What To Read, Listen To, Look At And Watch Over Kentucky Derby Weekend

“He grabbed my arm, urging me to have another, but I said I was overdue at the Press Club and hustled off to get my act together for the awful spectacle. At the airport newsstand I picked up a Courier-Journal and scanned the front page headlines: ‘Nixon Sends GI’s into Cambodia to Hit Reds’… ‘B-52’s Raid, then 20,000 GI’s Advance 20 Miles”…’ 4,000 U.S. Troops Deployed Near Yale as Tension Grows Over Panther Protest.’ At the bottom of the page was a photo of Diane Crump, soon to become the first woman jockey ever to ride in the Kentucky Derby. The photographer had snapped her ‘stopping in the barn area to fondle her mount, Fathom.’ The rest of the paper was spotted with ugly war news and stories of ‘student unrest.’ There was no mention of any trouble brewing at university in Ohio called Kent State.”
 — The Kentucky Derby is this weekend in Louisville, always a good time to read Hunter S. Thompson’s 1970 essay, “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved.” Garden & Gun magazine provides us with mint julep recipes and pictures of the crazy hats people wear to the annual festivities. And if you’re not going to the races, and will instead be stuck home sitting in front of your computer, here are twelve songs to listen to that are not by Dan Fogelberg.