Disc Golf and Shiner

News over the weekend told us that one of the Taylors in the 80's pop group, Duran Duran has quit the band.
Two little bits of trivia:
1) There were three guys with the surname Taylor at Duran Duran's peak popularity in the early 80's and neither was related.
2) Duran Duran is still a band.

So here's the synchronicity part. After I read of (Andy?) Taylor's leaving the band, I decided to search wikipedia for DD to find out the name of that song they had in the early 90's that brought them back to the fore of pop music. I remembered it because I thought it was unusual for a pop band to drop off the radar and then come back roughly 10 years later with some really good stuff. The song is 'Ordinary World', by the way. As I am reading the wiki entry, my daughter peeks over my shoulder and asks, "Who's that?" I explained that it was a band that was popular in the 80's and for a short time in the 90's. She feigned interest and went back to her TV show.

Now, here's the eery part. The very next morning, I'm taking my daughter to Newton for a soccer game. As I round the corner and leave our neighborhood, I switched on the radio and 'Ordinary World' is playing.

Tonight, on the way home from Aaron's cross-country awards banquet, we got stopped at an unusually slow light. When this happens, I usually curse under my breath and then announce in an elevated voice that "this is the longest... light... ever!" Hearing this, Aaron jumped out of the car, ran over to the signal post and pressed the crossing button. By the time he was back in the car and seat belted, the light was turning green.

Is it me or is there just a lot of sensationalism in the media nowdays? Take for example this little blurb from the Associated Press. Emphasis is mine.

NEW ORLEANS -- The Associated Press has found a gaping disparity between white and black Hurricane Katrina victims over insurance payouts.

A review of 3,000 complaints filed to state regulators over homeowner insurance payouts shows whites are much more successful in the process and much more aggressive.
Whites were found three times more likely to appeal their settlements than lower-income blacks, who didn't know or doubted the government would help.

But once appeals were filed and pursued, whites and minorities both received an average of about $40,000 more than they'd first been offered.
A woman living in the devastated Lower Ninth Ward said she got fed up with numerous calls to her insurer and accepted the $34,000 for damages that totaled more than $120,000. She said she didn't know she could appeal and doubted it would be worthwhile.

When I first saw this story, I got the feeling that the evil insurance companies were out to cheat minorities out of their insurance money. Just check out the opening line. It insinuates that blacks are being shortchanged by their insurance companies to the benefit of whites.

The next paragraph puts things into a bit more perpspective, yet in a way that still hints at a perceived bias against blacks. While it tells us that whites were more likely to receive a larger settlement, it fails to make the connection that it's for the use of the appeals process by whites as compared to blacks. It's not until the end of the story that we're told that of those whites and blacks who actually used the appeal process (comparing apples to apples) their settlements were quite similar.

A friend of mine has suggested a limit to the amount of team gear to be worn outside of live game attendance. For instance, if you are not attending a game in person you should not wear more than 1 (maybe 2) logoed item of the same team. That's a T-shirt or a cap. You can get away with more depending on the prominence of the logo, I suppose.

Today, I saw a guy at one of my daughter's soccer games who was quite obviously supporting the Iowa Hawkeyes. Every garment he had on (cap, sweat shirt, outer shirt, wind pants and shoes) was black, gold, or black-and-gold and had a hawk logo prominently displayed. I couldn't tell, but if he had a t-shirt underneath, it was likely more of the same. Hawk socks are a definite possibility. Do they make Hawk-a-roos?

I'm watching in amazement this ordeal with that former congressman, Mark Foley. First, he's been caught pursuing at least one *male* congressional page. Next, a priest has admitted being intimate with Mr. Foley. All we need now is news that Foley was the one who murdered Chandra Levy and he'll have hit the political scandal trifecta.

I generally never play the course at Big Creek State Park. Not that it's a bad course. It just has a few things going against it for me...
- It's out of the way
- It's generally hell to play in the summertime (poison ivy, dense schule, ticks...)
- I never score well there

I will, however, find myself over there in the late fall to early spring when the ticks, ivy and leaves are gone. It's actually kind of a treat to play at that time as the abundant vegetation blocks most of the prevailing winds. Also, its carved-out-of-the-thicket nature means you rarely see any other players who happen to be on the course. Every hole is pretty isolated from the others. I found myself playing the course twice in the last 3 days. Last night was the absolute best round I've ever had out there.

#1 - Roc turned over slightly to last shrub on the right, kicked out to 20'. Made putt (-1)
#2 - Hyzer Aviar-x to 10' (-2)
#3 - Roc didn't turn. Upshot catches last evergreen. Doink. (-1)
#4 - Over the top Starfire catches top of tree, kicks left into fairway, two flips and a putt (0)
#5 - Over the top Starfire sails pin-high and 50' right. grenade to 15' (0)
#6 - Roc pancake to 15' (-1)
#7 - Wraith up middle, short upshot (-1)
#8 - Huge anny Starfire to 40' short and right (-1)
#9 - Roc up the gut (-2)
#10 - Starfire hits tree 80' short (-2)
#11 - Wraith down the right side, fades left past first clump of trees, sky anny fades left into ditch, tomahawk to 20' (-1)
#12 - Low Wraith doesn't hyzer enough, dainty forehand roll into fairway, Roc upshot, 30' straddle out of trees (0)
#13 - Ace run hits bushes long, miss 20' uphill putt (0)
#14 - Wraith up middle, Roc to 30' (0)
#15 - Failed Monster skip (0)
#16 - Wraith to 25' left (-1)
#17 - Horrible forehand attempt (-1)
#18 - Starfire catches trees on right, upshot too hot, doink 25' uphill putt (0)

That's a 54, boys and girls. I'll take that in a tournament any day.

I work concessions at ISU home football games. Our stand is the BBQ stand on the west side, where the visitor section is located. I typically run the grill, which consists of two flat coal tables on wheels that we set up in the open area between the men's and women's restrooms. Here's something I've never seen before. From the time the gates opened to roughly 5 minutes after the game ended, at no time was there not a line for the men's room. Most of that time, the line extended about 50' outside the building. By contrast, the women's restroom rarely had a line and when it did, there were probably only 10 women waiting to use it. I thought I was in some sort of bizarro world.

Conclusion: Out of the estimated 55,000+ fans at the game, 50 of them were female.

That's all I got. It's hard to keep up on a blog.