Instant relief
Once upon millions of times, a nation woke up to:
$4 gas.
War.
Expensive rice.
Polls.
Another Grand Theft Auto game.
Drunk drivers.
The "Check Engine" sign.
Foreclosure Estates.
Homers.
Homeless.
Hindsight.
Meteorologists.
Morons playing one year of college hoops.
TV shows about year-old poker games.
No test for HGH (in a nation that can put a dozen blood-spatter crime-scene shows on television.
Kathy Lee Gifford.
Dick Vitale.
The next Wayne Newton (David Archuleta).
The BCS.
The Yankees stinking some more.
Pasty 10-year-olds without ball gloves.
Bad drivers who follow too close and carry guns.
Circus clowns doing TV sports reports.
Heat.
Annika quitting.
Sergio mugging through a minor.
Dwight the idiot on The Office kills his girlfriend's cat.
The TV show "Vegas" is cancelled.
The TV show "Numbers" is renewed.
Horatio Caine lives.
Politicians.
Political analysts.
A fast Japanese horse.
A forgetful Indiana Jones.
Aluminum baseball bats.
Polls.
Dumb producers moving Sam Waterston out of the courtroom in "Law and Order."
A mad cow gets the bird flu.
Might -- for two weeks prior to the Belmont Stakes, and for almost two and a half minutes during the running of the race, and for the time afterward until the Big Brown has left the building and has entered the Breeding Suite -- a horse make things a little better?
It seems to be thinking wishfully to imagine that a horse could class up an industry and cheer up a nation. But the gentlemen did wave their fedoras at Seabiscuit, and Secretariat did have them framing their win tickets.
We do love our animals in this country. The simplicity of an animal's motive is so appealing: Do your best and enjoy eating.
How could a horse that runs so few times be so good for anything? Breeding and producing more similar to him couldn't hurt business. And being really great for a brief period of time is enough, as easy as memories are to carry.
Write to Jay at jaycronley@yahoo.com.
