"People don't act this way on public buses or subway cars, but they tend to show a lot less restraint when flying."

As an NYC subway rider for the past 17 years, and having seen people jam styrofoam containers filled with half-finished meals under the seats, I respectfully beg to differ. People like to rid themselves of their trash as fast as possible and the second it leaves their hands it also leaves their minds. I once stopped a man sitting next to me on an Amtrak train from stuffing his apple core into the magazine holder on the back of the seat in front of him. He was genuinely surprised that plopping his saliva-ridden food remains into a spot where a complete stranger would have to clean it up might be construed as rude. To his credit, he did finally cave to my pleas to think of the person who cleans the cars and walked the 50 or so feet to the front of the car to throw it out himself in the trash receptacle.

For that matter, check out any public bathroom after a few hours of use. We are messy, messy primates. Doesn't mean we should give up nagging people to clean up after themselves, but we are fighting our own nature and it takes a lot of nagging.

Watching Jeremy Irons' dong bop bop bop as he raced down the stairs at the climax (no pun intended) of Damage is all I remember from that film.

Heh. Certainly true. Yet another reason it's a hard sport for the casual fan!

For performances like today, when the best 3-year-old in the country ran in the Kentucky Oaks because her owner, unfortunately, doesn't believe in running the girls against the boys. I put the link to the video in my signature. While I'm sorry Rachel Alexandra isn't running tomorrow, she certainly gave a show today. Her jockey is absolutely motionless on her the entire race.

It's very hard to be a fan of a sport whose stars compete for a total of approximately 8 minutes a year. Racehorses today run infrequently and the Derby winner who runs after age 3 is now a rarity. Where's the fun in following a sport when the celebrities get rushed off to the breeding shed the second they indicate they're any good?

To make matters worse, handicapping is probably more difficult than any other kind of gambling. It requires math skills, an understanding of the running styles of the entrants in a race and creative thinking in picturing how a race might "set up." Good handicappers can spend hours preparing to wager a single race.

So you have a sport that takes a lot of smarts to wager successfully and in which the really good athletes compete maybe ten times over two years for two minutes at a time. Is it any wonder it can't keep an audience?

That said, Friesan Fire.

Or rather, reminds me of all the angry protesters who shrieked about a movie they had not seen. I was hoping for better from Broadsheet.

Catherine, seriously, go see the film. Speaking as an ardent feminist, I had a great time. And frankly, it's tanking at the box office and I don't want Hollywood moguls taking that as yet another justification for why women can't be the main characters in action films. So go buy a ticket and support Zoe and her awesome stunts!