Tag: short

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That noise you hear…

eagleOne of the courses I play regularly has a 417 yard dog-leg left par 4, as played from the white tees.  It is a very open hole so the wind affects the ball quite a bit.  About 200 yards from the green are two bunkers left of the fairway and one bunker right of the fairway.  If the wind is into me or still I just try to thread the needle between the two sets of bunkers.   If the wind is behind I attempt to carry the left set of bunkers as it leaves a short shot to the green.  Most of the time though when I do this my ball ends up in the rough, but I have a clear shot to the green.

Friday I caught the hole downwind, and I caught my tee shot well.  I might have tugged it just a bit.  Nevertheless I was in the fairway.  My handheld GPS unit told me I had about 130 yards to the front of the green.  There was a red flag on the pole indicating a front pin position.  I drew my trusty 8-iron from its scabbard.  I went through my pre-shot routine taking dead aim at the pin as there was room left and right.  I hit one of the straightest shots I had ever hit in my life. Continue reading “That noise you hear…”

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Damn it, you’re welcome

There is a lot of good advice in this short article, 19 Words That Will Make People Like You More.  There is one section that struck me most vividly as it has been a pet peeve of mine for quite some time now. From the article:

“Words No. 3 and 4: “You’re welcome.”

Sometime in fairly recent history it seems people stopped saying, “You’re welcome,” and started substituting, “Yep,” or, “No problem.” At the risk of sounding older than I am, I think this is a step in the wrong direction–at least in a business or professional setting.

Why? Because ditching “you’re welcome” for these other phrases changes the message. “You’re welcome” acknowledges that you’ve done something worth someone else’s thanks, while “no problem” suggests that it wasn’t that big of a deal. Saying the former phrase conveys that you think it was a worthwhile favor. That’s an impressive message to send.”

I first started noticing this phenomenon on NPR.  The interviewer would say to interviewee, Continue reading “Damn it, you’re welcome”

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Jonathan Swift on Lawyers

From Gulliver’s Travelers

(Apologies to my daughter, the attorney.  She does do good work via working with the state DHS)

Amazing how little things have changed in the 300 years.

I assured his honour, “that the law was a science in which I had not much conversed, further than by employing advocates, in vain, upon some injustices that had been done me: however, I would give him all the satisfaction I was able.”

I said, “there was a society of men among us, bred up from their youth in the art of proving, by words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black, and black is white, according as they are paid. To this society all the rest of the people are slaves. For example, if my neighbour has a mind to my cow, he has a lawyer to prove that he ought to have my cow from me. I must then hire another to defend my right, it being against all rules of law that any man should be allowed to speak for himself. Now, in this case, I, who am the right owner, lie under two great disadvantages: first, my lawyer, being practised almost from his cradle in defending falsehood, is quite out of his element when he would be an advocate for justice, which is an unnatural office he always attempts with great awkwardness, if not with ill-will. The second disadvantage is, that my lawyer must proceed with great caution, or else he will be reprimanded by the judges, and abhorred by his Continue reading “Jonathan Swift on Lawyers”

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Bigger and bigger and bigger…

Shoes that fit me fine just a few short months ago are no longer comfortable.  My big toe is bumping up against the front of them.  Last pair of running shoes I bought I had to step up a ½ size.  I am beginning to wonder if I should have stepped up a whole size.

Curiosity kicked in and I begin to wonder if people’s feet grow or flatten as they age.  I vaguely wondered if because I have been a little too heavy for a period of time it might have flattened my feet.

Turns out as we age the ligaments and tendons of the feet become less resilient and the foot flattens.  It is a common problem to need larger shoes.

There are other foot problems that develop as we age.  Read all about it right here. What’s in store for those aging feet?

Oh well… something else to look forward to.

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Busted…

I have a confession — I love women.   I love them tall.  I love them short.  I love them skinny, and I love them plump. Red heads, brunettes, blondes, short hair, long hair, curly or straight, I love them all.  They can have milky white skin or deep rich mocha, I just love them. Curves, no curves, it matters not.  A young woman, or not so young, they all fascinate me.  I do confess I just love women.

Perhaps the previous ramble is objectifying women.  Truth is I also love the company of women.  I am always amazed that such beautiful, wondrous creatures would have anything to do with the uncouth, self-centered animals that are males.  It does make the world go round, nevertheless. One thing I have figured from years of watching men watch women and listening to men talk about women, we men are pigs. Women watch men also, but they generally have the good graces to be discreet about it.

That is my preamble for what happened the other day as I was shopping in JCPenney.   I was about to enter a main aisle in the men’s department.  Two women stroll by.  They are obviously mother and daughter.  Continue reading “Busted…”

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Would you buy a vehicle made in China?

A few months ago I bought a new truck, a Toyota Tacoma.   I wanted to buy American, but I did not want the gas mileage of another full size vehicle.  I loved my F-150, but a sipper of gas they are not.  In smaller trucks, the Tacoma seemed like a no brainer compared to the rest of the field.  There a few things I am not totally happy with, but on the whole it seems to be a very good vehicle.  I am happy with it.

I recently received a survey from a firm that I am sure is contracted to Toyota-USA to do these sort of surveys.  It was one of these surveys that sucked you in by appealing to your altruistic side.  Fill out this survey and help us make better vehicles.  It also appealed to your greedy side by promising to enter you into a drawing for a year of free oral sex.  The thought of all those blow jobs was more than I could stand.  I started filling out the survey with all due haste.

Well to make a long story short, it was a long not short survey.   I was ready to just quit about half way through their questionnaire, but dreams of unending fellatio kept me going.

What did stop me in my tracks was this question.  Would you buy a car made in China, yes or no?  And if you answered no, like I did, a text box appeared asking you to explain why.  I answered diplomatically, and said that I did not need another piece of junk from China, and went on to say, “there was not fucking way I would ever buy a vehicle made in China.”

I truck further through the survey quite satisfied with my China answer when I encounter, “Would you ever buy a vehicle made in India, yes or no?”  Again if you answer no, a text box appeared asking for why. This one was easy, “See China.”

I am all for other countries raising themselves up, but do we have to throw the baby out with the bath water for them to do it?

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Just Imagine — No Taxes

There is personal wealth and then there is community wealth.  I read this a while back in a discussion of the growing wealth gap in this country.  One measure of wealth that has a lot to with the general happiness of a population is community wealth. This includes such things as parks, good roads, support of the arts, community buildings, education, etc.

I started thinking about this again as I have just come back from the Shelby County Clerks Office where I was registering my vehicle.   It is not an awful government building, I’ve been in a lot worse, but neither is it grand.  I still remember where they housed the County Sanitarians in Pulaski County, Arkansas.  It was an old hospital that had long been past its prime when the medicos abandoned it.  Now the County was trying to use it for office space.   It does seem to me that many government buildings get short shrift. Continue reading “Just Imagine — No Taxes”

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Robin, One Hot…

We are all products of time, place and the Darwinian lottery that selects our parents. Robin is no different.  Robin’s parents were not any different.

Robin spent much of youth practicing the piano.  She loves music, but she has talked about how she sometimes longed to be outside with other kids.  Robin has natural athletic ability, but in the 50s and 60s in the St. Louis enclave of Olivette young ladies were not encouraged in this arena.  While her brothers were encouraged to participate in sports she was forgotten.

Robin is short, but very strong physically.  She helped me move a while back, and it was all I could do to keep up with her.  Continue reading “Robin, One Hot…”

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A Short History of Progress

a-short-history-of-progressA Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright available @ Amazon.com

What is the difference between our 21st century global civilization, the ancient Sumerians, the Easter Islanders of Cook’s day, empirical Rome, or the Maya civilization.  Answer, not much.   The last four are all societies that had their heyday, become stuck in a paradigm, and then brought ecological disaster on themselves via overpopulation and over exploitation of natural resources.   “Each time history repeats itself, the price goes up”, Wrights quotes from some pertinent graffiti.  The cost this time could be in the billions of souls.

 This a short book 132 pages of actual text with another 68 or so of footnotes at the end.  It is a mad rush through human history exploring the collapse of those civilizations and a couple that have been more sustainable.  Continue reading “A Short History of Progress”