When I wasn’t golfing, I took the time to wander around the town; to the east is the Castle, the Cathedral, the Harbour, The East Sands, The St Andrews Museum; to the west are the West Sands, a university park and the golf courses; to the south is the botanical gardens; to the north is the British Golf Museum and the Sea Aquarium.
Continue reading Sight-seeing in St Andrews
Category Archives: General
Playing the Old Course
I had been trying to find out how to get a game on the Old course since I arrived. There was no club house for the OC, just the starter shack. The two clubhouses on the property are by the New/Jubilee and the Eden courses. Everyone kept mentioning the ballot, where they drew the starting times from a hat for the next day. So I went to find out how to get on the ballot and discovered that the ballot is for groups; singles aren’t allowed on the ballot. (I never did find out where you go to get on the ballot.)
Continue reading Playing the Old Course
Dining in St. Andrews
There are some good restaurants in St. Andrews, with a variety of cuisines. I dined at a Bangladeshi restaurant, several hotel restaurants, a Thai restaurant, and an Indian restaurant. I passed on the Moroccan place because it was a take-away and an Italian restaurant because I didn’t have time.
Continue reading Dining in St. Andrews
Golfing at St Andrews
With clubs on shoulder, I headed down to the New Course Saturday morning. There are five courses at St Andrews, in addition to the Old Course. The New Course and the Jubilee Course are Links courses, similar to the Old Course. The Eden, Strathtyrum and Balgrove (9 hole) Courses are more parkland-type courses, more inland than the others and more similar to American courses. The clubhouse for the New and Jubilee is located near the first tees for those courses, while the other three’s clubhouse was located farther away across the Old Course. The Old Course doesn’t have a club house, just the starter’s shack and the caddy shack. The R&A is not a clubhouse for the Old Course, it is just a clubhouse for a private golf club located by the first tee of the Old Course (and not open to the public).
Continue reading Golfing at St Andrews
Getting to St. Andrews
St. Andrews is a wonderful town. I would say that every other house in town is a B&B, but that would be an exageration. The house that isn’t a B&B is the exception.
It is also, one might say primarily, a university town, complete with ruined castles, churches and cathedrals. I toured through the town quite a bit, snapping photos, on film so it will be a while before I post any.
I arrived on Thursday, my clubs arrived the following evening. Fortunately, I thought to carry an extra change of clothes in my bag since the rest of them were in the golf bag. Turns out that my Denver-Chicago-Glasgow flight itinerary got slightly askew when the Denver flight was delayed an hour and when we were ready to take off it was too warm to take off with enough fuel to reach Chicago safely. (Not enough air density to lift a fully loaded plane.) So, the plane stopped in Kansas City to refuel and we arrived about an hour after my Glasgow flight had left.
Continue reading Getting to St. Andrews
Signs of times acoming.
Soldiers of Christ II (Harpers.org)
If you rip up the Constitution, it’s no longer the United States of America, even if you keep the name.
My home town
Soldiers of Christ I (Harpers.org) An interesting article on what’s going on just down the road from me. Tied back to the previous post, this makes for an interesting view of ‘progressive’.
Liberalism
Driving home last night, I got behind a car with a ‘Liberalism causes Terrorism” bumper sticker. I admit I was a bit flabbergasted to this bit of inanity, but the car also had a “US Air Force Retired” decal so that explained a lot. I am surprised that anyone, even in Colorado Springs, considers George W. Bush a liberal, or, Cheney or Rumsfeld for that matter.
There are mujahaddin from all over the world going to Iraq to learn the skills of successful terrorism and to practice those skills against our troops. Would this terrorism school even be in session if we didn’t have a boatload of troops for them to practice on? I don’t think so.
Between the Bushites, the Taliban, and Osama bin Laden I think it is fair to say that “Conservatism causes Terrorism”, althought “causes” is a bit over the top. “Fosters” or “Enables” is more appropriate.
But the bumper sticker got me thinking again about exactly what “liberalism” or “a liberal” means. I think most pundits and people, today, with the Republicans in power, think a liberal is anyone who disagrees with them.
I did find an interesting feature in Google to answer my question. At the Google search line, enter define:liberalism and Google will bring back a number of definitions from a variety of web sources. The upshot is that “liberalism”, in political philosophy terms, is a belief in limited government, free markets and the supremecy of individual rights and freedoms. (Isn’t that the Republican Platform?)
Using the define:liberal search, we have results that cover the gamut from ‘favors progress’ to ‘advocates greater freedom’ to ‘denies some of the basic truths of Christianity’. Quite a wide range for these broad-minded people. Oh yeah, they also include the British Liberal Party, now part of the Liberal Democrats.
What I see as a dis-connect between the liberal philosophy and the liberal practice is that the philosophy calls for a limited government and the practice calls for an active centralized government to enable individuals to be less dependent on government. I can see where this would bring on a sort of psychosis to the body politic.
But, what does define:conservatism yield? Preserving the status quo and avoiding radical changes. Some support of tradition. About what I suspected. Then how do we characterize those people that want to radically change the status quo by regressing back two hundred years? That’s not really a conservative approach. In Colorado Springs, we seem to have a very vocal minority promoting that approach.
A man, a plan, a canal, Panama
In the beginning was the plan
and then came the assumptions
and the assumptions were without form
and the plan was completely without substance
and darkness was on the face of the workers
and they spoke amongst themselves, saying, “It is a crock of shit and it stinketh”
and the workers went to the supervisors
and said, “It is a pail of dung and none may abide the odor thereof”
and the supervisors went to the managers
and said unto them, “It is a container of excrement and it is very strong, such that none may abide it”
and the managers went to the senior managers
and said unto them, “It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength”
and the senior managers went to the directors
and said unto them, “It contains that which aids plant growth, and it is very strong”
and the directors went to the vice presidents
and said unto them, “It promotes growth and is very powerful”
and the vice presidents went to the president
and said unto him, “This new plan will actively promote the growth and efficiency of this company”
and the president looked upon the plan,
and saw that it was good,
and the plan became policy.
This is how shit happens.