all in Pop Culture

As the Tabasco tour guide gives me earplugs and a hairnet, his Cajun drawl delivers a message: “You’re about to clear your sinuses.” The door swings open, and a slight breeze carries a spicy and undeniable nose hair-singeing Tabasco bouquet. My olfactory burns. Soon, I’m standing over a vat of pepper juice sloshing and turning, permeating spice vapors so strong I now understand why cops carry pepper spray. I’m coughing, gasping, and my tear-filled eyes only see the person in front of me.

Horse racing is a sport full of jargon: for hardcore fans of the game, the sentence, “He worked a bullet over three panels in 35 and change” makes absolute and perfect sense. (The translation is: this horse was the fastest workout of the morning going three-eighths of a mile, traveling the distance in just over 35 seconds.)

The 96th Academy Awards arrives Sunday beginning at 7 p.m. ET, and horse racing aficionados can revel in the implicit recognition the sport of kings annually receives when journalists and film buffs adopt racing’s handicapping lingo to forecast the night’s winners.

The first of March brought cross-cultural fun to Oaklawn Park when a group of champion sumo wrestlers, in Hot Springs for an exhibition match over the weekend, toured the iconic Arkansas track. The team from Coady Photography were there to capture the experience, including an impromptu sumo match between jockeys. Enjoy this slideshow.

Bonnie-Jill Laflin’s book “In a League of Her Own: Celebrating Female Firsts in Sports” was published in February and explores the stories of 19 impactful women in sports, including Billie Jean King, Danica Patrick, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Laila Ali, Jeanie Buss, and Mary Lou Retton. Now available for purchase, Laflin’s book explores the sobering realities women face in the sports world and the many obstacles they had to overcome on the path to success.

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