trying to get the engine idling ~ and news bits

[lookingland]

last night i wrote three sentences. er, not exactly the fabulous outpouring of words i had hoped for. and one of the sentences doesn't even count since it was a quote from the Bible.

i'm having that "cold and in the garage for too long" problem. can't quite get the engine to turn over.

i'm still having difficulty picking the right place to begin. i actually had a thought yesterday that maybe i oughta use dates, but i really hate dates in books. they go right over my head.

there's something about bassico's Silk in the way he contextualizes the world of the story by presenting a short list of what's happening globally. and i am reminded of the parable quality of his work (as well as fermine's). there was a descriptor to this book that called it a fable. a fable about longing, loss, and the paradoxes of destiny. or some such. i don't necessarily argue with that. except that it's not really fabulous, now is it?

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it's sir arthur conan doyle's b-day today. Google has a cool commemorative logo to celebrate today.



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in other news, i've been watching the barbaro story. i want to preface this by saying that i think horse-racing is barbaric, but i respect the tradition of it in the same way that i respect bull-fighting in spite of my disapproval.

for those of you who are also following, you know they give barbaro a 50-50 for survival. his ankle was shattered so bad that he's now got 23 pins just holding it together. normally you put a horse down if it has this bad an injury.



it's a wee bit heartbreaking to be sure.

Comments

[tiellan.livejournal.com]

What's particularly barbaric about horseracing is what they're doing to Barbaro. I used to think it was absolutely awful that they put down horses with broken legs, now I know it really is a mercy. Poor horse. What's particularly disgusting is that they're not really trying to "save" Barbaro at all, they're trying to save his stud potential. Even if the surgery is successful, the recuperation will probably drive the poor guy crazy. Grrr.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

that poor horse is too young to have already been put through so much.

: o (

[la-vita-nuova.livejournal.com]

For reals....many race horses are just 2 or 3 years old. I agree it is barbaric, both the sport and keeping him alive if he's going to be in such great pain. Can't they freeze some sperm or something?

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

that's what i was thinking: maybe some sort of harvest ~ though it's still a crying shame to have to kill such a young horse.

[sistermeg.livejournal.com]

a bunch of people were talking at lunch about how awful this injury is, and I mentioned that maybe if we didn't race horses like this in the first place we wouldn't have these tragedies...

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

every time i see one of these injuries, i just cringe at the people profiting off of this sort of thing. it's why i have a hard time thinking movies like SeaBiscuit are such a good thing. i don't really "buy" that horses love to race the way some people claim they do.

: o (

[la-vita-nuova.livejournal.com]

And the owners see the animal maybe a few times a year & name the poor beasties as if they were an endowment fund, posh apartment house, or new species of hybrid petunia. I used to read all those books about hores racing and all that rot when I was 12 but I think you are correct, they would be much happier roaming in a meadow somewhere...

[countrysoaper.livejournal.com]

What's heartbreaking is that he knew his purpose was to race, it was all he knew. He kept trying to race after his ankle blew. I wouldn't be surprised if he knows well enough that his days are numbered.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

that, more than anything to me shows how unhealthy the whole thing is for the animal.

it's not natural for an animal to persevere when everything is telling it to stop. that's not "heart", that's mental illness.

: o p

[countrysoaper.livejournal.com]

We add in the evil of human intent when we know the purpose of it all is the greed of the horse's owners to make money from him. I'd say that's the true mental illness.

[bachsoprano.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear that the engine doesn't want to turn over...I know that feeling all too well. I wish I had some great suggestions but...try again tomorrow? Or, dig out a coloring book for a while?

I haven't been following the Barbara story all that much because I'm so dismayed. I've been a rider since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, and the lengths that they're going through to perserve this horse's life is just...horrible. Not that a majestic animal like Barbara doesn't deserve a chance to live, but the pain he'll have to go through and for what? To hobble around? And, there's a really good chance he'll tie up and colic and die an even more painful death...(yeah, I'm a bit gloomy today)...

If it had been any other horse, he'd have been put down, but stud fees being what they are...it's all about money.

Grrrrr...soapboxy rant now ends....

[pithhelmet.livejournal.com]

it's sir arthur conan doyle's b-day today. Google has a cool commemorative logo to celebrate today.

Google's my homepage. I was quite pleased to see it when I logged on. I wish they'd do more stuff like that.