Ice cream has always been an mystery and it was solved by my cub scout G who learned it during a recent mosquito infested camp. It’s simplicity is as wonderful as the the ice cream which is perfect. Made with whole milk, it is basically a vanilla gelato, tasting less fatty but just as good as the thick buttery premium ice creams. That it’s homemade adds flavor notes that can only be summed by by G -”It has a better taste than processed because it’s made by a human.”
It just takes a large plastic bag (or large Zip-loc) and a sandwich sized Zip-Loc bag. Into the sandwich sized Zip-Loc goes a cup or two of whole milk with a tablespoon of sugar for each cup, and a half teaspoon of vanilla extract. Seal the bag and mix the ingredients.
Into the larger Zip-Loc or plastic sack, you place lots of ice, a cup of salt, and a cup of water. You put the small bag of milk inside and you shake the bag holding up sides of the bag. After ten minutes -voila -the best ice cream you’ve ever had!
Everything I’ve tried this summer in terms of cooking which has been mysterious to me is in fact amazingly simple. This lets you make just enough ice cream for about 3 people, a perfect dessert.
Filed under: Golf politics,golf culture,golf news,golf philosophy,my golf | Tags: des moines golf and country club, golf etiquette, golfism
Waiting for the faster group behind to play through
I was recently invited to play at Des Moines Golf and Country Club by my neighbor down the street. It was over the July 4th holiday, and I expected a crowded course, but rain kept everyone but the most serious golfers away. I played with JD, and we invited two other friends to join us, and the round was memorable for this.
A twosome came up to us on what had been an empty course, and we let them pass with a smile and wave. They thanked us, and played on with little delay, bothering us not at all. This little interaction speaks volumes about golf etiquette and why I’m so passionate about golf. Everyone there understood the rules and the conventions of play -the faster group is allowed to play through. When playing through, you understand that it’s a gift, and you play briskly and thank the group you’re playing through.
This is all taught, and universally understood. If only the world at large played in this way. It used to be that everyone went to the same schools and had a common civic culture that emphasized the importance of public life of the citizen. Then things became atomized and it’s difficult to find the same levels of socialization. Today, the country is split along socioeconomic class lines that make collective action for the public good difficult or in some cases impossible.
Life really is no different from golf -for a society to function well, there have to be not only laws but unwritten rules.
Addendum:
I am finally getting the Pete Dye greens. Where old line courses like Wakonda’s will have one general slope split by a secondary slope to the terrain, Dye placed topography creating miniature maps of mesas, plateaus, lowlands, and valleys so that two changes in slope will occur not within 30 feet which is typical of most courses, but within 5 to ten feet. He also emphasized the artificial organic -think avant garde white plastic furniture from the late sixties. Wakonda is art deco like the Chrysler building, 
while Des Moines Golf and CC’s Pete Dye layout is decidedly modernist like 2 Columbus Circle before it’s renovation. 
Nothing wrong with it. The important thing was, after this epiphany, my putting improved because I looked for the giant beach ball buried in the green above the buried giant banana.
Speaking of which, putting has become the center focus of my efforts this summer, and it is beginning to pay off. I started a miserable 9 holes earlier today at Wakonda, going 10 over through the first four holes, and finished the latter 5 holes at 2 over after I turned on the putting. The key today was emphasizing the putting stroke as a stroke, with putting as a process, and focusing on seeing the line.
Filed under: golf culture,golf instruction,golf news,my golf | Tags: golf putting drill
Rabbits about to run for the hole
The hard part about teaching putting to a child who thinks he already knows putting is the fact the child remembers every crazy putt he drained by drilling the ball straight at the hole. So it was with a bit of excitement that I tried out this drill which may or may not be original. I took one ball -the rabbit, and tapped it out about a foot away from a second ball, the dog, and I told my son, G, to go and chase the rabbit. To get half credit, the dog had to end up within a club head of the rabbit. It took only a few minutes before he was hitting most of the 3 footers, and started making a few of the 5 and 10 footers. The best part was when he began to get bored with the drill, I sent the rabbit into the hole from 8 foot away, and he chased it in with his putt!
Filed under: Naturalism,golf culture,golf history,golf mysticism,golf news,golf philosophy,golf photography,my golf | Tags: cart golf, morning golf, speed golf
For several years now I have been asking the club to allow me to play golf at daybreak. It would allow me to get in 9 holes from a cart in way under an hour, 35 minutes was a recent time. This year, sunrise golf has been instituted and it is a roaring success.
Speed golf off a cart is like speed chess, it seems like the same game but different factors come to the fore. first there is the lack of warmup – you knock it down the fairway and play it as it lies. The other is that it simplifies your mental prep – playing alone and fast means I have to find the ball so I become very good at tracking and finding balls but foremost, I try to keep it in the fairway. I count every stroke but will allow a free drop if I never saw the ball in flight -I figure a playing partner if one had been present would have tracked it. The course is mine and that is the most important thing. It’s meditative and calming to be alone in all that splendor.
Filed under: Golf politics,My Bidness,golf culture,golf news,golf philosophy,my golf | Tags: egalitarianism, equality, Golf
My GHIN number update came back, and my handicap index is 18.4, with a course handicap of 21 for Wakonda. I have been playing poorly, but I always do better in competition. Golf takes on a different, truer aspect when its played in formal competition. Yesterday evening, I played in the Wakonda Match Play Championship, handicapped flight.
Golf reveals its egalitarian nature in the handicapping system. I played RG, a 16 handicapper who defeated me during my run at the cup several years ago in a memorable match that taught me a lot about myself. He is an excellent player and can spin off some marvelous golf shots that exceed the level suggested by his handicap. Golf allows such unequal competitors to play on a level field with the handicap system. He gave me 5 strokes which were instrumental in keeping the match even. Through 16 holes, we were level, after RG came back from a 3 shot deficit. We were playing in a thunderstorm, barely able to see the shot beyond 20 feet. I was further handicapped by having to wear sunglasses which were prescription sunglasses. Without it, I was basically blind, but due to the waning cloudy light, the ball and target were dark. I do think that the sensory deprivation allowed me to swing better.
I was able to line up, square, square, square and swing with my head still. This allowed me to make a natural bogey, net par with a concession, followed up by a ball on green on the final hole with RG’s unfortunately lost into dark woods. This match was very close, and could only have been so with accurate handicaps.
It makes me wonder why we this concept works in golf but not in life at large. It’s written in the constitution that All Men Are Created Equal, but this is not true, is it?
Filed under: Golf and Computers,My Bidness,golf computers,golf culture,golf equipment
This must break some sort of apocalyptic seal presaging the end times. Apple has passed Microsoft in terms of stock valuation (NYT link). Who would have predicted this fifteen years ago after the Newton debacle and the clone wars? In those dark days, I actually took it upon myself to help sell Macintoshes at the CompUSA in Columbus Circle, and I was not alone. It was strange how anti-Apple the sales staff was. I see this ultimately as the proof that people appreciate simplicity and perfection in design.
Filed under: Golf and Religion,Golfist Art,Naturalism,golf culture,golf history,golf literature,golf mysticism,golf philosophy,my golf | Tags: golf poetry
Five and One man, on a journey!Heading westwards, on into the night.Burdens shared, and sleep neglected,Y’all crossing the river, and arrive at first light.Great joy you have found, and more do you seekOnwards and onwards, for promises to keep,Hammer on the right foot, no shoe on the leftStill many hours, before you shall sleep.So go, I say go, and listen No More,I am an illusion, but so is your labor,That ball is not a ball, that hole is not a hole,And that last hasty meal, you will not savor.And when you are home, and you lay in your bedAlive you will feel, alive with no dreadAnd in seeking all that golfin’ pleasure,You realize the truth that the company is the treasure.
The hoddeok is a flat bread pastry with typically a brown sugar syrup filling with chopped nuts -traditionally walnuts, that are sold in the markets in Korea. It’s warm and filling comfort food, and I came across a youtube video by Maangchi who is now one of my favorite food bloggers. The recipe is here:
http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/hoddeok
but you have to watch her video (search Maangchi and hoddeok) to get the gist of making hoddeok. I made one with mozzarella filling which my son topped with marinara (a Korean calzone!). It was delicious and very easy to make, and reminded me of being a kid in Korea.
Filed under: Golf and Computers,golf computers,golf culture | Tags: app, iPad, magic piano, SMULE
This is one of the many cool things you can do with iPad.
Filed under: PGA,golf culture,golf news,golf personalities,golf philosophy,my golf | Tags: Brian Davis, Golf, golfism, honesty, honor, Jim Furyk, rules of golf
My Golf Processor and Workstation
