The short story author O. Henry used to be taught in English classes but he may not be relevant any more. He often wrote stories that had serendipity events that turned out exactly wrong, like a woman sells her hair to buy a watch chain for her husband for Christmas while her husband pawns his watch to buy the hair comb his wife coveted.
The candy bar is not named for the author, but it's rather tasty. It's been around since the 20's.
We had a little bit of an O. Henry moment yesterday at the track. I'm the one who bets and Jon just enjoys the scene, especially looking at the horses in the paddock and all the characters. He listens to me prattle about what I like and don't like. Sometimes he'll bet one horse to show in the course of an afternoon.
So yesterday I'd picked wrong about four races in a row, and we were looking at a group of bay horses that looked almost identical. There were maybe twelve in the race. I said, "Oh I don't know," and headed to the betting window anyway.
He headed there in front of me!
"What's he doing?" I wondered.
I got in a line longer than his. He placed a bet, then came over to where I was standing and couldn't believe I placed a bet on HIS choice. We'd both picked the same unlikely horse. Together we had this horse to win, place, or show, without talking to each other. The horse wasn't on any handicapping sheets.
Of course you guessed it, the horse won. We got about $26 on our total bets of $6 and were both bewildered we'd picked him standing side by side without ever talking about the horse. (And no, Joe Talamo wasn't riding. The rider was Martin Garcia.)
6 comments:
the horse (what was his name?) whispered to both of you.
I read this post and thought: Sally is going to be very upset when she finds out the writer who wrote the story about the watch and the hair comb is Guy de Maupassant. I should probably be the one to tell her. Just to make sure, I googled it. It was O. Henry.
I need to get to the libarry more often.
Great horse story. Are you ever tempted to bet big bucks?
Mom loved O. Henry, so I grew up reading him. What great synchronicity at the track!
An O. Henry moment?
I call that a Payday moment.
Coincidences are fascinating things. I wonder what it was each of you saw in the horse?
O. Sally, you should spoof the story and call it "The Gift of the Quasi"
Just a random thought,
O. RHSteeleOH
wow, literate group. Neat you all remember O. Henry.
Linda, with betting you're supposed to stay within the limits of what you'd be comfortable losing.
If I've sold a few dvds that week, I up the bets a little too.
anon, the horse was named unusual Smoke, and maybe he was sending us smoke signals.
O. RhSteeleOH, you're funny!
Post a Comment