The Belmont Stakes

So we're doing our big party again this year. First bus sold out yesterday and second one is already starting to fill up so if you're planning on coming, do yourself a favor and reserve a seat in the next few days. Good chance we may see a Triple Crown winner in Big Brown. I've posted the evite below.

Event: The Belllllmont - Part Deux

We’re running it back a second time. (Technically, this is the fourth time, but we weren’t cool enough the first two years to convince girls to come.) Anyway, as you remember, last June 9th was a memorable day: dressed in bright, garish colors (i.e. douche-baggerous attire), a hundred of us kicked things off by enjoying smooth beverages atop a rooftop bar underneath the warm midday sun. Then, we proceeded to the busses and drank a lot more. Finally, we arrived at the Belmont Stakes, just in time to stop remembering everything.

Some of us even won some serious fwoh by betting irresponsibly on Rags to Riches, the lone girl horse in the big race. Although Rags was the first filly to win in over a century, she narrowly lost the more important prize – the 2007 Teen Choice Award for Choice Female Athlete – to the other filly, Maria Sharapova. Look it up.

For all this, we received a scornful indictment in New York Magazine by an unfortunate writer who had a “bust of a day” because she missed the bus and then realized she didn’t have any friends. http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2007/06/a_day_at_the_races_with_drunke.html

Schedule for Saturday, June 7th
11am-2pm: Drinks atop Tonic, 29th and 3rd. There will be (cheap!) drink specials.
2pm-3pm: Busses to Long Island; Porchcrawler and Franzia stands.
3pm-7pm: Eat hot dogs, watch a horse get euthanized, and pretend you understand how betting odds work.
7pm-9pm: Get back on the bus and make out with Austin Vedder. (Dibs!)

How to Get Bus Tickets
There are 100 bus seats available starting now. Each costs $30, which includes a ride to and from the race as well as lots of alcohol on the bus. Sign up at www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=160059 to reserve your seat; they will sell out quickly.

Laaate,
Aidan, Greg, Mike, Noah, Scott, Scott and Scott (a.k.a. “The Requisite Smatter*”)

*Don’t know what that word means either but we’re pretty sure it’s used incorrectly – as expected.

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A few parting thoughts:
1. Does anyone still keep in touch with our good friend Ms. Van Syckle? Last year I forwarded her snooty little hit piece to an old Classics professor from college because he was intrigued that our party actually received some press. After reading it he said (verbatim): "Wow, that bitch is not a good writer." I miss college.

2. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback re: the Belmont montage I hastily put together in photo shop. Unfortunately, many people think I just randomly made that scene up. Let me assure you I did not. Go to this link http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/07/03/teen-choice-nominees-announced/ and you'll notice that the nominees for Choice Female Athlete include Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Annika Sorenstam, Rags to Riches, and - get this - the Rutgers Women's Basketball Team. Wasn't gonna touch that last one with a ten-foot pole.

3. Speaking of Don Imus and that epithet that landed him in hot water, anyone remember Barack Obama's immediate denunciation of the whole ordeal? "The comments of Don Imus were divisive, hurtful and offensive to Americans of all backgrounds," said the senator from Illinois. And then a few days later Obama intoned, “He didn’t just cross the line, he fed into some of the worst stereotypes that my two young daughters are having to deal with today in America.” I thought that was rich, given many of the vile (i.e. divisive, hurtful and offensive) things that loon Rev. Wright has spewed over the years, not to mention in front of Barack's daughters. This, coming from the pastor Obama eventually disowned after claiming Wright was someone he could never disown.

Oh boy, can't wait for the election!