Far Off the Beaten Track, It’s a Fur Fest
Live stock car racing makes for popular television fare, but can livestock car racing do as well?
In an unusual bit of programming, NASCAR and Animal Planet have combined on a one-hour special that will air Feb. 17 and focus on NASCAR drivers and their family pets.
According to a publicity release, the mix of fur, feather and fuel will feature, among others, Mr. Bigfoot, Shortrack, Vegas, Ragdoll and Pluto.
And those are just the drivers.
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Trivia time: Until he rolled his car this week, NASCAR driver Robby Gordon was doing well in the Dakar Rally, currently underway in Africa. How many miles does the race cover?
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Check EBay: Connecticut women’s basketball Coach Geno Auriemma is without four stolen national championship rings, even though a suspected buyer was arrested Thursday.
Police said two teens took the rings Nov. 28 and sold them for $150. Authorities say the rings are worth about $800 each.
Auriemma said he had the rings in his briefcase for a photo shoot. He left the briefcase in his unlocked car, parked in a Manchester lot, police said.
The thieves “were stealing change and CDs, maybe some credit cards, when they stumbled onto these things,” Manchester Sgt. Christopher Davis said. “I imagine it opened their eyes up a little bit.”
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Money trail: Good to see that Churchill Downs has increased the purse for the Kentucky Derby to $2 million, with the winner getting a minimum of $1.24 million. Good thing too that Aristides is no longer around. When he won the first Kentucky Derby, in 1875, he earned all of $2,850.
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A goal? You bet: There was much gnashing of soccer teeth in England this week when Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur tied, 0-0, even though replays showed a long shot by Tottenham’s Pedro Mendes in the final minute had crossed the goal line before the ball was scooped out by Manchester United goalkeeper Roy Carrol.
The referee and his assistants didn’t see it and blew the call. Now comes the odd part.
So blatant was the mistake that British bookmakers William Hill agreed to pay off bettors who, at odds of 20-1, had wagered on Mendes to score the first goal.
Meanwhile, a British chain of opticians has reacted by offering free eye tests to all referees.
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Bench mark: A judge in Fairfax, Va., dismissed a drunk-driving charge against Sean Taylor, even though the Washington Redskin safety had trouble reciting the alphabet in a field sobriety test after being pulled over for doing 82 mph.
Said Taylor’s attorney, Warren McLain: “The alphabet test, to me, is kind of confusing.”
So how is he on the letter of the law?
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Trivia answer: This year’s race, from Barcelona, Spain, to Dakar, Senegal, covers 5,553 miles.
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And finally: “He’s put a plan together to give us an opportunity to win, and to win year after year,” San Francisco 49er owner John York said in September when giving a four-year contract extension to general manager Terry Donahue, whom he fired Wednesday after a 2-14 season.