Trump about it. We should encourage our presidents to golf, to play a game that is good for them in every way. Doesn't anyone remember this unfair criticism of our last president? Besides, with this new fuck, what's the point?

Come on. When there are so many things to find about nearly every president we have ever had to criticize, particularly our current freak, what other than laziness leads these television and radio commentators to pick golf? Is it not somewhat the equivalent of hammering a president for reading too much? As in, "Fucker spent four hours with Joyce yesterday."

Levy Trail North/Burns Park Tournament Course

I walked Levy Trail North this morning in 33:41.
Beginning at 9:31 a.m., I played the front nine of the Burns Park Tournament Course in 43, with 2 pars, 6 bogies, and 1 double. I used 18 putts. The nine holes took me exactly an hour and nineteen minutes.

QUESTION OF THE DAY
Does anyone care that Siri and the like have an ability to record all said within range of their microphones?