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RANDOM…Jodie Foster’s latest movie, The Beaver, is in the can and awaiting release. There have been complications due to the extracurricular activities of the film’s star, a certain Mel Gibson. One paper summed it up rather ingeniously, asking, “What Will Mel’s Rant Do To Jodie Fosters Beaver?”…

…I’m pretty sure Leanne Rimes is a whack job but, man, she does an amazing rendition of Amazing Grace, currently up on You Tube…

…Jane Goody, on the British show Big Brother, once complained she was being turned into an “escape goat“. Insanely, the term is catching on, either by people in on the joke or by dumb people unable to conjure the word “scapegoat”. I love it! Don’t make me an escape goat over the decline of literacy in these desultory days…

…by the 1970’s, the DC character Batman had devolved into a buffoon. The campy Adam West TV show influenced the comics and suddenly readers were inundated with Bat Pets, Bat Planes and silly battles with dinosaurs and the like. It was the genius of the sublime artist Neal Adams that reinvented and reenergized Batman, creating the ominous, tortured and deadly serious Dark Knight Detective that is so immensely popular today. The long flowing capes and angst driven episodes brought the character to a whole new audience and revolutionized comics. Adams disappeared by the time the 1980’s rolled around and was only occasionally heard of, usually espousing some bizarre theory that the earth was hollow. What a pleasure and surprise to discover Adams has pulled himself together long enough to produce a twelve part mini-series entitled Batman: Odyssey.  The first issue has just come out and, for Adams acolytes, it’s as exciting a development as can possibly be imagined. A lengthy interview with Adams reveals a very egotistic and self assured man, but he’s so bloody great that it’s worth putting up with his bold pronouncements in order to see Batman back in the hands of his master…

GRID IRON…we must be getting close to another season of the NFL as The Sporting News has released its first Power Poll. It’s topped by your New York Jets with Dallas grabbing the second spot. The rest of the top ten is filled by New Orleans, San Diego, Minnesota, Green Bay, Indy, Carolina, Baltimore and Houston. Conspicuous by their absence are the New England Patriots, the surging Atlanta Falcons and the now sleazy Pittsburgh Steelers…at the bottom are nestled the St Louis Rams, Detroit Lions and the Oakland raiders. Two teams that could struggle and join that wretched crew are the Buffalo Bills and the Mike Nolan-less Denver Broncos…

…the bankrupt QB Mark Brunell will return as a New York Jet in 2010. It’s a bit surprising; Brunell, after having received no playing time at pivot in three years, looked abysmal pinch hitting for Drew Brees in week 17 last year, an effort that ended his tenure as a New Orleans Saint…

…former Dallas Cowboy Head Coach Jimmy Johnson is currently filming Survivor: Nicaragua…

PONIES…too weird; A Panamanian sprint star, Golden Moka, is a Canadian bred and will start in the Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie this Sunday. The field could certainly use a dose of speed, though I’d expect Dark Cloud Dancer to be hard sent after gross dereliction of his responsibilities as a rabbit in the Queen’s Plate. His stablemate, Hotep, is going to be very hard to handle in the second jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown…

…jockey Kent Desormeaux showed up at Woodbine on Canada Day for a mount in the Dominion Day Stakes. Good old Kent, who never met a horse he couldn’t pull up a furlong from the wire, was in his cups and, well, drunk driving is not tolerated at the racetrack, even if you are just operating a horse power of one. The mount he was to ride that day, Hold Me Back, went on to win the race under the guidance of Tyler Pizarro. Win Star, a powerful owner, has taken the wobbly jock off all their stock. Desormeaux, who apparently also has a penchant for giving radio interviews while hammered, has entered counselling for his alcohol issues and does plan to compete at the Saratoga meet….