Academy Award to Old Friends | BloodHorse.com

Academy Award to Old Friends | BloodHorse.com

Beyond Cream and Sugar: Coffee With Cheese, Eggs and Reindeer Bones

Beyond Cream and Sugar: Coffee With Cheese, Eggs and Reindeer Bones

I have yet to put anything weird in my coffee except maybe my finger when I didn't have a spoon to stir it with.

Kentucky Derby Trail: Lurking in the Shadows | BloodHorse.com

Kentucky Derby Trail: Lurking in the Shadows | BloodHorse.com



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Libraries-Who needs them!!

What a stupid thing to say isn't it?  Of course we still need libraries even in this technology-crowded world.  In these times you can get books online or you can download them to one of the many digital books that are now on the market.  I have to admit that I have a Sony Reader and I love it but there is nothing like holding a real book in your hand.  I still have many of the "old-fashioned" type books.  You can now even get newspapers downloaded on to these things.  But what a lot of people who can afford these luxuries don't remember is that there are a lot of people still in this world who can't afford one of these gadgets.  Hell, they can't even afford a newspaper subscription.  There are also the people who come to get the latest DVD's and CD's.  People also go there just to read magazines and newspapers and to socialize.  This is also a place to do research using the genealogy room which holds a lot of historic books and papers.  Then there are the people who can't afford a computer but yet they want to surf the 'net so they go to the library. So just by reading this you see how much the public still relies on the public library system which right now seems to be in a lot of financial trouble.

Here in Ohio as in many other states they have cut funding to libraries.  In the town where I live they are trying to get an emergency levy put on the May ballot so they can return to their normal business hours amongst other things.  They use to be open on Fridays but since the funding was cut they had to close on that day.  They also had to cut staff because of this.  When certain city council members heard of this emergency levy one of them actually blamed the library for getting themselves into this financial mess.  HELLO!!! if the person who made this idiot comment would pay attention to the news they would know that funding that kept the library going had been CUT BY THE STATE.  It was not the library's fault.  Geesh!!! Of course, I don't take into consideration that maybe this person can't read or doesn't read.  Maybe he didn't get the text message over his iPhone about it.  Or maybe he just doesn't care about the library since he doesn't use it.   Well sir, there are a lot of people who want to see the library return to full running mode.  My sister and I are just two of those people.

My sister Michele worked for 31 years at our local library (she just retired this last year) and she feels that she got out of there in the knick of time.  She misses her co-workers there because they were all great friends.  They were almost like family.  Thanks to the cuts they could not replace her which makes it hard on the remaining staff in the department where she worked so faithfully all of those years.

I hope that the level-headed public speaks up for the libraries.  Our future leaders of companies and of this country need the public library system to keep going.  If you haven't been to the library for awhile go one Saturday afternoon and see all of the people who still need it and who still want it around.

Check out the Art Institute of Chicago

Check out the Art Institute of Chicago

Kip Deville 'Doing Great,' Iavarone Says | BloodHorse.com

Kip Deville 'Doing Great,' Iavarone Says | BloodHorse.com



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Obama thanks 'Cats for Haiti effort

Obama thanks 'Cats for Haiti effort

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Kentucky Derby Trail: Battle Stations! | BloodHorse.com

Kentucky Derby Trail: Battle Stations! | BloodHorse.com



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My Trip to Chicago!

Okay, I know that millions of people have visited the Windy City but for me it was exciting. I had always wanted to go to Chicago because the lure of a big city was exciting. I only live a 6 hour drive from there but I just never could make it up there until June of 2009. Then I had a very special reason to go.

What made this trip even more exciting was that I was going to be making my first train trip. My father had worked on the railroad all of this life so I grew up around trains but I had never made a trip on one. I was going with my best friend Sherrie and we were going to Chicago on a mission. A certain gangster was making a comeback to Chicago only he was in the form of a very famous and I will say sexy actor.......Johnny Depp (yes there is that name again). They were having the press junket and premiere for "Public Enemies" there which was only appropriate since the movie was filmed there.

Sherrie and I left for Chicago from Union Terminal in Cincinnati at 2:00 a.m. and we went through several smalls towns before arriving in Indianapolis around 6:00 a.m. I had managed to sleep until that point. I felt the train stopping and when I woke up I looked out one window only to be greeted by a huge poster of the Indianapolis Colts QB Peyton Manning that was hanging on the side of the Colts stadium. I just rolled my eyes and turned to look out another window to watch Indy slowly coming to life for another workday. (My sister and I are Colts fans but I have to tease her about Manning) Well after about 10 minutes the train started to move and we were now on the longest part of the trip with only a couple of stops before arriving in Chicago. At one point in the trip the passengers were unaware that the train was being followed by one of Mother Nature's deadliest toys........a tornado. Thankfully for us it was not a very strong one but it did do some damage somewhere. They never alerted us to it. The only reason I had found out about it was when my sister told me.

Anyway, we arrived at Chicago's Union Station about 10:45 a.m. and it was a beautiful day up there. The sky was blue and there was a cool breeze blowing through the downtown. Union Station was breathtaking and I had to walk through it before stepping out into the big city for the first time. Naturally, when I walked out and looked way up I saw the Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower. YUCK!!!) and it knocked the air out of me. I had never seen a building that tall before. I know that makes me sound like some kind of hick but I don't care. The biggest city I had been in before that was Indy and they don't have buildings that could rival this one. Of course, Cincinnati is small compared to this city.

Sherrie and I started walking down the the street towards my other point of interest..the Art Institute of Chicago. I couldn't wait to see this wonderful building and the lions that proudly stand in front of it. The streets were full of people who most of the time didn't pay attention to the crossing signs. They waited for a break in traffic and quickly walked across the street. I would come to find myself falling in love with the city and it's people. We finally found a Sabarro's so we grabbed some pizza (can you imagine eating pizza in Chicago? LOL!!!!) To me the greatest pizza in the world was born in that city and that is Pizzaria Uno. We met some nice guys there who were on their lunch break. They were talking about the sports teams (Go Cubbies!!!) and how they thought they would do during their seasons. According to the postman that was there talking the Chicago Bears were going to be good this season but unfortunately that didn't happen. The mailman actually took pity on me when I told him that I was a Cincinnati Bengals fan. Well as any football fan knows the Bengals became the AFC NORTH DIVISION CHAMPS. Man, I love saying that.

After eating we continued on to the destination at the end of the street and no, I don't mean Johnny Depp. When the Art Institute came into view I started getting excited. Of course I was also going by the home of the Chicago Symphony. They were have a Dovrak Festival at the time. I would have loved to been able to hear that. We crossed Michigan Ave the street which my mother has termed "Heaven on Earth" because of the shopping that is located there. She would have lived on the "Magnificent Mile" if given the opportunity. But for me, that is a world I really don't care for in the least. Give me Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse and the beautiful thoroughbred and I would be happy. Okay, I can see you sitting there reading this going "Oh, not throwing Johnny Depp into that mix?" He goes into that "beautiful work of art" category.

I had my pic taken next to one of the lions and then we went in. I didn't get to walk through the museum (I get to do that when my sister takes me back to Chicago in April for the Matisse Exhibit) but I did get a couple of things for myself, my sister and mother in the gift shop. Then Sherrie and I left the museum and headed toward Lake Michigan. What a beautiful sight!!! We stayed there for awhile before heading back toward the city. We decided to take a bus back to Union Station so we could be there in time to board our train back to Cincinnati. No one told that I would be pole dancing on the bus. The driver didn't give me time to sit down before taking off. Thankfully, I had my hand on a pole and I just swung around and sat down.

While we waited for them to call to get in line to board the train, Sherrie and I sat and watched them get ready for the press conference for "Public Enemies" that was to be held in the Great Hall at Union Station the following morning We were only there for the day so we didn't get to see Johnny. But while sitting there we heard people saying that they had to leave to meet Johnny at the premiere amongst other things. It was neat hearing people talk about Johnny and see the activity surrounding the preparations. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't depressed about not meeting Johnny because I was but I did get something wonderful out of that trip and that was a love for a beautiful city and it's people.

Celebrity Gossip- Good or Bad?

Celebrity Gossip is something the world thrives on. For what reason I can't figure out. I guess that we want to live in a fantasy world for a little while each day to get us away from the pains of reality. But what we don't remember is that the gossip some people can't live without is hurting or stressing most celebrities out. It's making their world miserable but there are some celebrities that can't live without seeing their names and pictures in the gossip columns everyday. But gossip can hurt and scare people as the fans of Johnny Depp found out today. It seems that someone with nothing better to do with their time decided to start the rumor that Johnny was killed in an auto accident in France. Supposedly his car was found alongside a country road with a guardrail embedded in it and Johnny was laying on the backseat on a bed of liquor bottles. But for most of Johnny's fans we knew that this was nothing but a rumor. What most of these gossip people don't understand about this unique group of people is that before we all go off screaming and crying that we have lost our beloved pirate we check the story out first. Luckily, I have had a good teacher the past few years when it comes to not believing everything you read. Her name is Karen and she is the owner of the very popular "Johnny Depp Reads" website. (I recommend it to every devoted Johnny Depp fan). She has a thread on there called "Time Will Tell" and that is where rumors are posted until they are confirmed to be true. Well Karen didn't bother to post this newest rumor at all. But unfortunately a certain cable news channel (I won't say their name) reported this rumor this morning to be true. Well, they need a Johnny Depp fan on their crew because if they had one they would have noticed that this rumor was started in March '04. Plus there were other clues to tell them that this story was written out of someone's boredom. Well anyway, Johnny is happily alive and hopefully is enjoying some relaxation with his family before starting his next movie in February.

I just wish that these people would leave celebrities alone and only write about their public appearances. After all, these are human beings with families and private lives. I know that they gave up some privacy when they became stars but would you want someone suddenly popping out of nowhere taking pictures of your children and then putting them on the internet for every nut in the world to see. I know that I wouldn't. A lot of the adult ( I mean mentally in this case) actors and actresses want to keep their children out of the limelight so they can have a least somewhat of a normal childhood. Plus it's for their own security. Johnny Depp's fans are very protective over him and his family. JDR and the other respectable Depp websites will not post any pictures of his children because it is Johnny's wish to keep his children private and secure. He has said that he and his partner Vanessa Paradis are fair game when they are out in the public eye because of who they are. I hope that fans of other celebrities are just as protective over them as we are of Johnny. Of course, a Depp fan is a very unique person.

So people why don't we just leave these people alone once in a while so they can be just what they are..........normal human beings. We sometimes tend to forget that they are of the human race. Unfortunately there are people that put them on a pedestal and they think that these people can do no wrong but they can and that is when the media reports on them. Not when they do something good but when they do something wrong. They are human and they will do bad things ever so often.

So the next time you are sitting there reading some story of a celebrity doing wrong or looking at a picture of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's daughter just put yourself in their shoes and think "Would I want to be in their shoes and have my private life posted for all the world to see?" Or think of your child's picture on the cover of magazines or on internet sites where some idiot out there can be staring at it and getting those idiot thoughts running through their little minds. If you do this I think that you will start thinking differently when you look at your next celebrity magazine or believing the next rumor.