24 Festive Tasks: Door 3 - Melbourne Cup Day (November 6)

2:08 pm 6 November 2018

And now for the rest of Door #3:

The Melbourne Cup is Australia's most prestigious annual Thoroughbred horse race. It is a 3,200 metre race for three-year-olds and over, run on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Victoria as part of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. It is the richest "two-mile" handicap in the world, and one of the richest turf races, with this year's purse totalling 7,050,000 Australian Dollars (no, that's not a typo; it's just a weird amount). The event starts at 3pm on the first Tuesday in November and is known as "the race that stops a nation".

Tasks and Books

Task 1: Pick your ponies! MbD has posted the horses scheduled to race; everyone picks the three they think will finish (in any order).

Note: We've gotten so much rain this morning there's talk of a first-time-in-history cancellation of the day. This would be monumentally huge, and is unlikely, as the weather is supposed to clear in time. (Too much rain, too fast, is over-whelming the drainage system, causing flooding.) In the event of an actual cancellation Themis-Athena and I will re-group and update everyone with what happens next.

Task 2: Cup day is all about the hats. Post a picture of your favorite hat, whether it’s one you own or not.

Task 3: The coloring of the “horse of a different color” in the movie version of The Wizard of Oz was created by rubbing the horse’s fur with jello. What’s the weirdest use of jello you’ve ever come across?

Task 4: Have you ever been to or participated in a competition involving horses (racing, jumping, dressage, whatever)? Tell us about it. Photos welcome, too!

Book: about horses or a horse on the cover. Books with roses on the cover or about gardening; anything set in Australia.

Previous door's tasks are "beneath the fold"

Previous Festive Task Days:

Door 2: Guy Fawkes Night

Task 1: Burn a book in effigy. Not that anyone of us would do such a thing, but if you HAD to, which book would be the one you’d sacrifice to the flames (gleefully or not)?

Task 2: List your top 3 treasonous crimes against books. Not ones you’ve committed, but the ones you think are the worst.

Task 3: Share your favorite / most memorable BBQ recollections or recipe, or your favorite recipe of food “flambé” (i.e., doused with alcohol which is then set aflame and allowed to burn off).

Task 4: Find 5 uses of the word “gunpowder” in book titles in contexts other than for blowing up things or shooting people (e.g., Gunpowder Green by Laura Childs = tea).

Book: Set in the UK, political thrillers, involving any monarchy or revolution; books about arson or related to burning.

Door 1: Dia de Los Muertos

Task 1: Write a silly poem or limerick poking fun at the fiction character of your choice.

Task 2: Share your favorite gravestone epitaph (you know you have one).

Task 3: Create an altar (either digital or physical) for your favorite book, series, or book character, and post a picture of it. Inclusion of book cover encouraged.

Task 4: If you like Mexican food, treat yourself to your favorite dish and share a photo of it.

Book: Re-read an old favorite from a now-deceased author, a book from a finished (dead) series, or a book set in Mexico.

24 festive tasks