Subscription Lists

August has been a big month for my family. Years ago, when we had the custom of trading small gifts with relatives, August was the reason we stopped. There were too many birthdays mounting in August so our family quit giving gifts for each extended family member's birthday. That was just my own family. Then I married and August got even more interesting. Counting birthdays and anniversaries August is a definite "avoid-buying-gifts-at-all-costs" type of month. Let me fill you in.

On August 1 there are the birthdays of my nephews Scott Snyder (my side) and Wade Johnson…  ( Click for more )

You may have heard of the "dead ball" era in baseball. That was the time period when power numbers were way down. People were not hitting homeruns the way they do today. Baseball historians and those close to the game blame it on the way the balls were manufactured back then. They were not as lively as those in use today. There are a certain group of people in the know who contend that it was not the ball but rather the way that the game was being played then. Runs were scored by concentrating on getting on and moving the runners up.

Today that's referred to as "small…  ( Click for more )

Okay. I need to know some things. This isn't quite a "didjever?" type thing but it is close. This is more of a "cosmic balance" thing. More of a "canyatellmewhy?" thing. Maybe you have thought of these also, but, then again, maybe you haven't. If you have, you don't win anything, other than the satisfaction of knowing that you think like me. That might not be all that satisfying for you. It could be disconcerting or maybe even borderline frightening. Anyway, here goes.

Why do men (or women) who live on narrow back roads drive pickup trucks with dualies?…  ( Click for more )

Wednesday was a difficult day for me in trying to get my column out to you good folks. Unbeknownst to me the local cable TV company began early to do a job and accidentally cut into the phone lines that service our neighborhood. I did not realize it that morning as I just credited it to another of many malfunctions with the ISP I have. It was not until later that day that I tried to get online that I noticed we had a little problem. The software was telling me that it was dialing the number but nothing was happening.

I felt a little Buck Owens and Roy Clark on Hee Haw, except…  ( Click for more )

Believe it or not it has been ten years since the homemade bomb exploded in Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia. It was ten years ago today and it cast a shadow of doubt over the Summer Olympic Games of that year. There was a concert in the park at the time of the bomb blast and more than one hundred people were injured with one person dying from their injuries. It led to fears and speculations of international incidents of terrorism during the rest of the Games. The Games continued and nothing more happened.

Terrorism is a tool of the weak to attempt to control the…  ( Click for more )

Anna Kournikova. Remember her? She took the professional tennis world by storm as a young woman. She had it all was what we were told. Mostly what she had was enough game to play well and enough beauty to make a living with endorsements because she looked good in a commercial. Got a quick question for you. Name the tournaments that she won. Go ahead, I'll wait. And wait. And wait. That's enough waiting. Time's up. Could you name the tournaments that she won?

If you couldn't, don't feel bad. She never won any tournaments. For all the hype she…  ( Click for more )

Ever since I was just a little kid I have been involved in competitive sports. I began in little league at age six although I am almost certain there were some rather feverish contests of teething ring wrestling at a much earlier age. I am still playing sports competitively as I play golf in several tournaments each year as well as tee it up with blokes who think that our friendly matches are the U. S. Open. In those fifty years of competition I have been swept up by the malady of sports; professional expectations.

A number of years ago I was one of those glowering, article…  ( Click for more )

Back in those halcyon days of yore (I love those old phrases) golf was contested by a format called match play. Match play is a contest in which the players compete from hole to hole not stroke to stroke. The player with the lowest score on any given hole wins the hole. The player with the most holes won wins the match. At the end of the round the competitors do not have a score to compare against each other based on their total strokes for the round, just the hole by hole comparison.

Forty-nine years ago today was the last time that the PGA Championship was contested in a…  ( Click for more )

Some of you may have seen the email that circulated some time back about the man who went into a McDonald's Restaurant and ordered a half dozen Chicken McNuggets only to be told that they only came in orders of six, nine or twelve. Supposedly it was a true story. Maybe it was and maybe it wasn't. If you believe it was then you are one of those who believe in the fallibility of the American worker when it comes to applying their intellect to a situation. In short, the American worker does okay until he has to think.

Personally, I fully believe that the story about…  ( Click for more )

Day to day life. We see it as a life and death struggle on some fronts. That is why we come up with statements such as, "It's a dog-eat-dog world," and "It's a jungle out there." Perhaps it is a bit difficult at times just trying to make it from day to day. I cannot help but think that, for the most part, it is not as bad as we make it out to be. Maybe, just maybe, because it isn't a piece of cake, we make it seem worse than what it actually is. After all, if it is happening to us, then it always seems worse.

If we were to watch the world that is around us…  ( Click for more )

Speed seems to be a very important issue in many sports. In track and field watching the one hundred meter dash is a lot more exciting than perhaps watching the one hundred meter crawl. The fastest time traversing the distance is what is considered important rather than finding out who can take the longest to cover the distance and still actually be moving the entire time. Speed makes foot races fun to watch. It does the same with NASCAR, IRL, NHRA and CART events.

Speed also carries some weight in boxing as well. Many boxers are known as being quick punchers with fast hands.…  ( Click for more )

I remember when I was just a kid that a friend of mine saved his box tops and a couple of bucks to send away for a radio controlled car that was advertised on the back of a cereal box. He had shown me the ad and, I must admit, I recall that I was impressed and more than just a little jealous. The car looked like it was huge. One thing that we did notice on the ad was the fine print that said that the car was not shown actual size. Of course, my friend and I both thought that meant it was bigger. It wasn't.

Ah, the old truth in advertising problem. For those who watch…  ( Click for more )

Okay, it's time for a show of hands. How many of you are members of the "Grammar Police" and caught my colossal gaff in yesterday's column? That's fine. You can raise them. My feelings won't be hurt one bit. I made a mistake in grammar and it got through my proofread. I saw it right after I sent it out yesterday. So I figure a number of you also caught it. If you didn't, let me point it out to you. It was in the very first paragraph and the seventh sentence.

Here's how it read. "The grandchildren of one of our elders attended the VBS and…  ( Click for more )

I prefer to call it "follicly challenged." However, the little kids of the church just call it what they see. A couple of weeks ago I got to direct Vacation Bible School for our church. The music program for the opening and closing fell to me. The music was great this year with so many fantastic rhythms to lock into for the kids. They loved it. The grandchildren of one of our elders attended the VBS and was talking with her grandfather about the guy leading the song service. "You know, Grandpa, the bald man," she told him.

Again this past Sunday evening a comment about my…  ( Click for more )

There are patches of brown starting to appear in my yard. Even though we have had some rain, it is still fairly dry here in the Bluegrass. Those patches of brown don't bother me as much as the patches of white and yellow. Now that I am a homeowner with a yard that belongs to me and not a church, those patches of white and yellow are a concern. I am sure that the fellow never had his own yard who penned that famous line indicating success, "Now we're in clover."

If being in clover is a sign of success then my yard is a successful yard. However, I would rather see…  ( Click for more )

Barring the unthinkable or unimaginable, Ben Curtis should win his second PGA Tour title today. The Booz Allen Classic has been plagued with inclement weather for the duration of the tournament. The venue, the Tour Players Club at Avenel hear Potomac, Maryland, is a beautiful course that has been graciously generous to Curtis this past weekend. He has played almost flawless golf having, at one point, hit twenty-seven consecutive greens in regulation. Now he stands ready to win a tournament as he enters the last seven holes of competition with a commanding eight stroke lead.

Don't…  ( Click for more )

Ever make a mistake? Of course you have. Who hasn't? We'll get to Him later. People make mistakes all the time. It doesn't mean that they're bad people. It just means that either they weren't paying too close attention or stepped into a situation too quickly to realize what was happening. Much like the story of the hospital patient who fainted when she was told she was to be discharged. When the nurse said, "We're sending you home today," the woman thought she had said, "We're sending you home to die."

For that matter there was the German…  ( Click for more )

Our English is, I am told, unique. We have words that have more than one meaning, more than one spelling, more than one pronunciation as well as meanings with more than one word for common usage. And we wonder why some immigrants don't learn English. Maybe we should call our language American. I seriously doubt some stodgy Englishman would be caught dead speaking as we speak. But enough of the introductory material, the preface, the hook.

The word "choke." As a verb it can mean to strangle someone, have a problem swallowing or become emotional. As a noun it is a device…  ( Click for more )

Ignominy. According to the Random House Dictionary of the English Language it means, "disgrace, dishonor, public contempt." In personal life it would be the result of an act that brought about shame to a person. In athletics it can be a particular figure, event or date. It can even be tied to a particular city or franchise, such as Boston. Boston has lived in ignominy since the "Curse of the Bambino." The trading of Babe Ruth to the hated Yankees supposedly cursed the Boston Red Sox baseball club. Until they won the World Series two years ago.

How deep was the curse? This…  ( Click for more )

The second major of the year in professional golf is being contested at Mamaroneck, New York. Winged Foot is the sight of this year's U. S. Open, which is not just a professional tournament, but also the national championship of our country in golf. One round is now in the books and, as usual, the greatest golfers in the world aren't exactly setting the course on fire. Sub par rounds are not the norm at the Open like they are for other Tour stops. This is the U. S. Open and the course is to play tough.

Such is not always the case, though. On this date, back in 1976,…  ( Click for more )

The weather these last several weeks here in the Bluegrass has been just wonderful. Instead of running the air conditioning 24/7 we have the house opened up and the fans running. Believe it or not it actually feels cold in the house at times. Which begs a question. What did we do before air conditioning? Most of the places I have lived up to not that many years ago did not have air conditioning. I was not raised with it and neither was my wife. The difference lies with the houses of today.

Back in my home town our house was the second on the street. This was a nice wide…  ( Click for more )

I grew up in a time when racial tensions were at their zenith. The Civil Rights Movement was beginning to take shape and people were starting to realize the grave injustices done against races which were formerly thought to be non-people in our society. That microcosm of society, that great reflection of what was happening in the United States, professional sports, was starting to show the nation what needed to be. However, incidents still happened which, through the filter of time, are better understood.

One such incident happened forty-nine years ago today at old Comiskey…  ( Click for more )

I play a sport that a lot of people give up due to the frustration of playing it. That would be golf; a sport that has been known to leave strong men muttering to themselves under their breath and women talking like men. However, the sport that leaves me the most frustrated is the one that I stopped "enjoying" when I decided to take up golf. That would be fishing; of the "jerk on one end waiting for the jerk on the other end." I have basically been the jerk on one end.

I don't know what it is that frustrates me so about it now. I guess the memories of the times that my…  ( Click for more )

I live for Thursday evenings. No, go ahead. You can ask. "Why do you live for Thursdays, Tom?" That's the day I get to have my grandchildren for the evening. My father was only 42 years old when he had his first grandchild. By the time he was 45 he had four; all grandsons by my sister. At age 52 our first child arrived for him. By the time he was my age (56) he had all seven grandchildren from just two children of his own. I've got three children. One more than my father. So far we have only two grandchildren; twins, one of each.

Unless you're a grandparent,…  ( Click for more )