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Stuck

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Air travel has never been the same since deregulation in the 80’s. Remember People’s Express? As the first discount carrier, people were amazed at the low fares; what I noticed were the brown bag meals that you had to purchase. It’s been all down hill ever since. Now I’m sitting on the tarmac while maintenance crews are repairing the hydraulics on the plane. The clock is ticking and the probability of meeting my connection becomes increasingly remote. This is the 4th time out of 5 flights this year that this has happened, and it’s the second time with Delta where a mechanical problem has left us waiting on the gate. It’s awful because I can’t rebook without deplaning and abandoning this flight -that option doesn’t improve the odds of me getting home. The other option is to wait it out and get to Memphis and try to get a seat on another flight 5 hours later or rebook on a myriad of different hub options.

I remember a time when traveling by coach still meant reasonable comfort and space. It meant a hot meal on any flight over two hours. It meant flight attendants who weren’t frazzled by having to be anger management specialists. It meant flying with a better class of passenger. Flying used to be fun. Now it’s as appealing as traveling by bus.

Sent from my HTC smartphone

Golf and Religion, golf culture, golf news, golf personalities, golf philosophy, golf proverbs, My Bidness, my golf, PGA , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

Holding your hand in the fire

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In some parallel universe of his choosing, Dustin Johnson would be a two time major winner. Instead, by his sin of ommission, he will be burdened with the mark of Cain for the remainder of his career. Dustin Johnson tried to get away with grounding his club in a bunker on national television. That is the only conclusion I can come to after seeing the video yesterday. The players received notification prior to starting the tournament (and it was posted in the lockers) that all of the bunkers, even the ones trampled by spectators, would remain bunkers. On addressing his approach after slicing his drive to the far right, he grounded his club but then stepped away as if he noticed he made a serious mistake. He can be seen considering the situation, and he hit his shot without grounding the cub a second time.

After his round, he was brought upstairs to review the tape in a scene familiar to shoplifters and mall cops. I have no doubt that Mr. Johnson is very talented, but his narcissism was revealed for the scrutiny of the voyeurs. His profession is to compete and uphold the rules of golf. Ultimately, the golf must come from a pure place. The PGA saved itself a lot of controversy by taking care of the issue before any playoff ensued. By signing his card, Mr. Johnson signed his confession. This burden will be his albatross and may end up consuming his swing thoughts, but I doubt it. If he is to compete again at this level, he will have to be continue in his selfish, thoughtless way, with total focus on dominating and winning. Champion golfers are different from you or me, and I think Mr. Johnson will redeem himself in this world.

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A Surfeit of Casual Water and Relief

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The vexing thing of late has been the torrential rain which occurs almost exlusively at night resulting in us in Iowa waking to flooded roads and basements. Some point to global warning, others to a ten year sunspot cycle. I think it’s life imitating golf -nature gives you the conditions and you play through without complaint.

These collections of casual water remind us how important it is to have balance -too much water, too little water both cause problems. Golf’s rules allow you to move the ball out of casual water, but no closer to the hole. In sand, I believe the rule is you can move the ball to relieve but no closer or take a one stroke penalty and get out of the bunker but no closer which means you can walk it back to your pitch length and get it on the green and move on with life, medicine taken. And know it, the grounds crew will repair the damage.

But can we expect such equanimity in life? We’ve had a bunch of water trouble in Iowa and some areas had turned down Federal insurance because of politics, now only to rue that decision. No one likes a bailout, financial or actual, but I believe civilized society mandates relief from casual water in real life as well. We get relief at Wakonda because of the rules of golf and because of the dues we pay. Our taxes are merely dues that we pay to be members of the society at large.

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The Deacon of the Turf

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This handsome gentleman is John Temme, the Grounds Superintendent at Wakonda Club. He is up before dawn every day grooming the course into a quality that I have not seen matched often in my golf travels. It is with his leave that I can play sunrise golf before his crew get to the holes. He has a golfer’s mind with regard to maintenance which really lets the course be front and center for the player. Despite heavy play, for example, the greens are still amazing (please repair ball marks even on away courses). He maintains a great blog: http://wakondagrounds.blogspot.com which I think is of interest to anyone who maintains a lawn -a great big 40 acre lawn.

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Eric Schmidt On Privacy (VIDEO): Google CEO Says Anonymity Online Is ‘Dangerous’

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Unless you walk outdoors with a bag over your head, or a ski mask, you are in the public domain. Anonymity allows for all kinds of behavior outside the bounds of social norms and has a long tradition going back to masquerades and shamans. You can pitch a fit, but we do have some constitutional and legal protections to privacy For most people, anonymity is about porn, but for many its about politics, religion, and belief if they live in a society that persecutes their particular political or religious view. Face it, there is no privacy in the old sense unless you completely disconnect and go off the grid.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

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The Womp Rat: Wakonda Club No. 14

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“Like targeting womp rats back home,” or so the quote goes from Star Wars. Luke Skywalker was referring to the ease with which he he used to vaporize small desert rats, intimating that the small exhaust port on the Death Star was no big deal. At Wakonda, we have our womp rat. Actually, it’s a heavily defended thermal exhaust port.

The fourteenth hole at Wakonda is a Rorshach test of a golfer’s mindset. From the blues, the hole is about 165 to the middle of the green. The prevailing winds are left to right. The problem is the three foot differential between the upper and lower tiers. Also, there is about a two foot drop over a thirty feet length going from back to front. This means that balls tend to roll right and off the green.

The pin position shown is front left. Depending on the mood of the greenskeeper and the pro, the pin can be placed right next to the precipice. This translates into a challenging two putt from below the cup. Anywhere else and a three putt bogey is a relief. In terms of score, this little bantam of a hole behaves like a par four or five, leaving grown men with tears.

Success on this hole requires command of your swing and fearless putting. Ideally, you want to hit into the fringe up front with a draw and roll onto the green below the hole. My ball ended up with a fade, landing hard in the center of the green, on the incline, which squirted the ball hard right and off the green. My chip landed short, sending my ball rolling back to the right fringe. A long putt failed the hill climb and three more putts later, a 6 was my reward.

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Mujigae Ddeok -Korean Rice Cake Pastry

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My food obsessions have fixated on making ddeok, or rice cake. It was one of the few items that my mother did not make at home and thus very mysterious as to it’s manufacture. Below is the link to Maangchi’s recipe for one of my favorites, but the final step eludes me. Pictured is my latest attempt but the problem is getting a good flow of steam without overwhelming the ddeok and basically creating sticky mochi. This batch was almost there but not quite and I had to throw it out.

The seal around the steamer has to be tight to direct all the steam into the cooking chamber. Oh well. Will have to try again.

http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/mujigae-ddeok