Some of the younger readers – less than 50-years-old – say they don’t get my cultural references on barfblog.com.

They Shoot Horses Don’t They? is a 1969 film based on the 1935 novel of the same name by Horace McCoy. It focuses on a disparate group of characters desperate to win a Depression-era dance marathon and the opportunistic emcee who urges them on to victory.

When Sydney Pollack signed to direct the film, he approached Jane Fonda with the role of Gloria. The actress declined because she felt the script wasn’t very good, but her then-husband Roger Vadim, who saw similarities between the book and works of the French existentialists, urged her to reconsider.

I’m lifting this all from wiki. I saw the film when I was young and the desperation conveyed by the characters was compelling.

Oh, and Western Australia has approved the human consumption of horse meat.

Food & Drink Digital reports 50,000 to 70,000 horses are slaughtered in Australia every year for human consumption in other parts of the world, but until now they were not available for consumption in Australia.