Preakness: two questions answered

Rachel Alexandra backed up the hype.

The filly — coming off a smashing, 20-length triumph in the Kentucky Oaks — became the first distaff winner of the Preakness Stakes in 85 years, overcoming a wide post and 12 male rivals on a track her jockey claimed she didn't really like.

She staked her claim as the best 3-year-old in training and, perhaps, the best filly in a generation — "Alexandra the Great," ESPN.com proclaimed after the race.

But second-place finisher Mine That Bird, the 50-1 Derby winner, proved his win at Churchill was no fluke. He closed from last on the backstretch to fall short by just a length. Prior to his improbable win two weeks ago, he had given no indication that he had star potential. After two straight top-class performances, that now seems irrefutable.

Of the Derby also-rans, only Musket Man turned in a good performance, finishing third again. Friesan Fire was a disappointment for the second straight time. Pioneerof the Nile threw in his first clunker; he was beaten 26 lengths.

Now we head to a Belmont Stakes with no Triple Crown on the line — surprisingly for just the sixth time in the past 13 years. But there is plenty of intrigue: Will the first Preakness-winning filly since 1924 and the Derby's second most improbable victor ever renew a new rivalry in New York in three weeks' time?

Howard-Brekken nuptials

Minnesota is a singularly bug-infested place. Thankfully, mosquitoes seem to disregard my blood. They'll land on me and make a nuisance of themselves; but I haven't been stung much.

Lights outside the bar at the Ruttger's Bay Resort — site of Saturday's K.C.-Isaac wedding — were absolutely covered with all manner of flying creepy-crawly things. Made me realize Las Vegas has something to recommend it with its relatively buglessness.

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner in Brainerd (yes, the one from "Fargo"), followed by drinks and a rousing game of Apples to Apples back at Ruttger's Bay — which sits on Mille Lacks, by my estimation one of the five largest of Minnesota's 14,000-plus lakes.

The wedding is Saturday at 5. I've been informed that the big Coffee Cruise is at 10:30 in the morning; I hold out hope there'll be tea available.

Racist bastard, 86, dies

Jesse Helms died Friday — fittingly on July 4, though, according to Wonkette's Ken Layne, about a quarter-century too late. The country is now a better place.

The Dixiecrat and longtime North Carolina senator was a driving force in moving the Republican Party away from its Lincolnian ideals and toward race-baiting and a general contempt for the downtrodden. It was dubbed the "Southern strategy," and the phrase was popularized during Richard Nixon's 1968 and 1972 White House runs when he essentially conceded the African-American vote.

Helms won election after election by wooing disaffected, racist whites with his hatred of blacks, gays, brown-skinned immigrants, liberals, etc. All the while he rode along in the pocket of Big Tobacco, passing fat-cat tax breaks that never actually trickled down to the huddled masses. On the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he promoted brutal third-world dictatorships in third world countries when they promoted U.S. Foreign Policy or corporate interests.

Just imagine: 2008 could be the year of the passing of Jesse Helms and the rise of Barack Obama. Maybe there's hope yet.

Texas Republicans are funny

Wonkette claims everyone at the Texas GOP Convention wore this pin. And AMERICAblog makes the good point that McCain should be held accountable for some of these associations.

Especially since Fox News' conservative entertainer-talkers having been harping on Obama associates for months.

'Don't ask, don't tell' could haunt Nunn

Former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn's name has been bandied about as a possible running mate for Democratic nominee Barack Obama. But, as Jonathan Capeheart writes in The Washington Post, Nunn was a driving force 15 years ago behind the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy with regard to gays in the armed forces.

The Nunn-as-VP idea has gained traction with many Democrats because the former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee would balance Obama's thin foreign policy experience.

But Capeheart argues Nunn's inclusion on the ticket would dampen the enthusiasm of gay and lesbian supporters: "Already, the prospect of an Obama-Nunn ticket does not sit well with some prominent gay Democratic fundraisers. 'It would without question irrevocably diminish my enthusiasm for the democratic ticket,' a longtime Clinton supporter told me in an e-mail. 'Sam Nunn not only opposed [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people's] rights to serve in the military, he viciously campaigned against it.' "

Wonderful 'Once'

The description on the Netflix envelope called "Once" a musical. It's not — at least in the traditional sense — but it is a musical film.

Made for $160,000 by Irish writer-director John Carney, "Once" follows its unnamed leads — Irish singer Glen Hansard ("Guy") and Czech-born Markéta Irglová ("Girl") — on their quest to record a demo of his songs. (Hansert is the lead singer of the Irish band the Frames; Carney played base in the band from 1991-1993.)

"Once" is in no hurry to tell its story. And it is not all that interested with certain details of its characters' lives. What Carney cares about is the music — and the relationship that develops between the Guy and the Girl. The result is magical and authentic. The music — his and hers — is captivating: When they meet in an early scene, he is singing and playing guitar for tips on a Dublin street. It is his music that draws her in.

And, it's her encouragement and help that lead him to book time in a little music studio. Even the studio's apathetic sound engineer is drawn in by Hansard, Irglová and two other street musicians Hansard recruits to play.

"Once" has grossed $14 million worldwide ($9 million in the United States), and the duo's song "Falling Slowly" won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Song. Since the film's release, Hansard, 38, and Irglová, 20 — who are now a couple living together in Dublin — have toured, performing songs from the Grammy-nominated soundtrack.

"Once" is no classic Hollywood romance. What Carney gives us is a glimse of the love and music that grow between two people who meet by chance. It lives up to its tagline: "How often do you find the right person?"

Once again, no Triple Crown

Da' Tara, a 38-1 shot, led from start to finish to win the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, spoiling Big Brown's Triple Crown attempt. The favorite became the seventh horse since 1997 to fail in the Belmont after winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

Big Brown didn't have his normal acceleration around the final turn and was eased in the stretch by jockey Kent Desormeaux. He just galloped across the finish line, last in the field of nine. Walter Blum Jr., an assistant to trainer Rick Dutrow, said Big Brown checked out fine after the race.

Questions will persist in the coming days: Was it the quarter crack in the colt's left front hoof? Did he suffer from pulmonary bleeding? The 93-degree heat in New York?

Or was it just the grueling Triple Crown schedule — three big races in five weeks? Next year, it will have been 31 years since Affirmed outdeuled Alydar in all three races.