Random notes on rainy days, along with some sprots nooz

I watch at most three horse races a year.  It's not too difficult to guess which three.  Saturday was the Belmont Stakes and as the announcers stretched their imaginations to fill the seemingly infinite time they were on the air before the race, I had to wonder why for every one word they said about the 12 horses set to run the race, they said 10 about the horse that wasn't there.  We get it. No triple crown this year. Incidentally I saw Secretariat run once at Arlington near Chicago. Who would have thought a horse could be charismatic?

Among other features they tried, one included the announcement that Ryan Seacrest will help with NBC's Olympic coverage.  Ryan Seacrest?  Now there's someone credible in the athletics world.  What's he going to do, announce the judging in the hair styles competition?

Observed a teen couple walking down the street today.  Both had a lock or two of their dark hair colored either red or blue and both dressed all in black.  On the back of the boy's shirt in white on black was a traditional skull and crossbones.  The girl wore on her back a cuddly looking panda bear backpack.  I predict a short relationship.

It rains just enough to prevent painting but not so much that I don't have to water the garden.

New politically correct language is out today.  Can't say water level rising any more when referring to the warming and rise of oceans. Supposed to say recurrent flooding.  That may take an adjustment when parts of both coasts go under water permanently.  Also not supposed  to say "fat cats" when referring to Wall Street.  It hurts their feelings.  The same folks who brought us that rule also don't allow the adjective "wealthy" anymore.  "Job creators" is what Republicans will use to describe the rich from now on. 

Rummy now wants to get rid of more teachers, police and firefighters.  That will fix the economy for sure.  He asks didn't we learn anything from the Wisconsin recall election?  Yeah, we learned you can buy an election. And someone pointed out that right now the government can somehow borrow money at a profit because interest rates on bonds have dropped into negative territory.  I should have paid more attention in math class. And still all the jobs bills and infrastructure repairs are stalled in Congress, which then puts the blame on the president.

Over in New Zealand Lady Gaga suffered a concussion when a dancer accidentally hit her in the head with some kind of pole he was swinging.  She went on and finished the show.

And on television four more sitcoms have been premiered, all dealing with that exciting theme of 20-somethings and their sexual adventures.  NOW I know why there is an off button on the TV.  My DVR which often is in the neighborhood of 80 percent full has suddenly dropped to less than 40 percent.

And if we lose police what will we do about the gang problem?

In Alaska, the state just allowed some kind of corporation to contribute as much money as it wants to a political campaign and some of our legislators are hinting at the idea we also have too many teachers, firefighters and police officers. Guess which party will benefit from that. Meanwhile three bears have had to be killed in Anchorage because of threatening behavior, one of them a grizzly not too far from my daughter's house. Wonder what will happen when there aren't enough cops around to shoot all the dangerous bears. And we aren't even at the solstice.

And about that Japanese Tsunami litter bearing down on Alaska coasts: Someone and then a headline writer expressed extreme surprise that it was happening.  Um, we have been picking up Japanese and other flotsam off the beaches from California to Alaska at least since the 1950s.  I even have some of it hanging as art at the East Pole.  And some more worked by an artist friend into Christmas tree decorations. Hello.

Because of the dangerous distraction caused by texting with smartphones, state after state has outlawed it.  Tonight there was a commercial for some kind of car that among other features has a dashboard screen on which you can do web searches with Bing.  Just sayin'.

Oh, and on a final note get this:  Remember the Seinfeld episode where Elaine  told a tiresome mother, "maybe the dingo ate your baby"?   Well a coroner has finally ruled the dingo really did eat the baby.