My Sick Mind

There aren't too many people that I would (a) Drive 60 miles to see (b) walk for 4 hours through the hot sun for and (c) walk 6,596 yards for 4 hours through the hot sun after driving 60 miles to hang with. One of them was playing golf at Bulle Rock today, and even though Paula Creamer couldn't find her putter, it was still a great day for golf. It started early. I watched a few of the Plus three's tee off - Michelle Wie, Lorie Kane and Brittany Lang, then I headed for the best spot on the golf course; the hill that overlooks the 4th hole, 5th tee, 6th green, 7th and 8th holes. It's a great spot that fills up quickly. I sat up there in one of the few shady spots on the course for about 3 hours, until Christie Kerr's group came by, and I followed them back to the ninth hole. Paula Creamer was set to tee off at 2:22. It isn't a lot of fun watching the low end of the leaderboard play through. It reminded me of those NASCAR races where cars that crash early come o...

One of the principles that America's founding fathers had in mind when they drew up the Constitution was that we would be a nation of laws and not a nation of men. Of course, this stems from the country from which they came. Royalty places itself over the commoners and as such, they get preferential treatment in adjudicating cases. As it is with so many other issues , the principles set forth in 1776 become irrelevant when placed in current society. You would have to be naïve to think that we are all treated equally in life, but sometimes the issue is so outrageous that even the most hardened and cynical among us have to scratch our heads and wonder, WTF? Paris Hilton was taken from a courtroom screaming and crying Friday, seconds after a judge ordered her returned to jail to serve out her entire 45-day sentence for a parole violation in a reckless driving case. "It's not right!" shouted the weeping Hilton. "Mom!" she called out to her mother in the aud...

Day two at Bulle Rock was Seniors Day, where anyone 50 years of age or older was admitted free. Thankfully, I still have to pay. The joint was full of geezers. I caught the shuttle from Ripken Stadium and got there at 7:30, and true to my word, I would be there to walk the course with Paula, and as an added bonus, Karrie Webb , another great player on the tour and In-Kyung Kim when they teed off at 8:32. Among the interesting sites would be Karrie's opening drive into a shallow stream on the first hole, where she would remove her shoes to play her second shot. I got to hold the rope over her head while she walked to the stream to find her ball. I got an Aussie "thank you" for my efforts. Sorry I had to do it, Karrie . The round would go in rather uneventful fashion, with Paula hovering around even par (bogey one - birdie one), Karrie playing slightly under and In-Kyung struggling to recover from the first three disastrous holes. By the time we got to the eighth hole, thi...

"I expect some good practice round pictures at least..." - Sparky Duck , June 5, 2007. Well, Sparks old buddy ... I hope the above snapshot qualifies as a good picture! That's me and Paula Creamer after her practice round today. After missing a couple of opportunities to grab the photo, it looked like Paula was heading back to the clubhouse to call it a day, so I quickly commandeered an unsuspecting spectator and gave her my camera and called to Paula, who politely agreed. The poor kid. The day began early. I got to the course at around 9:00am after a little more than an hour drive and shuttle bus. I figured I would walk the course with someone and take in the sights and sounds of my first live golf tournament. What I didn't realize was how accessible the players would be. Once that became obvious, I abandoned my walking idea and spent most of the day hanging at the practice green (between the first tee and the clubhouse) and watching the players wander around and te...

One of my little hobbies is paying attention to subtle changes in our language. My favorite is the way the word party became a verb . “I’m going to party” has a completely different connotation than “I’m going to a party”. The former has a drug and alcohol subtext, while the latter sounds more like ice cream and cake, but either can be used by children of all ages. Of course, we have been using "like" when we mean "said" for ages, and it seems to be engrained now; as are anyways , same difference and an old favorite, " a whole nother ". I guess those little colloquialisms are supposed to be charming or cute, but what they usually do is make adults sound like children, which is almost never a good idea, unless there are drugs and alcohol involved. Maybe parents pick it up from their kids, I don’t know, since I am not around children all that much. It is probably why I only speak like that when drugs and alcohol are involved. The most recent one is the way...

The Nation - A recent study commissioned by Congress concluded that abstinence-only programs are completely ineffective in preventing or delaying teenagers from having sexual intercourse. Nor do they lower unwanted pregnancy rates or lessen the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Given this reality, it's bad news that the federal government will waste $176 million on these programs in 2007 alone. "In short, American taxpayers appear to have paid over o ne billion federal dollars for programs that have no impact," said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif), chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. This, as well as other such legislation designed to regulate morality demonstrate the ridiculous notion that government can dictate behavior by making a law or funding a program. The first one that comes to mind (other than this one) is the War on Drugs . These and other programs are what the late Rich Ashburn used to call "eyewash". A...

Chances are you don't watch it, but there is a TV program on Sunday called CBS Sunday Morning , that for my money is better than 60 Minutes . The biggest difference is that the morning program is buried in Sunday morning TV wasteland, while the big-time news show is on at the perfect time for a big-time news show. This morning, there was a story about the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love , of which I have vague memories, mostly because I was 9 years old and not yet into psychedelic drugs, and partly because my father had died in May of that year, and for me it was summer, but there was precious little love. The focus of the Sunday Morning piece was the nostalgia that is brought about by the so-called Summer of Love. I say so-called because for most of those involved it it, the Summer of Love was 1966. The following year was the summer that the media latched onto it and made it the cultural event that it has become. That's where I come in. Most of us in the Blogosphere be...

That physical specimen on the right is Miss Brazil, Natalia Guimaraes during the swimwear section of the Miss Universe final in Mexico City's Auditorio Nacional May 28, 2007. Guimaraes was the first runner up. First runner-up? I'm assuming that the winner was the judge's daughter or something. Some girl from Japan won, while Miss USA wowed the judges by falling during the evening gown competition. I'm not all that interested in beauty pageants - at least not as much as I am interested in the contestants - but it would be nice to see the local girl make a good showing. Since I am not from Brazil, the local girl would be our Miss USA, who appears to have some difficulty walking and looking pretty at the same time. Rachel Smith (left), Miss USA 2007 gets up after falling during the evening gown competition of the Miss Universe 2007 beauty pageant in Mexico City. Meanwhile, it looks like Tony Romo would like to get him some: IRVING, Texas - Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony...