September 3, 2008

The Summer of Steve

I had some time to kill in the Pasadena area today, so I went for a walk in the oak forest along the edge of the Arroyo Seco, north of the Rose Bowl and just south of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The park has one of the oldest Frisbee golf courses in the country, with signs next to each tee diagramming each hole (the 18th, for example, is a 187-foot dogleg right between the oaks).

I played this frolf course once in the mid-1970s. It seemed like a simple, mildly fun game. Judging from the guys who were playing today, however, it's no longer a simple game. I've been to three U.S. Open golf tournaments, I've watched Jack Nicklaus try to stare in a 20 foot birdie putt on the back nine Sunday at Medinah to get him in the hunt for one last U.S. Open title at age 50, but I've never seen intensity like these guys playing frolf. I watched one guy take seven or eight practice "swings" before finally just missing a 15 footer. The other three players said nothing, and just began lining up their shots with the same furious concentration.

On the other hand, the only female twosome on the course squealed in delight at each other's good shoots, then instantly resumed their conversation, of which all I overheard was, "Well, I don't care what he thinks, because I know I'm worth it!" It was all straight out of a Dave Barry column on the difference between men and women.

Also, every single player carried a shoulder bag for his multiple frisbees of various sizes (except for one guy who had a golf cart to haul around all his frisbees). All the bags were equipped with a long strap so that the bag hung below the waist and wouldn't interfere with the proper throwing motion. Most players had towels to dust off their frisbees to restore the perfect aerodynamics, although to my disappointment, these appeared to be just normal towels, and not specially designed frisbee golf towels made of some fiber custom fabricated at JPL to be optimal for frisbee-buffing.

There's a line in the Stuff White People Like book to the effect of: "Is there something you like? I mean, is there something you really like? Well, whatever it is, there's a white person who likes it more."

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm, my mom's going for a new job in Pasadena. Maybe I'll have to try out frolf myself down there one of these days. Can you bring a dog as a caddy?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, dogs are allowed there. The arroyo is a great little piece of L.A. and California history. Never did the frisbee thing, but spent 3 or 4 summers at Tom Sawyer camp there in the late 70's.

Anonymous said...

If there's one thing I hate more than talking about golf, it's other people talking abot golf. I don't get it. Our country is descending into third world status, where white people are being transformed (on purpose) into a persecuted minority in the country they founded and built up, and all white guys can do is play (and talk) golf.

Anonymous said...

With all your prescient comments about the four candidates, this is going to be the fall (season-wise) of Steve.

Anonymous said...

More Stuff White People Like:

Clunky, truncated, made-up words like frolf, blog, netzine, Amerind ...

--Senor Doug

Dennis Dale said...

Look's like somebody else saw the recent re-run of "The Summer of George" episode.
Frisbee skills were de rigeur in my old neighborhood: Ultimate Frisbee, a football type variation (which I remember being a blast) and "Guts", where two sides lined up and threw the disc back and forth as hard as they could. You had to catch any fair throw with one hand. And of course Freestyle, just playing catch and doing tricks.

We never used the phrase "Frolf"; we just called it frisbee golf.
My friend's older brother thought freestyle was going to take off, making him a star, and used to chastise his younger brother for hanging out with us losers and not honing his God-given frisbee talents. Oh them Seventies!

togo said...

There's a line in the Stuff White People Like book to the effect of: "Is there something you like? I mean, is there something you really like? Well, whatever it is, there's a white person who likes it more."


Boy, is he right about that. Check out the thread on dog breeding below. Intense verbal combat deeply infused with the all too typical female tendency to confuse disagreement with personal attack. Also some good posts on inbreeding depression and similar genetic issues. 231 comments so far, and I'll eat a live pit bull if at least 95% of the commenters aren't white.
http://www.petconnection.com/blog/2008/08/22/dna-stupid/#comment-344805

Garland said...

" anonymous said...
If there's one thing I hate more than talking about golf, it's other people talking abot golf. I don't get it. Our country is descending into third world status, where white people are being transformed (on purpose) into a persecuted minority in the country they founded and built up, and all white guys can do is play (and talk) golf."

I know, it's ridiculous. When the hell is Steve Sailer going to start talking about immigration?

Anonymous said...

I like to see that Steve has a life outside of his bitter blog

Anonymous said...

I like to see that Steve has a life outside of his bitter blog

I like to see that so many frustrated critics of Steve read his bitter blog. He really does piss off all the right people.

--Senor Doug