1. The ridiculous amount of money thrown away
2. Drunk idiots
3. The horses- today 2nd place, tomorrow glue factory
4. 'Celebrities' in wonderful frocks and spectacular headwear.
5. A massive mess to be cleaned up afterwards by non-celebrities.
Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)
Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)
10 comments:
I'd like to add
6. Having horse racing on the back page of the paper under "sport"
Come on, Izaac, it takes the weird little jockey bloke a lot of upper arm strength to hit his horse with that little stick repeatedly.
was watching random women on the train, dressed in multi-coloured flowery frocks with table ornaments on their heads and way too much make-up, teetering in stilettos at 8am in the morning. I wanted to go up to them and say, 'you look ridiculous. Go home and change.'
Personally, I hate the Melbourne cup. I think it glamourises a really serious societal problem, i.e. gambling. I find it really hard to reconcile middle class people dressed up to the nines, placing token bets on horses and drinking champagne with the old men we see in Marrickville who are at the TAB on an early sunday morning placing bets, or the homeless people who constantly ask us for money so they can use it to bet on horses. Yuck.
But never sure how far to take this logic, as I enjoy alcohol (responsibly, of course!) even though alcoholism and drunkedness is also a major social problem. Hmm. Maybe I'm a hypocrite.
I totally hear you. Even before you started talking about alcohol I had the same thought.
I'm not sure where the line gets drawn, and what the criteria is. I like to drink beer responsibly, but out of concern for others should I save it for the privacy of my own home, rather than having a drink at a pub where there maybe a bloke sitting beside me feeling helpless in his battles to stop drinking? Dunno.
There's a fine line between being determined to not be a bad example, and shutting yourself off from the world, becoming essentially no example at all.
Maybe the better path is the 'more dangerous' one of being in and amongst people, and being aware of your high accountability as a christian to be a godly example.
Anyway, this is a tangent that is probably not following your comment! Umm.. to get back to your last sentence, maybe it is about whether something is essentially good, and therefore can be used as good, with a clear conscience. God made alcohol as a good gift. Did he make gambling??
Firstly..let me say i DON"T gamble. Fullstop. But.
In actual fact Jockeys are VERY fit guys. try sitting on your haunches holding your butt 6 inches above the saddle on a 800 kilo animal running its guts out and stay in control. Incredible leg strength. Holding on is another thing all together.(My cousin in Perth was a jockey)
Playing devil's advocate here, why do so many people find displeasure in other people's idea of a day out? benno, do you not enjoy the free beer and nibblies that work provide and the brief respite from your work schedule? Its all different levels, thats all. Some poeple like to take the time to tart up for different things. If everybody did that only of the same things, where would the contrast be?
I don't like the idea of a well dressed lady carrying her shoes, rotten drunk, stumbling down the footpath but she's gonna do it whether she's dressed up or not.
Let people have their fun. Enjoy the little things that our calendar throws up for us every now and then. Why must every social event be scrutinised and inadvertently condemned? If you don't like it, dop what I do. Stayy at home and surf when everyone is in the pub/tab/racetrack....
I do recall someone saying to me once they'd love to dress up in a suit for work each day...
Now that's just ridiculous! (smile)
About the fitness aspect, I was having a joke. Obviously jockeys have skillz. And it's rare that I get the chance to pickon anyone smaller than me, so I took the opportunity.
Secondly, the 'let them have their fun' idea just ends in tears, because usually it is at someone elses expense. there's got to be a point where the term 'harmless fun' gets abandonned in this case. Millions of dollars thrown down the drain by people with gambling addictions is not really harmless.
And those fancy hats can take someon'es eye out- not harmless either.
As for the me enjoying free drinks and nibblies thing, you make a good point, and I'll think about it. If I'm opposed to the race, maybe I should steer clear of it.
At the same time, I don't want to be that annoyingly pious guy who says 'oh, those gamblers tsk tsk, I'll go and do a personal bible study and prayer time while those heathens go on their debaucherous way'.
Not only do non-christians think that guy's a joke, Jesus does too. So, I definitely don't want to do that. I'll give it some thought, thanks for the comments.
...rather than having a drink at a pub where there maybe a bloke sitting beside me feeling helpless in his battles to stop drinking? Dunno.
I probably shouldn't say this as this is a serious topic, but this statement cracked me up. In fact I still can't get the smile off my face.
The idea that you are the cause of making him feel helpless while he sits in a pub, surrounded by other people drinking beer, and beer taps, bottles and advertisements all around him strikes me as a little odd.
ouch. Okay, that is a fair point, geoff. the intention behind my comment is hopefully not as silly as that came across!
the intention is not silly at all. When I first moved to REdfern to work with children and youth in the area i chose to stop drinking. I was always asked by the kids if I "drank", and I didn't want to say 'yes', and think i was the same as mum and dad who drink and do all kinds of awful things.
It lasted about 2 years until I sold out to the man and had a beer.
whoops. It should read;
"and have them think I was the same as their mum and dad"
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