Saturday, May 31, 2008

The 2008 Belmont Stakes - Date, Post Time, Tickets, and More Info

All eyes in the racing world will be on Belmont Park as Big Brown goes for Triple Crown glory at the 2008 Belmont Stakes. This is the final race of the Triple Crown and always creates a lot of excitement here in the New York area, so here's some information on the race, including the date of the 2008 Belmont Stakes.

The Belmont Stakes, the third leg of racing's famed Triple Crown, takes place this year on Saturday, June 7th. The Belmont Stakes is held each year at Belmont Park racetrack in Elmont, Long Island, New York. Belmont Park is just a 30 minute ride from Manhattan's Penn Station on the Long Island Rail Road.

The 2008 race will be the 140th running of the Belmont Stakes.
Official site of the 2008 Belmont Stakes at the New York Racing Association: www.nyra.com/BelmontStakes2008.html

The site includes Belmont Stakes updates throughout the week, as well as information on buying tickets, betting on the race and opening an account, and even buying Big Brown t-shirts, caps, and other merchandise.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

“The Foot Fist Way" Just Part of Danny McBride's Excellent Comedy Summer

Comedian Danny McBride is going to have a great summer. He's gone from having only one acting role in a movie to being in three of the summer's most anticipated movie comedies: “The Foot Fist Way,” (opening this Friday), “Pineapple Express,” and “Tropic Thunder.”

"Pineapple Express," of course, is the latest comedy from the comedy success machine of Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen (who serves as both actor and screenwriter for this film). Apatow is the producer or director of such successful and popular comedies as "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up," "Superbad." and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall."

The Los Angeles Times offers a profile of McBride, telling how he went from night clerk at the Burbank Holiday Inn to sharing the bill with some of today's biggest and most established comedy names, including Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller. It talks about his knack for playing bumbing, awkward characters, which in this summer's movies involves McBride being beaten up, blown up, and tied up to a chair, among other things.

But if moviegoers like McBride as much as film festival audiences and his fellow actors do, it's going to be a very happy (and lucrative) summer for Danny McBride.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Ashley Harkleroad to Pose for Playboy

Tennis player Ashley Harkleroad has confirmed that she will pose for Playboy magazine, according to an article in USA Today. The article says Harkleroad, who started out as a teen phenom and is now 23 years old, will appear in a pictorial in the August issue of Playboy.

Harkleroad will be the first tennis player to pose for Playboy. She seemed cagey when asked why she decided to pose. "There's a few reasons why I did it, but I can't really go into it right now," she added. "But like I said, I really didn't think it was that big of a deal. I'm proud of my body. I stay in shape and try to stay fit."

Ashley Harkleroad is now married and while it may seem odd for her to pose for Playboy, the pictorial may not feature the magazine's traditional explicit photography, but rather the less racy type of shots that Lindsay Lohan did for Vanity Fair, or even something less explicit than that.

Ashley Harkleroad was an up-and-coming juniors player as a teen and seemed destined for stardom, but then was slowed by a number of injuries. Earlier this year she had surgery to remove an ovarian cyst. She had high hopes for continuing her comeback at this year's French Open, but unfortunately she was assigned Serena Williams as a first-round opponent, and Williams defeated Harkleroad convincingly today.

Scott Dixon Wins Indy 500; Danica Patrick and Sarah Fisher Out

Scott Dixon of New Zealand won the 2008 Indy 500, narrowly beating second-place Vito Meira. You can find all the Indy 500 results here, at the results page at the IndyCar.com Web site. You can find Scott Dixon's profile here.

Marco Andretti came in third.

All three women in the race were knocked out. Sarah Fisher, making her seventh Indy 500 start, had bad luck throughout the day, beginning when her engine wouldn't start at the start of the race. Fisher's race ended in the 105th lap when a crash with Tony Kanaan knocked both her and Kanaan out of the race.

A native of Commercial Point, Ohio, Sarah Fisher earlier this year became a team owner as well as a driver when she formed Sarah Fisher Racing.

Danicamania came to an abrupt end when Danica Patrick's car was knocked out late in the race. Her godaddy.com car was damaged not in a racetrack crash, but when her car was hit as she was on her way out of a pit stop.

The third woman, Milka Duno, was eliminated when a skid caused her tires to burn out late in the race.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

2008 Fleet Week Sails into New York City

Thousands of sailors have descended upon New York City for the annual Fleet Week celebration, which runs from May 21st to 28th. There will be service members from the U.S. Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard ships in town, and there ships are taking part in a parade up the Hudson River on Wednesday.

You can find out more at the official Fleet Week in New York Web site: www.cnrma.navy.mil/fleetweek/

Fleet Week lets the sailors see the City, and vice versa. There will be many military demonstrations and chances for the public to view the ships. There will be five U.S. ships taking part, led by the USS Kearsarge, a 40,500-ton amphibious assault ship equipped with both helicopters and surface boats.

The 2008 Fleet Week celebration will also include three Canadian vessels, including the USS Winston S. Churchill.

You can find the entire schedule of Fleet Week activities at www.cnrma.navy.mil/fleetweek/schedule.htm

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The Lovely Dagmar Midcap on YouTube

Dagmar Midcap is a popular (and rather attractive) TV personality with a wide range of experience, from TV shows about cars to small roles in movies and TV shows (including the excellent British crime drama, "Touching Evil"). She had also had a recurring role on "Smallville," and was even in the film "Catwoman" with Halle Berry. Dagmar Midcap is currently a weather personality at a TV station in Atlanta, Georgia.

You can see Dagmar Midcap in a few clips on YouTube, from the show "Driving Television: here and here.

The redheaded Dagmar Midcap is a native of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Chilli the Giant Cow: Going for the Record Books!

There are supersized meals and SUVs, and now there's a supersized giant cow that's shooting for the Guinness book of world records. Chilli is six feet, six inches tall and its owner is trying to get this giant cow recognized by the Guinness folks at the tallest cow Britain has ever seen.

The nine-year-old Chilli, a black-and-white Friesian, weighs a ton and is larger than most horses, and the size of a small elephant. And yes it's Chilli, not Chili, the cow.

You can find photos of this humongous bovine here.

While the British press refers to Chilli as a "cow," a bullock is a word used to describe a bull. So it's unclear as to whether this is a giant cow or a giant bull. Maybe the Brits use "cow" to describe both male and female?

Monday, May 12, 2008

"Lily and Marshall Sell Their Stuff" - Charity Auction for TV Memorabilia

Fans of the TV show How I Met Your Mother will want to check out a Web site with a rather long name, www.lilyandmarshallselltheirstuff.com. In the May 12th episode the show featured the two characters Lily and Marshall facing financial trouble and, yoiu guessed it, setting up a Web site to sell their stuff.

The twist is that the "Lily and Marshall Sell Their Stuff" Web site is a real site, selling real stuff: props and costumes associated with the characters. As TV Squad notes,the proceeds of the auction will go to the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. The "Lily and Marshall Sell Their Stuff" Web site will be up for two weeks.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Today is National Train Day

Amtrak is sponsoring the first-ever National Train Day on May 10th, 2008. You can find complete details at the official National Train Day Web site here.

There will be major events today at Amtrak's largest passenger stations, New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, and Los Angeles, which will feature free music performances, train photos, train simulators, and prizes and giveaways. Several dozen smaller stations will have events as well.

The New York event will include an appearance and performance by the Harlem Globetrotters.

Intrade.com Lets You Bet on Britney, Presidential Candidates, and More

Want to bet on who you think will win the presidential election, or on how soon Britney or Lindsay will be back in rehab? A Web site called InTrade (www.intrade.com) lets you do just that.

As reported on ABC News, Intrade is what's called a "prediction market." It acts as a futures market, but instead of betting on the direction of the price of sugar or crude oil or pork bellies, you're betting on the direction you think various trends will take. And yes, you can make money if the value of your prediction increases.

Right now you can check out what Intrade members think of the chances for the various presidential contenders, as well as the potential vice presidential picks for each party. And there's more: Will there be an Olympic boycott? Will Eliot Spitzer be indicted on felony charges? Check the odds on Intrade!

How accurate is the information on Intrade? The founders claim that the Intrade market data is being used by institutions ranging from the U.S. Navy to the Federal Reserve Bank, as well as dozens of colleges and universities.

Intrade is the latest Web site to let users bet on predictions. There's also at least one that lets you bet on various sports teams, and one of the first such sites I remember hearing about years ago was the Hollywood Stock Exchange, where users guess how they think films will do at the box office.

Thursday, May 08, 2008

The Daisetta Sinkhole - They Make 'Em Bigger in Texas!

Texas is known for doing everything in a big way, and a big sinkhole near Daisetta is living up to that reputation. The sinkhole has been getting bigger by the day, swallowing up earth and anything on it (tractors, trees, whatever) and is now estimated to be 600 yards across (who wants to get close enough to measure it?)

The Sinkhole That Ate Texas is near Daisetta, northeast of Houston, and contains a mix of oil and fuel sludge. Sinkholes usually result from underground limestone that gets washed away by water under the earth, but the Daisetta sinkhole is said to be caused by a dissolving salt dome in an area where oil was pumped out of the ground.

An article says that the edge of the crater is now just 75 yard from one house, and may end up swallowing part of a highway as well. As the first sentence of the article says, "There's not much to do but pull up lawn chairs and watch."

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Antonio Pierce Interns on Howard Stern Show

Antonio Pierce is the latest New York pro athlete to snag an internship with a high-profile company. Just a couple of weeks after Sean Avery of the New York Rangers reportedly began a gig as intern with Vogue magazine, the New York Giants linebacker has signed on as an intern on The Howard Stern Show. It may seem an odd shift for a guy who was playing in, and winning, a Super Bowl ring a few months ago, but Pierce has expressed an interest in being in broadcasting after his playing career is over, so why not?

Newsday's Pet Rock blog says that Pierce had to field questions about his sex life and the NFL lifestyle, and did typical intern duties such as manning the phones, getting prank calls from Stern staff members, giving pointers on throwing a football, and "towel-whipping those who pranked him earlier in the morning."

Apparently this was just a one-day internship though... how much can a person learn in one day? Antonio Pierce apparently did well, and had good things to say about his three children and his fiancé, Jocelyn Pierce. The two are scheduled to wed later this month.

Monday, May 05, 2008

Ryan Reynolds Engaged to Scarlett Johansson

Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson are engaged, it's been reported by the Associated Press and other sources, quoting the actress's publicist.

It will be the first marriage for both Johansson (23 years old) and Reynolds (who is 31). Ryan Reynolds was previously engaged to singer Alanis Morissette, whom he had been dating for several years. Their engagement was ended early in 2007, it's been said.

Ryan Reynolds was in the ABC sitcom "Two Guys and a Girl" and films including the comedy "Van Wilder" and the action flick "Blade: Trinity."