I occassionally play a three-par game of golf with a lady friend. Sometimes I like to go to the driving range......but I don't play with other business people. I know Trump says he's made more money on the golf course than Tiger Woods because of the deals that came about with other players, but I prefer business to be business.

DreadPirateRoberts:  I answered your comment about Atlas on yesterday's post just as the clock struck 9pm here in L.A. Were we speaking about the same Atlas?

ExPat,

Yes indeed.  You may have missed the earlier drama:  In the photo she posted, Nachista's monkey was sitting on a copy of Atlas Shrugged.  There had been discussion of monkeys typing out Shakespeare so, having pretty much equal admiration for Rand and Shakespeare, I called attention to the monkey's choice of seat.  I immediately began to regret this action when I realized that this had been apparently intended, not as a compliment to either Rand or Shakespeare (or even the monkeys, for that matter) but a comment on what books belonged under the buttocks of a monkey.

You and the other Randians here (not a reference to what a randy bunch we are, though that's also true) have far greater talent than I in presenting a controversial text's virtues without my usual knack for inflammatory righteous indignation.  So I reached out for help.

My beloved David was a "scratch" golfer in the days when there was only one golf course in the NW part of the state (and none anywhere else in the state) where Black men could play golf - and I have the photo of him and one of his buddies with a trophy almost as tall as I am.  They won the trophy at a tournament where they were the only Black team - and none of the other players knew that Black people could play the game - much less beat the socks and other stuff off of them!  This was 30 years before Tiger - but at his memorial service, many of those talking about David agreed that had he been given the training and opportunities that Tiger had, probably he would have been on the tour as well.  

Like Trump, he made deals on the courses as well and many of his clients during the great War on Poverty owed their jobs to businessmen who found David's deals as compelling as his golf game!  Straight down the middle and into the cup -

I'm with Mark Twain: Golf is a good walk spoiled. Usually.

I play, but it's almost always by myself. No one likes to play my way. I use four clubs-a driver, an iron, a sand wedge, and a putter, in a Sunday bag, and I walk. No carts, no beer, no BS.

Boys are wussies...

Whenever I even think about golf, I think about a funny sight I saw once:

My wife and I were at the seaside amusement park of Rye Playland in upstate New York.  We were playing miniature golf (I don't know a damned thing about the game so putting me on a real course would be a waste).  A few holes down from us was a man and his son.  The boy was maybe four or five and his father was clearly trying to teach him how to play.  It was not going well.  The kid didn't see the point of fiddling around with the big metal stick.  If you want the ball to go into the hole, just pick it up and drop it in the hole.  This made his dad very upset and frustrated.  The kid couldn't understand why.  Isn't the object of the game to get the ball into the hole?

Truly charming.  I think the dad probably went on to talk about "the last time I took my son to play golf."  And by "last", he didn't mean most recent.  He meant FINAL.  Wouldn't do it again for a million bucks and Halle Berry's phone number!

DreadPirateRoberts:  Objectivism is about reality, individuality, reason, and free enterprise/ capitalism.  It's a sense of life. It's a passion. A monkey's ass on Atlas Shrugged or anything by Shakespeare is insulting to any intelligent person.

I wonder what the world would become if the people who create the jobs and invest the money to do so, stopped. A worker's paradise? 1984? a Brave New World? Farenheit 451? Lord of the Flies? Perhaps a trip to Cuba or North Korea would help. The Taliban ruled Afghanistan or current Somalia might be instructive for when reason and reality get pushed aside.

A cockroach sitting on the IRS code would be more appropriate.

ExPat,

Thank you, as always, for your wisdom.  I am in a much more peaceful state now and ready to go to bed.

My last thoughts before I see daylight are that you mentioned a few books that I love and one that I don't.  Lord of the Flies is in the running with The Stranger for the title of my least favorite novel I have ever read.  Stalin would have loved Golding's notion that we all need the state to keep our demons in check because we are all basically evil.  Camus preferred to simply declare that he didn't give a damn about anyone or anything including himself.  Give me Rand's vision of man as a naturally heroic being any day.

Good night all.

Olivia, you play my kind of game.

But honestly, I do like a beer, afterwards of course.

Mais oui, apres, ma chere amie!

The fact that I wondered if the Ryder Cup had something to do with horses pretty much brings you up to my level of commitment to golf.

I've been on a course twice.  The first time, at age 12 or so, my best friend and I borrowed his father's clubs and went to their country club.  (No country club membership in our nine-member family!)  It was 11:30 a.m., the temperature was in the high 80s, the humidity was about the same, and we didn't bring anything along to drink.  (By the time we got to the 'ball washer', I was tempted to drink the soapy water!).  Yep, we carried a full set of clubs.  That day, as I've told folks, I shot 132... on the front nine.  We quit after nine holes.

The second time was a better experience.  I was asked to drive the refreshment golf-cart during a tournament.  That was a lot of fun -- and I was never thirsty!

The beauty of the Ryder Cup lies in the emotions we see bubbling up in the players.  Pride.  Country. Tongue-wagging rights!

As an avid recreational player and uber Tiger Woods fan, this Ryder Cup was fun to watch.  Long touted has been the European teams that came together arm in arm to defeat U-S-A teams that seem more individualistic than team.  It's seem Azinger found the right formula for success.  Get the right personalities to gel and you can conquer anything... and have fun doing it.

Now where did I put my clubs?!!

I thought the Ryder cup had something to do with boat-racing.

I am glad to hear someone speak up against Golding and Camus. What underlying contempt. what non-edifying cynicism, both of these ugly men had. Golding had a slatternly imagination. I read LOTF at a time in school where daily unstructured playground play was important. Groups would form and re-form on the playground, but none of the groups displayed any inexorable drift toward negative impulses. I really resent the innocence that LOTF took from me.

I don't know if Christopher Hitchens has ever essayed on Golding, but I applaud Hitchens for how much good he finds in people even in the absence of religiously-inculcated impulses to be good (see God is not Great).

I really feel as if Camus was a cynical prankster in the guise of a philosopher. By this I mean that he is always waiting in the wings nearby any reader of his books, ready to give the reader a desultory lashing out for trying to resonate with him. It's probably just as well that he was short-lived. His ouevre would have imploded upon itself.  A nihilist against nihilism...and a poseur above everything else.

 

 I really don't play the game but, despite the parallels to watching grass grow, I usually enjoy watching golf on TV. However, I had not been a fan of the Ryder Cup and had not planned to watch this year in spite of the fact that it was held in our native Kentucky. I was drawn in when KY natives J.B. Holmes and Kenny Perry got the American squad off to a good start.

 I must admit that it was refreshing to witness the usually jaded and cool professionals play,...Really PLAY the game with child-like enjoyment. This team format is substantially different from the usual every-man-for-himself set-up of tournament play and the players exhibited a palpable joy in being able to give sincere encouragement to and receive genuine support from their teammates. Ironically, the absence of Tiger probably took a lot of pressure off as well since it assured that the oddsmakers would favor the European squad.

 However golf started it is a game that requires considerable skill and ability to play well. Maybe we over emphasize professional sports in modern society, (and it seems that every athlete at nearly every level is a professional or aspires to be one) but I think that to dismiss sports spectating as a waste of time is a mistake. We can appreciate and be inspired by Tiger Woods sinking a pressure-putt, Lance Armstrong pedaling up an impossibly steep mountain, or Micheal Phelps swimming faster than anyone ever has as manifestations of human potential and excellence. 

 

 

 

Wait. What? Golf? They're still playing golf? During football season? During baseball's jockeying for post-season play?

So, what was the question again?

Hayekfan---as in Selma?

Yes, but golf has given us one of our funnier movies: Caddyshack.

DPR, I love Rand's work.  It was not a deliberate insult.  The books under the monkey all happened to be books that were out on my coffee table and when stacked together gave us the right heighth for the mokey to sit at the typewriter.  They were all out because they had all just been read...with the exception on that one book in the Eragon serious I really enjoy those books (the dragon one isn't worth the reading).  That's why I said I should of placed the dragon book under the monkey's bum, because its the one that needs to be sat upon.

I enjoy golf but I am very very bad at it.  I have members of my family that are fanatics and you can see them out on the links in the wind, rain, or snow.  With the frequency of charity and business golf tournaments around here, there are some employees who feel like paid golf pros, golfing on the clock as "marketing".  I can't really blame them, if I didn't suck at the game, I'd volunteer to "take one for the team" and spend the day out of the office "marketing" too.  Why is it that women in business try to learn golf for this very reason?  If someone were trying to sell me on their business I'd be more interested in a spa day.

So far we've had 102 comments on yesterday's topic. Is that a record?

Ah Golf.

I dated a PGA-er throughout my undergrad. He lives in Hilton Head (on Hilton Head?). It was the perfect arrangement, really. I like my space. He loves his golf, etc. 

And though I'm not typically a jealous woman (Like I said; I need space), there's just something about playing second fiddle to clubs. Especially when you only see each other two or three weeks out of a year.

He would spend the day on the course (Does anyone know Harbor Town Golf Links in Sea Pines?) and I would explore the island. Even that was just fine.

The relationship ended when he invited me onto the course. Big mistake.

The first attempt ended when I showed up to play with the 'the boys' (most of whom did have names like Boo and Oggie) and apparently had scandalously short sleeves. They ended a whole three inches above my elbow. A taboo for that course. So I was 'sent home to change.' Mind you I was 21 and most of 'the boys' were in the 50-70 year-old range. So that made me feel very grown up.

Then, upon my return, pride swallowed, I drove a golf cart ONTO the putting green. Apparently that's a pretty universal taboo as well. What can I say? My father was a sailor. Total golfing rookie.

To summarize, the relationship ended with an early morning flight back to Michigan, before which I tucked his irons nicely into the bed next to him with a note that said, "Hope these keep you warm at night, because I will no longer be able to fill that post." 

He's actually a wonderful man. Really. I'm sure he and his clubs are blissfully happy together.

Trask,

Now you know why I have such a fixation on Gullah culture. Had a lot of time to blow on that island. 

 That's Friedrich August von Hayek. A pretentious assertion admittedly but considering the economic conditions we face now, his principles need to be revived.

Rings90,

If you are still on your perfect pair of denim jeans quest, you may want to check these guys out. I've always had good luck with this company.

http://www.duluthtrading.com/store/clothes-footwear/womens/pants-shorts/jeans/womens-denim-jeans.aspx?navlocation=dept_left

Enjoy the leaves up North. I have waded into the Gitche Gumee off of a beach on the northern tip of Madeline Island.

When I was on the road working with an important salesman from on of our distributors, the person we had a meeting scheduled with that morning, failed to get up- for the last time.

Kenny was devastated over the loss of a long time friend, cried a little, looked up through his tears and announced: "We're going to play some golf."

"Oh, ccrraap," I mumbled, knowing that there was no way out.

It was at a club somewhere in Nebraska with rolling fairways, huge oaks and I predictably stunk up the place until inexplicably really connecting with a drive.

I'll never forget that feeling and I can understand how, if you are someone capable of doing that on a regular basis, the game could be enjoyable.

The shot itself went high and long arcing its way into and then oddly out of a huge fairway bunker. I'm sure that the laws of physics dictate that a ball bouncing off the exposed round top of a granite boulder can go only so far. It did that and then rolled and rolled right down the middle of the fairway.

It took Kenny, a scratch golfer, three strokes to get parallel smirking as he did so.

The middle of the fairway it seems was to be avoided guarded as it was by overhanging branches very low,very high. His lie afforded a clear path to the green.

"You, my friend, are essentially screwed," he mocked.

And I, standing in the deep shade, could not argue.

Looking skyward, I noticed an opening among the limbs and wondered why I wouldn't just knock it right through there with a nine iron and drop it onto the green?

"Hey, yeah sure, go ahead and do that." he agreed while seeming to swallow laughter.

In my ignorance, there was no point in taking practice cuts. I wouldn't have recognized a good one anyway.

I stepped up whacked it, watched as it sailed through the middle of the opening, plop down on the highest point of the green and roll backwards into the cup.

Trying to look like the outcome was pretty much what I had been expecting, I turned to check Kenny's reaction. He was flat on his back, spread eagle like a huge child about to make a snow angel.

It was his club, he played there a lot and had never known anyone alive or dead to have double eagled that hole.

"Until now," I added.

Kenny was a hunter and bird dog trainer with an understanding of quitting on a high note and "They don't come any higher than this."

God bless him. William Randolph Hearst couldn't have spread that story further, wider or faster than did he.

The downside was that upon being recognized as "Ole Double Eagle", I was obliged to recall the experience- often omitting the part played by the boulder- and then, when asked where I usually played, had to admit that I, ahh, didn't.

Apart from putt-putt with our kids and then, theirs, that was it for me and the game of golf.

Hayekfan:

Can you say more about that? I am sincerely interested. 

What I appreciate about the game of golf is that the potential of redemption and salvation always lays waiting with your next shot.

While I certainly do admire the skill sets of those who play the game well, what I really enjoy the most when watching it on TV is that I don't even have to turn down the sound when I take a nap. It's a sure-fire cure for insomnia.

Stoney,

That's one for the honor roll if ever I've seen one.

Nachista,

My apologies if I misunderstood your comments yesterday.  Once again, I plead the "it was late at night and I'd had a tough time with my daughter" excuse.  It was actually Olivia's note that got me most up in arms.  The two of us finding ourselves in staunch opposition is certainly nothing new -- except in sartorial matters and sometimes even then as you, of all people, have surely noticed.

PeterLake,
I agree but you haven't lived until you've employed the game of cricket as a backdrop to a snooze.

With terms like: night watchman; sticky wicket; stonewall; googly and my personal favorite: Maiden Over, a fog of uncomprehension descends upon you, your eye lids become very heavy, your breathing slow and steady and you are gone.

In the event that you awaken later thinking that it must have been a mere catnap because the same batsman is up, consider this: He may be in the middle of a triple century (three hundred runs scored in one appearance at the wicket) that has taken the entire afternoon.

It is essential to maintain complete and total ignorance of all terminology, rules, and rationale (if any) pertaining to the game to avoid a chance, however small and unlikely, of ever, even for a moment, having the faintest idea of what is taking place on the other side of those aforementioned heavy, heavy lids.

I guess my enthusiasm for Camus is not shared by some... I always liked his stark vision of humanity, and his decision to embrace the ugly as well as the pretty in humankind.  Given his version of existentialism, I prefer it to the Marxist (and hypocritically Stalinist)version propounded by Sartre -- or the opportunistic and obscure version of Heidegger (IMHO a thoroughly despicable man).  

Camus had an ability (perhaps based on his life in the French Underground) to be a lonely figure without becoming an embittered lonely figure.  

Doc Nolan:

I find that the Existentialists provided a good starting point for a better philosophy of life.  Once they dispensed with most of what passed for philosophy they told us we should take responsibility and choose our own way.  Of course, being Europeans, most of the Existentialists chose some form of socialism, communism or religion as the way.  I prefer the  objectivist way.  I also prefer small "o" objectivism and recognize Existentialism as a starting point but not a viable life-style philosophy. The small "e" existentialist starting point is probably a better view than the actual movement characterized by the big "E".

If you have to live a life I is better to live one that is life-affirming than one that is based on the essential absurdity of life.   

Somewhere in all of this is the meaning of golf. Golf is an impossibly absurd game that has become a wonderful passion for some.

Stoney:

The game of cricket is still a mystery to me (and I was born in England).  I don't have a clue as to what is going on during a cricket match, but I knew there was hope for the game when I read about "cricket hooligans"..........

http://www.gussetclothing.com/womdiamgusje.html

Interesting, slightly different take on jeans.
I have a tan pair for long car trips.
Very nice.

Golf ~ my parents took it up in their late 30's & then gave my grandfather a set of clubs the Christmas of his retirement. 

I have nothing against the game, especially becuase if you ask me I feel that the Christmas Gift of the clubs to Grandpa prolonged his life. Which was the greatest gift of all.  My Grandfather had Alzhiemers, it's a very slow progressing disease, sometimes a switch though will flip on the person who has it & they will become cohereant again, well the Golf Course did that for my grandfather.  His memory for everyday things was begining to get bad in the 90's yet Grandma could take him golfing & he would be up on every stroke & where every ball his or any other players was hit to.  I'm grateful to the game of golf for the physical & mental longetivity it gave my grandpa. I shudder to think that IF he did not have that outlet how many more the years of wasting away in a nursing home may have been. 

Me well I jsut don't have the patience, arm swing strength, or geometry to play that dang game, give me a day out on the boat reading, camping, hiking, biking or a gret game of trivia or blockus anytime over having to play golf.

Robert, you mistook my verbal monkey-dancing japes for serious commentary, as sometimes happens. I have no strong feelings one way or another about Ms Rand. Like many authors who purport to tell us how we should live, she had some good ideas and a great deal of bloviation. I do find it rather ironic that she was so down on Roosevelt's modest socialization in response to the laissez-faire capitalism that generated the Great Depression. His administrations' regulations in large part allowed our financial institutions to dominate the world economically, until Republican greed, misrule, and deregulation got us to today-back to the future! Oh, I know-it's Bill's fault, and if Obama gets elected, he'll be vilified by the Know-Nothings for causing all the problems since Clinton. Those guys live in a perfect world, where nothing bad's EVER their fault-a form of political autism perhaps (impairments in social interaction and communication, restricted interests and repetitive behavior) in conjunction with a congenital tendency to, er, misspeak. Oh well. Things have gone so swimmingly, why NOT four more years?

Wait, I think I got off into another topic. Anyway, sorry Robert, if I misled you-I was only being my silly self!

Stoney,

What about the crowds at Cricket Matches? Are they similar to the well behaved herds of people that dress funny, line the golf courses, and clap oh so politely so that it sounds like the flapping of startled pigeons taking flight, or, are they more boisterous?

Are there spectators at all for Cricket Matches? I'd hate to be rudely awakened by the thunderous cheering of spectators, especially when I wouldn't understand what they are cheering about.

Even the name concerns me, as I have a loud, but ever so elusive Cricket taking sanctuary in my basement.

I'll check out ESPN 25 to see if they broadcast Cricket matches. Thanks for the tip.

Happing Napping!

I like the idea of cricket hooligans, some sort of upscale chavs in their dirty white flannels, no doubt...

Robert, my personal email is: oyeringsl@comcast.net

I'd be happy to hear from any of you! I was reading Robert's and Peter's exchange on childrearing, and OH the memories it brought back! I had four wee 'uns and little help. We all survived, but there were times I would've given anything for some adult conversation...

Interesting that the color scheme here is the Irish flag, green white and gold (orange).

Hi Olivia,

Sorry if I misread your intentions.  The limitations of the internet prohibit the hearing of tones of voice that may have made matters clearer.  Ms. Rand was certainly not perfect; as ExPat says, "small 'o' objectivism" is less dogmatic than the capital "O" philosophies of her protegee, Leonard Piekoff.  He's a talented philosopher but also an utter prig.

Rand's great tragedy is that, while she had many brilliant ideas, she herself could not live by them.  Nevertheless, the values of personal accountability and responsibility have no greater advocate in literature than Rand.  On the flip side, she had no understanding of shades of gray; she could never -- as we have -- disagree so staunchly with someone and still consider them friends.

On that note, it is a popular but untenable myth to contend that laissez-faire capitalism brought about the Great Depression.  Although the U.S. has come closer than any other nation, we have still never practised true laissez-faire capitalism.  And the notion that there were no governmental regulations on the market ignores the disastrous meddling that Hoover perpetrated that sent the economy into a downturn at that time.  While there are many leftists who seek to discredit it, here is a link to Great Myths of the Great Depression, my favorite article on the subject: http://www.mackinac.org/archives/1998/sp1998-01.pdf

Doc,

Indeed, not only do I not share your enthusiasm for Camus, but I imagine he wouldn't have either.  Granted, my only exposure to the man has been The Stranger and it didn't inspire me to go much further.  But since his essential and oft repeated theme is "it doesn't matter anyway", to have enthusiasm for anything at all seems rather inconsistent with his vision (if you can call it that).  Kinda makes me wonder why he took the trouble to write books in the first place.

One of my great experiences in this year's reading project was going straight from The Stranger to Lolita on my "to-read" list.  It was greatly refreshing to shift from the story of a man who couldn't care less about anyone or anything to another story whose protagonist has such a deep passion that it becomes a perverse obsession.  Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum!

Mark Swaim,

I share your admiration for Christopher Hitchens.  Even when I disagree with him (which is about half the time), he has shown himself to be an independent thinker of great intellectual courage.  He doesn't care if his conclusions are unpopular and he has shown himself on more than one occasion to be perfectly an unabashedly willing to admit when he is wrong, provided the opposing argument is sufficiently strong.  That's something you virtually never see in today's pundits.

One of the great joys of living in New York is the chance to see brilliantly talented people live and in person.  I was first exposed to Hitchens when he came to a bookstore in the East Village to read from and discuss his book, Why Orwell Matters.  I was curious about the book but it was clear from the question/answer period that everyone else in the room knew Hitchens' work well and I was the newbie.

PeterLake,

Well, in an ideal scenario, Inspector Morse and a smattering of mostly indifferent "fans" would in a club setting be found dozing on chaises, open books resting in their laps, summer straw hats drawn down over their eyes, claret in stemware suspended in a perilously relaxed grip.

In reality, crazed Pakistanis set loose newspapers ablaze in crowded covered wooden tinderbox bleachers.

The angle worth considering is that though there is doubtless considerable racket, it is viewed, at least in my experience, from what we would call the outfield and they charmingly refer to as "country."

The rabid rabble as a muted backdrop.

The only thing that might put me out quicker would be a sweat sock full of lug nuts swung hard by an expert.

DPR

Kind words.
Thank you.

To: DreadPirateRoberts'

A good article to read is "The Unlikeliest Cult" by Michael Shermer.  It praises Rand's philosophy while thoroughly chastizing her cult-like leadership and followers. I don't have a link handy but it can be "googled".

I certainly don't share her taste in music or art....I wouldn't have been admitted to the inner circle, but it doesn't take away from her basic philosophical truths. The ideas are more important than the person expousing them. I can accept the thinking of Jefferson, Roosevelt (Teddy), or John Kennedy.  The fact that Jefferson was a slaveholder, Roosevelt had actual hatred for atheists, and Kennedy was  a millionaire Catholic and Democrat does not discredit what they said or believed. Even Aristotle believed in owning slaves and that true happiness was only available to "philosophers".

I wonder what Aristotle would have thought about golf or cricket?  Best not to ask......

RE: Camus.... read 'The Plague'....

Thank you, Doc.  I'll put The Plague on the list.  It will take a while; as you can imagine, my list is quite long.  But I respect your input and will take the recommendation.

Ah, yes,  Do read The Plague.

But to change the subject here, since I live in Louisville where the Ryder Cup was played, I do have a story.  If you didn't know, we got the remnances of Ike the Sunday before and we had some 300,000+ people without power.  We happened not to have any problems but we were definitely the exception.  This was good because a good friend and a golfing partner of my husband's, came to stay with us while he worked as a marshal for the Cup.  Not only didn't we charge him a cent, but I fed him two nights myself because so many of the restaurants were closed with no power.  This free hospitality is in contrast to so many others that paid through the nose for homes to rent.  In fact, we live on a golf course and we noticed Michael Jordan (take note, belleball) and his entourage play through.  It seems that he had rented a home out here for $100,000 for the week.  I think we lost out here somehow...

Yes, the team spirit thing during the Ryder Cup was nice to see, but somehow I think it went too far.  Golfing is a quiet, gentile sport.  One stands still and quiet while others are hitting the ball.  One, as Miss Ive learned, dresses appropriately, and used proper decorum on the course.  So when, during one of the twosome matches, the European team ceded the match and came to congratulate the USA winners, they came having removed their hats in respect.  Did the USA team?  Of course not!  They probably don't take their hats off in a restaurant, either.  It was so obviously "bubba" behavior that I was just plain embarassed.  That would be okay at a football game, but not in golf.

Of course, I don't play at all.  My husband doesn't ask me to play golf and I don't ask him to swim.  We have even gone on separate cruises together..on the same ship, he on a golfing cruise, me on a snorkling cruise.  We met each evening for dinner and compared our experiences.  And a wonderful time was had by us both.

DPR:

I definitely cannot get enough of the Hitch. In my view, he, Martin Amis and James Fenton (whose careers developed in parallel and with mutual knowledge) are the reigning triumvirate of English (the language, not the place) letters.

Once in Washington (where he lives), I actually called his house to see if it might be possible to go out for a drink or dinner. His answering machine is quite Everyman, very unpretentious (he speaks on the recorded message), but I didn't get a live answer.

Once in Durham, when I was at Duke, I actually came upon Martin Amis walking down the street in the evening. He was lost, and asked for directions, but I already knew where he was going----to his own bookreading at a store about a block away. When we walked together into the bright light of the store, I was quite surprised---in real life he looks eerily like me. 

Hitchens is the best polemicist alive, and I often think that his normative working rules have to do more with creating a terrific argument than about getting at the truth. I definitely don't always agree with him; he has been positively pugilistic in his support of the Iraq war, and the basis of his support has long since gotten threadbare. He has held the current American political scene at some remove. His taking of the casus diabli against Mother Teresa is probably my favorite episode of his life to date.

Wait, where did the golf game go?  I gave up the game it being taken too seriously where I live and work.  I used to love walking mountain courses by myself and with my son and daughter. 

On another note imagine my surprise when my son called me to announce he was now a philosophy major and reading Camus and Sartre.  My reading now tends to the Hitch.  I passed my Ayn Rand phase, became lost with too many existentialists (which path to darkness shall I take?)  Too many years as a jesuitical existentialist or is that a contradiction.  Is there a god or is he simply a golfball?

If you are looking to play the true "Sport of Emperors and Kings", you need not look any further than your local Miniature Golf Course, which is usually surrounded by batting cages and go-cart tracks.

Let the pampered pros play on lush fairways and greens that probably have carpet padding beneath the Geo-Pet like grass. A real sportsperson plays Mini-Putt.

After having to putt through an obstacle course that often includes a spinning windmill, water wheels, fountains, clown heads, knights in shiny armor, King Kong climbing the Empire State Building, as well as holes situated on the side of a 45 degree hill or protected by swinging pendulums; well let's just say that regular golf just does not quite measure up..

Maybe it's because Chicago has such deep blue-collar roots, but Miniature Golf around here is as popular now as it was when I was a kid. There is even a funeral home on the North Side that boast an 18 hole golf course in it's basement that is available to the public on non-viewing nights.

Oh yeah, on these courses; etiquette is not allowed and you leave your good paid pants at home so you can wear them to church and funerals and such........:) FOUR!!!!!!!!!

that would be"good plaid pants" which is of coarse, an oxymoron

of course, of course

You guys; have a nice weekend!

Peter,

I protest.  There absolutely is such a thing as good plaid pants.  Our host, Mr. Peterman, sold a wonderful pair of Prince of Wales glen plaids a while back.  I regretted letting them go and, the next time they show up in the Owner's Manual, I definitely have a pair with my name on them.

Stoney,

That's a lovely quote.  It shows that Mother Theresa, like Ayn Rand, had brilliant ideas that she herself did not always live by as well as she might.

DPR,

Plaid pants?

Absolutely! .....

....... as long you wear them with argyle socks, a striped shirt and a paisley tie . . . or, a paisley shirt, cabana striped vest, lime-green, polka dot bowtie and topped off with a hound's-tooth sport coat.

But seriously, I bet they are fine. I have a pretty simple taste when it comes to my apparel since retiring.

"forgive me father for I know what I'm about to say".....

I can't help but wonder what kind of response would have been voiced if nachista had posed her" typing minky" on top of a picture of Mother Theresa instead . . . . .

I'm just a wondering, and a wondering, and a wondering....... and dodging lightening bolts.

Peterlake I concur with your opinion of mini-golf, a most underesteemed sport.  One of my brothers had an altercation with the windmill while trying to cheat and he lost.  He had the bloody head and stitches to prove it.  Minigolf...ain't for no sissies.

Plaid pants are a wonderful horror.  My father has 3 pairs of trews in McNeil plaid (our family) Stewart plaid (a gift from our neighbor Mr. Stewart) and a yellow plaid that I think is one of the MacLeods (just because he loves yellow.  He's the most festive guy in the room when he's wearing them.  And he is old enough that he can get away with it, without looking like a wanna-be poser punk.  I told Sir Boyscout that when my da passes on it will be his responsibility to wear plaid trews to the most innapropriate places, just to make me smile. 

I don't have a book of Mother Theresa, would like to have one at some point in the future.  Have always admired that great lady and her amazing service.  Minky will be reading that book, not sitting on it.

Whatever your politics, Ayn Rand knew how to weave a fascinating story.  I don't agree with most of her opinions or tastes, but I am grateful to be able to loose myself in an engrossing book.

nachista,

I like your father already.  Once you get to a certain age, I think people not only respect men in plaid pants, but fear them a little too 'cos they think they have underworld connections.

That's how it was in my old neighborhood.

Nachista,

I suppose I take from philosophers / philosophies as I would from, let's say, an "All You Can Read Buffet" table. A little bit of this, a pinch of that, everything in moderation. . . . while striving for a balanced diet and a sense of wonder

DPR,
That's as may be, but if ever she peeled the soiled, stinking clothes from one poor sick and failing human wreck, washed and wrapped her and held her hand so that she would not die alone, then, claims of undeserved fame, political and religious intrigue and misspent funds notwithstanding, she''s way out in front of me and Hitchens as well I shouldn't wonder.

Well, I wasn't going to comment on this subject as I've always considered Golf to be on the the silliest wastes of time ever created by mankind. However, I must salute "Pirate" and others for somehow managing to bring Rand into the conversation. Long live John Galt!

Zorba,

It all started with a stuffed toy monkey . . . . 

Spinner - Black men wear such conservative golf apparel these days - when my David was golfing with members of the Trail Blazers team (Bill Walton, et al) back in the late 70s/early 80s, the fashion was bright - and David's favorite outfit was a pair of yellow polyester golf pants that had an orange paisley print on them (not quite how one describes the fabric but it was orange & yellow and the orange was the paisley design) with a matching orange tee shirt - his game was good enough to win a trophy (for the golf, not the outfit)- and the Blazers won a trophy as well (for basketball, not golf).  Ah, those were the days -

Who is this John Galt guy, anyway *giggle*

Olivia,

perhapz he waz ze organ grinder vit ze minky, he says as he shutz hiz computer down

Apostrophe alert, paragraph 3, of the beginning essay.

Thou art condemned to study the unit on utilization of the possessive, until thou gettest it right.

It's = it is, and ONLY it is. 

Cleave to the law as it is given unto you. All else is abomination, and the unnecessary apostrophe is hateful in my sight. Great shall I be in my wrath, and mighty in my reproof. Therefore I say unto you, REPENT, misspeller, and post not until that which is prepared for me is proofread, yea, unto the second and the third time, for therein lies the charm, and the assurance of rectitude, as much of a muchness as might be.

I love King James' English...

Peter and Nachista,

I must continue my staunch and heartfelt defense of plaid pants.  I offer in evidence the following exhibit: http://catalogs.google.com/catalogs?id=C1iu3U7UYOAC&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=%22duke+of+windsor%22+%2B+peterman+%2B+pants&source=web&ots=RP1tFqh6lF&sig=lEMljudOAgaUyJlv2EpdSRsDO84&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result

DPR,

There are plaid pants, such as the ones detailed in your link, are subtle and have a great deal of warmth and character about them.  Then there are PLAID Pants that are so loud in color as to actually be heard and maybe even glow in the dark.  I was refering to the latter and not the former.

Your plaid pants of choice need not be defended.  Wear them in good health.  I think they are quite spiffy.

But, what about the bright green pants with flying ducks on them from Orvis? Doesn't anyone want to defend them?

Didn't think so.

Olivia,

the only way to defend those pants are to make them flame retardant.  Shoot the pants, save a duck!