“The Symphony” chapter of Moby-Dick.

Beautiful story OP. I’m sorry about your friend, but I hope you realize it wasn’t your fault. I’m glad you’re okay, and I hope both you and Reuben are finally at peace.

Secretariat was a March 30 foal. Still considered an auspicious date for foaling.

Yes. If by some unlucky chance, a mare foals on Dec 31 or earlier, there’s a lot of scrambling to keep it under wraps for a day. Otherwise, for racing purposes, the foal becomes a yearling when it’s one day old.

This is an extremely rare occurrence except for the occasional premie though. Mares are bred to foal Feb - May in the Northern hemisphere, with occasional outliers in Jan or June. Horses foaled in May or June are usually not physically mature enough to race as two-year-olds, obviously, so you try for Feb and March foals.

I’ve loved everything I’ve read by him. I suspect the reason he doesn’t get the appreciation his books deserve is because he writes in so many genres that critics (and booksellers) don’t know where to put him.

I’m sorry this horrible thing happened OP, but thank you for such a beautifully- written and moving account of you and your friends’ tragedy. May you and Oscar and your other friends find peace.

Parsifal, is that you?

Well, you’re better off with what’s coming than you’d be in Appalachia. At least you’ll probably just die, and maybe even quickly if you’re lucky. In Appalachia though, the things in those hills and hollows will — well, it would be much, much worse.

Good luck my friend. Maybe some deity will intervene on your behalf.

The Christmas story we all needed 🤣. Glad you escaped with your, uh, virtue intact. I’d move to a house without a fireplace before next Christmas though.

Came here to say this very thing.

You turn a mean phrase for a mercenary OP. I hope you live to tell us more! Good luck, my friend.

Ian Rankin’s Rebus Series.

Loved this story OP. Glad you escaped so hopefully you can tell us more later. If you expanded this into a book, I would pay real actual money to read it.

P.S. — you would be a great candidate for those beer commercials with “the most interesting man in the world.” Assuming you’re a man.

If Lovecraft had written The Count of Monte Christo. . .

• Hellabama