Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

White supremacy is terrorism.

“woke” is the new caravan.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

You are here: Home / Music / Saturday Morning Open Thread

Saturday Morning Open Thread

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(Thanks to commentor Roxy)
.
Via Doghouse Riley, Tom Scocca at Gawker explicates how “Conservative Scholars’ Investigation Says Bowdoin College Is Awesome“:

Here’s your latest in identity politics and victimology: One day not quite three years ago, Thomas Klingenstein, a rich white man, found himself playing golf with Barry Mills, the president of Bowdoin College. They were reportedly discussing the state of higher education and Klingenstein, by his own account, told Mills that he believed today’s colleges provide “too much celebration of racial and ethnic difference (particularly as it applies to blacks), and not enough celebration of our common American identity.” After that encounter, Mills went on to tell the story in a convocation speech, without using Klingenstein’s name, to describe the estrangement between contemporary conservatives and liberal academia.

Klingenstein, learning of the speech, felt that he had been misrepresented and othered by a college culture that refused to value his perspective as a rich white man (or, in the idiolect of rich white men, “our common American identity”). So to assert his own agency and voice, he paid $100,000 to a right-wing think-tank to investigate Bowdoin College and write a report about how it exemplifies the decay of American higher education.

The result—as assembled by white, male researchers for the National Association of Scholars—runs to 360 pages (though it “awaits small adjustments in pagination”)….

Scocca goes on to explain that Klingenstein’s paid kvetchers are horrified to discover that Bowdoin (among other sins) goes out of its way to recruit minority students, treats college freshman as though they were capable of handling “adult” material, and acknowledges that college students may have sex and even indulge in recreational drugs. None of which was considered particularly shocking or newsworthy when I went to a large midwestern state university back in the early 1970s, but then again, back in those days the Helicopter Parent hadn’t been invented…

Reader Interactions

153Comments

  1. 1.

    Shalimar

    Common american identity? He yearns for the day when blacks were beaten and hung from trees rather than getting into college. Is he surprised they don’t yearn for those days too?

    As for valuing his perspective, he played golf with the damned college president. Sounds like his perspective is still valued, just not solely.

  3. 3.

    WereBear

    @Linda Featheringill: I finally finished the Chanel type jacket. Was it worth all the trouble? Well . . . . .
    It is pretty, though.

    Doesn’t fit? Doesn’t work? At least it’s pretty!

    Just what is it with rich white guys? They’re freakin RICH and get a lot more influence than their talents and efforts would normally…

    oh!

    Gee, deep down, do they feel inadequate and know that their wallet is their only measure of worth? :)

    I guess it’s too much trouble to, you know, actually develop skills and passions and humanity?

    I guess they just don’t have the time and the money.

  4. 4.

    Linda Featheringill

    @WereBear:

    Poor little rich guys.

    Some of them are quite infantile because they never had to develop adult social skills. And lots of right wingers don’t understand that in order to get respect you have to give it. It’s probably that lack of understanding that draws them to the right.

  5. 5.

    Sly

    Klingenstein, by his own account, told Mills that he believed today’s colleges provide “too much celebration of racial and ethnic difference (particularly as it applies to blacks), and not enough celebration of our common American identity.” After that encounter, Mills went on to tell the story in a convocation speech, without using Klingenstein’s name, to describe the estrangement between contemporary conservatives and liberal academia.

    Klingenstein, learning of the speech, felt that he had been misrepresented and othered by a college culture that refused to value his perspective as a rich white man (or, in the idiolect of rich white men, “our common American identity”).

    That’s gold right there.

  7. 7.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Linda Featheringill:

    Wonderful how that music resonates after almost two centuries, and how it grabs even the tiniest humans. What a great video. Brought me to tears, but it’s a fine way to start the weekend.

    The Chanel jacket is lovely. Congratulations!

  11. 11.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    What a great video. Brought me to tears, but it’s a fine way to start the weekend.

    Me, too. /aol

    The church I grew up in did a Living Christmas Tree for many years and usually (always?) ended the show with Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee, which uses the same theme. It was one of my mother’s favorite pieces.

    Amazing thing to be a part of. I wish there were videos.

  13. 13.

    Punchy

    Why do greyhounds feel it necessary to need to sniff the backyard at 1am, 4am, and 6am? Do squirrels party in backyards at midnite, 3am, and dawn?

  14. 14.

    c u n d gulag

    GOP POV:
    THREE CHEERS FOR RICH WHITE MEN!!!

    And flesh mobs are exactly what’s wrong with this country!

    Non-spontaneous “spontaneous” interruptions of important business – usually white people’s important business!!!
    Well, of course, that should go without saying, since ALL white people’s business is important – the rest are just frivolous.

    And were’s the damn FLESH is that damn flesh mob?

  15. 15.

    c u n d gulag

    @c u n d gulag:
    OY!
    “WHERE’s,” not ‘were’s!’

    I’d have caught that earlier, but I had to go get that cup of coffee, which was finally ready – which, if I’d had BEFORE, I’d have caught that boo-boo before I submitted my word-turd. Or, had time to correct, afterwards.

  16. 16.

    MomSense

    This was on the front page of our local paper. Mills’ told the paper he hadn’t read the report.

    Bowdoin is a great neighbor. We use their library, attend lectures, visit the museums, audit classes, walk the grounds.

    Just attended a special climate change indoctrination session last week.

  18. 18.

    WereBear

    Perhaps we are being too harsh. Perhaps they simply enjoy being rich white men, and want everyone to aspire to being rich white men, too!

  19. 19.

    eric nny

    I wouldn’t mind being a rich white man. I promise you all I will try my best not to become entitled. Putter, Caddy…

  21. 21.

    danielx

    THREAD NEEDS MOAR KITTEHS!

    Therefore….

    Erik the Magnificent caught in a catnip frenzy, in his 16th spring and enjoying it nicely, thankyewverymuch. Not that I encourage feline substance abuse, but at his age if he wants it (and oh yes he does) he gets it.

    And…Erik and his companion CeeCee, keeping me company a couple of years ago when I was seriously ill and in the process of losing 26 lbs. I came to at one point and saw the dresser mirror opposite the bed with a reflection of two tails waving back and forth in unison. Very comforting, it was…

  23. 23.

    drkrick

    @Linda Featheringill: Some people seem to measure success by how few people they have to treat with respect. For most of them it’s an effective ticket to the opposite of success, but I’ve seen a few that are so accomplished they manage to get away with it while making life for the people around them a lot more unpleasant than necessary.

  24. 24.

    Linnaeus

    Up at 5:00 am here out in the great Northwest to see Up with new host Steve Kornacki. It’ll be interesting to see how his show will be different from the way Chris Hayes did it. I’m guessing Kornacki will be less self-consciously left-liberal on the show, but I could be wrong.

  26. 26.

    c u n d gulag

    @JPL:
    GOP POV:
    THEY probably financed the trip – and THEY made a mint!

    And that’s another reason to back Israel!
    Puritan money, held 500 years, with compound interest!
    YUMMY!

    Besides, what have the Palestinians ever done for us?

  29. 29.

    sm*t cl*de

    Erik the Magnificent caught in a catnip frenzy, in his 16th spring and enjoying it nicely

    Splendidly disheveled.

  31. 31.

    Ken

    I went to a large midwestern state university

    You and 90% of the people who write to Penthouse Letters, 100% of which say that, yes, college students have sex.

  32. 32.

    danielx

    @PurpleGirl:

    I’ve noted that resemblance. Closer than you might think, since Erik weighs in at a svelte 18 pounds at his last visit to the vet a couple of weeks ago.

  36. 36.

    Southern Beale

    I just read that story in yesterday’s NY Times about Bitcoin and the Winklevii parlaying their Facebook settlement money into a huge bitcoin position.

    WTF. I don’t understand what bitcoin is or how it was created or how you buy it. Now the plutocrats are cornering the market on it, a hedge fund in Malta has bought up a huge share of it with money from wealthy investors … how long before some Goldman Sachs type decides to start trading in bitcoin futures or some exotic bitcoin-based investment?

    I’m so sick of this shit.

  38. 38.

    RaflW

    “…acknowledges that college students may have sex … when I went to a large midwestern state university back in the early 1970s”

    I went to Texas Christian University, class of ’87, and someone from the Health Services Center (an actual doctor, I think) came to our dorm TV lounge and did a presentation on stds, pregnancy, contraception, condoms and such. He even passed out index cards so people could anonymously write questions, so that the discussion could be more frank w/o embarrassing the questioners.

    Ahh, TCU, such flaming liberals.

  40. 40.

    Ken

    @Southern Beale: The idea was that bitcoins would be electronic currency. However, the supply is fixed (it’s still growing, but slowly, and there is a fixed cap). So they’re being treated more like beanie babies were – bought and hoarded in the expectation that the value will increase.

  41. 41.

    raven

    Looks like Tiger may get DQ’d from the Masters. Let’s see if they bite the hand that feeds them.

  43. 43.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ken:, I am waiting for some genius to try to corner the bitcoin market and thereby cause them to plunge in value.

  44. 44.

    raven

    @Schlemizel: He hit a great shot that hit the pin and bounced into the water. The possible DQ hinges on where he dropped the ball.

    “Masters officials were reviewing on Saturday morning Woods’ drop on the 15th hole Friday and whether it was in the proper spot; if it was deemed to be improper, he would be disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard.

    Because Woods signed his scorecard for a 1-under-par 71 without adding the 1-stroke penalty, he would be disqualified because he put his 6 on a scorecard instead of a 7.”

  46. 46.

    Emma

    @Linda Featheringill: Nicely done! I couldn’t wear it, but I covet it.

    On the topic: I started college in the late seventies. I remember shenanigans aplenty. I also remember interdisciplinary courses (even degrees!), multiple seminar offerings on topics I wouldn’t touch with the proverbial pole, recruiting of minorities (me), Pell grants (and I would like a few words with the Congressional morons that keep trying to eliminate the program). Mostly I remember having to take interminable survey courses the first two years. On all the “dead white men”. But I also could study “everyone else on the planet.”

    It feels we’re all being walked backwards.

  47. 47.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @raven: I am not a golfer, so I have a couple of questions. Did Woods violate the rules? If so, is the violation an automatic DQing offense?

  48. 48.

    raven

    @Schlemizel: They have some doozies. The 14 year old Chinese kid got penalized for slow play. He made the cut but it was in question most of the day. Dustin Johnson got DQ’d from the US Open for grounding his club three years ago :

    “I just thought I was on a piece of dirt that the crowd had trampled down,” a despondent Johnson said in the locker room afterward. “I never thought I was in a sand trap. It never once crossed my mind that I was in a bunker.

    A good walk spoiled indeed.

  50. 50.

    raven

    @Omnes Omnibus: The language of the rule is a but unclear, “as close as possible”. He said he dropped it “two yards back:. The golf dudes are saying it doesn’t matter what he said it’s what he did. They also say if it is a violation he’ll withdraw himself. It will be interesting. BTW the Dustin Johnson gaff was in SHEBOYGAN

  52. 52.

    raven

    First, a player may drop his ball in accordance with (2) and (3) above. Second, the green side of the water hazard is not behind the water hazard. If a ball last crossed the margin of a water hazard as described in the situation above, it appears that the ball crossed the margin of the hazard three times (e.g., first, the initial time it crossed; second, when it crossed over the hazard onto land; and third, when the ball rolled back into the hazard). So when the Rule states that the ball must be dropped “keeping the point where the ball last crossed the margin of the water hazard directly between the hole and the spot on which the ball is to be dropped,” it is referring to the third (final) time. It is the reference point for the 26-1b option only.

  53. 53.

    Schlemizel

    Anybody here used a chromebook? I need to replace this 9 year old laptop that is dying a slow death. I really only use it for web surfing as I have a desktop for real work.

    I like the idea that it is cheaper, fast & light (none of the software bloat that comes with windows) but am worried it has deficiencies I don’t know about. The Internet has not been much help as the reviews I have found want to compare it to a PC for actual work. I would rather have a tablet but a decent 10″ one is substantially more expensive.

    Has anyone here used a chromebook & what was your impression?

  54. 54.

    Suffern ACE

    @Emma: we are being walked in a circle. They are purposely leading us into the discussion topics from the 1980s and 1990s. I fully expect a long diatribe on how hip hop is out of control and the notion of Ebonics to come up.

  58. 58.

    raven

    I just need a decision. I have shit to do and planned my weekend around watching. He gets DQ’d I’m gone.

  59. 59.

    JPL

    @raven: There is another shady area of the rule book that states, if the player was not aware when he signed the scorecard, he might not be disqualified.
    Tiger needs to say he erred and go home.

  61. 61.

    gogol's wife

    @hilts:

    I keep waiting for the BJ Jonathan Winters thread. There were 3-5 Margaret Thatcher threads, and 5-7 Roger Ebert threads, for God’s sake.

  62. 62.

    raven

    @JPL:

    Clearly, Tiger could have dropped from his original spot, but admitting that he dropped 2 yards farther back eliminates the “re-hit” drop option from consideration. The only other option he had was to keep the point where the ball last crossed the margin in line with the flag.

    As I stated above, the ball bounced off the stick and rolled off the front-left portion of the green and into the hazard. That is the point the ball last crossed the margin of the hazard, and that is the controlling point for the line Tiger needed to take his drop from.

  64. 64.

    WereBear

    @Schlemizel: I have had mine for a little over a year and I adore it. Got one for the MIL so she could surf without worrying about viruses.

    Got one for my brother… who complained that his Mac was an improvement over the PC but still “too complicated.” So I got him a set up with a gmail account on a friend’s computer, he declared himself covered in the software department, and now he is as happy as a clam at high tide.

    Ask away!

  67. 67.

    raven

    @JPL: Negative press if he does or doesn’t? Why would he care about negative press at this point in his life?

  68. 68.

    RaflW

    Conclusions: Bowdoin sounds like a decent place for young people to get an education, provided they also want to enjoy themselves. Rich white people sure find ways to spend their money.

    Much more importantly, to Klingenstein, his fellow uptight as heck rich dads have all been warned that Bowdoin is not appropriate for fellow rich white people to send their kids.

    He blew $100K on a massive “hey fellow country-clubbers, this liberal college is liberal” chain-email.

  69. 69.

    raven

    The talking heads on the Golf Channel are saying it’s a clear violation. Now they are saying that there is a new rule about using HD TV and that he will get a 2 stroke penalty.

  71. 71.

    raven

    Boy this dude on the Golf Channel is just going ape shit about Tiger not penalizing himself and withdrawing.

    eta I’m not buying this, they are looking at the replay and saying it’s obvious from the replay that he didn’t drop it as near as possible from the divot. How do they know that the divot is from Tiger’s shot? From HD replay.

  73. 73.

    kc

    You libtards are just jealous that you can’t afford to blow $100,000.00 out of sheer spite.

  74. 74.

    Gin & Tonic

    @raven: And you whine about baseball? Spend the morning watching the fucking Golf Channel to settle a possible rules violation from yesterday?

  75. 75.

    YellowJournalism

    @gogol’s wife: My first and stronger memories of him are as Mearth on Mork and Mindy, then some guest starring roles on various shows. I didn’t see his actual stand-up until years later. He makes Robin Williams seem sedate, and I mean that in a good way!

  76. 76.

    Steeplejack

    @raven:

    My memory from last night is that Tiger himself (offhandedly) said in his post-round interview that he dropped two yards back.

  79. 79.

    dr. bloor

    @Steeplejack: Yeah, the distance from the divot was never in dispute.

    Although, the Committee saves his bacon and avoids the DQ. If I’m Tiger, I either withdraw or hope I don’t win this one, because there will be eleventeen billion people ready to but a big fat asterisk on his Majors total from here on out.

  80. 80.

    McJulie

    too much celebration of racial and ethnic difference (particularly as it applies to blacks), and not enough celebration of our common American identity.

    Well, you have to ask yourself — is college about learning stuff, or is college about indoctrinating young people? (i.e. “celebrating.”)

    Conservatives have this fantasy that it’s an accident of history, or some kind of conspiracy, that academics skew left. But academics (and scientists) skew left because the truth has a liberal bias. That is, seeking truth without regard to ideology is an enlightenment value, and therefore a liberal one. It doesn’t always lead to political liberalism, but there’s never going to be a point where it starts magically leading to conservatism instead.

    The only way to have a conservative college is to set out to make it one — to deform it — to compromise scholarship in favor of indoctrination. There are Bible colleges that do this.

  82. 82.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Steeplejack:

    Apparently “the committee” has stepped in and assessed a two-stroke penalty on Tiger Woods decided they want the ratings to stay high for the rest of the weekend. So he’s still in.

    FTFY

  83. 83.

    JPL

    @Steeplejack: Next time the guy wants to cheat, he shouldn’t tell the announcers, he did.

    also, too Just to clarify, I don’t think it was intentional or else he would have received the penalty by the official on the green.

  85. 85.

    WereBear

    @Amir Khalid: Actually, I thought that years ago, when his father declared that dating would interfere with Tiger’s progress toward Golf Godhood and there would be plenty of time for that “later.”

  87. 87.

    Steeplejack

    @dr. bloor:

    Turned on the Golf Channel and have been listening to the yammering a bit. They replayed the snippet where Tiger said he dropped two yards back and also said that it was to get a slightly better shot.

    It’s apparent that he was momentarily confused about the rules and made a whopping error. I’m with Nick Faldo: Tiger should withdraw. Yeah, golf has really nitpicky rules, but that’s pretty much the whole point of golf.

  88. 88.

    Jay C

    Why does the Bowdoin flap remind me of what the organized right tried to do to Planned Parenthood? I.e., wealthy wingers take offense at some organization, waste spend money trying to dig “dirt” on it; said “dirt” only ends up making the target org look better, and/or sparks more donations to it, etc.?

    And over racial stuff? Puh-leeze! Stressing stuff like “common American identity” is all very well and good, but it always seems to come down (as Mr. Klingenstein was inept enough to articulate out loud) to “white people are awesome [and everyone else sucks]!!”

    Oh, yeah: and sex. Always have to have sex in the mix: are these people actively TRYING to recruit for Bowdoin…??

  89. 89.

    Dr. Squid

    A better than average school had all that stuff when I was looking at schools 27 years ago.

  90. 90.

    Amir Khalid

    @WereBear:
    Well, Tiger did get around to compensating for the deferred social life, maybe even over-compensating for it; one might say no permanent damage was done there.

  93. 93.

    WereBear

    @Amir Khalid: Sure, his “equipment” works, obviously. But his game; the ability to form a meaningful, close, adult relationship with a significant other… I see plenty of signs that this skill is completely missing.

    I wouldn’t want to be doomed to that.

  94. 94.

    Jay C

    @gogol’s wife: @gogol’s wife:

    Really: I’m sure Jonathan Winters left a better impression behind him than Margaret Thatcher ever did….

    Dunno why, but my immediate flashback to Jonathan Winters isn’t to his TV shticks, but his double role as the sleazy funeral-park brothers in the 1965 classic The Loved One.

  95. 95.

    Steeplejack

    @dr. bloor:

    I agree about the committee but don’t have a problem with them dinging Guan for slow play. Apparently he was “on the clock” and had been warned before the hammer came down. And he still made the cut (although by the skin of his teeth).

    ETA: Haven’t heard the Golf Channel weenies rehash yet by what (possibly tortured) rationale the committee stepped in and made the two-stroke decision.

  97. 97.

    smintheus

    Once interviewed at Bowdoin for a job. One of the most ridiculous and insulting charade interviews I ever had. So the fact that some rich douchenozzle feels aggrieved with the college isn’t sufficient to convince me that it is awesome.

  98. 98.

    Cacti

    @Jay C:

    Stressing stuff like “common American identity” is all very well and good,

    I’d say the notion of a “common American identity” is a farce.

    At what point was the American identity of people of color ever the same as that of white people?

  100. 100.

    EnfantTerrible

    Being aware of all Internet traditions, I have to ask – what were Klingenstein’s SAT scores?

  102. 102.

    smintheus

    @YellowJournalism: My dad says he remembers Winters from his Marine unit in WWII. Apparently he did off the wall routines all the time for his buddies, to the point where high ranking officers heard about him and started asking him to perform for them.

  103. 103.

    RSA

    This part is good, from Klingenstein:

    When he summarily dismissed me, the Tea Party movement, and Larry Summers, or reflexively embraced Nussbaum, or grossly understated the number of liberal faculty at Bowdoin, he demonstrated an unwillingness to take seriously the conservative perspective.

    Wikipedia has it that a 2010 poll of Tea Party organizers of which national figure best represents them found, in order: no one (34%), Sarah Palin (14%), Glenn Beck (7%), Jim DeMint (6%), Ron Paul (6%), and Michele Bachmann (4%). I can’t understand why a college president shouldn’t take the Tea Party movement seriously…

  104. 104.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Jay C:

    Well, asswipe moral scold William Bennett was involved in this joke, so what do you expect? ZOMG, college students are having sex! Panic in the streets!

  106. 106.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    I believe you have made the proverbial hole-in-one with your modification.

    Let’s get REAL here people…something something Tiger Woods! is good for ratings, and therefore is good, in the long run, for the bottom line of the Augusta National.

  107. 107.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    ZOMG, college students are having sex! Panic in the streets!

    I believe that this sentiment has been expressed since universities were first established in the Middle Ages.

  109. 109.

    Gwangung

    @Cacti:

    I’d say the notion of a “common American identity” is a farce.
    At what point was the American identity of people of color ever the same as that of white people?

    That’s the point. It’s cultural indoctrination, designed to make everyone an ersatz white male.

    Classic conservative projection. Accusing others of what they yearn to do the,selves.

  110. 110.

    dr. bloor

    @Steeplejack: The rationale for the decision was clear enough, and although it’s by way of a relatively new rule, it’s not particularly controversial–if a violation is reported that long after the fact, the Committee is allowed to exercise discretion re: the penalty.

    As for Guan, I don’t have any problem with the application of the rule in his case (nor did he–classy kid), although I’m pretty sure the 84 carded by Ben Crenshaw had a little something to do with the group falling behind. That’s a discussion for another day, though.

  111. 111.

    smintheus

    @Lurking Canadian: No they weren’t. The Chair had a habit of hiring only grads of her alma mater. So the entire two day interview was a prolonged joke. One of the faculty told me pointedly in private that he was taking no part in the hiring process; “It’s all up to the Chair” he said.

    So for ex., she told me to prepare to teach a specific class. But when the time came, she announced that it was actually a waste of students’ time to have to sit through a faux class session so she hadn’t asked any of them to show up. I had to pretend to teach to an empty classroom…for a minute or two, before she started lobbing a few random questions and then ended it abruptly because it was late afternoon and she was tired.

    We never once discussed what they needed taught or my background in research or teaching. It was all quite a transparent joke at my expense.

  115. 115.

    Mike in NC

    So how soon will some Republican congressman demands that people have to pay for Common American Identity Cards before they can vote?

  116. 116.

    smintheus

    @Davis X. Machina: I’m guessing you know exactly which dept. Time after time, she always hired people from Michigan. That year I think she had 3 hires, all Michigan grads.

    Weirdest part of the interview was when she showed up at my hotel room early, just as I was getting out of a shower, and stood around in my room while I finished dressing.

  117. 117.

    Steeplejack

    @dr. bloor:

    [. . .] I’m pretty sure the 84 carded by Ben Crenshaw had a little something to do with the group falling behind.

    I don’t think so. The players are timed individually. Guan was repeatedly dithering over a lot of shots in the windy part of the day.

  118. 118.

    Jebediah

    @Jay C:

    Oh, yeah: and sex. Always have to have sex in the mix: are these people actively TRYING to recruit for Bowdoin…??

    Maybe there is a hidden purchase of a large position in some complicated derivative-like investment vehicle that is based on Bowdoin’s popularity. Naw – rich guys would never try to mess with a market for their own gain…

  119. 119.

    dr. bloor

    @Steeplejack: Ben took a quadruple bogey on the front and a double on the back in addition to the six bogeys (and no birdies) on his card. Anytime you’re taking a 7 on a par 3, you’ve slowed your group down, no matter how quickly you play your shots.

    Guan was warned twice, and as I said, I have no problem with the application of the rule. But he wasn’t the only reason that group was out of position.

  121. 121.

    gogol's wife

    @smintheus:

    There have been a lot of great clips circulating from his heyday in the 1950s-60s, but this one from 2002, when he was on Bonnie Hunt’s show, is really funny. I loved that show — she would incorporate improv by Winters into her sitcom. She’s one of the best straight men he ever had:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zFn-SbeKjk

  123. 123.

    dance around in your bones

    @gogol’s wife: Jeez, that was hysterical.

    I may spend the day just looking for Jonathan Winters clips.

    BTW: Anne Laurie, I loved that Ode to Joy video so much when I saw Roxy link to it last night I started emailing it around to all my family/friends. It still makes me leak salty water out my eyes every time I see it.

  125. 125.

    Steeplejack

    @dr. bloor:

    It’s not a “group” thing. Each player technically has 40 (or maybe 50) seconds to play each shot (from the time the player arrives at the spot), and Guan was repeatedly in violation of that. Taking “too many” shots doesn’t enter into it. Crenshaw can hack the course to pieces, but as long as he’s taking each individual shot in the time allotted he’s fine.

  126. 126.

    dollared

    @Omnes Omnibus: yes, it’s actually written up in the laws of Charlemagne. Since, of course, all the students were male and usually in monasteries, it’s an endless series of admonitions against buggering amongst the monks.

  127. 127.

    handsmile

    @MomSense:

    Oh good, glad to see you here; hope you’ll be checking back. :)

    Perhaps an odd question (though I do have my reasons) based upon your #16 comment above: could you expand upon how you “use” the Bowdoin College library? For example, do you have access to its collections; do you have borrowing privileges; perhaps you are an alumna?

    Late last night I saw your reply to me re the Maine hermit; thanks! A BJ “mini-meet-up” in Maine this summer would be very appealing! I’m always very grateful for “locals’ tips” but I should tell you that mrs. handsmile and i have been vacationing/visiting the Pemaquid/Midcoast region for the past seventeen years. It’s been our haven from the urban hellhole.

  128. 128.

    Lurking Canadian

    @smintheus: My God. That is appalling. And they didn’t even pay your travel expenses? The wingnut “study” didn’t change my opinion of Bowdoin, but your story certainly did. I hope you had better experiences somewhere else. Sounds like you dodged a bullet, frankly.

  130. 130.

    smintheus

    @Lurking Canadian: They did pay my expenses, but it was insulting. Had several campus interviews that were far worse and more bizarre than that, actually, including one where a Dean at Pomona treated me so shabbily that her poor secretary was almost in tears from watching the abuse unfold.

  131. 131.

    handsmile

    @Steeplejack:

    Never would have imagined you to be a golf aficionado! :) Perhaps you look smashing in a green jacket.

    Years ago, I golfed (or strove for some pathetic resemblance to it) somewhat regularly, but urban life and prohibitive greens’ fees have long reduced those antics to a less than annual occasion. The one tournament I watch avidly is the British Open. The links courses are so alien to an American golfing sensibility and are so humbling to even the sport’s elite practitioners.

  132. 132.

    Davis X. Machina

    @handsmile: Bowdoin’s open-stacks. If you don’t need to circulate anything, and you look like you belong there, it’s easy to use. Been doing it for decades — began looking like I belong there because-grad-student, now looking like I belong there-because-emeritus-prof.

    Only really good classics collection in the state.

  133. 133.

    WereBear

    All ya’ll Golf Fans, must check out The Greatest Game Ever Played: Harry Vardon, Francis Ouimet, and the Birth of Modern Golf, by Mark Frost, which is an extraordinary book about an extraordinary game of golf, the 1913 US Open.

    I mean, I don’t like golf, and I couldn’t put the book down.

  134. 134.

    Steeplejack

    @handsmile:

    LOL. This thread has mildly appalled me with how much I know. I was an indifferent golfer when I played sporadically many years ago, mostly accompanying my brother (a much better golfer). Like you, I found it too expensive and too much of a big production. (The part I liked best was being outside in nice scenery.) But I do remember enough of the “feel” of playing to appreciate what great golfers do.

    The other thing is how the technology of golf coverage has improved over the years. Cheap but sophisticated equipment means every hole can be covered, and covered in great detail, so now you see more action and less yammering and jesuitical analysis shoveled in to fill dead time.

    Since I work (sporadically, alas) at home, Golf Channel is a go-to source for background wallpaper on Thursday and Friday, when they show early-round PGA action, as well as LPGA and European tour events. Mostly it’s a chance to look at nice scenery, with occasional mild eruptions of action. And inevitably I pick up a lot of information.

    This reminds me that my other favorite “wallpaper” event is the Tour de France. I care even less about cycling than I do about golf, but it’s a great travelogue for the weeks when it’s on. Sort of like those “[Scenic country] by Air” documentaries on PBS.

    Finally, I have to admit that I have become a semi-avid Wii golfer since giving my brother the Tiger Woods PGA game two or three years ago. It’s surprisingly sophisticated and playable, and the graphics are stunning. Best $45 I’ve gotten out of a gift in years.

  135. 135.

    HeartlandLiberal

    Greatest Flash Mob EVER, doing greatest five minutes of music ever written. Beautiful.

  136. 136.

    MomSense

    @handsmile:

    I am a “friend of Bowdoin” which is a membership program that gives access to things including borrowing privileges at the library. My Mom did work there about 20 or so years ago but I did not attend Bowdoin.

    I am really looking forward to the Bowdoin International Music Festival this summer. The concerts are wonderful and I also just enjoy hearing the sounds of practicing in the evenings.

    A Maine meetup would be a lot of fun!

  137. 137.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MomSense:

    A Maine meetup would be a lot of fun!

    I hope maybe that could happen in late summer/early fall. I’ve never been to New England at all (except for a conference in Boston 20-odd years ago) and after I retire in June I’m planning to do a nice long New England-Atlantic Provinces driving trip this year. I’m thinking fall colours would be a good time. Would love to meet up with Juicers along the way!

  138. 138.

    handsmile

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Thanks, very grateful for that info! I think I might be able to pull off the latter impersonation myself.

    I should tell you that I thought you were a “prof,” though one some time from claiming emeritus status. Your haunting of Bowdoin’s classics collection would itself convey academic distinction of the highest order. :)

    @MomSense:

    Thanks so much! Such a membership program is exactly what I had hoped might be available.

    Regrettably, the Bowdoin Music Festival always seems to conclude just before we arrive for our vacation (and will so again this year, drats!). Another local music festival that we’ve enjoyed immensely in recent years is the Salt Bay ChamberFest in Damariscotta (you may well be familiar with it):

    http://www.saltbaychamberfest.org/

    Faculty of NYC’s Mannes School of Music are its artistic directors/principal musicians. This season the superb Brentano String Quartet will be performing and should not be missed!

    Once summer arrives (inflicting us with its miserable heat, humidity, and listlessness…uh, sorry), we should propose meet-up possibilities in August. Cheers!

  139. 139.

    thalarctos

    I graduated from Bowdoin nearly thirty years ago, and much as Klingenstein wants to make me believe that “it isn’t the college you remember”, I read the report (or as much of it as I could stomach) and came to the conclusion that it really hasn’t changed that much at all!

  140. 140.

    Another Halocene Human

    @jrg: And heaven knows UNC and its athletic boosters could not be highly motivated to shift blame off coaches and the athletic dep’t for making a joke of “student-athlete” and onto an academic department that was unlikely to have politically powerful allies.

  141. 141.

    handsmile

    @Steeplejack:

    So what’s your Wii handicap?

    Quite evidently, you must be studying the “wallpaper” design of the Golf Channel very closely to be such a maven of the sport’s arcana. Hardly the mere duffer you pretend to be!

    As you may know, devotion to football/soccer consumes almost my entire allotment of the sports fanaticism required of every patriotic American male.

    As MomSense and I have been suggesting here the possibility of a BJ Maine meet-up, I’d like to say that I truly hope a similar occasion might arise sometime in the DC area for us to exchange a name for a nym. Enjoy your weekend!

  142. 142.

    MomSense

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Sounds like a great trip and I am happy to give you some suggestions for places to visit in Maine. A meetup in late summer or fall would be perfect. Summer is beautiful in Maine but I do think September may be the best time.

    @handsmile:

    The Salt Bay Chamber Fest looks great. I am planning to go to several of the Music Festival concerts here at Bowdoin and I think I might try to catch the Daponte String Quartet in Boothbay. They give concerts throughout the year so you may be able to see them when you are in Maine.

    I don’t know if you have been to the Frontier Cafe in Brunswick but that would be a great spot for a meetup. Food is fantastic and they have movies, concerts, etc. They have a small room we could take over if there are enough of us.

    If you want to do some sea kayaking out to some of the islands here, we could arrange that too.

  143. 143.

    Roxy

    @dance around in your bones:

    “dance around in your bones Says:

    @gogol’s wife: Jeez, that was hysterical.

    I may spend the day just looking for Jonathan Winters clips.

    BTW: Anne Laurie, I loved that Ode to Joy video so much when I saw Roxy link to it last night I started emailing it around to all my family/friends. It still makes me leak salty water out my eyes every time I see it.”

    Thank you for the shout out dance around with bones. I love watching the reactions of the crowd. One of my favorite symphony movements. I too still get weepy eyed whenever I hear ODE to Joy.

  145. 145.

    drbloor

    @Steeplejack: You seem to think I don’t understand the rule. I do, and the penalty is appropriate. But if you don’t think a seventy-one year old guy shooting 84 didn’t affect their pace, you haven’t played much golf.

  146. 146.

    dance around in your bones

    @Roxy: I thank YOU for bringing it to my/our attention!

    I love watching the reactions of the crowd

    That’s what I told my mom when I sent it to her – look at the people watching, first puzzled, then smiling, then awed and happy and singing. What a great thing to do for a random crowd of people. My mom had never heard of flashmobs, though she does drum circles ;)

  149. 149.

    TF79

    I assume the Tea Party is still pissed at Joshua Chamberlain for his bayonet charge on Little Round Top…

  150. 150.

    Roxy

    Hi Anne Laurie,

    Thank you for the shout out. I hope you enjoyed the video as much as I did

  151. 151.

    Fax Paladin

    @TF79: You beat me to it (but at 150 comments, I would have been surprised if no one had, and that it took 149 comments does surprise me). This is the mean reason I know of Bowdoin College: professor, later president, with a somewhat interesting interval in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia…

  152. 152.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Fax Paladin: The president thing was a revenge move. The story I’ve heard told was that Chamberlain requested a leave of absence to go fight down south, was turned down, then applied for a leave of absence to go visit classical stuff over in Europe, and was approved.

    So he took his leave of absence — and went into the Army anyways.

    I hope the story’s true….

  153. 153.

    Tim Chambers

    Surely the NAS would have no problem with Bowdoin if it offered a freshman seminar on The White Man’s Burden and similar topics. The rest of the catalogue seems quite traditional.

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