I met a woman named Alia once and was both awed by the coolness of naming your child after a character in a Frank Herbert novel (eta: no less, a much maligned David Lynch flick) and appalled at naming your child after an "Abomination." Fortunately, she came down on the cool side of the equation and was impressed that I knew the reference.

Baby naming from pop culture, and pseuds for that matter, can be tricky!

I know an Alia too. She's great. I don't remember whether we covered the potential geekiness of her name.

Speaking of geekiness, I was especially pleased that her parents pronounced it 'right.' Meaning, AHlia vs. aLEEa, of course. (Scott Brick, who reads the Brian Herbert sequels does it wrong and it burns.)

You horse people know you're the only ones who have the slightest clue, right? The rest of us just go "horsie!"

I'm pretty sure Alia exists as a regular girl's name in other languages. Arabic for one, also Hebrew maybe?

You horse people know you're the only ones who have the slightest clue, right? The rest of us just go "horsie!"

Ha, yeah, that's what I was thinking too. I can't tell the difference at all.

I remember being so bothered at the end of Cold Mountain when I thought the flowers on the table were a clever indicator for the season, and then it turns out that it was all backwards (Goldenrod in the spring: WRONG!) and they didn't have the convenient excuse of modern florists.

Bays have black points. The foal they show in the trailer has black points. Secretariat was a bright-ass chestnut. Think the color of Christina Hendrick's hair. All over.

Anthony Hopkins doesn't look a damned thing like Richard Nixon.

I don't know what points are.