Guys and Dolls is a musical
based on stories by Damon Runyon. “Fugue for
Tinhorns” is a great song from the musical.
It’s a perfect classical music fugue, worthy of Johann Sebastian B.
himself, all devoted to some small-time gamblers trying to figure out which
horse to bet on.
(Also for Three Word Wednesday and ABC Wednesday: "J" is for "Jiminy C")
I wrote the following scenelet, thinking I might enlist your help in coming up with the name of a well-known musical. What’s its name?
“Are you talking about Jiminy C? He had some trouble with a hoof; they thought
they might have to operate.”
“Naw, it turned out to be nothing. He’ll be racing today.”
“Well, if he does I got an authentic inside tip.”
“Yeah, we know about your inside tips.”
“This one’s a winner. You know it rained, it poured, all last
night. And that means the track today is
loaded with pure, undiluted mud.”
“H’mm. You
may have something. From what I heard
he’s supposed to do well on a muddy track.”
“This is my inside tip. I got it because the jockey’s brother is a
friend of mine. This nag doesn’t just
‘do well’ on a muddy track, he loves
mud!”
“And how would they know that?”
“Because they see how he reacts when he realizes
he’s going to get to go out and splash about in a real muddy mess. His phobia is actually a dry track. And the mud means he enjoys himself so much
that he takes almost ten seconds off his usual time for ten furlongs.”
“Wow. And
the morning line has Jiminy C figured at five to nine.”
“Right. Which
shows how little they understand the difference today’s muddy track is going to
make for this race. “
“I take back what I said about your inside
tips. This is great. I’ll lay down some real dough on this
one. I’m going to march up to that
window and say, ‘I got the horse right here!’”
