But last night I had to watch two shows at the same time:

1. The Practice. A friend's brother has appeared in a few commercials, played Joseph on a Wayans brothers Christmas special, and delivered pizza to Jennifer Love Hewitt on the short-lived Party of Five spinoff Time of Your Life. Last night he took a big step up, playing a defendant facing date rape charges. I think he had some lines at the beginning, but I missed them. Mostly he listened coolly to the testimony and precedings, then got incensed with his lawyer when he was convicted.

2. Meanwhile, most of my attention was devoted to PBS's American Experience: Seabiscuit. I grew up in (what was then) the outer fringes of Maryland suburbs; there were a fair number of farms nearby. Some girls owned horses and many girls rode them. I liked all kinds of animals, and I rode at summer camp. (I will always remember when my counselor and I got thrown, trying to ride double on Peppermint Schnapps.) But I was not one of the horse fanatics, the girls that spent hours at the stables every day after school. So I didn't think I would care too much about an old racehorse I had never heard of, but I'd read good reviews of Laura Hillenbrand's book Seabiscuit: An American Legend, so I picked it up. I think I read it in two days. It's a fantastic story of a little colt who comes out of nowhere, wins big, suffers terrible injuries, and comes back to win again. Not to mention Seabiscuit's jockey, Red Pollard, who also overcame debilitating injuries and plain bad luck to ride a champ. If you haven't read it yet, hurry up, because the movie is coming out soon.