In The "Strange But True" Department...

...is this company memo I once received. 

Ok, that's not the actual memo from 35 years ago; it's a facsimile with the names changed to protect the guilty.

But it is accurate and the title says it all, yes?

"Death/Company Picnic"

The president's secretary published the company memo weekly on a sheet of paper - email hadn't saved the world's forests yet.

These memos were always factual but rarely noteworthy; this one shattered that mold for all the wrong reasons.

Everyone wondered at the callous thought process that found this jarring juxtaposition of the tragic and mundane perfectly acceptable.

"Sorry about your dead uncle but hey!  It's our company picnic!"

A stream of coworkers stopped by my desk to roll their eyes and wag their tongues over that one.

I actually saved that sheet of paper for years until it finally dawned on me:

We do this exact same thing on a national level every year.

We call it <"Memorial Day">.

Yes, we honor those service members who gave their lives in defense of our country.

We have parades and give speeches and for many of us, the sentiment is sincere...

The soldier fights, not because he hates what’s in front of him, but because he loves what’s behind him.
    - G.K. Chesterton

...even reverent.

And what else do we do?

We have picnics and barbecues...

...and go on vacations...

...and celebrate the start of summer:

The airwaves and our inboxes are filled with advertisements for Memorial Day sales…

…encouraging us to worship at the altar of retail.

So what's the problem?

Is it wrong for a company to have a picnic for its employees?

Should we not welcome the start of summer and the onset of outdoor living?

Is it improper to enjoy time with family and friends on a holiday?

Of course not, but consider:

We're able to do all of these things for one and only one reason.

The freedom we enjoy was purchased in blood by the brave men and women of our armed forces.

Don't let that foundational truth get lost in revelry.

Respect implies decorum, which decency always accommodates.

Another busy weekend of trying to whip the Castle Frankenstein back into summer shape.

They finally came and finished the driveway project; here's the "before"...

...and here's the "after":

And as always Karen worked me like a borrowed mule doing yardwork: mowing, digging, hauling, planting, cutting dead tree limbs, spreading mulch, and hickory golfing (don't tell Karen; she was sleeping.)

So far this May has been pretty dry...we're something like 3 inches below normal rainfall totals for the month.

In spite of that meteorological tidbit, I've been rained out of my last 2 tee times.

But this week I did finally get on the links again, with mixed results.

I only had 3 tee shots out of 9 that looked like I had a clue; the other 6 were comical examples for the blooper reel.

Even so, I managed to hang around with an almost competent short game and some surprising (for me) putting.

My first competent tee shot yielded a par on #4...

...and my other 2 decent tee shots netted a bogey on 7 and a par on 8.  Along the way I managed to snag another bogey in there (on 2), which means when I tee'd it up on the par 3, 9th hole, I was all square - 4 lost holes to 4 won holes.

Naturally I hit a lousy tee shot - it was that kind of day.

And my 2nd shot landed just off the green, from where I chipped to about 5 feet from the flag:

the U.S. flag was a nice touch

That's my bogey putt...miss it and lose the match, make it and walk off the last green a winner.

So which was it...

...the Lady or the Tiger?

Buckle up for another excitin' jaunt...

That's just creepy...

...through 23 Skidoo:

never forget

hardscape in bloom

courtyard almost complete

almost time for tiger lilies

sunny sailboat scene

Don't blink, folks...we've just skated by the first of the twin bookends of summer.

Memorial Day weekend is in the books, and before you're ready, its less popular twin, Labor Day weekend, will be here.

Make the most of what's in between, and as you frisk and frolic, always remember why that's possible:

¹³ Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

    - John 15:13

later, mcm fans...

June 6th, 1944...

...<D-DAY>.

NEVER FORGET!

Here's a little sumthin'...

...to take you back to the mid 70's:  <Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)>.

It's a pre-rap "list" song, sorta like Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere", but dressed up with a chorus and some video that actually identifies most of what's in the list he's reading.

It was recorded by a 1-hit-wonder group called "Reunion", which was comprised of Joey Levine as lead singer / list reader and some studio musicians.

Charted at #8 in 1974...

of course I had a lava lamp, it was the '70s...didn't you?

...and why do you care about any of this?

Can't think of any good reason, other than it does name a lot of the music greats in a very short time and it's kinda fun.

And having a little bit of fun is ok, as long as you remember fun is like cotton candy:  it's a nice treat now and then but you can't live on it.

Don't say I never did nuthin' for ya.

Well, he done gone and dooded it.

<The Hickory Hacker>, aka Christian Williams, has managed to give Callaway Supersoft golf balls a gutta percha style line cut cover:

For us pre-1900 hickory golfers, this is truly cool stuff, and not just for aesthetic reasons.

The only "officially approved" - i.e., acceptable for hickory tournament play - gutta percha golf ball is sold by McIntyre golf.

It's impressive that for historical purposes they use synthetic gutta percha, but their ball has 2 major problems:

One, it's outrageously expensive, around $16 per ball when you factor in shipping.

Compare that to a Callaway Supersoft at about $2.20 per ball and you get the idea.

As if that's not bad enough, worse yet is the fact it seriously underperforms when compared to gutty's used in the 19th century.

Using pre-1900 style clubs most hickory golfers get somewhere around 150 yards with a McIntyre gutty.

Don't believe that paltry number?

Here's an email I received from McIntyre golf in response to this question:

How far can you drive one of your gutta percha balls?

"Re: New customer message on May 22, 2023 at 8:00 am

 

to me

Terry-

 

140 to 160 would be typical.  most gutty events with pre-1900 clubs have course lengths at 2200-2300 yard per 9.

McIntyre Golf Company"

So how far were golfers hitting "real" guttys produced in the 2nd half of the 1800's?

In Mark Frost's book, "The Greatest Game Ever Played"...

Eddie Lowery caddying for Francis Ouimet at the 1913 US Open, the main subject of Mark Frost's book.

...he recounts Harry Vardon's victory in the 1896 British Open played at Muirfield in Scotland.

In particular he describes the 18th hole, a 447 yard par 4.

In Vardon's 1905 book, "The Complete Golfer", he reminisces about that same championship in 1896 and the 18th hole, describing it as "a fairly long hole - a drive and a good brassy."

He goes on to comment that while it's "...an easy 5, it's a more difficult 4", which makes perfect sense.

The last hole of a championship course, it's meant to be challenging.

To make par on the way out, Vardon's "drive and a brassy" would need to be something like 225 and 200 yards to be on in 2 - avoiding the nasty bunker guarding the green - to have a chance at a 2 putt for par.

So it's fair to conclude good golfers could hit a 19th century gutta percha 200+ yards.

That means McIntyre's overpriced version underperforms by at least 40 yards.

Kudos to them for trying to create a period correct ball using synthetic gutta percha, but what's more historically accurate?

The stuff you put inside it, or the way it performs?

I don't know any golfer who's more concerned about what's inside his golf ball than he is about the distance he gets from the tee.

At $16 per ball you'd think the folks at McIntyre Golf would be embarrassed by this obvious deficiency, but since they're the official ball recommended for <SOHG> and other hickory gutty ball era tournaments they just roll on.

They do so without me, however.

I may never play in a sanctioned tournament, but I can still enjoy pre-1900 golf using both clubs and balls that perform the way they did during the gutty era.

Very excited to get my mitts on a few of these brand spanking new HH guttys and come one step closer to playing the game the way it was "back when".

I'm going to skip this week's hickory golf update, having already bored you to tears with tales of the gutta percha wars, so let's 23 Skidoo:

when Larry first sent me this pic I missed Woody there in the middle of the tree

no sooner did Larry and a friend get his dock in the water than a green heron decided to use it for some fishing

an art deco figurine of an elegant lady...a "please don't beat me" gift to Karen for breaking one of her art deco figurines of an elegant lady

and, praise God in heaven, never will be

roses are blooming, top...

...and bottom

our peonies have popped

you like flowers?  we got flowers...

...can't wait until the tiger lilies, daisies, black eyed susans and hibiscus are in bloom

This day - June 6th - is a somber day.

On this day more than 8 decades ago, across an ocean in a foreign land, thousands of young American men bled and died on the beaches of Normandy in a hail of gunfire amid the fog of war.

They did not want to be there on that day, nor did they know anyone personally in the country on whose shores they laid down their lives.

They would rather have been back home with their families and friends, planning a future where they would grow old surrounded by people they love.

But their country called and they answered.

Because they did, putting duty above self and making the ultimate sacrifice, you and I are free:

Free to do and be what they might have been and done had they not given their lives for God and country.

Think about that today.

Honor their memories.

Be thankful.

Be humble.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

    - John 15:13

later, mcm fans...

We Pause To Remember On This...

                <Memorial Day>      

It is well said that only two forces have ever offered to die for us:

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the American Soldier.

Jesus died to save our souls; American soldiers, to secure our freedoms.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

  - John 15:13

Never forget.  Always give thanks.

There's an old saying that opines if you <eat a frog> in the morning, the rest of the day's problems will seem like a piece of cake by comparison.

In this case "the frog" is your favorite subject...

...hickory golf.

There's really nothing for it but to get it out of the way so we can get on with life.

And since you asked, 'twas a chilly but enjoyable stroll through the countryside this week.

Not particularly successful, however, as I went down to defeat at the merciless hands of Mr. Links, 3 and 2 (that means I was down 3 holes with only 2 left to play, so my cause was lost).

Earlier in the week I finally gave up on my unhittable lofting iron and replaced it with a baffy...

30* loft

...which I really like, but definitely don't have the range yet.

Oddly, not so long ago I was hitting nothing but irons...

...but with this change I'm now carrying nothing but woods:

left to right: long spoon, short spoon, brassie, baffy, putter

Go figger.

Made for the short game, I was hitting my baffy on the right line, just too far.

Several times I hit over the greens; a score killer.

Unlike modern golf with a different club for every 10 yards, in hickory golf we use the same clubs for wider ranges based on how we hit them: hard, medium, easy.

And I definitely haven't zoned in on my baffy yet.

But overall I'm improving a bit as I continue studying and practicing both the mindset and methods of the great Harry Vardon.

Most of all I'm enjoying it since I'm usually playing golf now instead of hunting for lost balls in the hinterlands.

Just wait 'til next week.

No doubt you've heard about Jake "The Fake" Tapper's new autobiography, Original Sin.

In it he confesses that he and all his fake news pals ran cover for the cognitively impaired Biden and his amoral handlers - aka <The Politburo> -  constantly lying to the public as the democrats willfully drove America into the ground.

What's that you say?

His book is not an autobiography?

Instead of confessing his obvious guilt, he maintains his innocence, pretending he wasn't an active participant in the coverup?

And he continues lying about his complicity so he can make a boatload of money with his BS revisionist claptrap?

 

Hmm...I guess that's the morally bankrupt left for ya.

While the rest of the country and the world at large knew exactly what was happening...

...Jake The Fake and his fellow charlatans were busy performing <la danse de la tromperie> in their cute little tutus.

Aren't they ridiculous.

And irrelevant.

As Groucho famously asked:

"Who are you going to believe?  Me, or your own eyes?"

Stick it in your ear, Jake.

Legacy media is officially dead, poisoned by its terminal addiction to corruption and dishonesty.

Good riddance.

Time to 23 Skidoo...

hardscape coming to life

lower patio garden

snowballs in May...

...and a birdie nesting amongst the snowballs

lakeside view from Larry's cottage...

...and minnie the moocher outside his window

my 1st green after last week's storms...

...now resurfaced

Karen and I planting a fir tree the summer we moved in...

...and our little tree, 8 summers later

I'm not positive how "they" know this, but supposedly we speak about 16,000 words per day.

Even if they're only half right, that's still a whole lotta tongue wagging.

Did you know you're going to give an account for every idle, careless, empty word you've spoken?

Not a few.  Not some of them.

Every. Single. One.

"But I say unto you, that every idle word men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment."

Jesus said that, and you can read it in Matthew 12:36.

I don't know about you, but that makes me want to zip my lip, because I've said way too many careless things in my day.

That's why one of my daily prayers comes straight from God's Word in the book of Psalms:

later, mcm fans...