I have just within the last twenty-four hours, writ both this and too this. I am grateful for the ability to sit and write and talk about what I love. Sure, my back and tooth hurt, but mainly only a little.
"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." - Milton Berle
"I call my door kaplowitz.xyz." - Me
"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." - Milton Berle
"I call my door kaplowitz.xyz." - Me
Let's talk pony.
& --
THE CIGAR
Joya de Nicaragua Antano Dark Corojo
5 1/2 x 54 Toro - El Martillo
Nicaraguan Puro
&
THE ACCOMPANYING LIBATION
Coffee
Starbucks Pike Place
Pour-over brewing method
Pack of Sweet n' Low (cuffed from Dairy Queen)
Oily velvet hand and mouth-feel. Although there is a broad vein in 3/3. -Full body on that oil and too a creamy dollop. Creamy cedar, nigh waxy dark chocolate, black pepper delivered smoothly ground and cushioned in compost, and some mulling spice on the retro-hale. Flavors are medium+. The cup of coffee is going real well alongside not behind, and when my mouth dries post-sip, I get a tick of leather on my palate. Dark toasted cream permeates the thickness. Strength ain't come around yet at an inch in, but shall. Burn is a slightest of waver and ash clings tight in ladder-rungs of 95/5 salt/pepper. Draw is smooth but a hair perhaps hesitant. Packing began as shy of medium insofar as density, and now softens a tick more. Shaft is evenly distributed. Burn wanders a tick further off of even as a bit of top-leaf seam opens some.
Will Gettysburg factor in? Not in the end, no -- I'm barely convinced he can factor in setting up the end. But I can see him setting up Exaggerator, a horse always ripe for the set-up, by tiring out some of the Preakness champ's foes with a blazing opening fraction and allowing him to come from further off the pace than is normally successful at Big Sandy. A note on the popular sentiment I made mention of: the one that Exaggerator needs a set-up. While true, many a horse if not all do. When looking for set-ups, when doth a postdictor stop looking? It all can be seen as set-up, in a way. An armchair slippery slope. Also -- he does capitalize, gentlepersons. Just playing some devil's advocate to mine own notion there.
Worthy, mayhaps, of note: Kent Desormeaux entered rehab after his Preakness conquest. He will be atop Exaggerator at Belmont, but too, clinicians from the center will be making the trip to Elmont, NY with him. What role will this play? I'd like to think a sizable one, gentlepersons. If I didn't look at the humans nigh as much as the equines -- I'd stick solely to the hounds. I see it as a potential at least distraction, but ultimately not one which moves his ride from win to place. There just ain't a B-level horse here. They're all Cs with B money lines.
Frosted and Noble Bird. Upstart and Ami's Flatter and Anchor Down all vie in the Met. Frosted looks to cement his name before his first American audience of the year. Noble Bird placed in the Pimlico Special Hcp. and won the G1 Stephen Foster last campaign. Upstart is apparently having form issues, but who knows? -- and I mean that by pure definition. Ami's flatter is of interest, but too stretching out his distance. Anchor Down seems out-classed here. I coulda listed others, but as I began, I did so by looking ahead to their chances of beating Frosted... of which I don't see much. Noble Bird will push, but Frosted didn't travel to lose.
Caramel and nougat come in on a purple fruit juice or jelly high under-belly. Smoke is bluish, I'm Jewish, and the ash is picking up a yellowish hue. I have to forcefully convince almost two inches of ash to roll off in my $0.99 Walmart tray. Chocolate drops the waxy, stays dark, gets yummy. For all the flavor and body, I don't feel to have a fully satiated smoke-hole. If going the Manischewitz route, gentlepersons, I'd suggest Concord Grape over Blackberry. Meaning this Joya de Nicaragua offering ain't THAT heavy. It's also teetering on laborious, as it smokes slow, pulls spongy damp, and don't develop a whole bunch. Strength ain't coming on as I thunk it would. I guess one might find this calming and not laborious - but that means the same thing and is contingent upon yer mood and/or circumstance. Mulling spice steps up with a neat orange rind in there.
On to the Manhattan. Big Blue Kitten, am I right, gentlepersons? The eight year-old never fails to impress. For whatever reason, I continue to find reasons why that won't be the case -- I'm oft proved wrong. I'll go with him here. No matter how much I wanna say I like the four year-old gelding World Approval.
This Antano is bit reminiscent a' those Terry's Milk Chocolate Orange Balls. Nothing of the notes fall off. A Wonder Bread note comes in, toasted lightly. Honey starts up too, just as caramel and nougat make a liar outta moi and take their leave. Retro is a nice citrus floral pepper zetz. I like this Antano, I just wish I could get more smoke in my mouf. Draw tension has remain even, but unfortunately, so has its less than stellar resulting. A seam opens a bit again at char and top-leaf cracks some. Really, my lone gripe doth remain the sponginess of it all.
Construction L
Combustion O
Flavors/Body I
Strength L
GETTYSBURG BRINGS SPEED TO BELMONT
Gettysburg, the former Pletcher-trained horse is set to make Destin and Stadivari, current Pletcher charges, newly minted stalkers to his pace setting. The now possible to probable quicker pace sets up Suddenbreakingnews as an even better bet, as he can keep the potential fractions and come from a bit less further off the pace. Exaggerator is still the horse to beat, but might just be a beat horse having been in each jewel of the Triple Crown. Only Lani has run alongside him in all the races -- and by "alongside," I mean "behind."Oily velvet hand and mouth-feel. Although there is a broad vein in 3/3. -Full body on that oil and too a creamy dollop. Creamy cedar, nigh waxy dark chocolate, black pepper delivered smoothly ground and cushioned in compost, and some mulling spice on the retro-hale. Flavors are medium+. The cup of coffee is going real well alongside not behind, and when my mouth dries post-sip, I get a tick of leather on my palate. Dark toasted cream permeates the thickness. Strength ain't come around yet at an inch in, but shall. Burn is a slightest of waver and ash clings tight in ladder-rungs of 95/5 salt/pepper. Draw is smooth but a hair perhaps hesitant. Packing began as shy of medium insofar as density, and now softens a tick more. Shaft is evenly distributed. Burn wanders a tick further off of even as a bit of top-leaf seam opens some.
Will Gettysburg factor in? Not in the end, no -- I'm barely convinced he can factor in setting up the end. But I can see him setting up Exaggerator, a horse always ripe for the set-up, by tiring out some of the Preakness champ's foes with a blazing opening fraction and allowing him to come from further off the pace than is normally successful at Big Sandy. A note on the popular sentiment I made mention of: the one that Exaggerator needs a set-up. While true, many a horse if not all do. When looking for set-ups, when doth a postdictor stop looking? It all can be seen as set-up, in a way. An armchair slippery slope. Also -- he does capitalize, gentlepersons. Just playing some devil's advocate to mine own notion there.
Worthy, mayhaps, of note: Kent Desormeaux entered rehab after his Preakness conquest. He will be atop Exaggerator at Belmont, but too, clinicians from the center will be making the trip to Elmont, NY with him. What role will this play? I'd like to think a sizable one, gentlepersons. If I didn't look at the humans nigh as much as the equines -- I'd stick solely to the hounds. I see it as a potential at least distraction, but ultimately not one which moves his ride from win to place. There just ain't a B-level horse here. They're all Cs with B money lines.
MET MILE & MANHATTAN HCP
This year's Belmont Stakes somewhat trails off from the last couple of years where a Triple Crown was at stake and the fields more tantalizing. That bit of fact and opine aside, the under-card here is exemplar, gentlepersons. Two races in particular, the Met Mile and Manhattan Handicap shares the spotlight here with a proverbial bevy of other nice races, to boot.Frosted and Noble Bird. Upstart and Ami's Flatter and Anchor Down all vie in the Met. Frosted looks to cement his name before his first American audience of the year. Noble Bird placed in the Pimlico Special Hcp. and won the G1 Stephen Foster last campaign. Upstart is apparently having form issues, but who knows? -- and I mean that by pure definition. Ami's flatter is of interest, but too stretching out his distance. Anchor Down seems out-classed here. I coulda listed others, but as I began, I did so by looking ahead to their chances of beating Frosted... of which I don't see much. Noble Bird will push, but Frosted didn't travel to lose.
Caramel and nougat come in on a purple fruit juice or jelly high under-belly. Smoke is bluish, I'm Jewish, and the ash is picking up a yellowish hue. I have to forcefully convince almost two inches of ash to roll off in my $0.99 Walmart tray. Chocolate drops the waxy, stays dark, gets yummy. For all the flavor and body, I don't feel to have a fully satiated smoke-hole. If going the Manischewitz route, gentlepersons, I'd suggest Concord Grape over Blackberry. Meaning this Joya de Nicaragua offering ain't THAT heavy. It's also teetering on laborious, as it smokes slow, pulls spongy damp, and don't develop a whole bunch. Strength ain't coming on as I thunk it would. I guess one might find this calming and not laborious - but that means the same thing and is contingent upon yer mood and/or circumstance. Mulling spice steps up with a neat orange rind in there.
On to the Manhattan. Big Blue Kitten, am I right, gentlepersons? The eight year-old never fails to impress. For whatever reason, I continue to find reasons why that won't be the case -- I'm oft proved wrong. I'll go with him here. No matter how much I wanna say I like the four year-old gelding World Approval.
BEHOLD, BEHOLDER
Vanity Mile. Slow early with a sprint home; a bit unforeseen. Gary Stevens rode a champ like a champ -- having to ride Beholder a bit more than expected, even given the quite convincing win. Stella Wind: her time shall come, gentlepersons. This just weren't it. This was in fact, an awkward go for the four year-old filly who nonetheless finished second. Finishing third, on a far easier trip, was Finest City -- and far less impressively so.This Antano is bit reminiscent a' those Terry's Milk Chocolate Orange Balls. Nothing of the notes fall off. A Wonder Bread note comes in, toasted lightly. Honey starts up too, just as caramel and nougat make a liar outta moi and take their leave. Retro is a nice citrus floral pepper zetz. I like this Antano, I just wish I could get more smoke in my mouf. Draw tension has remain even, but unfortunately, so has its less than stellar resulting. A seam opens a bit again at char and top-leaf cracks some. Really, my lone gripe doth remain the sponginess of it all.
K A P L O W I T Z SCALE
K being the least, Z the greatest
Appearance OConstruction L
Combustion O
Flavors/Body I
Strength L
