All Friday and early Saturday I was wracking my brain, trying to figure out where I knew that word from. It seemed like a name someone had given to an animal, but it wasn't coming to me.
Finally I figured it out. In the opening "Guys and Dolls" number called "Fugue for Tinhorns" three gamblers are comparing notes on which horse is the best bet. It's a great number if you aren't already familiar with it. One of the bits of lyric goes: "And just a minute, boys. I've got the feed box noise. It says the great-grandfather was Equipoise." Ah! Wikipedia (the ultimate source for everything, right?) says: Equipoise (1928–1938) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse and sire.
Googling "equipoise" you find that it is also the name of a veterinary steroid. It may be a stretch, but I decided to counterpoint the great career of the racehorse with the steroid scandals that these days are so prevalent in sports of all kinds, including horse racing. The picture of the horse Equipoise I printed from the internet. Found at: http://horseracing.about.com/library/pics/blequipoise.htm
I should have been doing other things the last 1/2 hour instead of this, but I hated to miss the Mad Minute Word and wanted to post something today, because I am heading out of town for a week and will be enjoying myself out on my friends' land. So I'll be taking pictures, for sure. But not posting, probably, until I get back a week from tomorrow (Monday).
