This 'n' That Miscellany

The three-year-old colt (actually, he's a ridgling) Catholic Boy ran away from everyone in the Mid-Summer Derby - otherwise known as the Travers Stakes, run at 1 1/4 miles at Saratoga.  Bravazo, the D Wayne Lucas trainee, who ran in all three Triple Crown races, was coming up hard to finish in third place behind Mendelssohn finishing second.  It was a really great race.
 
The President is complaining because he Google-searched his own surname plus the news, and found that most of the news stories listed ran toward negativity about his leadership.  He is swearing that Google needs to be investigated because they only list "Fake news."   -  The man is an idiot.

There were voting primaries in Arizona and Florida yesterday.  I grinned when I saw that ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio finished last of three candidates where he ran.  I was very happy to see the ex-Mayor of Tallahassee, Andrew Gillum, won the Democratic Gubernatorial nomination. I could only sigh when I saw that DeSantis, the President's Republican pick, won that race.  DeSantis is such a suck-up to the man in the Oval Office - his advertisement for running was creepy, showing him reading a book supposedly written by the President to his son, and then helping his son build a wall of wood blocks, while chanting, "Build that wall!  Build that wall!  That's right, son, let's build that wall!"  And then his statement this morning, telling voter's not to "monkey up the election" by voting for Gillum, who is African-American.  That really set my teeth on edge.

I am still working on identifying a bunch of older photos of ponies that lived on Assateague Island - both in Maryland and Virginia.  Trying to match body markings on pintos is fairly easy - but when you're looking at anklets, socks and stockings when the ponies are either in sand, water, or grass and bushes can make it hard.  Most of the bays, chestnuts and sorrels on the north end of Assateague, in Maryland, have few distinguishing marks, and with the life in the wild, their coat colors can change dramatically between high summer and the dead of winter...  I've gotten half of the photos identified, but some of them are single "shots" and no other photos of that particular pony are posted elsewhere.  It's like working on  a family tree and/or a locked-door murder mystery.  Fun, but puzzling.

I've been reading quite a bit recently - still have five Tony Hillerman books to find and read to complete his series.  Then his daughter, Ann's, three books.  Have read about half of the C. J. Box books so far.  I've had several series recommended to me that are only available as electronic books that I have to download to my PC...  I might be tackling them soon - but I love to sprawl in my chair in the living room or on the balcony and read...  Being tied to the PC is not something I particularly want - and I positively hate reading on a tablet or Kindle or whatever...  I want a real book in my  hands.

I start eleven days of walks at 7:30 a.m. with the owner of 5 King Charles Cavalier Spaniels on Friday.  His wife is visiting family, and he needs help with the furry scurries.  On Labor Day, Monday, I start 3 to 5 weeks of cats, chickens and fish sitting while the owners go play in the Canadian Rockies...  They'll return when they feel like it, or the weather turns too cold.  That means fresh eggs on a daily basis and tons of fresh veggies and grapes from the garden, too. 

My Favorite Authors

My problem in reading is that I enjoy a wide variety of books and authors - and I go back and re-read most of the books that were favorites while I was in school every two or three years...
  I had several Little Golden Books as a child, and when I was 6, my parents got me a copy of Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry, along with a wide assortment of small children's books about Misty - Misty, the Wonder Pony and a book telling Misty's story through photographs from the 20th Century Fox movie starring Pam Smith, David Ladd, Arthur O'Connell and Anne Seymour.  Of course I received these because I was taken to my first Pony Penning at the age of 7 weeks, and never missed one until I was 28 years old.  Mom was related to most of the people mentioned in the book, and remembered when Marguerite Henry was on the island and staying at Miss Molly's Inn.  Because of that, and my continuing love of all animals, I have to say that my first favorite author was Marguerite Henry.
  Both of my parents were voracious readers. Mom owned a lot of Zane Grey westerns, and I have read everything the man ever published - in book form or in magazines.  I read all of the Nancy Drew and Dana Girl mysteries, and I was ten when I read The Once and Future King by T. H. White, followed by Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki.  That started a period of myth reading, along with ghost reports (Hans Holzer), and embarked me into science fiction and fantasy.
   I read Robert Heinlein, Andre Norton, and Isaac Asimov.  From there, I fell for J. R. R. Tolkien, Anne McCaffrey, and C. J. Cherryh.  I also discovered truly heroic adventure - and was captivated by Frank Yerby, Rafael Sabatini (Scaramouche and The Black Swan are my favorites) and I still prefer unabridged copies of  The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.  Then Dad said that his mother, whose maiden surname was Lancaster, was a direct descendant for the Lancastrian kings of England.  (She wasn't, but we do descend from John of Gaunt on Dad's paternal side.) So I started reading non-fiction and fiction about the Kings and Queens of England - Jean Plaidy brought the old courts to life - and my Dad thoroughly enjoyed reading all her books, too.   For great historical fiction, I love Bernard Cornwell and Jack Whyte.  For historical fiction/mystery P. C. Doherty is fantastic.
   Mom was also a huge fan of mysteries - I read all of "The Saint" books by Leslie Charteris, and all of the James Bond books, and a huge variety of other authors.  Of course, with my horse interests, I became enthralled with the books of Dick Francis, the former jump-jockey for the Queen of England.  I also became enamored with the characters in Dana Stabenow's mysteries set in Alaska.
Currently, I'm reading Tony Hillerman and C. J. Box, having finished all of the books by James Doss.  And I am so sorry that Margaret Coel has stopped writing - her mysteries set on the Wind River Reservation, and her seminal non-fiction book on Chief Niwot are phenomenal. Then, too, I love Rita Mae Brown and Shirley Rousseau Murphy and Carole Nelson Douglas.  Mom got me hooked on the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald, and I introduced her to Randy Wayne White before her dementia became too severe for her to read.
   And I also read "thrillers" -  I love books by Clive Cussler, James Rollins, Lee J. Child, James Lee Burke, Alafair Burke, Linda Fairstein and every book either co-written, or written individually (non-fiction and fiction) by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.
   If you enjoy reading, I think you'll enjoy any and/all all of the authors I have mentioned above.