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The Daily Dose/July 21, 2008
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
   
Back, rested after another more or less well-earned hiatus, your Daily Dose returns with more notes from around the Human Experience, including some golf played on land better suited for dumping trash, why this country isn't really getting the most out of its collective human experience, some light On This Date action, including our 1908 Chicago Cubs, plus Trivia, a Thought For The Day and Virginia Madsen is the Column Four Foto!
LEADING OFF: A mere fortnight after subjecting the world to their treasured Championships, which the rest of the world calls Wimbledon, those pretentious British were at it again foisting another non-sport specific competition on the rest of the world as The Open Championship - which is a golf tournament better, though admittedly incorrectly known as the British Open - concluded Sunday on one of the 12,000 barren, wind-swept "links" courses that dot the British countryside.
Tiger Who? Irishman Padraig Harrington won his second consecutive Open championship, finishing at 3-over 283 at Royal Birkdale. On the first sunny day at the Open Championships since Walter Hagen won at Muirfield in 1929, Harrington shot a final round 69. Fellow Royal Subject Ian Poulter matched Harrington's final round 69 and finished second, four shots back. Something called Henrick Stenson of Sweden finished, third, six shots back.
Historical Context: Harrington is the first person to win back-to-back Open titles since You Know Who in 2005 and 2006.
What The Hell' A Links Course? A links course is used to describe a golf course built on hilly, rocky, windswept land completely unsuited to any other human use. Early golf architects, already regarded - even in golf's earliest years - as eccentric and banished from their village pubs, were forced to use land nobody else wanted for their evil new pastime, which had been invented by Satan on the seventh day.
Amateur Hour: Chris Wood, a tall, lanky, 20-year-old amateur from Bristol, England, finished in a tie for fifth with Jim Furyk at 10-over 290. It was the highest finish by an amateur at a major since Justin Rose finished fourth in the 1998 British Open.
FunFact: The highest-finishing amateur at the British Open receives a silver medal, considered one of amateur golf's highest prizes.
Write This Down: The Masters awards its low amateur a silver cup, and the US Open awards its low amateur a medal, too.
Editor's Note: Whenever we can be bothered to produce a column, On This Date is pleased to present a look back at the 1908 Chicago Cubs, the last Cubs team to win the World Series.
TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME: On this date, in 1908, the Cubs dropped a 5-0 decision to the Boston Doves at West Side Grounds. Combined with a 2-0 Pittsburgh win over Brooklyn and the Giants splitting a pair against the Cardinals, the Cubs are in third place in the National League, two-and-half behind the Pirates and a half-game behind New York.
Not So FunFact: Since July 12, the Cubs have lost seven of ten and have not been in first place since July 14, when they were tied with Pittsburgh.
This Isn't The Famous Writer's Shack Curse In Action Is It? No. The curse that caused our All Blacks to lose in the quarterfinals of the Rugby World Cup and Mount Union to lose in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl last year isn't in effect here because the 1908 season has already been played and we know the Cubs won the World Series that year.
It's Not The Cold, It's The Lack Of Goddamn Humidity: On this date, in 1983, Earth's lowest temperature is recorded at Vostok Station in Antarctica.
Oh, Yeah: The temperature recorded was 129 degrees below zero.
WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON HERE? Once again the anniversary of the first moon landing (July 20, 1969) passed without much notice. Here at the Writer's Shack, we've never understood this. We have always thought Apollo 11 was mankind's finest hour, by far, bar none. For our money, nothing this species has done has even come close. We walked on another heavenly body! Jesus H, what more do you want? Not only, that, we can sit on our collective laurels because nothing will even come close to that until we say howdy to beings from another planet. Why July 20 isn't a national holiday is beyond us.
Well, actually, it isn't. There wasn't a follow-up for Apollo in place after the Nixon Administration decided Apollo 17 would be it. And America was tired after Vietnam and Watergate and not in the mood for another great national effort, so the space program stagnated.
Dry, Technical Matter: Not only that, this was more or less the time this country started getting fat, collectively deciding we preferred to be entertained rather than doing anything of substance. Then spending money on things we want rather than things we need became a national obsession rather than an occasional indulgence, and while these are pretty broad strokes to be using to describe why this country is on its way to hell in a hand basket, the fact remains this country has not placed a human on another heavenly body since December, 1972.
Write This Down: Every single one of us should be ashamed of ourselves. If there was a corner of this country large enough for 300 million of us we should go stand in it. We are almost a full decade into the 21st century and there is no reason we should not be looking back on our first few manned Mars landings and, if were really on the ball, we might even have a colony there setting up shop for the first manned explorations to the outer planets.
Sigh: But we don't. The space shuttle will be retired in two years and its follow-up, Orion, won't be ready until 2014. This country is so stupid and lazy now we cannot get back to the moon - which we first landed on in 1969 - until 2020 and we are so far removed from being able to even think about putting a human on Mars that NASA's best guess is 2037.
Meanwhile: I just bought a mobile phone that allows me to play Pac-Man and can tell me to within a few feet where I am, even though video games bore me and I usually know exactly where I am, though it should be noted it is the 21st century and it is not completely unreasonable to expect a person to have a device capable of not only voice communication, but also Internet access as well. And all for a mere $69.99 a month.
Guys, Tell Us How You Really Feel: We really should be ashamed of ourselves. In 1961 this country, urged by President Kennedy, started basically from scratch and put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon in 2,979 days, an incredibly short period of time if you think about it, and now we need over a decade to return to the moon and three decades before we can even think about a manned mission to Mars.
Thought For The Day: This species could have been so great, and now everybody just wants a new Salad Shooter or sneakers with lights in them. This is what we've settled for. - George Carlin (1937-2008)
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: John Lennon was playing with The Quarrymen the night he met Paul McCartney.
Trivia Time: What prize does golf's other major, the PGA Championship, give to its low scoring amateur? - Answer next time!
Threats? Recipes? Trivia question answers? Email The Writer's Shack Here!
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