{"id":2175,"date":"2012-03-15T11:09:23","date_gmt":"2012-03-15T18:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/?p=2175"},"modified":"2012-03-15T11:12:39","modified_gmt":"2012-03-15T18:12:39","slug":"first-post-thursday-march-15-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/2012\/03\/15\/first-post-thursday-march-15-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"First Post: Thursday, March 15, 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luck<\/em>, what’s that? Never seen it here in these parts.<\/p>\n

Television used to be a wholesome beast. Who can forget the positive stories conveyed in such top shows as Love Boat<\/em> and Fantasy Island<\/em>, not to mention Charlie’s Angels<\/em> and the original Hawaii Five-O<\/em>. The morals were simple, honest: know your role, appreciate faith, hope and charity, don’t ask for too much. Most important, the old business about “crime doesn’t pay” was always upheld. <\/p>\n

Now what’s on the screen? Everything’s gone dark! It’s a little bit base, really. Everyone has to outsmart everyone else. Everyone’s bigger than the game itself. And it’s all done with a smirk and a sneer. There’s no moral authority behind it, no original Steve McGarrett. Violence and evil prevail, and especially crime. <\/p>\n

We here are outdated and hopelessly behind the times. Never seen South Park<\/em>. Never seen Mad Men<\/em>. Never seen House<\/em> or Californication<\/em> or Weeds<\/em>. Never seen Dexter the Molexter<\/em> or Lady GaGA Mounts the Lardassians As Flava Flav & Don Trump Look On in Abject Pleasure, Sponsored by Goldman Sachs<\/em>. We are culturally tone-deaf! We are square and unhip! Power to the people!<\/p>\n

On the other hoof, Jeopardy!<\/em>, good show, been on 28 years, plus more if you count the Fleming years. Wheel of Fortune<\/em>, good show, been on even longer. People work hard enough in their daytime lives; who wants to psychoanalyze and chase down every last plot twist or devious manipulation during what’s supposed to be their leisure hours? You need a degree in aberrant psychology and a certificate in deviant behaviour to be able to watch television nowadays. No, thanks.<\/p>\n

Besides the J!<\/em> and the WOF<\/em>, the Vince D’Onofrio episodes of L&O: CI<\/em> were watchable. D’Onofrio’s Goren character had a good sense of humour but was never larger than the game, never bigger than the case. And for a detective, he actually had a fine sense of humor; it was wholesome and winning, not ironical or self-congratulatory. Some of those scenes in CI<\/em> where he starts playing tennis in his trenchcoat while on an investigation or high-fiving high-school kids in the hallways, well, that’s quality TV right there.<\/p>\n

As well, ALF<\/em>. Seriously. Funny but not snarky. Funny but not self-importantly funny. We are not smart enough to guile or misdirect. ALF<\/em> entertained us. “Gimme four!”<\/p>\n

Free<\/em> ones<\/strong>: <\/p>\n

Aqueduct<\/strong> 2, 7, 9
\nGulf<\/strong> 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10
\nSanta Anita<\/strong> 4, 6, 7<\/p>\n

Pay-side<\/a><\/strong>: Today…<\/p>\n

Laurel<\/strong> 7, 8, 9
\nTampa<\/strong> 3, 6, 8, 10
\nFair Grounds<\/strong> 5, 6, 8
\nOaklawn<\/strong> 1, 2, 9
\nGolden Gate<\/strong> 4, 5, 7<\/p>\n

WMF Report<\/strong>: <\/p>\n

Speed<\/em>
\nPennNat<\/strong> 6f<\/p>\n

Nocturnal Submission<\/strong>: Night off. <\/p>\n

Thank you. Best wishes. Take care now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luck, what’s that? Never seen it here in these parts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,4,3],"tags":[8,13,7,6],"class_list":["post-2175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-picks","category-wmf","tag-analysis","tag-commentary","tag-longshots","tag-track-bias"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pavW5M-z5","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2175"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2177,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2175\/revisions\/2177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}