Under the headline “Parliament Debates Thatcher Legacy, as Vitriol Flows Online and in Streets,” the NY Times reported that Margaret Thatcher “stirred deep divisions” in death, just as she had in life. “Her death has been received in many quarters with a vituperation that was notably absent in the United States with the passing of […]
Ancestral Links by John Garrity: An Appreciation
Ancestral Links, by John Garrity. Published in 2009 by New American Library. An occasional series available at http://theaposition.com/johnstrawn/: The Best Golf Books The best golf writing maneuvers along a treacherous ridgeline separating the chasm of sentimentality from the gorge of self-indulgence. There’s something about golf that gets the sap rising. In Ancestral Links, John Garrity […]
The PGA Show 2013–What’s New and Interesting This Year.
The PGA Show is anchored by the big golf brands, which always make impressive showings. Nike and Callaway and Taylor Made preen, their stands like fancy retail stores during pre-Christmas sales, full of eager shoppers looking at the latest fashions in clubs, shoes, shirts, putters, bags, sweaters and so on. But lurking about on the […]
Demo Day at the PGA Show: The Hope Springs Eternal Exhibition
Wednesday, January 23, 2013. Orlando, FL The Wednesday during PGA Show week in Orlando every year is Demo Day, the gigantic al fresco exhibition of the latest equipment from the big brands, along with novel teaching devices, innovative tees, ingeniously shaped putters and an array of clever inventions that you will soon realize you can’t do […]
Geronimo, by Robert Utley: A Review
Robert M.Utley, Geronimo. Yale University Press, November, 2012. 376 pages, $30.00. This review appeared in The Oregonian, January 20, 2013. In 2009, Robert Utley called Geronimo the “best-known Indian in the whole world and perhaps the least deserving.” That he had come to this conclusion before completing the biography now published by Yale University Press […]
Making Golf Part of the Walkable City
A version of this essay appeared in The Oregonian, November 18, 2012. What the “Walkable City” Means for Golf. Jeff Speck, Walkable City. How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Nov 13, 2012. $27.00. Urban planner Jeff Speck’s Walkable City is both a forceful analysis of what’s wrong […]