It’s Time for the Time Suck of the Week

Before we get to the Time Suck of the Week, I’d like everyone to take a moment and reflect on the irony and tragedy of life. I, the Big Ugly Man Doll, have a problem with betting on horse races. Specifically, my problem is that I don’t live near enough to a track to make betting on horses feasible, and betting on line is boring. So, I only very rarely bet on horses. The running of the 134th Kentucky Derby was different, not because I was there, but since someone I know was likely to be there – and he (who is to be known only as the Future Senator from Kentucky) was kind enough to both enable my bad habits and guide me in my excesses. I had asked that he spot me for $20 on Eight Belles to win.

The Future Senator from Kentucky knows a LOT about horses, and explained (having seen all the horses the day before he spoke to me) that I’d be throwing away my yuppie foodstamp by betting on the filly to win. Despite the favored Big Brown having the 20th post position, the Future Senator from Kentucky was impressed with him: “There’s a lot of horse on that thing.” On my favorite, he said, and again I quote: “She’s a BIG bitch.” So on his advice I put $10 on Eight Belles to win, and another $10 on her to place.

Of course we were both right: Big Brown did win, and Eight Belles did place, not too far behind him. Then this wonderful and good looking horse, who had just done me the favor of winning me some cash, popped both ankle bones and had to be put down on the track, just minutes after damn near winning the Kentucky Freaking Derby. Damn you, gods of irony! Happiness does not mix well with unfounded generalized guilt. Happiness mixes well with bourbon and mint.

OK, enough grief. In a very disturbing note, Hillary Clinton told supporters, “I hope that everybody will go to the derby on Saturday and place just a little money on the filly for me,” a day or so before the race. Now let’s not all draw parallels between a filly running for the roses and one running for the Rose Garden, ’cause that would be mean. What bothers me about it is that I think this marks the first time a horse has committed Arkancide. Weird.

So, without further ado, The Time Suck of The Week. (I know, you were starting to think this *was* the TSOW.) There I was, innocently trolling for knowledge or maybe porn on the Good Job Sucking site, and what should I find but a link to a site with some of the most disturbingly and hauntingly beautiful photographs I have ever seen. It’s called Opacity. It describes through photographs urban ruins and abandoned places; the mission seems to be “recording their transformations through time before they are demolished.” The photos are worth paging through for hours on their own merit; what makes this site the TSOW are the comments. After reading about 200 of them, I felt like I knew many of these people. Some of them are really funny, even in the face of the most haunting pictures. And I want to find some of these places. And I want a better camera. ;-) 

Discussion Area - Leave a Comment