ChatGPT and KitKat Bars

Say what you will about AI and ChatGPT—whether it is really "artificial intelligence"—or not, it is informative. 

Interested in an update on the 400,000+ KitKat bars traveling by truck between Italy and Poland that were hijacked? Sure you are. Ask ChatGPT.

Question: Have the hijacked KitKat bars started appearing anywhere in the retail market?

As of the latest reports, there is no confirmed evidence that the stolen KitKat bars have turned up in regular retail stores. Nestlé said the truck carrying about 413,793 KitKat bars (roughly 12 tons) disappeared while traveling from Italy to Poland, and both the vehicle and cargo were still unaccounted for when the company issued its updates.

Nestlé warned that the bars could enter unofficial sales channels across Europe, which is why it created a batch-code tracking system to help identify products from the stolen shipment.

One interesting twist is that the stolen products were reportedly special Formula 1-themed KitKat bars, not the standard bars typically sold in U.S. stores. Some reports also stated that overall KitKat supply was not expected to be significantly affected.

So the answer right now is: no verified reports of the stolen bars appearing in legitimate stores, though authorities and Nestlé have been watching for them to surface in gray-market or unauthorized distribution channels.

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Amazingly, 400,000+ can go out of circulation and there is no European shortage of the crunchy chocolate bars. How long can they last in a warehouse, or truck, before they go bad? Halloween is a ways off.

By all accounts, the truck was being driven by a human, and was not an autonomous vehicle that I've been reading about.

In Arizona, Doritos apparently is shipping cargo using autonomous vehicles.  The Wall Street Journal  did a recent story on driverless vehicles. They are loaded with cameras and all kinds of tracking devices that keep the vehicles on course and within the speed limit. (How boring.)

The routes aren't long enough that the trucks stop at a rest area for a shower, a meal, or whatever. They go point to point and get unloaded by humans.

The Teamsters Union obviously is not happy about this, since drivers, if used at all, are reduced to cargo handlers, not skilled drivers. Pay will certainly be affected.

When I read the story, I wondered how much more susceptible to a hijacking—or not—do driverless vehicles present themselves?

Certainly a driverless vehicle can be convinced to come to a complete stop simply by stalling something in their path. All this would conceivably be recorded, but would the following events all make their way into the cloud, allowing a trail to follow? Systems can be hacked. "Oceans" whatever, anyone? Where's Danny?

ChatGPT: Have any driverless trucks been reported hijacked.

As of mid-2026, there have been no widely reported cases of a fully autonomous, driverless commercial truck being successfully hijacked and taken over by criminals while operating on public roads. Recent driverless truck deployments by companies such as Aurora and Bot Auto have attracted attention, but no public reports indicate that a driverless freight truck has been commandeered or stolen in operation. 

Just you wait. There is nothing that can't lead to something else. Anyone for a KitKat?

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The Belmont Festival at Saratoga

Say what you will about NYRA—and I will be the first to say what I will about NYRA—they did put together a series of superior races to surround the 2026 Belmont Stakes at Saratoga. It was a horseplayer's trip to heaven.

The "festival" started Wednesday, with what looked like empty stands, no doubt because of the day of the week, and the huge expense of getting a seat with a back. NYRA loves to now hawk its seats "with backs," and make you pay through the nose for plopping your backside and back in one of them.

For a while now NYRA has been clustering its Grade 1 races to be run on the same day. It does create a great card and a handicapper's challenge. Saturday's Belmont card had 6 Grade 1s, 5 in a row, culminating with the Belmont Stakes. There was also a Grade III on the card.

All week long I liked Golden Tempo, and told anyone who asked—or even who didn't ask—that he was the one. All week long the analysts mentioned that Golden Tempo wasn't going to get the fast pace of the Derby to close into, and without it wasn't going to win. End of story.

To me, this was hollow. Races are rarely copies of races run before. They all have different dynamics because they all have a different combination of entrants. Sure Golden Temple wasn't going to get a fast pace—no one in the Belmont was going to get a fast pace—but that didn't mean that the horse and rider couldn't adapt to and make use of what was being dealt. And they did.

The horse already proved they could easily go 1¼ miles. The Bernardini mare and Curlin sire guaranteed ability for distance. The horse skipped the Preakness, so Golden Tempo had 5 weeks of rest. A nice time to recover from the Derby. The connections were still there: an up and coming competent trainer in Cherie DeVaux, and the jockey José Ortiz should discourage no one.

The fractions were pedestrian; the final time was a calendar, but they tell you time only counts in prison. Sure Golden Tempo was last throughout most of the race, but never far back. There was a rugby scrum of horses that hit the final turn and basically it was several horses' race. The chart caller has Golden Tempo, and the second place finisher Commandant, brushing more times than a house painter. But well inside the sixteenth pole Golden Tempo asserted themselves to win going away by 1­¼ lengths.­­

And there you now have more history. A female trainer winning two-thirds of the Triple Crown, overshadowing Cherie's win with Englishman in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens, a 5 length win in a blistering time of 1:202/5, set up by an ungodly 434/5 half.

Cherie's getting the horses now from big shot stables. And this is just the beginning. The former female body builder's frame is still evident under the sedate clothing of a trainer in the boxes at Saratoga. 

And NYRA will now gloat about the festival. It shows their hand for the future when the new Belmont opens in September and the Belmont Stakes will return to its home in 2027 to be run at its usual test of champions distance of 1½ miles

NYRA will package its admissions with the need to buy seats for multiple days in addition to the Belmont Stakes. These people won't show up for those preliminary dates, and the stands with seats "with backs" will be empty. There will continue to be an onerous General Admission fee of something at least equal to the $90 they got for this year's Belmont at Saratoga, up from the prior year's $75.

Thank god for Fox Sports and Rupert Murdoch. He loves racing as much as he loves women. Fox Sports assembles a terrific cast of analyst/personalities to bring the viewer racing.

It was great to hear the former jockey Richard Migliore tell of when he was born in 1964 that they had to run the Belmont at Aqueduct because they were then rebuilding the Belmont that reopened in 1968, the Belmont I first went to on Belmont Day in 1968.

NYRA can do all they want to attract a crowd, but it's not a gambling crowd. And its not a consistent crowd outside of the big day of the Belmont. All the guys holding beer cans and the ladies with short skirts and fascinator headgear do not add to the handle. The handle is coming in from the betting whales and the simulcasting computer assisted wagering. (CAW)

At 77, I'm not one for the crowds, or the expense of "being there." There is no Senior Citizen discount, so I'll wait for a quiet Saturday or Sunday to go to the new Belmont and hope to get in for an unexorbitant amount and maybe even get a seat with a back that doesn't set me back a sum so great there is nothing left to bet with.

I suspect NYRA still wants me to bet, right?

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Poetic Justice

This is one of those suddenly-I'm-coming-across-something-I-haven't-heard-of-things-recently-but now I'm-hearing-of-it-again-kind-of-things. Did I miss an opportunity to cash in on a prediction bet and then be able to pay off my credit cards? Oh dear.

Friday's Final Jeopardy clue came under the general heading of Literary Terminology. You immediately feel there's trouble ahead. Time to trim the bet?

And then there's the reveal. And it is a doozie. "17th Century Critic Thomas Rymer Coined This 2-Word Term, Instructing That A Work Should Uphold Moral Principles And See Vice Punished." Surely it is a heavily freighted 2-word term to be able to do all that. Did the framers of the Declaration of Independence borrow the term?

One contestant answered: "what is a morality play;" the other: "what is virtuous text." No to both.

The current champ, Chris D'Angelo, answered correctly with: "what is poetic justice." That propelled him to being a 3-day champion, with a total of  $53,600. Nice work. Enough about Chris. He'll be back  on Monday.

I love Carl Hiaasen books. I even read the books for young adults. Florida might have hurricanes and oppressive heat, but Carl seems to  have fun. I bet his air conditioning works just fine.

His protagonists are always fighting the rapacious developers and polluters who are spoiling and fouling Carl's beloved native state. The latest Hiaasen book I just finished reading is "Flush," a YA book about the hard working Underwood family living on one of the Keys, who in their own ways are fighting the fight against a casino boat operator who pumps raw sewage into the bay every night rather than dispose of it legally into a designated holding tank, which of course will cost Dusty Muleman money. And when you're making money hand over fist, the last thing you want to do is make less of it by adhering to the law.

Paine Underwood become so incensed at the dumping and the subsequent spoiling of a local beach his kids use that he gets on board the Coral Queen one night and literally pulls the plug, sinking the boat into several feet of water.

Paine is arrested and starts doing jail time. He won't even consent to being bailed out by his wife Donna, and his kids Noah and Abbey, leaving them to have to visit him in the detention center. Paine is one stubborn, proud Floridian.

The casino boat can be raised, cleaned up, and is soon back in business while Paine fumes in jail. Along the way to the finale, Paine's father, Granpa Bobby, appears after disappearing in South America for 10 years evading some unsavory characters who have stolen his boat. Until now he's been presumed dead by the family. If there's one thing everyone in Florida has other than a tan, it is a boat, big or small. Something that floats. Most of the time.

The story is not crowded with so many characters that you can't follow along. There is of course the unmarried couple who live in a trailer, Shelly Muleman and Lice Peeking. If you're in Florida, everyone knows someone who lives in a trailer.

Shelly emerges as a bit of a heroine in the effort to bring Dusty and his law-breaking habit to justice. Noah and Abbey are two kids on bikes who manage to evade getting shot by a thug on the casino boat with a flare gun, who are later rescued by dad and Grandpa Bobby.

I finished reading the book on Friday night, after of course hearing the answer to the Final Jeopardy clue, "poetic justice."

"Flush" of course has a satisfying ending. Dusty Muleman's intelligently challenged son, Jasper,  accidently causes a fire on the boat and the boat is totaled, a blackened hulk lying in three sections in 22 feet of water. Goodbye Coral Queen, this time for good.

On the next to last page of the book, Paine says, "it's poetry."

"More like poetic justice," says Mom, who of course knows best.

Oh, the prediction bet I could have made.

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Shots

There are many hackneyed, cliché phrases. "Iconic" is one of the fairly recent, massively overused ones to denote something priceless, historic, popular...what? I can only think of icons in a Greek church, and I don't think they're talking about that.

The entertainment reporters will tell you a song, video, deal, movie, even a book, has just been "dropped." By this they of course mean released, but they can't just sat say that anymore. "It's been dropped." "It's being dropped." Okay. Will be available before it breaks?

Print, TV, and radio reports will usually tell us, "shots rang out." Shots are forever "ringing out." Would you select "shots" as your ring tone for your phone? Well, maybe a few of you might. Do shots really sound like bells?

And if the sun is out, the shots are ringing out in "broad daylight." Daylight is forever "broad." The intimation is that shots have intruded on a time when no one should be shot—daylight. The temerity of whoever pulled the trigger and disturbed daylight. They should be shot.

Of course the sun may have set, and it's nighttime. Then the shots rang out in the "dead of night." This of course means when everyone else is asleep, a shooter pulled a trigger and shot someone else who also wasn't asleep at an un-Godly hour, like in the "wee small hours of the morning."  Some people have no consideration of others. The noise, the sirens.

Pictured above is Ambrose Bierce, a 19rh-century journalist, writer of some renown who railed against clichés. I think there was a book in which he compiled these hackneyed figures of speech. I don't think it was "The Devil's Dictionary," a now somewhat hard to read compilation of Bierce's definitions for professions, and words. Example: Dentist, n. A prestidigitator who, putting metal in your mouth, pulls coins out of your pocket.

ChatGpt, tells us Mr. Bierce did, like myself, have something to say about shots "ringing out."

Ambrose Bierce had a sharp, almost sarcastic take on clichés in writing—especially in his column “The Passing Show.” He mocked the overused phrase “shots rang out” by pointing out that shots don’t actually ring; they bang, crack, or explode.

His point wasn’t just literal—it was stylistic. He was criticizing lazy, formulaic language that writers fall back on instead of describing things vividly or accurately. Bierce preferred precise, concrete wording over worn-out expressions that had lost their meaning through repetition.

In essence, his jab at “shots rang out” was a reminder: don’t rely on stock phrases—write what actually happens in a way that feels real and fresh.

Newscaster all lead into the weather report by telling us that so-and-so will now, "time it all out for us." What's wrong with "what's in store for us."

Are we getting hourly-minute-by-minute-second-by-second accuracy as to when things are going to happen? They do tells us when certain weather patterns will emerge. But there is no stopwatch accuracy when things are going to happen.

Back to the entertainment people. They will describe a resurrection of an old song, TV series, movie, theme of some sort that is going to be revived as "a re-boot."

The computer people, a long time ago now, told us to "re-boot" the computer when it stopped doing what we wanted. Try again. Metaphorically, you're giving it a kick, "a re-boot" to try again and the next time hope to get it right without consciously changing anything. Einstein's definition of insanity. We've been living with it a long time now.

To the entertainment reporters, the re-boot is like the computer: someone is going to try again with what's already been tried, but they're going to do it slightly different. Stay tuned for it.

Ambrose Bierce at this point is just another dead white guy from the 19th century who never got an award named after him, like "The Mark Twain Award." or the "Pulitzer Prize."

There is no journalistic award for witty commentary, despite there being plenty of potential nominees. Humor is serious stuff too.

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Après Jamie Ding

Jeopardy fans are just going to have to get used to not having Jamie Ding around when the show opens and the champion is introduced by Ken Jennings.  It's a merry-go-round.

Greg Shahade lasted two more games after knocking Jamie Ding off on Monday. Three-day champions are rare too. Not as rare as 31-day champs, but still admirable.

I think the woman who bumped off James Holzhauer lasted one game, losing her first defense of the title. This happens a good deal in horse racing. A horse breaks its maiden, racing with other non-winners, only to never win again. Very few race horses get to string together Cigar's and Citation's 16 straight victories. Every competition has its streaks.

Kate Brody, pictured, a novelist from Los Angeles, beat Greg Shahade and provided perhaps the most non-sensical answer to the final Jeopardy clue, a relatively difficult one at that, that turned into a "triple stumper." (I think the writer of such clues should get bonuses.)

Remember, the bets are made before the details of the clue are revealed. Thursday's category was Sports and the Movies.

Greg had $13,200, Derek, no factor with $1,400, and Kate with a leading $22,000. No mathematical winners here.

Kate made the correct defensive bet that anticipated Derek going for double his winnings which would put him at $26,000 if correct. Kate wagered $4,401 which would leave her with a dollar more than Greg if both are right. Greg bet $10,000.

The clue: "In 2026 a New Year's Day college football game featured these 2 team names that are both Gene Hackman movie titles."

Derek answers "What is Hoosiers and Rams." No
Greg answers "What is Crimson Tide and Fighting Irish." No
Kate answers "What is Patriots and Jets." Oh boy. No.

As non-sensical as Kate's answer is, she can be forgiven. She has the look of a librarian with horn rimmed glasses, or the novelist that she is, and certainly may not be up on football team names. But to include two professional teams when college names are called for, puts her in a really ignorant sports light. 

Hoosiers and Crimson Tide are the teams. No problem. She wins, and will be back for Friday's match as the champion.

Kate will easily ace the inevitable Charlotte and Emily Brontë, Charles Dickens, and Jane Austen clues.  She is after all a writer. The Jeopardy clue writers love to show off how well read they are. But Sports will be her Achilles heel. Her field of vision is not flooded with commercials for Chevy and Ford trucks.

Everyone like to make predictions. And you can even bet on them these days. But my prediction that Kate won't get to 5 games will not be taken on the prediction platforms. I could have inside information from the taping that was likely a month ago, (I don't have such information.)

But stay tuned. It's been quite a week, and it's not over yet.

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The End of Jamie

We all knew it would eventually happen. Multi-day, multi-month Jeopardy champion Jamie Ding has been defeated, but not before prevailing in 31 games and winning nearly $900,000. Not bad for swallowing an atlas at six years old.

Jamie didn't get any of the Daily Doubles on Monday's, April 27th telecast. And by that I mean he didn't land on them. His opponent, in the No. 3 slot, was Greg Shahade. Greg is introduced as an International Master chess player. His wife has twice been a U.S. chess champion.

Greg is a somewhat odd looking guy with very odd mannerisms. He is decidedly near-sighted and has to push his head forward and squint to read the clues. If people didn't like Mattea Roche for her waving hands, this guy bobs and weaves and grabs the podium. He's even flat stuck out his tongue contemplating an answer. He's full of tics. Time will tell how often we keep seeing him.

But I guess all's fair in Jeopardy, despite what could be suspicions as to who gets the Daily Double selections. You still have to answer correctly, and still have to bet the right amount, so I'm sure there's no shenanigans behind the board.

Greg started out like a house on fire, and was quickly pouring gravel on Jamie's head. Greg landed on all three Daily Doubles and quickly pulled away from Jamie when he went all in and doubled his score.

Eventually, despite Jamie answering correctly, his goose was cooked, when going into Final Jeopardy. Jamie had less than half Greg's total. The mathematical elimination before the clue is even read.

Jamie went out with class, writing TTFN, Textspeak for Ta-ta for now. Ken Jennings of course knew what it meant.

Jamie's in the NYT and the WSJ with stories and interviews on his run. Thirty-one wins remarkably only leaves him in 5th place overall for wins. 

Ahead of Jamie is James Holzhauer with 32; Matt Amodio with 38; Amy Schneider with 40; and all-time No. 1, Ken Jennings, with 74 wins in 2004. It is hard to repeat even with a second win, let alone start stringing them out so that you need to bring lots of a change of clothes to the tapings.

Is Ken's 74 equal to Joe DiMaggio's consecutive hitting streak of 56 games? Looks that way so far. After Trebek's death, Ken had to assume the role as host.

Greg Shahade won game No. 2 on Tuesday night. I have to say, he's not easy to watch. His body movements have at least me (and maybe others) rooting against him. 

Time will tell if Greg has to bring better clothes to the tapings and has to get rid of his Richard Nixon 5 o'clock shadow.

Stay tuned.

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I Love Maureen's Bile in the Morning

I do not subscribe to the Sunday print edition of the New York Times, but for some reason my carrier gives me advance sections with Saturday's delivery, and then delivers the rest of the paper on Sunday morning. I don't complain. I'm a hard copy newspaper reader and will die that way.

The Sunday Opinion section as a whole is the most pessimistic compilation of opinions you can compile. I love just reading the headlines to get a sense of how I shouldn't even be looking forward to tomorrow living in this country, let alone spend the rest of the day in it. But I digress. 

I've always told my daughter's you need cranial calluses when you read the news. You have to take it with more than a grain of salt. You need Kevlar.

I grew up in an apolitical household. Neither of my parents ever uttered a word that could lead me to conclude where their sentiments sat with either the Republicans or the Democrats. Neither voted; neither was registered to vote. They were both WW II veterans, but seemed to voice no opinions on any daily events or utterances.

I always suspected my father didn't vote because in that era the jury duty rolls were taken from the voter registrations. Don't register, no jury duty. It's not that way these days, but that worked for him. My mother hardly spoke of anything, so I never knew what she was thinking.

My own political views can fluctuate, despite having registered for a party. I don't always vote for the party I'm registered under. But there are others, many in fact, who are ironclad in their easily identified party affiliations and anger toward certain elected officials.

The political cartoonist gave us the still indelible images of Republicans being drawn as elephants and Democrats as Donkeys. My mnemonic aid is D, Democrats, Donkey. The images have prevailed since the 19th century, even if given a modern rendition.

I always tell my girls that there are usually about 50% of the voting population that voted for the current president, and 50% that didn't. Divided country? Try the Civil War.

I'm thinking Nixon's second term might have been a so-called landslide. And as we all should know, that didn't end well, despite his massive popularity at the start of the term.

I love reading Maureen Dowd when she decides to write. She doesn't let a pejorative adjective go unused when stomping on Republicans and President Trump. It's delicious, not because there might be agreement, but because it's great to see words used so well.

She pulls in such great metaphors for her column. In this Sunday's column, Trump, Iran's Newest Hostage,  she opened with a parable to an O Henry short story, "The Ransom of Red Chief." I wonder if she's ever been to Pete's Tavern on 18th Street and Irving Place in NYC, the age-old, landmark tavern where O Henry sat and wrote many of this stories. There's a good looking photo of O Henry in a back dining room, that probably leaves the modern crowd wondering who that is.

Maureen usually sends me to the dictionary to suss out the meaning of a word she's used that I don't know the meaning of. I've commented on this before. This Sunday's column makes a reference to..."President Trump went along with Bibi Netanyahu's Panglossian case..."

Okay, you got me: Panglossian describes a person or viewpoint that is excessively, naively, or blindly optimistic, maintaining a positive outlook regardless of hardship, adversity, or evidence to the contrary Originating from Voltaire’s Candide it derives from Dr. Pangloss, who believes in "the best of all possible worlds"

If nothing else, we know Maureen is well read.

Maureen reminds us of how long she's been a reporter. She makes a reference to her first big story of covering the Iranian hostage crisis in 1981. That's 45 years ago. Nearly 60% of the U.S. population is under 45 years old. Maureen herself, apparently not going gently into any night, and not taking any buyouts offered by the NYT, is 74 years old, three years younger than myself. We remember the same presidents.

No doubt Maureen's Sunday column was filed well before the shootings at Saturday's dinner in Washington, the third attempt to end Trump's life, with the possibility of collaterally harming others who might get  in the way.

My edition of the Sunday Times is an early edition. There are four dots on the volume number and dateline (fewer dots indicate later editions) that indicate the earliest of editions. There is no mention of the shooting. We know it didn't succeed.

The shooter's name, Cole Allen, sounds like someone from a western, or a semi-finalist on American Idol. The memory of his name will fade over time.

Maureen proves prescient when she closes her column with, "According to a Washington Post analysis, 'Trump has invoked the ballroom on about a third of the days this year.'"

Yep. And after the shootings, he did again.

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Jeopardy as Drama

Last night's Jeopardy telecast (April 23, 2026) was as good as the Ron Lyle/George Foreman fight of January 24, 1976 when each fighter knocked the other down so many times it was thought that only the referee would remain standing and be declared the winner.

Wednesday night's telecast was not billed as a heavyweight fight—it just turned into one. Anyone with even a passing interest in Jeopardy now knows that Jamie Ding, the man who wears something orange as his talisman, was in his now usual spot at the No. 1 champion's podium. That Jamie has now occupied this spot for the prior 29 days has attracted attention outside of ardent Jeopardy fans. He's in the news.

Facing Jeopardy champ Jamie are of course two opponents. In the middle is Leighanna Mixter, an attorney from Fresco, California. In the No. 3 slot is Patrick Nolan, an actuary from Wheaton, Illinois.  Having an actuary compete is almost like having a professional gambler like James Holzhauer compete. Thus, the East Coast (Jamie) and the Midwest and West Coast are represented.

Poor Leighanna. She's out buzzed and out answered by Jamie and Patrick. Patrick is a firecracker, and pulls ahead of Jamie with $11,600 to Jamie's $11,200. Toe-to-toe. Is this the end of Jamie?

Bet right, and answer the Daily Double (if you get the chance) and you can bury the opposition. Patrick gets to select a $1,200 clue under TEENY TINY COUNTRIES. What's the bet? "True Daily Double, Ken." This means all of it. The audience gasps. Loudly. I gasp. If right, Patrick is gong to dump a load of gravel on Jamie's head and pull way ahead with $23,200 to Jamie's $11,200? Will Jamie have to get up off the mat?

Patrick's clue is: Borgo Maggiore & Serravalle are towns in this landlocked nation that bears the name of a 4th century holy man.

Are you fucking kidding me? Nope. But they didn't write a clue that stumps Patrick. He answers "San Marino" and dumps the gravel on Jamie's head. Is this the end of Jamie? Will be get up off the mat?

The contestants go back to their corners. Jamie picks up some loose change and moves to $13,200, now nowhere near Patrick's $23,200. 

If Jeopardy were to have a scandal, it would be who gets the Daily Doubles? Is there scrambling/someone behind the board so that when someone gets a clue and they need money, they are steered to a needed Daily Double? Not likely, but a conspiracy theorist will go with it.

What happens when Jamie, with control of the board, picks a $2.000 clue under the category, Art for Art's Sake? 

Daily Double. Suspicious? Who knows, but Jamie goes "True daily double" because his $13,00 pales to Patrick's $23,200, and the game is winding down. More audience gasping.

The clue is: The Glasshouse in Seattle is a one-of-kind structure holding a 100-foot sculpture by this artist.

Are they for real?

Jamie at this point, has come off the mat and is throwing a haymaker. Will he be correct?

Jamie answers Who is Chihuly?

Ding, ding, ding goes Ding. Down goes Patrick. Jamie is correct and now has $26,400.

What did Jamie get at Christmas that I didn't get?

The game proceeds, and of course goes to final Jeopardy. Poor Leighanna Mixter. She's been caught between two heavyweights and can only expect to finish second or third.

Jamie picks up some more loose change goes into the round with $30,800; Patrick goes in with some more loose change as well and goes in  $28,000. Someone's arm is going to be raised. But who?

The category: THE 1950s

I saw the preview of the clue in the morning New York Times: 

The announcement declared this safe & effective was made April 12, 1955, the 10th anniversary of the death of a famous American.

To a child born during the Truman administration, this one's easy. My mother was an R.N. from Illinois who was an Army nurse during WW II and who volunteered and was allowed to administer polio vaccine shots to us little people in the gym of P.S. 22 on Sanford Avenue in Flushing, sometime in the 1950s

I wasn't on her line, but there were plenty of us lined up in that gym. In my adult years I always thought how was my mother allowed to do that? She wasn't working as a nurse after the war. She wasn't licensed in New York. She just told them she was an Army nurse and was assigned a line and a battery of needles and vaccine to administer to little arms and wincing faces. Different times.

Surely Jamie's going to know this one. Even the actuary, despite neither of them being old enough to remember the polio outbreak in the 1950s and Salk vaccine, should know it, no?.

Jamie's got $30,800; Patrick's got $28,000; poor overlooked Leighanna's got $5,400.

Leighanna goes first. She bets $5,000, gets it right, and finishes with a paltry $10,400.

Patrick's got to go double, or at least bet enough to finish ahead of Leighanna. Not hard. He bets a surprising $10,000. But actually a good bet. He figures Jamie's going to bet whatever it takes to exceed a double bet on Patrick's part, if that's what he makes, which would give him $56,000.

Jamie needs to cover the possible $56,000 of Patrick if Patrick doubles and gets it right. So Jamie's bet is the classic cover, $25,201, which if correct would give Jamie $56,001, a dollar over an expected Patrick double bet.

Drum roll please, maestro.

Patrick answers "penicillin". Oh no. Obviously wrong, but still leaves Patrick with $18,000, enough to win if Jamie doubles, or covers, and stumbles with a wrong answer which would bring him below Patrick's $18,000. Is this the end of Jamie?

In Jeopardy you need to be good at math as well as have lots of correct answers.

Jamie has bet the expected cover of $25,201, but needs a right answer to win his 30th game.

Jamie's dressed in solid, bright orange sweater today. He looks like Buddha and a traffic cone at the same time. Jamie, what's your answer?

"Polio vaccine," with "Salk" added in smaller letters.

Win No. 30 is in the books. See you Friday.

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It's Not Just Me

It's not just me writing about Jamie Ding, a multi-day, multi-month Jeopardy champion that appears today as the subject of a Wall Street Journal A-Hed piece. Jamie's gone viral. It is now no longer just Jeopardy fans that know of Jamie. He's making the news. 

Jamie is described in the piece by John Jurgensen as having "a knowledge range that borders on omniscience." At the outset of this week's show, host Ken Jennings announced that Jamie has provided 839 correct responses. Jennings asks if the evening's two opponents have the Kryptonite to dethrone Jamie. Hasn't happened, as Mr. Ding has sailed to 27 consecutive victories.

Given that Jeopardy shows are taped at least 4-6 weeks before we see them, Jamie is either out there somewhere back home at work, or is extending his streak as we write this, beyond all comprehension. That is, the shows they're taping today to be shown later still have Jamie has champion.  Now that would be another something.

It will be interesting to note on what actual calendar date Jamie gets dethroned. I wonder if that ever really becomes publicly known, i.e. what is the date of the taping that sees Jamie yield the No. 1 podium position? It will be interesting.

The mind boggles. He already seems to have bought a new wardrobe. With Jeopardy's taping schedule and Jamie's streak, he's run out of clothes he brought to California to the Alex Trebek, Sony Pictures Sound Stage.

At some point in Jamie's life he was injected with the contents of an atlas. He doesn't miss a clue that has a geographic answer. The other night when the category was Australia and its islands, the viewer saw a map of dots off the coast of Australia's eastern shore. The answer: Tuvalu, a country that I never heard of, that I wonder if it has ever sent someone to the Summer Olympics. Maybe a swimmer? What's the flag of Tuvalu?

Wikipedia tells us: 

Tuvalu is an island country in the Polynesian sub-region of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean, about midway between Hawaii and Australia. It lies east-northeast of the Santa Cruz Islands (which belong to the Solomon Islands), northeast of Vanuatu, southeast of Nauru, south of Kiribati, west of Tokelau, northwest of Samoa and Wallis and Futuna, and north of Fiji

Tuvalu is composed of three islands and six atolls spread out between the latitude of 5° and 10° south and between the longitude of 176° and 180°. They lie west of the International Date Line.^[7] The 2022 census determined that Tuvalu had a population of 10,643,^[8]: 5 making it the 194th most populous country, exceeding only Niue and the Vatican City in population. Tuvalu's total land area is 25.14 square kilometres (9.71 sq mi).^[8]

My father served in Guam during WW II. He was a tech sergeant in the Corps of Engineers. He had his engineering degree from Syracuse University before the war. His assignment was making maps from reconnaissance photos.

Anyone who knows where Guam is, knows it too is a small dot in the Pacific, a United States possession. It is well north of Tuvalu, but my guess is my father probably heard of it. I can no longer ask him.

When the quiz show "21" was popular and before it was tainted with scandal regarding contestant prep, I remember my father growing suspicious of how someone knew, probably Van Doren, the name of an obscure island in the Pacific. He never got over that a civilian heard of it. 

Well, Van Doren was probably fed the answer and looked like he was sweating in the "concentration booth." Jamie is not fed any answers. He is an atlas.

As already noted in prior postings, Jamie has escaped elimination. He's also provided drama by giving the audience a poker face when his hoped for correct answer will be enough to topple his opponent's smart bet in the Final Jeopardy round. Like last night, Jamie knew the answer. The other contestants did too, but Jamie sailed past them. (I didn't know the answer.)

Yesterday's clue:

18th Century Works

Ironically, it was the mayor of Strasbourg, a victim of the guillotine, who requested the composition of this.

Contestant No. 3, Max Ernst, the closest to Jamie in winnings with $10,800 to Jamie's $17,600, made a bet, $9,000, that would secure the match if Jamie stumbled, gets it right.

Contestant No. 2, Lydia Sekscenski, was no factor throughout the match, just squeaking into the final round with $400, bets $0, but gets it right.

Jamie, with $17,600, made a $4,001 bet, which would put him ahead of No. 3 by a dollar if No.3 were to bet double his total of $10,800.

Moot point, since Jamie has to get it right sine No. 3 has moved into the lead. A wrong answer by Jamie, and we don't see him again.

As I wrote, I didn't know the answer, but all three did: "What is La Marseillaise?

Jamie prevails for his 27th win.

Okay, the answer sort of begs an explanation as to why did the mayor of Strasbourg, a city in the Alsace region of France near the German border, want the French national anthem played, and why was he being executed?

Trusty ChatGpt tells us:

You’re thinking of Philippe‑Frédéric de Dietrich.

Why he was executed:
De Dietrich was a moderate supporter of the French Revolution, but during the radical phase known as the Reign of Terror, moderates and suspected “counter-revolutionaries” were often targeted. He was accused of being insufficiently loyal to the revolutionary government and of connections that made him suspect. Like many in that period, the charges were political and loosely defined.

When and where:
He was executed by guillotine on 29 December 1793 in Paris.

The La Marseillaise connection:
De Dietrich is closely linked to La Marseillaise because, as mayor of Strasbourg, he hosted the officer Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in April 1792. During that visit, Rouget de Lisle composed the song (originally titled “Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin”) at de Dietrich’s request.

According to tradition, as his final wish before execution, de Dietrich asked to hear La Marseillaise—the very song whose creation he had inspired—making his death symbolically tied to one of the Revolution’s most enduring anthems.

Jamie probably knows the full story as well.

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A Ride to Remember

This is meant to memorialize a touchstone moment when I can be reminded of what a great sport watching horse racing is: Saturday's Oaklawn Park Handicap that was a six horse field that included Sovereignty, Journalism and White Abarrio, competing for a $1,250,000 purse at a mile and an eighth.

Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas runs a first class thoroughbred meet. I always thought I wanted to travel to Del Mar, but no, I'll take Oaklawn over Del Mar, despite surprisingly no turf course..

For some unfathomable reason, the sport's grading committee has relegated the Oaklawn Handicap to a Grade II event rather than a Grade I event. It is mystifying, since the purse is $1,250,000 and requires nominating fees, $6,250 to pass the entry box, and $6,250 to start. That's a lot of money for a Grade II race. 

This year's field was exceptional. The winners of last year Triple Crown races are there: Journalism who won the Preakness, and Sovereignty who won the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes, and the Travers, who topped the year with an Eclipse Award as outstanding three year-old, as well as Horse of the Year honors...joined with the generation's war horse, 7 year-old White Abarrio, winner of the 2023 Breeders' Cup classic as well as the 2023 Whitney and the 2025 Pegasus World Cup. White Abarrio is the Eveready battery. He just keeps going and going, and is not a gelding.

White Abarrio's breeding is from a modest sire, Race Day, but the mare, Catching Diamonds, is by Into Mischief, a top stakes producing sire. A mare's breeding can be more important than the sire's. 

White Abarrio is trained by Saffie Joseph, Jr, a burly third generation horseman with a distinct man bun, from Barbados who can flat out train horses. 

Racing standards will not describe a horse as "white." White Abarrio is considered a gray/roan, but can never be thought of as anything but a white horse.

The Oaklawn Handicap is for 4 year-olds and up. It is a handicap, which means the racing secretary assigns weights with the theoretical goal of being so accurate that all the horses hit he finish line together, or very close together; level the playing field so to speak.

It never works out that way, but the horse with the best résumé is assigned the highest weight. Weight handicapping is nowhere near anything like it was in the days when I started racing and watching Dr. Fager and Damascus get weight assignments geared to level the playing field. You handicapped with weight in mind: pounds on, pounds off, the swing in weights.

I will never forget that in 1968 Dr. Fager was assigned a massive 139 pounds in the seven furlong Vosburgh Handicap at Aqueduct. He blew their doors off and set a new track record of 1:201/5 that has stood for over half a century. No one will ever be assigned to carry 139 pounds again, anywhere.

Oaklawn's track secretary acknowledges Sovereignty's credentials and assigns 123 pounds, pretty much almost laughable since the horse was running at scale of 126 as a three year-old. But that's the way it is these days. 

White Abarrio gets in with 121 pounds, and Journalism gets in with 119. No one cares about the weight assignments.

Sovereignty goes off the favorite, as he should. The pre-race analysis by Laffit Pincay, Jr. and Richard Migliore, a highly competent, retired New York based journeyman jockey, is that White Abarrio will take the lead, and the other big two will follow.

What follows is a surprise. Sovereignty takes the lead, White Abarrio follows, and Journalism follows closely. A quarter mile into the race is run in 23: flat. The three are almost running in tandem. The Big Three. It's Churchill, Stalin and F.D.R gathering at Potsdam and Yalta. 

If anyone ever thinks the jockey doesn't matter, then you don't know horse racing. Decisions are made in the blink of an eye, and Irad Ortiz, Jr. on White Abarrio makes a decision. Tap the breaks.

He basically thinks that if his brother, José Ortiz on Journalism, and Robbie Alvarado on Sovereignty  want to contest for the lead, go ahead. I'll stay close. And he does.

Uncharacteristically, Sovereignty leads by a head at every pole and into the stretch. White Abarrio is second at the quarter, pulls back and is fourth, third and second going into the stretch. Irad has them where he wants them. He's had them for lunch.

He easily overtakes Sovereignty in the stretch; the chart caller called it "forged clear" and wins by 2 lengths, finishing in a more than decent 1:47.49.

White Abarrio runs the final quarter mile in under 12 seconds; a championship effort. The TV analyst Richard Migliore is over the moon. It's as if he was on the horse's back.

Of the three, White Abarrio is the longest odds: $3.60 to $1.00. Sovereignty finishes second and Journalism third. The triple and the superfecta are chump change, even with a 14-1 finishing fourth; but the exacta is a very generous $11.60 for $1. It was an outstanding bet if you liked White Abarrio.  This was a "value" bet.

And that is what is attractive about horse racing; liking a horse that may turn out to be a surprise winner and cashing in. Handicapping it that way. I didn't play the race, I'm sure those that picked that exacta were as happy as Saffie Joseph, Jr. who was overtaken with emotion and basically reduced to tears on any post-race interview as he struggled to get words out. 

Winning the exacta may not have reduced you to tears of joy, but you get the idea. Horse racing is exciting. If you know. You know.

http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com

Shaking My Head

The long-awaited re-opening of the new Belmont Park is almost here. Lest anyone not know that Belmont Park, while being parklike, is also a thoroughbred racing venue run by the notoriously baffling, short-sighted, ever haughty, ever stupid, New York Racing Association, most times referred to as NYRA.

The re-opening is scheduled for a date in September, I think a little ahead of the planned October re-opening. I guess no construction delays.

It's a complete revamping of what was a new Belmont Park that opened in 1968, that replaced the prior, even older Belmont Park. Belmont Park goes way back. My story with it starts at the re-opening in 1968.

The New York Times front page story on Wednesday is about a police chief losing $4.5 million and never leaving his home or office  It was all done on his phone, with Draft Kings and Fan Duel apps, financed by money stolen from the New Haven, Connecticut police department. A Police Chief's $4.5 Million Gambling Secret: 'It's on the App.' Online, phone/app betting is the cocaine of betting.

Chief Karl. R. Jacobson never set foot in a casino, racetrack, or made calls to a bookie who would extend credit, to a point, but then would become threatening to Karl's joints if payments were not kept up. No, Karl's bets were in effect cash from his accounts with Draft Kings and FanDuel, taking action on sports, significantly NOT horse racing. 

No one loses $4.5 million betting on horse racing these days. And therein lies the ignorance of the folks at NYRA who think they are running some kind of Disney attraction geared to attract the young and beautiful from New York Times style pages wearing Kate Middleton fascinator hats— is it Generation Z?— to a venue that has been perpetually frequented by single, male bettors over 40, of a vast ethnic background who are now disappearing into graveyards and assisted living centers.  

NYRA has never understood who its patrons are. All you have to do is look at the ads for Belmont Day at Saratoga to realize that NYRA has an idealized view of who comes to the racetrack.

The racetrack is a venue for gambling that has been losing out to lottery tickets, brick and mortar casinos, online casinos, online sport betting apps, and now prediction market platforms:  "Will Trump introduce his son at the State of the Union Address?" It is pathetic.

Betting revenue feeds the purses, and the purses at NYRA are tanking all year. There are $10.000 claiming races, unheard of but a few years ago. Thoroughbred foals are coming into the world in decreasing numbers. NYRA runs 4 days a week, often with fields of fewer than 5 horses in a race. The other day, for an $88,000 purse, only two horses were lead into the starting gate. TWO! A match race created by scratches. There was betting. NYRA has to take every opportunity there is to take action.

As such, they allowed, and now have pulled back on, Computer Assisted Wagering, or CAW. This lets the whales bet via telecommunications to bet massive amounts on a race, often loading the bet in so late that post time odds of 5-2 can flash down to 9/5, or lower, as the gates open and no one can bet anymore. There was always a thought that the bets were allowed after the gates opened and the desired horse got out of the gate cleanly, a fraction of a second after the gates open—past posting.

NYRA claims to have taken precautions to past-posting betting, and now limits the races that CAW can dump money though the board. CAW accounts get a 10% rebate on their volume. All they have to do is make enough correct bets to break even or better, then gain a 10% rebate on their aggregate betting. With clever betting, it is not hard to break even over time. When I was betting perhaps 30 days a years at NYRA tracks, I might have finished the year with a $200 deficit. Not bad for a casual player.

With the re-opening approaching and anticipation building to see what the new place will look like, I registered my email to get Belmont Track Updates. I've been trying to find out how NYRA will price its admissions and seats. I've gone to Saratoga for the last 20 years plus (not last year) and was very familiar with NYRA raising admission prices and securing reserved seats.

I minded, but the effect of their pricing didn't dampen my attendance. Saratoga was a planned vacation. And when you're on vacation, you spend money you ordinarily don't.

The Saratoga patron who is not from downstate contrasts greatly with someone from downstate, who might not be a gambler but rather will accept the definition as "horseplayer:" Someone who revels in handicapping and trying to leverage betting. In the years I attended Saratoga for 4 straight days of betting, the most I ever lost betting was $60 for the four days, often netting a profit of between $60 and $150: a casual "horseplayer."

My friend and I would pay for Foustardave seating and were constantly in awe of all the people who walked by without even a program, let along a Racing Form. They were however a very well-fed group who seemed to enjoy eating in the atmosphere of the racetrack rather than in handicapping. There was always a line for the mac n' cheese truck parked outside the Fourstardave.

Saratoga Springs boasts no beaches or professional sports of any kind. There is night trotting racing, but little to compete with Saratoga when it's open other than the library. Upstaters understandably flock to Saratoga Race Track for diversion and recreation. And a place to eat.

Since my quartet of race-going friends—which is now three due to a death last June—have been looking forward to Belmont's re-opening, I've signed on for the Belmont newsletter. Yesterday, one landed in the in box.

And therein is a clue to NYRA's mentality that they've built a venue that should attract a premium dollar. The drawings show a lush, clean, new atmosphere that seems worthy of the wait for the re-opening. I'm looking forward to it. But not what I anticipate pricing that will greatly discourage this retiree, Senior Citizen, from any kind of repeat attendance.

The NYRA newsletter shows an ticket option that includes 20 days of racing admissions, (some "marquee dates"—other than the Belmont Stakes admission and seats, for which you get "priority" in ordering tickets for that bad boy) with a daily credit of $25 for food and beverage, in "seats with backs" (I kid you not.) for what amounts to $981, just short of $50 for each admission to get a seat "with a back." Toilet sets have no back. So far they're free. Maybe.

That squares with my guessing that the new Belmont will require at least a $10 admission fee, and at least $15 for a seat that used to be free. The seats were always free because no one was ever there. You could set off explosives in sections of the old Belmont, and not hurt anyone. And now they think because they "built it, they will come." Delusional thinking.

There is an even more exclusive option to obtain multiple seats in a box. I didn't go through with the pricing on that one. Whatever it is, it is delusional.

But NYRA's not really stupid. They convinced New York's Governor Kathy Hochul to fork over a publicly financed $455 million loan to complete the re-build to attract the imagined beautiful people who will descend on the place and enjoy themselves, which will only occur one day a year, the Belmont Stakes Day. (2027 Breeders' Cup day is handled by the Breeders' Cup people)

Governor Hochul has fallen for NYRA's line about being good for employment. With public money, she is financing a renovation that really rebuilds Belmont as "Big Beautiful Belmont" (it is) as an automatic white elephant, to be run as a self-serving club for the people appointed to run it.

Going to Belmont in the years before the renovation, there was always a reserved section on the third floor of the clubhouse area adjacent to the boxes. As close to the finish line as you could get without being in a box. There was always an attendant to check those who were going to be seated there for their ticket. They were the only person in the section for the entire card. There was no need to "buy" a seat when the rest of the seats were available. Now I guess NYRA wants then all to be reserved, like Saratoga. Belmont is not Saratoga. But after all, a "seat with a back" is worth a premium I guess.

Belmont is not a vacation destination. Downstate horseplayers have been getting free admission to Aqueduct, with free parking for years The sparse crowd—and if it looked big, it was only because everyone was shoehorned into a small section of the second floor—was there to basically use automated machines to even get a voucher, and machines to make bets. It was gotten used to. Live cashiers were barely existent.

Belmont is not in New York City. It is in Elmont, New York, just over the Queens border. No subway goes there. But the LIRR has a dedicated station with service from Jamaica or Penn Station straight to the track. A commuter train's version of what was once The Subway Special to Aqueduct from Times Square, 42nd street, or Hoyt-Schermerhorn Station in Brooklyn. A special $1.50 token was what you needed.

If you don't drive and park at Belmont (whatever that's going to cost you) you might get there by a Nassau County bus along Hempstead Turnpike, or take the LIRR. But at what fare? LIRR at least has a Senior Citizen fare. NYRA does not. Never did.

With their continued short sighted mentality of who is really going to come to the racetrack, that loan may fall in arrears. But hey, NYRA has been playing with public money for years to keep an insular game going that is really run for the benefit of the owners, trainers, jockeys, backstretch workers, breeding industry, and those interests on the Board of Trustees. If it were to disappear, I would miss it, but I'd move on.

We'll see how much longer I'll get to enjoy handicapping at the racetrack. The kitchen TV and computer work just fine for me.

http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com

The Sphinx Speaks

I love reading Maureen Dowd. Not because I agree with everything she writes, which is usually a tirade or a disquisition against the Trump administration, but because of the way she phrases it. No one does a one sentence snark better than Maureen. 

Maureen usually leaves me circling a word she's used that I have to look up, but not this time. Maybe I met her match by using "disquisition."

Today's disquisition is about the mystery of why Melania Trump seemed to be motivated to  proactively disavow any relationship with the disgraced, and very dead [Yeah, I know. I modified an absolute. Sue me.] Jeffrey Epstein, whose files are more talked about than the Adams Papers once were, or the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Melania spoke for several minutes at a presidential podium clearly stating that not only did she not have a relationship with Epstein of any kind, Jeffrey didn't introduce her to The Donald back in the 1990s at the Kit Kat Club in Manhattan.

There are  of course photos of Donald and Melania with Jeffrey and his Gal Friday Giselle Maxell, but that's merely explained by attending the same parties and being asked for a photo. Nothing more.

Maureen tells us the Washington press corps was "gobsmacked" by Melanie's soliloquy. No one knew it was coming. Not even The Donald.

The headline to Maureen's Sunday Opinion piece in the Sunday NYT goes: The Sphinx Thinks It Stinks. Maureen has been calling Melania the Sphinx for years because she rarely talks to the public.

An out quote from the piece goes: "A Melania surprise creates another mystery." Who doesn't love a mystery?

"For mysterious reasons, The Slovenian Sphinx stunned the West Wing [not under renovation]. walking into the grand entrance hall of the White House to dump kerosene on the flickering Epstein fire." You gotta love it.

And you gottta love Maureen's description of Melania approaching the lectern: "for the first time the first lady—who glided so serenely on skyscraper stilettos in her infomercial, 'Melania'—looked shaken."

Is Maureen jealous of Melania's ability to wear probably 5" high heels and not fall down? Did Maureen once try it and tumble down a flight of stairs? This could be a woman thing.

The pundits have spent a week trying to figure out what made the first lady talk and deny. No doubt the Sunday news shows will touch on the topic when they tire of talking about the Strait of Hormuz and the Iranian war.

But Maureen has probably scooped them all when she tells us that Amanda Ungaro, a model and girlfriend of the man who Melania says introduced Trump to her, Paolo Zampolli, took to X and wrote some nasty. threatening things to Melania, which included the word "bitch." (The Tweet's been deleted.)

The story goes that Paolo inquired to President Trump about his model girlfriend and mother of his child's status. Amanda had been arrested on fraud charges and was being detained by ICE in Miami. Supposedly the innocent phone call lead to Amanda being deported back to Brazil where she surely wasn't going to attending any more parties at Mar-a-Lago.

The fur flies when one female calls another one "bitch." Producers of the "Desperate Housewives" franchise are salivating trying to get at least a Zoom call cat fight between Melania and Amanda as a Netflix special. Amanda further used X to warn Melania that she was going to be dumping dirt on The Donald. Social media knows no borders. Even from Brazil, it's possible to raise Melania's hackles and make the Sphinx talk. 

Since Elon Musk and Trump are buddies, it seems doubtful that Amanda's going to anything on X about anyone. And Brazil is in another hemisphere.

What will the new week bring?

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