Links Interlude

Squirrels

ESPN Page 2 featured this squrrel battle this week. Reading it reminded me of another great squirrel story online at Life Is a Road.

Got any good squirrel stories of your own?

Wordplay Interlude

Nicknames

Permanent nicknames can be funny things, but when you get used to calling someone by such, it's hard to imagine them as anything else. For example, in college I knew a guy who went by "Ju-Ju" (or some spelling that was pronounced like that) because his sister couldn't say his name when he was born and he was a "Jr."

This came to mind recently because this week I noticed there is a pro golfer on the Nationwide Tour whose name is listed as Boo. Reading his profile revealed that he is nicknamed after Yogi's sidekick, Boo Boo Bear, but the profile does not indicate his birth name. His profile also indicates he went to high school with another Nationwide golfer whose name is listed as Bubba. Just to go a little further, there are actually two "Bubbas" on the Nationwide Tour.

Golf Interlude

It's fun to watch excellent rounds like Brad Faxon's 61 yesterday not only from a quality golf point of view but also statistically. I started figuring out things like the fact that it was the lowest final round for a winner since David Duval's amazing 59 in '99, but of course someone on the PGA Tour staff gets paid to dig up these tidbits and has better accesses to resources, so the lowdown on what that 61 means can be found here.

It took some extra digging to find out how long Faxon's drive that wouldn't stop rolling down the cart path on 17. Since he's not that long of a hitter, that extended roll had to make that one of his longer drives at 329 yards.

Quiz Interlude

What mill near East Linton holds the claim to be Scotland's oldest working water mill?

Highlight below for answer:

Preston Mill

Review Interlude

Well, I thought I was going to review a book or movie today, but lunch convinced me to do a restaurant review.

We went to Red Robin today for a birthday lunch. I have to say I was not impressed. While the service was good, the food was not. I ordered an open-faced chili cheeseburger that came with a side of fries. To start with a positive, I will say that the chili tasted good although not exceptional. The problem lay in that the chili was cold to lukewarm and the burger wasn't particularly warm. The least impressive part of the meal was that the fries were downright mushy.

So while the service and atmosphere were nice enough, I'd have to say that if I want a good burger and fries I'll choose Goldie's over Red Robin.

Link Interlude

Today for your listening pleasure I refer you to the link of the week, CMRadio.Net. This award winning internet radio site not only has the Celtic Christian music I enjoy so much it also has seven other Christian stations featuring "Best Mix," hard rock, hard metal, high energy, modern/alternative rock, soft rock, and inspirational praise.

Wordplay Interlude

For a different way to flex your mental muscles, try taking a long list such as the books of the Bible, American presidents, or U.S. States and spelling them "backwards backwards" from the last letter of the last item to the first letter of the first item. I.E.:

n-o-i-t-a-l-e-v-e-R...s-i-s-e-n-e-G

Golf Interlude

I was thinking to myself yesterday afternoon that Firestone Country Club is one of my favorite courses to watch the professional golfers play each year, and today's pgatour.com quote of the day reveals that at least one pro agrees with me:

"I don't think there's a better golf course we play all year to tell you the truth, other than Augusta National." -- Chris Dimarco

My Thinking Man's Golf (3M) game uses Firestone's signature 16th hole as its par 5 7th hole. This hole is the hardest one for me in the game and it's also one of the hardest holes for the pros on tour. (I believe it ranks 8th hardest this year.) Not only that, only the best pros even get a chance to play it each year. If a full field played the hole, it would almost definitely rank even harder. It's simply a beast, and it is fun to see how the pros play it. On Sunday, Sergio Garcia was the only player to go for the green in two and that was probably just because he didn't have so much to lose after double bogeying 14. All in all, despite the poor scores on Sunday, the NEC Invitational at Firestone is a great tournament to watch.

Quiz Interlude

Today, I'm introducing the question of the week to appear each Friday.

Bon Accord is in the title of several Scottish tunes and dances (Belle of Bon Accord, Lass of Bon Accord, etc.). There is no town named Bon Accord in Scotland, but there is a Scottish city that has claim to the phrase. What city is it?

Highlight below for answer:

The motto of "Bon Accord" appears on the crest of Aberdeen.

"Going My Way" Interlude

I watched the movie Going My Way last night. It's the the story of a young Catholic priest played by Bing Crosby who is sent to a church that is in trouble under the care of the elderly priest who has been there since its inception 45 years prior. The story line took several tracks that somehow actually managed to be tied together but it left it a bit disjointed and odd. Crosby's singing was top-notch as always, but the best scenes belonged to Barry Fitzgerald playing the older Father Fitzgibbon. I couldn't stop laughing when he tried to figure out if he could jump over the bush.

Links Interlude

This weekend I'm hopefully going to start a separate links page. See Sarah5's Links.

P Interlude

So, our young adult group leader loves words beginning with the letter P. After a lengthy group discussion about obscure words starting with P, he challenged us to come up with sentences with as many P words as possible. Since I love word play myself, I immediately took up the challenge and added my own challenge to do it without any non-P words. The following sentence was the result:

Periodically, per pontifical prompting, parish priests pray pre-prandially, "Pater, provender provider, please permit poor parochial people prosperous partaking presently."

Or revised to better fit the group (Previous):

Periodically, per pastoral prompting, Previous persons pray pre-prandially, "Pater, provender provider, please permit poor parochial people prosperous partaking presently."

Golf Interlude

Cheers to Phil Mickelson for winning the PGA Championship this morning! I realized just how much of a Phil fan I am when my initial reaction to seeing the final scoreboard on my computer screen was very similar to Phil's 2004 Masters jump. I think I even jumped as high as he did. :P Then a coworker walked in and thought I was reacting to something under my desk. Given that no one in the office shares my golf enthusiasm, I didn't even try to explain.

And now back to Scotland...