One afternoon he noticed a strange sight. Just before the
first race, a Priest visited one of the horses in the stable
area and gave it a blessing. Bernie watched the horse race very carefully, and, sure enough, the blessed horse came in first.
Intriqued, Bernie followed the Priest before the next race. Again, the Priest went to the stables and blessed another horse.
Bernie quickly put five dollars on that horse and won close to fifty bucks! Well, the Priest kept blessing horses and Bernie paid close attention and kept winning cash!
The last race of the day was the biggest and Bernie saw
the Priest with the horse, for that race also!
Quickly went to his bank and withdrew his life's savings of $35,000, raced back to the track and put it all on that horse!
He watched the race in certain anticipation of leaving with well over a million bucks. But it was not to be... His horse was last to cross the line and Bernie was dead broke! He couldn't believe what happened so he went looking for the Priest.
He found the good Father and asked, "What happened in the last race? That last horse you blessed finished dead last! Because your blessing didn't work, I've lost all of my money!"
The Priest said "Sure, and that's the trouble with you protestants! You can't tell the difference between a blessing and the Last Rites!"
Japanese tattooing (irezumi) is often considered the world's best. The practice was banned under the Emperor Meiji, but revived after Prince George (later King George V) was tattooed, in 1881, by master tattooist Hori Chyo.
