Take The Fifth

How is it, I wonder, that America came to celebrate the fifth of May (Cinco de Mayo).  It is, after all, a commemorative celebration of a Mexican victory of an 1862 battle with the French.  Since we are a nation of immigrants, I guess it makes sense that we take any and every opportunity to celebrate each and every nationality.  Aren't we all Irish on St. Patrick's Day?  Regardless, take the Fifth and have a taco!

Knowing I'd be glued to the television yesterday, I put the servants to work to do a lot of laundry and the dishes to ease my conscience.  It is said that Derby Day is four hours of waiting for two minutes of racing.  There are, of course, other races before The Big One, but everyone looks forward to the Kentucky Derby, the last race of the day.  I actually did pretty well with my picks, coming in no lower than "show," third place.  No one expected the end of the Derby, though, when the winner was disqualified for interfering with other horses, the first time in history.  Another horse was stripped of the winner's title in 1968 because of drugs, but that was days after the fact and had none of the drama of yesterday.  The decked-out crowd of hundreds of thousands in attendance were silent, waiting for the stewards' decision, and then broke out in pandemonium when the new winner was announced.  My sympathy went to the owner of the disqualified horse; he is an older man who was in tears of happiness when he thought his horse had won.  I can't imagine his sorrow now.  Now we wait for the Preakness in a couple of weeks.  Because Country House was such a long shot, I doubt we'll see a Triple Crown winner this year, but hey, that's horse racing and it could happen.