Word: smileyness
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...idea of a long novel about horses and horse racing has all the appeal of an afternoon at a seedy OTB outpost, read on. For Jane Smiley's Horse Heaven (Knopf; 561 pages; $26) turns out to go down quite easily--more like a pitcher of mint juleps at the Kentucky Derby. Smiley, who has already given us an epic about Greenland, an academic comedy set in the Midwest and historical fiction about abolition, has as great a range and as much intellectual curiosity as any novelist writing today. In her latest book, she takes on a fresh topic...
...Training ("Do not see any fault anywhere...Do not hanker after signs of progress"). There are the rich owners, desperate to get their playthings to the Breeders' Cup, and the struggling breeders, the jockeys and the horse masseurs. And above all, there are the races, riveting set pieces that Smiley creates with a passion that cannot help being infectious...
...Polypropylene, for instance, the plastic that has been around since the '50s, can be molded so smooth it is almost sensuous, and it takes dyes like silk. German design firms Authentics and Koziol have made much hay out of plastic's new pizazz. Koziol's spaghetti forks with a smiley face, ice-cream scoops with eyes and the "Tim" dish brush with legs are some of more than 300 "cutensils," as they're known, that flew off shelves of American stores last year...
When pondering the existence of schedule cards, I am loosely associating them with the courting of spectators. The powers-that-be across the river (the Athletic Department) churn out these cards picturing smiley captains in hopes that they will serve as handy ways for fans to keep track of their favorite team's schedule...
...that point the match was won, with Indiana having the 4-1 advantage. Jacobson beat Styperek in three sets, but Swart won 7-6, 3-6, 7-5 over Smiley to get the final count...