Daily Archives: July 22, 2014

Anoka County, Sport, Woolly Mammoths

Railbirds

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Summer                                                                       Most Heat Moon

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A warm summer evening, a true northern summer evening with just a hint of coolness after the sun went down. The Woollies gathered at Running Aces: Mark, Scott, Warren, Frank, Bill and Tom. Most of us were novices at betting the horses, but we made up in enthusiasm what we lacked in knowledge. Normally, you would expect such a situation to favor the house, but I’m sure as a group we took home more money than we bet. Warren hit a boxed exacta and so did I. Between us we won over $215.

The food is good bar food and we had a window table with a clear view of the finish line. We discussed betting techniques: what a cute name, color, odds by Ricky, odds by trackman published at the bottom of the program, looking at the racing history of the horses. Names seemed a dominant choice.

I bet on Hooray Katie. Lost. Frank bet on Hanna. Won a quarter. Tom and Mark bet on Kissmelikeyoumeanit and won. Mark won an exacta. Bill won a couple of times. I think Scott won, too.

These horses, pacers and trotters, are Standardbreds. This means that they trace their ancestory to Hambeltonian 10(pic). If thoroughbred racing is the sport of kings, harness racing, the same source of information says, is the sport of the people. The people were out there tonight, cheering and drinking, enjoying the summer evening. And the Woollies were part of it.

Asia

Huh

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Summer                                                             Most Heat Moon

Over to Beisswinger’s hardware store to pick up the mower after repairs. While there I noticed a group gathered amongst the riding mowers on display, two men with Beisswinger tee-shirts and two Chinese or Japanese men taking notes, while a third took photographs. Here’s what surprised me. My reaction.

My first thought. Hmmm, Chinese investors getting ready to make a bid for the Do It Best hardware corporation. In taking care of the mower and payment I forgot to ask anyone who the visitors were, but my reaction itself is noteworthy. How the economic landscape has changed.

Politics, US History

On the Run

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Summer                                                                   Most Heat Moon

Started a new book last night, On the Run, by Alice Goffman, a recently graduated sociologist Ph.D.  Her father was Erving Goffman, also a sociologist. You may be familiar with his work on social interactions. For example, in a work on human interaction he observed that the amount of space people need when conversing while standing differs by culture.

On the Run recounts Alice’s 7 years of living in a poor black neighborhood of Philadelphia, but recounts it from a sociological perspective. I’ll write more about this as I get into it, but I wanted to note two things I’ve learned already. Things that disturb me quite a bit.

First, in the introduction she cites devastating statistics about the incarceration of black males. This one really got me. 60% of black males who don’t finish high school end up in jail. 60%!

Second, she remarks on a coincidence that’s been staring us in the face for a long, long time, but is even more devastating. The rise of tough-against-crime legislation and the war on drugs-both of which are primary drivers in what one sociologist calls “mass incarceration”-began in the 1970’s. This is the period just after the passage in 1964 of the Civil Rights Act and the victories of the civil rights movement. Think about those two things together. They should give you pause.

More later.