http://halphillips.net Great Golf and Travel Writing Mon, 14 May 2012 04:01:49 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Why IS it always Balotelli? Missed in the stupefying events of extra time vs. QPR was Mario’s super touch to free Khun Aguero for the Prem-deciding tally. His insertion at 75 minutes, or whenever it was exactly, surely rolled millions of eyeballs around the world. Yes, Roberto Mancini should be applauded for swallowing his pride and running out both Mario and Carlos Tevez after saying they’d never play for the club again. But Balotelli has, ... ]]> http://halphillips.net/golf/uncategorized/1416/try-to-ignore-mario-balotelli-i-dare-you When I was kid in the 1970s, jellybeans were a particular obsession and while the big, commercial confection purveyors didn’t pay this segment a whole lot of attention back then, neither was it hard to find them, all year long. Today candy marketers treat them as a seasonal item, available in bounty only the 6 weeks ahead of Easter. This surely troubles my fellow jellybean aficionados, yet when they do arrive in stores, sometime in February ... ]]> http://halphillips.net/golf/further-afield/1409/whither-the-jellybean-an-easter-meditation   Two-plus weeks into the Jeremy Lin Era, you’ve no doubt heard the odd reference to one Billy Ray Bates. When basketball sage of yore Bob Ryan recently did a podcast with heir apparent Bill Simmons, Billy Ray’s out-of-nowhere emergence in 1980 was held up as the only apt comparison. Indeed, Ryan — whose stellar work for the Boston Globe in the 1970s and ‘80s fueled my interest in sports writing — claims to have been ... ]]> http://halphillips.net/golf/further-afield/basketball/1401/jeremy-lin-channels-his-inner-billy-ray-bates   The irony of most my-car-just-got-towed situations, which require clear thinking and practicality, is that most times you encounter them when half in the bag. My friend Rose and I were considerably more buzzed than that on this night, at 1 a.m., when we bounded out of Bunratty’s to find my car missing. This one still stings because parking in that BayBank lot after-hours was just flat out mindless and, of course, I was perfectly sober ... ]]> http://halphillips.net/golf/further-afield/1374/great-moments-in-towing-long-nights-journey-into-night-1987 I was again reminded, by the recent passing of esteemed golf course architect Geoffrey Cornish, of just how integral the act of walking is to the practice and perception of golf course design. Mr. Cornish died at his home in Amherst, Mass. on Feb. 10, at the ripe old age of 97. Much has already been written about him, in golf circles, though maybe not so much about his work. Every day, right up until the ... ]]> http://halphillips.net/golf/golf/personalities/1357/mr-cornish-covered-lots-of-ground-in-97-years Out of the blue Thursday night the wife suggested we order, On Demand, one of the movies nominated for Academy Awards. It came down to Tree of Life, Midnight in Paris or Moneyball. We went with Moneyball and both found it extremely enjoyable. Some 12 hours later, I happened upon an all-too-rare but typically brilliant article from Bill James, the godfather of modern statistical analysis as it relates to sports, baseball in particular. I’ve been a ... ]]> http://halphillips.net/golf/further-afield/1352/james-connects-unlikely-dots-between-dewey-pitt-amp-my-wife   It’s been a long time since I’ve lived in Boston, which is to say it’s been a long time since I’ve been towed. Cars do get towed in Maine, I suppose, but vehicular hazards here are more centered on avoiding large antlered mammals in the roadway, as opposed large, often bearded, exclusively bipedal mammals hooking your stationary vehicle to a still-larger vehicle and hauling it away. Further, my life here (I moved north in 1992) has ... ]]> http://halphillips.net/golf/further-afield/1338/great-moments-in-towing-a-late-80s-anthology Settle down, people. Thank you. Let's get started, shall we? Good morning, and welcome to this year's Pre-Super Bowl meeting of the Bert Bell Memorial Support Group. Yes, it's been a long season in many respects but we're almost there! [Half-hearted applause] With each other's help, we can survive another NFL season with our families and psyches in tact. My name is Rudy, and I'll be your enabler this morning. I can see we have ... ]]> http://halphillips.net/golf/further-afield/1330/one-week-to-restore-the-nfls-competitive-morality So, I've got a question: Following a week when one team lost 24-2, and another ended abruptly under new playoff OT rules, what happens when an NFL playoff game goes into overtime and, under these new rules, an opening possession results in a safety? We were informed, as OT loomed in Denver on Sunday, that the only thing that could end the playoff game without both teams getting the chance to possess the ball was a ... ]]> http://halphillips.net/golf/further-afield/1323/the-nfls-new-rules-re-playoff-ot-safety-first [The Harold Herald, the blog prototype I launched in the early 1990s, was nothing if not political, though the coverage wasn't always traditional, nor was it my own.  Mark Sullivan, a fellow alum/refugee from the Enterprise-Sun newsroom, was a frequent contributor. Today he's a skilled and prolific blogger in his own right. His HH essay below, marking the passing of Richard Nixon, was always a favorite of mine.] By MARK SULLIVAN Dave was in a triumphant mood ... ]]> http://halphillips.net/golf/further-afield/1317/hh-flashback-nixon-amp-dave-remembered