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Square greens on golf courses used to be considered primitive. Why are they now considered awesome?
So this arrived today… pic.twitter.com/rFbp6jGgNe
— LinksGems Golf Photos (@LinksGems) November 7, 2023
I think we can learn a lot about the reasons behind the fashion cycle in the arts by considering changes in golf course aesthetics. It’s widely assumed among rightists that there wouldn’t be changes in aesthetic tastes if only there weren’t demographic or political changes. But, golf course architecture is its own highly limited little world. Yet, golf course design tastes have changed radically over the half century I’ve been interested in the subject without anybody else caring much about the subject.
Seth Raynor (1874-1926) was a civil engineer hired in 1909 by Charles Blair Macdonald (1855-1939), the Canadian-American-Scottish originator of American golf course architecture, to help him build the National Golf Links of America in the Hamptons on Long Island. NGLA isn’t located on quite as awesome land as Pebble Beach or Ballybunion, but it’s the most fun golf course I’ve ever played.
As Macdonald downshifted his career in old age, Raynor, who never claimed to be much of a golfer, went on to build many dozens of golf courses using the “template” holes that Macdonald had picked out following a tour of the best golf courses in Scotland and England around 1900.
Although golf courses are played from ground level, their design is more comprehensible when viewed from above. Co-author of The Golf Courses of Seth Raynor, Jon Cavalier, the owner of this Twitter account @LinksGems, has revolutionized golf course architecture photography over the last decade by becoming an expert at mounting his camera on drones. His photo of the early 20th Century yet extremely iPhone-like 16th hole at Sleepy Hollow golf club on the Hudson River, with its square green and thumbprint depression, is the most galvanizing golf course photo of recent years:
Sleepy Hollow is a WASP Old Money golf course that didn’t quite achieve greatness until recently. It was founded by a coterie of Astors, Harrimans, Vanderbilts, and Rockefellers. They hired Charles Blair Macdonald and Seth Raynor to design the course in 1911, A.W. Tillinghast to redo it in 1935, and Gil Hanse to renovate it in 2008.
Cavalier’s tastes in golf course design are in sync with changes in fashion in recent years. He most loves golf courses laid out before America entered World War One in 1917. Whether this is because he’s a dedicated follower of fashion or because his brilliance as a photographer drives current tastes is beyond me.
It’s easy to come up with demographic, political or commercial explanations for why fashions are always changing. But golf course design is its own little world, yet we see similar cycles. People just get bored with what used to be cool and want to see something new (or very old)
For example, Seth Raynor had the contract to design Cypress Point on an exquisite site on the Monterey Peninsula, but died in 1926. So Alister MacKenzie designed Cypress Point instead in 1929: it’s the opposite of Raynor’s square greens. (I snuck onto this 15th in 1973.)
Alister MacKenzie (Cypress Point, Augusta National, Royal Melbourne) was too great of a golf course architect to have ever gone out of fashion. But designers he had seemed to render forever obsolete. like CB MacDonald, Seth Raynor, and Walter Travis are now highly chic again.
I really don’t think this is a conspiracy. I suspect it is the natural course of humanity.
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tl;dr version…
Not saying you’re wrong, but in more important business the Republicans have hung themselves by their abortion petard again tonight. Hope it was worth the trouble, boys. As the permanent minority you’re going to get much less than you ever dreamed possible.
For many American women, there is one absolute, sacred right: abortion on demand, at their own sweet will, at least up to the day before birth - oh, and...for free. Their "choice" must be publicly subsidized as a form of "health care."
These women are core Democrat voters.Replies: @The Anti-Gnostic
Republicans have for decades abdicated their responsibility to wage war within the institutions such as the academy, leaving them to be overrun and consumed by their enemies (as in the case of the academy, your enemies can pick your pocket to support their activism). The Republicans' enemies have unmitigated power to declare social and political positions "high status" or "low status," apart from the efficacy of the policy they would create. Your average midwit has a thoroughly unimpressive credential from a diploma mill but he knows that "smart" and "educated" people (he is not one but knows that it is good to impersonate one) hold positions A-B-C, not positions X-Y-Z.
Favoring any restrictions on abortion is now a low status political position. If the GOP drops that plank, its next core conviction will be equally low status.
Yup, i called out all the Republicucks on this, told em "you celebrate now all you want, savor your sackdance, because white women love killing their babies more than anything, the SC just handed the Dumbokraps electoral victories for years to come." I was right, qed lol.
Donald J. Ross, ASGCA.
Scotland Forever!
Yep.
But, hey, it’s your blog. So go nuts.
Can't wait for the chrestomathy. It's gonna be lit.
Even the stuff you’re rebelling against when you’re young will usually become part of “The Good Old Days” when you’re old.
I’m no expert, but I think miniature golf course design is immune to change. The same four or five people also seem to be playing on any course I drive by.
While you’re farting around the fringe, Elon does it again:
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/liberals-shocked-about-musks-non-woke-chatbot
After reading Steve's golf course architecture ditty for the seventh time I believe his point centers on Cypress Point, and how this "exquisite" bit of the California Coast is lost to blacks who seek a picturesque place to rest because they're so tired all the time.
Please, Men of Unz, do not comment. Don’t feed the Golf Course Architecture.
When it comes to clothing, cars, furniture and kitchens, there’s the added element of getting people to buy new stuff by making them view their current stuff as “old-fashioned”.
Same for everything. I just upgraded my Android phone. Since Microsoft infamous and very ugly ” flat design ” was launched with windows 8, it seems this disgrace would last forever and would dominate in every tech ” aesthetic ” or rather in this case, non-aesthetic.
But I’ve been very pleased to see that the new Android ( or Samsung ? ) design seems to make a return for the ” high-tech / sci-fi / futurist / aesthetic from the early 2000’s. I’m happy.
Etowah Mounds, Mississippian, c. Georgia, c. AD 1000-1550
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etowah_Indian_Mounds
“The use of fashions in thought is to distract men from their real dangers. We direct the fashionable outcry of each generation against those vices of which it is in the least danger, and fix its approval on the virtue that is nearest the vice which we are trying to make endemic. The game is to have them all running around with fire extinguishers whenever there’s a flood; and all crowding to that side of the boat which is already nearly gone under.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, though he probably wasn’t thinkning of golf course architecture
A particular style has a particular quality, like a cuisine. Over time the sensation it produces becomes familiar and dull rather than evocative. The human mind, being inherently free and creative (in its proper state), seeks escape from the limiting effects of habit and convention through the experience of new or forgotten sensations, which reveal new possibilities — a virgin territory into which we can expand and grow.
OT – behaviours and lifestyles are the same even in the Rainbow Nation.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12724145/Student-spared-jail-blowing-50-000-partying-clothes-beauty-spending-spree-South-Africa-received-850-000-instead-85-monthly-grant-mistake.html
Bring back the orphanages and the convents for wayward women.
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, though he probably wasn't thinkning of golf course architectureReplies: @SFG
I agree (look at the obsession with ‘racism’ and ‘sexism’), but now I am curious as to what Lewis was actually thinking of at the time.
https://twitter.com/kunley_drukpa/status/1720438250211356953
https://twitter.com/VP/status/1719833418869981388
What was the equivalent in Lewis's day? I dunno, maybe look at Ron's American Pravda history articles. (Though I'm not aware of Lewis saying much along these lines.)
My own opinion is that there is a natural fashion cycle as Bill P describes above, but that in practice it is almost always interfered with and manipulated by bad actors like the Sunak and Kamala crowd as described by Lewis, so Steve's idea to look at golf course architecture as a relatively pure fashion case study makes sense.
The lesson I take from Lewis’ “timeliness” is not that he was some kind of prophet who predicted the future, but rather that the problems (and curses) we are confronting are extremely long-lived already. They will not be solved by turning back the clock to an earlier, more “idyllic” time—and they may in fact be endemic to the kind of society we inhabit.
Indeed, one of the themes of The Screwtape Letters is that Modernity itself is an especially cozy abode for diabolic forces. We’re seeing it play out.Replies: @Elsewhere
Although written during WWII, I don’t think he was addressing the war in the passage quoted. His subject was the human tendency, (supported and encouraged by demonic powers) to ignore the fundamental and important —the state of one’s soul and God’s provision of Christ — to be constantly distracted by unimportant fads and fashions. They change constantly and we are constantly tempted to divert our attention to “that new thing” that is not only of no eternal value but actually harmful — crowding into the sinking part of the boat.
There is an excellent adaptation of the book made into a play currently touring in the U.S. produced by the Fellowship for Performing Arts. I saw it for a second time in September when it came to my city, where it sold out four performances on the University campus. I highly recommend it as well as another FPA production currently on tour, C.S, Lewis: Further Up, Further In.
Artists have to come up with new stuff all the time, so whatever’s hip stops being so in 10 years.
There’s also a nostalgia cycle where kids grow up into middle-aged adults and have power to get things done, so you see stuff like Stranger Things and Cobra Kai made a few years ago by people who were kids in the 80s. That one has period 30 years or so, or maybe it’s the same cycle as above over a longer time frame.
You ought to pick some golf course variable that can be turned into a number and go to one of these sites that does an online Fourier transform, which decomposes a function into a sum of sines and cosines. It doesn’t make much sense for something like the stock market that’s driven by events (though I bet you could see a cyclical pattern in LA real estate as, say, people flee the city now that the younger generation of liberals forgot about the 60s-80s crime wave), but for something like artistic fashion that’s cyclical…
Fashions don't seem to have shifted much in the 21st century. Perhaps the more tectonic shifts of mass migration and consequent multiculturalism render fashion shifts trite and therefore static and so an Ottoman-like atrophy has set in.Replies: @SFG, @TWS, @Catdompanj
All golf courses should be like the one I played on as a boy. The key ingredients are (i) it should be a links course (ii) several holes should be right on the shore line (iii) you should be able to see mountains on the other side of the briny (iv) inland, you should have a view to hills (v) trees are not necessary but you should have plenty of whins and heather around, (vi) one hole must run alongside a paddock that’s home to a small herd of donkeys.
Golly, this golf course architecture lark is a piece of cake.
“Square greens on golf courses used to be considered primitive. Why are they now considered awesome?”
Same with negroes.
It’s definitely a cycle. Some style of sensibility initially seems cutting edge, then it becomes ubiquitous as others copy it, then it’s overdone and people cast about for a new aesthetic that is often a return to something that was previously abandoned. I was just thinking about this the other day when I noticed the Nissan Pathfinder and Honda Pilot have returned to a more off-road aesthetic after years of a sleek but neutered look, not to mention the re-introduction of the Ford Bronco a couple of years ago. Same goes for fashion, there are a couple of men’s brands that are clearly taking a sort of 70s vibe.
We moderns are
a) surrounded by stuff and
b) our stuff defines us more as our connections--family/neighbor/community are weaker
So both
-- the producer wants to generate interest--and profits above commodity profits--
-- the consumer wants something that makes them feel good about themselves--i've got the new whizzy whiz and am up to date--and does not want to be a dull laggard
I wonder how much woolen fashions changed during say the 15th century? Or housing/barn/wagon/furniture/kitchen utensil?Replies: @Sollipsist
I too, but nominally he was making the opposite argument to Steve: that there actually is a conspiracy, but it is a conspiracy of demons rather than of men. Not that men (primarily in media and government, to the extent those are separate things—and separate from demons!) don’t do something similar though, blocking genuine passions and diverting them into false corridors:
What was the equivalent in Lewis’s day? I dunno, maybe look at Ron’s American Pravda history articles. (Though I’m not aware of Lewis saying much along these lines.)
My own opinion is that there is a natural fashion cycle as Bill P describes above, but that in practice it is almost always interfered with and manipulated by bad actors like the Sunak and Kamala crowd as described by Lewis, so Steve’s idea to look at golf course architecture as a relatively pure fashion case study makes sense.
There’s also a nostalgia cycle where kids grow up into middle-aged adults and have power to get things done, so you see stuff like Stranger Things and Cobra Kai made a few years ago by people who were kids in the 80s. That one has period 30 years or so, or maybe it’s the same cycle as above over a longer time frame.
You ought to pick some golf course variable that can be turned into a number and go to one of these sites that does an online Fourier transform, which decomposes a function into a sum of sines and cosines. It doesn’t make much sense for something like the stock market that’s driven by events (though I bet you could see a cyclical pattern in LA real estate as, say, people flee the city now that the younger generation of liberals forgot about the 60s-80s crime wave), but for something like artistic fashion that’s cyclical…Replies: @Almost Missouri
One may not even need to resort to golf course architecture. Consider men’s lapel widths: wide in the 1930s-1940s, narrow in the 1950s-1960s, wide in the 1970s, narrow in the 1980s, wide in the 1990s, narrow again in the 21st century.
Fashions don’t seem to have shifted much in the 21st century. Perhaps the more tectonic shifts of mass migration and consequent multiculturalism render fashion shifts trite and therefore static and so an Ottoman-like atrophy has set in.
Not to mention winter beanie hats (sans pompoms) becoming 3 season acceptable headwear, even indoors.
Steve,
You should look into how mass culture is making everyone bland out their life.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2023/07/07/hgtv-makes-homes-boring-sad/
https://www.insider.com/hgtv-is-scaring-people-about-their-decor-making-houses-boring-study-2023-7
https://nypost.com/2023/07/11/hgtv-is-steering-homeowners-into-boring-home-decor-study/
Fashions don't seem to have shifted much in the 21st century. Perhaps the more tectonic shifts of mass migration and consequent multiculturalism render fashion shifts trite and therefore static and so an Ottoman-like atrophy has set in.Replies: @SFG, @TWS, @Catdompanj
True, but this is a question Steve is uniquely qualified to answer, and he might have some fun plugging in the sizes of sand traps or something after figuring out why crime rates are going up and down.
Casting pearls before swine?
Your question, SFG, reminds me of comments in this forum a couple of years back, on Lewis’ science fiction novel That Hideous Strength. That book, too, seems more timely and on-target today than it could possibly have been when it was published (1945, IIRC), and I find myself wondering what prompted his original thoughts and visions.
The lesson I take from Lewis’ “timeliness” is not that he was some kind of prophet who predicted the future, but rather that the problems (and curses) we are confronting are extremely long-lived already. They will not be solved by turning back the clock to an earlier, more “idyllic” time—and they may in fact be endemic to the kind of society we inhabit.
Indeed, one of the themes of The Screwtape Letters is that Modernity itself is an especially cozy abode for diabolic forces. We’re seeing it play out.
Speaking of cycles, they suddenly have White guys in military ads again. They must need more effective cannon fodder.
Kurt Andersen, “You Say You Want A Devolution?” Vanity Fair, January 2012
https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/2012/1/you-say-you-want-a-devolution
Tlaib censured showing that we will not tolerate anti-Semitism
Democrats won big in the elections last night
Ukraine is winning
Israel is winning
demographics are changing
white people are being blamed for the palestinian/israeli strain
white women are giving birth to Children of Colour
economy is doing better than expected
Trump is going to jail in all likelihood
Dang it feels good being a liberal!
OT — Hm.
Top comments on the two day old upload:Best one:This is an astonishing turnaround on an institution held in popular reverence as recently as thirty months ago. The butt puckering in the Pentagon and the White House cabinet room must be awesome.
Countdown till the comments get wiped amid REEing about the horrors of "isolationism" and "antisemitism", 5 ... 4 ... 3 ...Replies: @Alden
I think this sort of psychological dynamic is hyped by the consumer marketing element IJ noted up top. The two dovetail.
We moderns are
a) surrounded by stuff and
b) our stuff defines us more as our connections–family/neighbor/community are weaker
So both
— the producer wants to generate interest–and profits above commodity profits–
— the consumer wants something that makes them feel good about themselves–i’ve got the new whizzy whiz and am up to date–and does not want to be a dull laggard
I wonder how much woolen fashions changed during say the 15th century? Or housing/barn/wagon/furniture/kitchen utensil?
Even affluent Romans -- who were certainly extravagant in many ways -- deviated in dress in only minor ways throughout the centuries of their Republic and Empire. It was thought a big deal whether you wore your tunic belted or unbelted, and getting an Emperor with a beard was an epochal event.
You can probably directly correlate the influence of fashion with the costs of textile manufacture. Of course, the increasingly globalized economy (and fewer people doing hard work) in the latter 20th Century made 'disposable' clothing a big thing, likely fashion's biggest boost.
I learned basic sewing and mending skills in Boy Scouts. I wonder if they even bother now?Replies: @Corpse Tooth
Re golf–and Steve’s walk a couple orders of magnitude more courses than I have.
1) Squares greens strike me as stupid, cheesy.
The whole appeal of golf–over playing some video game–is the aspect of being out in, enjoying and in some sense battling “nature”. A square green is fine, when you roll past the windmill. Out on the course–out of place, cheesy.
2) While there are standards, a golf course shouldn’t really be constructed from a “template”.
A golf course should strive to make use–as much as possible–of the natural terrain in a way that creates both visual and golfing “interest” during the round.
I’ll grant there are some places–like down here in Florida–where it really is a “blank canvas”. (Dredge and whack the swap to create your lakes here, your dry land there, your “creeks” here, your new “hill” over there.) But most great design will take what nature gives and make a round of great holes with it.
The other 99% are totally (or almost totally) artificial man made creations. Not just the ones dredged out of a Florida swamp but practically all of them. There is a reason why people who design golf course are called "architects" - a golf course is a built structure just as much as a house. Unless you are already on the coast of Scotland, the chances that you will find terrain that just happens to form a golf course or be anything remotely like a golf course are exceedingly small.
You are not playing in "nature" - you are playing in a man-made creation that is BETTER than nature. Nature mostly sucks - it's full of poison ivy. In most of America if you leave nature alone you'll have a forest with brambles underfoot. In the midwest you'll have a prairie with 6 foot high grass into which your golf ball would disappear instantly and the course would be as flat and featureless as a board.
A putting green that is square is no more "artificial" than any other putting green - they are all artificial. In some sense a fake "natural" shape is even more kitschy than a square because it is trying to make you feel like you are "in nature" when you are not.Replies: @Renard
The squarish greens designed and built by CBM/Banks/Raynor had largely shrunk and lost their shape prior to the restoration trend of the last 25 years. Whether it was lazy mowing practices, economizing during the depression or changing tastes, the old greens had lost whatever character that made them distinctive. The fact that basically all of their courses are old money clubs that are difficult to access adds to their mystique. Having played a few of these, they are individually wonderful courses, but very similar to each other. It gets interesting when these very similar courses compete for spots in top 100 and other lists. Is Country Club of Charleston really that much different from Yeamans Hall or Chicago Golf Club? Not really, but having 20 template in the top 100 doesn’t make any sense. Yale is the one Raynor that has the most to gain with its planned $25 million restoration. I think it will be a legitimate top 20 course in the world after Hanse gets done with it.
While Mackenzie never went of style, greens at his courses also shrunk considerably over time and have benefitted from expansion to the original footprint. The photos from the current work at Pasatiempo look fantastic. The ranking issue is relevant here too — sure, Pasatiempo and Meadow Club are not quite Augusta National and Cypress Point, but they’re also in the top 100 discussion and having them all in the top 100 may also be a stretch.
Starting when I was fourteen I caddied for a couple of years at The Camargo Club in Indian Hill, Cincinnati’s adjacent official rich-people’s town. The course is famously by Seth Raynor and much beloved, although I personally didn’t love sweating my way around its hilly layout in the swelter of July and August holding a golf bag or two.
I’d like to be able to say I came to know it like the back of my hand, but this wasn’t that kind of caddying: I was really young and knew next to nothing about golf, let alone golf-course architecture. I guess some of its features did seem strangely rectilinear…
The caddyshack culture was an odd mix of people who went to my high school, and lower-rent white and black kids from the next town over who spent a lot of their time there smoking cigarettes. Way more memorable to me than Seth Raynor’s course is the time the dirtbaggiest white kid was working with me and went out to forecaddie–and smoke–and got hit by a drive for his inattention. That and drinking cherry Cokes at the turn. Fun times.
Sleepy Hollow is a sweet little town to visit around Halloween times. Andrew Carnegie is buried there under a humble Celtic Cross. Meanwhile up the hill, lesser Rockefeller clan members are buried under massive mausoleums. The Sleepy Hollow cemetery is now filled with depressive slutty goths taking pictures of themselves for their Instagram accounts. Strange days.
http://userhome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/anthro/jbeatty/Scotia/issue66/issue66c.html
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James, Monroe, Andrew Jackson, John Tyler, James Polk, Franklin Pierce and Zachary Taylor? I know technically they are white Anglo-Saxon protestants, but the term WASP seems to have more of a New England Rockefeller feel to it.
The world would be a better place is everyone had some idiocentric interest.
Would most of the early presidents be considered WASPs?
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James, Monroe, Andrew Jackson, John Tyler, James Polk, Franklin Pierce and Zachary Taylor? I know technically they are white Anglo-Saxon protestants, but the term WASP seems to have more of a New England Rockefeller feel to it.
Apparently fads or fashions are so universal that they exist not only in all human societies but also in the animal world. In the 1980s, there was briefly a fad among orcas to wear a salmon on their head as a “hat”. This had no real function and was something that the orcas apparently picked up from each other (and after a while it got boring and they dropped it):
https://www.animalsaroundtheglobe.com/orcas-wearing-salmon-hats/
The latest trend among orcas, especially among the ones that live near the Strait of Gibraltar, is to attack boats, especially their rudders. Not just one orca but a whole pod will go after a boat and relentlessly attack it sometimes to the point where the boat sinks. Orcas weigh from 4 to 8 tons and have teeth like sharks so being attacked by a pod of orcas is no small thing. Nobody knows how these sorts of trends get started or how to stop them or why (and if) they will just run their course on their own. Of course back in the day you would stop the trend by shooting the orcas (historically orcas got along well with humans – neither saw the other as food) but now orcas are a protected species so you can’t do that.
https://www.livescience.com/animals/orcas/orcas-sink-another-boat-in-europe-after-a-nearly-hour-long-attack
1) Squares greens strike me as stupid, cheesy.
The whole appeal of golf--over playing some video game--is the aspect of being out in, enjoying and in some sense battling "nature". A square green is fine, when you roll past the windmill. Out on the course--out of place, cheesy.
2) While there are standards, a golf course shouldn't really be constructed from a "template".
A golf course should strive to make use--as much as possible--of the natural terrain in a way that creates both visual and golfing "interest" during the round.
I'll grant there are some places--like down here in Florida--where it really is a "blank canvas". (Dredge and whack the swap to create your lakes here, your dry land there, your "creeks" here, your new "hill" over there.) But most great design will take what nature gives and make a round of great holes with it.Replies: @Jack D
Ideally a golf course is located on a hilly, sandy area near the coast. You don’t build the golf course so much as you lay out the holes in the terrain that is already there. This is how the original golf courses were created. This describes approximately 1% of all golf courses.
The other 99% are totally (or almost totally) artificial man made creations. Not just the ones dredged out of a Florida swamp but practically all of them. There is a reason why people who design golf course are called “architects” – a golf course is a built structure just as much as a house. Unless you are already on the coast of Scotland, the chances that you will find terrain that just happens to form a golf course or be anything remotely like a golf course are exceedingly small.
You are not playing in “nature” – you are playing in a man-made creation that is BETTER than nature. Nature mostly sucks – it’s full of poison ivy. In most of America if you leave nature alone you’ll have a forest with brambles underfoot. In the midwest you’ll have a prairie with 6 foot high grass into which your golf ball would disappear instantly and the course would be as flat and featureless as a board.
A putting green that is square is no more “artificial” than any other putting green – they are all artificial. In some sense a fake “natural” shape is even more kitschy than a square because it is trying to make you feel like you are “in nature” when you are not.
Had a mtn house in Blowing Rock, NC for 30+ yrs, sold it recently. Everyone assumed that Donald Ross designed the CC Course back in the 1910s. Well, sorta. Turned out Seth Raynor was the chief designer. DR oversaw its construction and made a few approved changes.
Ellis Maples did a re-design 20+ years ago, removing the most unique hole, #5, where you had to drive over US 321. 277 yds, par 4. If you sliced the drive, the ball wound up 1,500′ below.
Mr Raynor is very unappreciated, sadly. Headed to Amazon to buy the book.
https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,71470.msg1717702.html#msg1717702
Steve’s fixation on golf course architecture is just another manifestation of the Systemic Sizeism of American society. There is a rich, diverse tradition of miniature golf course architecture which Steve ignores due to his ingrained Size Privilege. Stop Golf Hate!
https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/experience/america/2017/09/12/historic-unusual-miniature-golf-courses/654831001/
We moderns are
a) surrounded by stuff and
b) our stuff defines us more as our connections--family/neighbor/community are weaker
So both
-- the producer wants to generate interest--and profits above commodity profits--
-- the consumer wants something that makes them feel good about themselves--i've got the new whizzy whiz and am up to date--and does not want to be a dull laggard
I wonder how much woolen fashions changed during say the 15th century? Or housing/barn/wagon/furniture/kitchen utensil?Replies: @Sollipsist
I doubt there was much in the way of ‘changing fashion’ for the vast majority of people throughout the vast majority of human history.
Even affluent Romans — who were certainly extravagant in many ways — deviated in dress in only minor ways throughout the centuries of their Republic and Empire. It was thought a big deal whether you wore your tunic belted or unbelted, and getting an Emperor with a beard was an epochal event.
You can probably directly correlate the influence of fashion with the costs of textile manufacture. Of course, the increasingly globalized economy (and fewer people doing hard work) in the latter 20th Century made ‘disposable’ clothing a big thing, likely fashion’s biggest boost.
I learned basic sewing and mending skills in Boy Scouts. I wonder if they even bother now?
You know there are other effluent empires: Babylonian, Neo-Babylonian, Akkadian, Britannic, Dacian, Holy Roman, Fu-Manchu's Invisible Empire, Astro-Hungarian, The Imperium, Assyrian, Romulan.Replies: @Sollipsist
Alas, the sand trap study would not be appreciated by the gurus of the new york times.
Casting pearls before swine?
What with Jewish Americans seemingly shocked that they are also evil whites in the eyes of their beloved golem, will they ease back on their lawfare assaults on the Second Amendment so that we can protect ourselves with lethal force when the saintly golem go berserk?Replies: @The Germ Theory of Disease
Humans have short attention spans and need constant distraction to keep them amused. Bread and circuses (and square greens).
But, hey, it's your blog. So go nuts.Replies: @Anonymous, @R.G. Camara
It is like the prison gang leader sporadically ordering a public beatdown on some random new fish on the chain; notice to the cell block: “Sometimes I blog at length about golf courses”
“If you guys don’t stop whining about murdering children then my Team Swamp Repubs can’t win! How are we going to fund Israel and lower marginal corporate tax rates and help the Deep State steal elections if you losers keep being moral! The outrage!”
I’m not here to help your team win, son. I’m here to fight evil.
Democrats won big in the elections last night
Ukraine is winning
Israel is winning
demographics are changing
white people are being blamed for the palestinian/israeli strain
white women are giving birth to Children of Colour
economy is doing better than expected
Trump is going to jail in all likelihood
Dang it feels good being a liberal!Replies: @Renard
First time I remember seeing you throw other liberals under the bus for not being Zionist enough! Interesting that you support the (“white”) Israelis and not the (“brown”) Palestinians.
(To unzie spergs, the colors are in parentheses and quotes for good reason.)
Is Tiny Duck jewish? Or just an MSM parrot?
Boredom, adjustments, and thinking outside the box.
Even though Babe Ruth and the 1927 Yankees proved thhat and 3-run home runs win best and bring in the most fans, a two generations later later we had only one guy in the AL (Carl Yastremski) hit over 300 (.301), with pitching and base stealing being dominant again. Pitchers had adjusted to free swinging, larger spacious ball parks had been built to replace the older, tinier ones (Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, etc.), and artificial turf allowed more speed on the basepaths.
Plus smarter scouts had realized that while everyone was desperately throwing bonuses at big raw kids with power that a lot of speedsters with good fundamentals were basically free of charge. Yes, you’d rather have all the big homerun hitters but if you stacked a team with enough basestealers they could collectively outdo a team with a few bangers and a lot of wannabes.
“Speed don’t have slumps.”
Plus the old ways had been forgotten. Teams had stopped drilling about picking guys off/throwing out base stealers/ playing the bunt because the threat was gone. So base stealers found it easy pickings.
I remember as a kid I learned how to bunt really well enough to get base hits out of it and easily steal second. Why? Because coaches and kids my age were too interested in hitting for power than defending against guys playing base to base. I broke out of many a slump with that. I could confidently bunt for a hit and steal second on two pitches, so basically a double.
But had I been playing in the 1960s or 1910s I would have never made it to 1st.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMEylcp7E7s
Don't be Bill Buckner!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-8DQhrZS3A
Perfect pitch for Posada to make the throw, but hardly any throw to the wrong side of the bag will get a true base stealer.Replies: @heywood
The other 99% are totally (or almost totally) artificial man made creations. Not just the ones dredged out of a Florida swamp but practically all of them. There is a reason why people who design golf course are called "architects" - a golf course is a built structure just as much as a house. Unless you are already on the coast of Scotland, the chances that you will find terrain that just happens to form a golf course or be anything remotely like a golf course are exceedingly small.
You are not playing in "nature" - you are playing in a man-made creation that is BETTER than nature. Nature mostly sucks - it's full of poison ivy. In most of America if you leave nature alone you'll have a forest with brambles underfoot. In the midwest you'll have a prairie with 6 foot high grass into which your golf ball would disappear instantly and the course would be as flat and featureless as a board.
A putting green that is square is no more "artificial" than any other putting green - they are all artificial. In some sense a fake "natural" shape is even more kitschy than a square because it is trying to make you feel like you are "in nature" when you are not.Replies: @Renard
Now who would have guessed you’d feel this way.
“farting around the fringe”
After reading Steve’s golf course architecture ditty for the seventh time I believe his point centers on Cypress Point, and how this “exquisite” bit of the California Coast is lost to blacks who seek a picturesque place to rest because they’re so tired all the time.
do you know much about grass? you never mention that part. the biggest part of the course.
as far as i can tell, all the grass used on all the courses are cultivars – mutant grasses created within the last 60 years. there might be a few US courses which use native grass either sparingly or extensively, but they would have to be exceedingly rare. US native grass actually sucks, and was ditched a long time ago. almost all the grass everywhere in America today is imported from some other continent or a mutant strain from an agriculture lab. yes of course, the standard qualification applies – pale penis persons sourced and created 99% of them. Kentucky Bluegrass is not from Kentucky, or even America.
i know you’re big into measuring progress or decline over time, so if you’re not yet into grass, check it out. professional golfers have demanded faster greens for years, so agriculture guys have been swapping out the grass on the greens that used to be there 20 to 80 years ago. and putting in new grass that can be cut progressively lower and lower. lately they’ve been swapping out existing grass strains for new cultivars that can survive less water.
grass on greens used to be cut around 0.3 inches, then it moved down to 0.2 inches, now it’s just over 0.1 inches. this requires mutant grass – Zoysia that can live at 0.1 inches and accept 50% of the water. stimpmeter speeds should have increased steadily during this transition. another thing in competitive golf to measure, besides drives. building a new green still takes 2 years minimum, and cannot really be done faster than that.
Lol
Even affluent Romans -- who were certainly extravagant in many ways -- deviated in dress in only minor ways throughout the centuries of their Republic and Empire. It was thought a big deal whether you wore your tunic belted or unbelted, and getting an Emperor with a beard was an epochal event.
You can probably directly correlate the influence of fashion with the costs of textile manufacture. Of course, the increasingly globalized economy (and fewer people doing hard work) in the latter 20th Century made 'disposable' clothing a big thing, likely fashion's biggest boost.
I learned basic sewing and mending skills in Boy Scouts. I wonder if they even bother now?Replies: @Corpse Tooth
“Even affluent Romans …”
You know there are other effluent empires: Babylonian, Neo-Babylonian, Akkadian, Britannic, Dacian, Holy Roman, Fu-Manchu’s Invisible Empire, Astro-Hungarian, The Imperium, Assyrian, Romulan.
Fashions don't seem to have shifted much in the 21st century. Perhaps the more tectonic shifts of mass migration and consequent multiculturalism render fashion shifts trite and therefore static and so an Ottoman-like atrophy has set in.Replies: @SFG, @TWS, @Catdompanj
I’ve wondered about that. I think simplification was part of it. My great gr grandfather’s suit was far more complicated than his son’s and my grandfather’s suit is basically the same as my own.
Well, yeah.
For many American women, there is one absolute, sacred right: abortion on demand, at their own sweet will, at least up to the day before birth – oh, and…for free. Their “choice” must be publicly subsidized as a form of “health care.”
These women are core Democrat voters.
“Israelis, arm yourselves.”
What with Jewish Americans seemingly shocked that they are also evil whites in the eyes of their beloved golem, will they ease back on their lawfare assaults on the Second Amendment so that we can protect ourselves with lethal force when the saintly golem go berserk?
Nope. Not a chance.
Minecraft.
Now that’s our kind of intersectionality!
Ellis Maples did a re-design 20+ years ago, removing the most unique hole, #5, where you had to drive over US 321. 277 yds, par 4. If you sliced the drive, the ball wound up 1,500' below.
Mr Raynor is very unappreciated, sadly. Headed to Amazon to buy the book.Replies: @ex-banker
Golf Club Atlas thread on the course and restoration efforts:
https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,71470.msg1717702.html#msg1717702
One is hoisted, not hanged, by one’s petard.
For many American women, there is one absolute, sacred right: abortion on demand, at their own sweet will, at least up to the day before birth - oh, and...for free. Their "choice" must be publicly subsidized as a form of "health care."
These women are core Democrat voters.Replies: @The Anti-Gnostic
At this point, my position is if your enemies are removing themselves from the gene pool why stop them.
The major industry of America is warfare. It really can’t be outsourced to Ooooga boooga land. And it can’t be automated much more.,
Outlawing abortion means many more unemployed young people in about 20 years., The southern states, always the poorest and the biggest supplier of cannon fodder were the very first states to outlaw abortion.
Tobacco cotton fruit pecans catfish chicken pork and cannon fodder are the main products of the south. Outlaw abortion in those states and production of cannon fodder increases.
High-quality women are not getting abortions. Unfortunately, they are not getting married and not getting pregnant, either. It's all connected.
I think fashions in matters such as golf course architecture route in cycles because humans are copy-cats; a true gifted mind makes something awe-inspiring, and then it is copied in a series of less impressive derivative iterations until the essence of the original in its copies becomes mundane. Then another gifted mind makes something distinct and equally awe-inspiring, and the trend of derivative iterations progresses until another point when the cycle repeats. Eventually, one of the former originals becomes new and awe-inspiring again in contrast with the current derivative iterations of another popular design. Rinse, rather and repeat.
In consumer goods such as clothing I think fashion cycles, and often in extremes, because clothing manufacturers want to sell more product. If cargo jeans were “in” for thirty years, one imagines that the jean manufacturers would not have sold quite so many jeans during that period as they have. What we see in practice is that the fashion reaches a saturation point (even the nerds wear cargo jeans), so all of a sudden you begin to see famous people wearing unadorned, straight legged jeans. Now a drawer full of cargo jeans in perfectly good repair are obsolete for aesthetic and social reasons while being perfectly practically useful for their purpose, nevertheless requiring that the consumer buy a bunch of new jeans to replace them.
Fashion never comes to rest in an equilibrium.
If each wants what all want, an equilibrium results.
If each wants what some others want, but doesn’t want what most others want, the fashionable choice constantly changes.
The lesson I take from Lewis’ “timeliness” is not that he was some kind of prophet who predicted the future, but rather that the problems (and curses) we are confronting are extremely long-lived already. They will not be solved by turning back the clock to an earlier, more “idyllic” time—and they may in fact be endemic to the kind of society we inhabit.
Indeed, one of the themes of The Screwtape Letters is that Modernity itself is an especially cozy abode for diabolic forces. We’re seeing it play out.Replies: @Elsewhere
I’ve got to second That Hideous Strength. Although it is the third book of the Space Trilogy, it really can be read on its own. The story has a young academic couple unknowingly drift apart as the husband is caught up more and more by “the progressive element” while the wife is discovering traditional spirituality.
https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1721894034405507171Replies: @Almost Missouri
The comments on the Army’s YouTube upload of that ad are gratifyingly—and uniformly [heh]—skeptical.
Top comments on the two day old upload:
Best one:
This is an astonishing turnaround on an institution held in popular reverence as recently as thirty months ago. The butt puckering in the Pentagon and the White House cabinet room must be awesome.
Countdown till the comments get wiped amid REEing about the horrors of “isolationism” and “antisemitism”, 5 … 4 … 3 …
But, hey, it's your blog. So go nuts.Replies: @Anonymous, @R.G. Camara
It wouldn’t be a Steve Sailer blog without at least a smattering of posts on golf course architecture every month.
Can’t wait for the chrestomathy. It’s gonna be lit.
You can and will substitute any one of a half dozen red herring issues for “abortion” in the near future.
Republicans have for decades abdicated their responsibility to wage war within the institutions such as the academy, leaving them to be overrun and consumed by their enemies (as in the case of the academy, your enemies can pick your pocket to support their activism). The Republicans’ enemies have unmitigated power to declare social and political positions “high status” or “low status,” apart from the efficacy of the policy they would create. Your average midwit has a thoroughly unimpressive credential from a diploma mill but he knows that “smart” and “educated” people (he is not one but knows that it is good to impersonate one) hold positions A-B-C, not positions X-Y-Z.
Favoring any restrictions on abortion is now a low status political position. If the GOP drops that plank, its next core conviction will be equally low status.
My opinion on the overturning of Roe vs Wade.
The major industry of America is warfare. It really can’t be outsourced to Ooooga boooga land. And it can’t be automated much more.,
Outlawing abortion means many more unemployed young people in about 20 years., The southern states, always the poorest and the biggest supplier of cannon fodder were the very first states to outlaw abortion.
Tobacco cotton fruit pecans catfish chicken pork and cannon fodder are the main products of the south. Outlaw abortion in those states and production of cannon fodder increases.
Top comments on the two day old upload:Best one:This is an astonishing turnaround on an institution held in popular reverence as recently as thirty months ago. The butt puckering in the Pentagon and the White House cabinet room must be awesome.
Countdown till the comments get wiped amid REEing about the horrors of "isolationism" and "antisemitism", 5 ... 4 ... 3 ...Replies: @Alden
Loved the comments thanks for posting.
Same with negroes.Replies: @Muggles
I disagree. Your golf cart is just as safe from theft on a square green as on any other kind.
My petard is always in the shop. I guess I need to buy a new one…
Precisely so.
There is, now, an unbeatable coalition of folks for whom the absolute right to kill one’s unborn babies is the only thing that really matters.
Not any more.
Even pro-life radio guy Jesse Kelly, sadly surveying the results, bluntly admitted it: "Americans love their abortions." Ann Coulter noted that pro-life absolutists who cannot morally accept some compromise stance are actually getting more babies killed. (Of course when does the left ever compromise on anything?")
“Not saying you’re wrong, but in more important business the Republicans have hung themselves by their abortion petard again tonight.”
Yup, i called out all the Republicucks on this, told em “you celebrate now all you want, savor your sackdance, because white women love killing their babies more than anything, the SC just handed the Dumbokraps electoral victories for years to come.” I was right, qed lol.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12724145/Student-spared-jail-blowing-50-000-partying-clothes-beauty-spending-spree-South-Africa-received-850-000-instead-85-monthly-grant-mistake.html
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/11/08/08/77545767-12724145-image-a-3_1699432473089.jpgReplies: @kaganovitch, @Dave from Oz
Now that’s who I want doing my accounting! I see a bright future for this woman.
I think they may be making some kind of statement about immigration.
If I had any power, I would shut the mouthes of Republican hopefuls, save to command that abortion, having been solved by the recent Supreme Court decision, is off limits, DO NOT DO WHAT LINDSAY DID.
There is, now, an unbeatable coalition of folks for whom the absolute right to kill one's unborn babies is the only thing that really matters.Replies: @vinteuil, @Known Fact
I mean, once upon a time, the highest aspiration of girls was to find a worthy mate and start pumping out the little ones.
Not any more.
The golf course posts might be the best posts here.
My favorite announcer, John Madden, could probably have been a scratch golfer if he had the time (he spent many high school afternoons at the urban course in San Francisco, of all places); my favorite author (and a former neighbor, if living a twenty minute bike ride away makes you a neighbor) P.G. Wodehouse was at his best and happiest on the golf course, and of course all – not some, but all – the good presidents of my lifetime have loved golf (Eisenhower).
That being said, no real golfer likes those square greens — they are for the rich people with no taste, for the gullible clowns who read magazines published in New York City.
Oh, good, an opportunity to infodump. My aesthetic topic is airport carpeting.
WARNING: This is a extremely long post that many if not most people around here will find insanely boring. Do not operate heavy machinery while reading this comment.
When it opened on April 15, 1971, the Tampa airport was considered the most modern such facility in the world.
It was the first airport to incorporate a “people-mover” train system to move passengers from the “landside” (ticketing/baggage claim) to the “airside” (boarding gates).
It was also one of the first airports to feature wall-to-wall carpeting and “indirect” (dark) lighting.
A red rug atop a gray carpet:
The director of the Miami airport immediately set about copying all of Tampa’s innovations. It took a while, but by the early ’80s the entire airport had been remodeled with “timpani green” carpeting accented by (ghastly) brown-orange rugs. A spiffy new “people-mover” system was shuttling passengers back and forth to the international satellite terminal.
The satellite terminal featured purple (!) carpeting and boasted the first-ever airport McDonald’s. (Naturally, the McDonald’s had wall-to-wall carpeting, as well.)
1959:
1970:
1981 (Reagan has just fired all of the striking air-traffic controllers, but unfortunately he can’t fire the person who selected that ghastly color for the rugs):
1984 (not even Don Johnson can make the ghastly rugs look cool):
1988 (ghastly rugs remain a blight upon the landscape):
1989 (the ghastly rugs are gone forever, thank God):
1991:
In the fall of 1991, the Pan Am ticketing area was completely remodeled with blue (!) carpet. They replaced the little square lights with little round (!) lights.
Pan Am used the new counters for only a couple of months before going out of business. United took over a good chunk of that area.
1995 (the purple carpeting in the satellite terminal is still hanging on):
By 1996, the American international ticket counters had been remodeled in the same manner as the former Pan Am counters, with little round lights replacing the little square lights, but with timpani-green carpet. The American domestic counters remained the same.
Little round lights for international travelers:
Little square lights for domestic travelers:
Big (!) round lights for everyone:
By 2001, wall-to-wall carpeting and indirect lighting were seen as hopelessly passe. The good folks in charge of the Miami airport finally began remodeling the terminal. They removed most of the carpet that had been glued to the 1959-era terrazzo floor.
The areas of the terminal that had been built since the early ’70s remained fully carpeted – because nobody wanted to walk on bare concrete.
After a twenty-year run, timpani-green was abandoned as the dominant carpet color in favor of blue with yellow squiggly lines.
Improved lighting for airport shoppers:
In a major design error, the concessions in the 1959 portion of the terminal were placed next to the curbside entrances, while the ticket counters were positioned next to the entrances to the concourses. The passenger flow has been screwed up from day one.
Miami is one of the few airports that still has a large number of shops and restaurants in the pre-security ticketing area.
The Helvetica ticket-counter labels were removed around 2005:
As late as 2015, you could still see numerous “label scars” on the “rim” above the ticket counters in some areas of the terminal. I distinctly remember seeing a ghostly “Northwest” label scar several years that airline had ceased to exist.
Then, in the late spring/early summer of 2008, the managers of the airport undertook a drastic renovation that completely destroyed the ambience of the terminal. They replaced most of the little round lights and all of the little square lights with big (!) bright square lights.
When I first saw the big square lights, I was horrified. It was a dark (bright) day.
Ironically, one of the newer part of the terminal retained the old little round lights for the better part of a decade.
Alas, in 2016, all of the little round lights were replaced by little *bright* round lights.
Currently, the darkest part of the terminal is the American ticketing area, which was completely redone in 2009. That area features “strips” of light reminiscent of the original 1959 terminal design. There are some little *bright* round lights scattered throughout this area, but the effect is not quite as garish:
As of this writing, nearly all of the carpeting at the airport has been replaced with some type of terrazzo flooring. I believe that the entire ticketing area has been de-carpeted.
AFAIK, the only area of the terminal that still features wall-to-wall carpeting is the “moving walkway” on the third level. Skip to 4:15:
I could write much more, but I think you get the point.
The exact same area of the terminal (the juncture between old Concourses C and D) as photographed in 1959, 1988, 2008, and 2015:
In the mid-2000s, Concourses B and C were demolished, and Concourses A and D were consolidated into a new Super-D.
One final note: the Tampa airport has been mostly de-carpeted, as well:
But the invention of Blue LED giving birth to the white led I presume will give interior designers far more design choices when the future arrives and TPTB decide that design obsolescence has finally arrived.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCcDirIZ9lQReplies: @Stan Adams
There has been no revolution until everyone gets to play Cypress Point. Get 9n it Antifans.
What did Lindsay do?
Sounds gross.
Every abortion is eugenic, when you think about it.
High-quality women are not getting abortions. Unfortunately, they are not getting married and not getting pregnant, either. It’s all connected.
I wonder if baseball outfields could be made to roll faster the way golf greens have become faster? Baseball would be more fun if more line drives that are currently cut off for singles roll to the fence for doubles and triples.
My favorite announcer, John Madden, could probably have been a scratch golfer if he had the time (he spent many high school afternoons at the urban course in San Francisco, of all places); my favorite author (and a former neighbor, if living a twenty minute bike ride away makes you a neighbor) P.G. Wodehouse was at his best and happiest on the golf course, and of course all - not some, but all - the good presidents of my lifetime have loved golf (Eisenhower).
That being said, no real golfer likes those square greens --- they are for the rich people with no taste, for the gullible clowns who read magazines published in New York City.Replies: @Wendy K. Kroy
Very well done. Thanks.
WARNING: This is a extremely long post that many if not most people around here will find insanely boring. Do not operate heavy machinery while reading this comment.
When it opened on April 15, 1971, the Tampa airport was considered the most modern such facility in the world.
It was the first airport to incorporate a "people-mover" train system to move passengers from the "landside" (ticketing/baggage claim) to the "airside" (boarding gates).
It was also one of the first airports to feature wall-to-wall carpeting and "indirect" (dark) lighting.
https://i.ibb.co/jMz8mYc/transfer-level-concessions-adj-950-bar-orig.jpg
A red rug atop a gray carpet:
https://i.ibb.co/HpZdDrK/ticketing-level-passenger-seating-1971-adj-950-bar-reduced-quality-orig.jpg
The director of the Miami airport immediately set about copying all of Tampa's innovations. It took a while, but by the early '80s the entire airport had been remodeled with "timpani green" carpeting accented by (ghastly) brown-orange rugs. A spiffy new "people-mover" system was shuttling passengers back and forth to the international satellite terminal.
The satellite terminal featured purple (!) carpeting and boasted the first-ever airport McDonald's. (Naturally, the McDonald's had wall-to-wall carpeting, as well.)
1959:
https://i.ibb.co/W6WLwy8/1960.jpg
1970:
https://i.ibb.co/4MnJnL9/1970.jpg
1981 (Reagan has just fired all of the striking air-traffic controllers, but unfortunately he can't fire the person who selected that ghastly color for the rugs):
https://i.ibb.co/42fFv17/1981.jpg
1984 (not even Don Johnson can make the ghastly rugs look cool):
https://i.ibb.co/BCKPXWK/1984-11-26.jpg
1988 (ghastly rugs remain a blight upon the landscape):
https://i.ibb.co/X87mJp1/1987.jpg
1989 (the ghastly rugs are gone forever, thank God):
https://i.ibb.co/kHd9VxS/1989.jpg
1991:
https://i.ibb.co/PwQJx0Y/1991-03.jpg
In the fall of 1991, the Pan Am ticketing area was completely remodeled with blue (!) carpet. They replaced the little square lights with little round (!) lights.
Pan Am used the new counters for only a couple of months before going out of business. United took over a good chunk of that area.
https://i.ibb.co/bzcb12y/1991-12a.png
https://i.ibb.co/1GXqV7r/1991-12b.png
1995 (the purple carpeting in the satellite terminal is still hanging on):
https://i.ibb.co/qx07by4/1995-01-02.png
By 1996, the American international ticket counters had been remodeled in the same manner as the former Pan Am counters, with little round lights replacing the little square lights, but with timpani-green carpet. The American domestic counters remained the same.
Little round lights for international travelers:
https://i.ibb.co/4YpXkGz/1997-02a.png
Little square lights for domestic travelers:
https://i.ibb.co/7QXD96Y/1997a.png
Big (!) round lights for everyone:
https://i.ibb.co/rtNrd9Q/1997-02b.png
By 2001, wall-to-wall carpeting and indirect lighting were seen as hopelessly passe. The good folks in charge of the Miami airport finally began remodeling the terminal. They removed most of the carpet that had been glued to the 1959-era terrazzo floor.
https://i.ibb.co/GRkntYf/2004-07-01-3472.jpg
The areas of the terminal that had been built since the early '70s remained fully carpeted - because nobody wanted to walk on bare concrete.
After a twenty-year run, timpani-green was abandoned as the dominant carpet color in favor of blue with yellow squiggly lines.
https://i.ibb.co/55gtLGw/2004-07-01-3467.jpg
Improved lighting for airport shoppers:
https://i.ibb.co/v44p35w/2008-03-01-9574.jpg
In a major design error, the concessions in the 1959 portion of the terminal were placed next to the curbside entrances, while the ticket counters were positioned next to the entrances to the concourses. The passenger flow has been screwed up from day one.
Miami is one of the few airports that still has a large number of shops and restaurants in the pre-security ticketing area.
The Helvetica ticket-counter labels were removed around 2005:
https://i.ibb.co/HxMFcpb/2004-07-01-3482.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/42wLZXZ/2007-02-14-3487.jpg
As late as 2015, you could still see numerous "label scars" on the "rim" above the ticket counters in some areas of the terminal. I distinctly remember seeing a ghostly "Northwest" label scar several years that airline had ceased to exist.
Then, in the late spring/early summer of 2008, the managers of the airport undertook a drastic renovation that completely destroyed the ambience of the terminal. They replaced most of the little round lights and all of the little square lights with big (!) bright square lights.
https://i.ibb.co/nLMxLgk/2007-02-14-3489.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/stZfmSW/2013-04-11-Club-America-Miami-Airport01.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/BVhnBxM/2008-03-01-9576.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/GcWP435/2013-04-11-Club-America-Miami-Airport02.jpg
When I first saw the big square lights, I was horrified. It was a dark (bright) day.
Ironically, one of the newer part of the terminal retained the old little round lights for the better part of a decade.
https://i.ibb.co/Jsmzjjn/os4d45.jpg
Alas, in 2016, all of the little round lights were replaced by little *bright* round lights.
Currently, the darkest part of the terminal is the American ticketing area, which was completely redone in 2009. That area features "strips" of light reminiscent of the original 1959 terminal design. There are some little *bright* round lights scattered throughout this area, but the effect is not quite as garish:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afbYworHWGw
As of this writing, nearly all of the carpeting at the airport has been replaced with some type of terrazzo flooring. I believe that the entire ticketing area has been de-carpeted.
AFAIK, the only area of the terminal that still features wall-to-wall carpeting is the "moving walkway" on the third level. Skip to 4:15:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCTSfooGfz8
I could write much more, but I think you get the point.
The exact same area of the terminal (the juncture between old Concourses C and D) as photographed in 1959, 1988, 2008, and 2015:
https://i.ibb.co/W6WLwy8/1960.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/ZN5dL0f/1989.png
https://i.ibb.co/ZKJbtng/2008-03-01-9579.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/q11Sc4q/2015-02-12.png
In the mid-2000s, Concourses B and C were demolished, and Concourses A and D were consolidated into a new Super-D.
One final note: the Tampa airport has been mostly de-carpeted, as well:
https://i.ibb.co/PhLNXVt/download-2.jpgReplies: @Wendy K. Kroy, @Joe Stalin
Very interesting. Thanks.
WARNING: This is a extremely long post that many if not most people around here will find insanely boring. Do not operate heavy machinery while reading this comment.
When it opened on April 15, 1971, the Tampa airport was considered the most modern such facility in the world.
It was the first airport to incorporate a "people-mover" train system to move passengers from the "landside" (ticketing/baggage claim) to the "airside" (boarding gates).
It was also one of the first airports to feature wall-to-wall carpeting and "indirect" (dark) lighting.
https://i.ibb.co/jMz8mYc/transfer-level-concessions-adj-950-bar-orig.jpg
A red rug atop a gray carpet:
https://i.ibb.co/HpZdDrK/ticketing-level-passenger-seating-1971-adj-950-bar-reduced-quality-orig.jpg
The director of the Miami airport immediately set about copying all of Tampa's innovations. It took a while, but by the early '80s the entire airport had been remodeled with "timpani green" carpeting accented by (ghastly) brown-orange rugs. A spiffy new "people-mover" system was shuttling passengers back and forth to the international satellite terminal.
The satellite terminal featured purple (!) carpeting and boasted the first-ever airport McDonald's. (Naturally, the McDonald's had wall-to-wall carpeting, as well.)
1959:
https://i.ibb.co/W6WLwy8/1960.jpg
1970:
https://i.ibb.co/4MnJnL9/1970.jpg
1981 (Reagan has just fired all of the striking air-traffic controllers, but unfortunately he can't fire the person who selected that ghastly color for the rugs):
https://i.ibb.co/42fFv17/1981.jpg
1984 (not even Don Johnson can make the ghastly rugs look cool):
https://i.ibb.co/BCKPXWK/1984-11-26.jpg
1988 (ghastly rugs remain a blight upon the landscape):
https://i.ibb.co/X87mJp1/1987.jpg
1989 (the ghastly rugs are gone forever, thank God):
https://i.ibb.co/kHd9VxS/1989.jpg
1991:
https://i.ibb.co/PwQJx0Y/1991-03.jpg
In the fall of 1991, the Pan Am ticketing area was completely remodeled with blue (!) carpet. They replaced the little square lights with little round (!) lights.
Pan Am used the new counters for only a couple of months before going out of business. United took over a good chunk of that area.
https://i.ibb.co/bzcb12y/1991-12a.png
https://i.ibb.co/1GXqV7r/1991-12b.png
1995 (the purple carpeting in the satellite terminal is still hanging on):
https://i.ibb.co/qx07by4/1995-01-02.png
By 1996, the American international ticket counters had been remodeled in the same manner as the former Pan Am counters, with little round lights replacing the little square lights, but with timpani-green carpet. The American domestic counters remained the same.
Little round lights for international travelers:
https://i.ibb.co/4YpXkGz/1997-02a.png
Little square lights for domestic travelers:
https://i.ibb.co/7QXD96Y/1997a.png
Big (!) round lights for everyone:
https://i.ibb.co/rtNrd9Q/1997-02b.png
By 2001, wall-to-wall carpeting and indirect lighting were seen as hopelessly passe. The good folks in charge of the Miami airport finally began remodeling the terminal. They removed most of the carpet that had been glued to the 1959-era terrazzo floor.
https://i.ibb.co/GRkntYf/2004-07-01-3472.jpg
The areas of the terminal that had been built since the early '70s remained fully carpeted - because nobody wanted to walk on bare concrete.
After a twenty-year run, timpani-green was abandoned as the dominant carpet color in favor of blue with yellow squiggly lines.
https://i.ibb.co/55gtLGw/2004-07-01-3467.jpg
Improved lighting for airport shoppers:
https://i.ibb.co/v44p35w/2008-03-01-9574.jpg
In a major design error, the concessions in the 1959 portion of the terminal were placed next to the curbside entrances, while the ticket counters were positioned next to the entrances to the concourses. The passenger flow has been screwed up from day one.
Miami is one of the few airports that still has a large number of shops and restaurants in the pre-security ticketing area.
The Helvetica ticket-counter labels were removed around 2005:
https://i.ibb.co/HxMFcpb/2004-07-01-3482.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/42wLZXZ/2007-02-14-3487.jpg
As late as 2015, you could still see numerous "label scars" on the "rim" above the ticket counters in some areas of the terminal. I distinctly remember seeing a ghostly "Northwest" label scar several years that airline had ceased to exist.
Then, in the late spring/early summer of 2008, the managers of the airport undertook a drastic renovation that completely destroyed the ambience of the terminal. They replaced most of the little round lights and all of the little square lights with big (!) bright square lights.
https://i.ibb.co/nLMxLgk/2007-02-14-3489.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/stZfmSW/2013-04-11-Club-America-Miami-Airport01.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/BVhnBxM/2008-03-01-9576.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/GcWP435/2013-04-11-Club-America-Miami-Airport02.jpg
When I first saw the big square lights, I was horrified. It was a dark (bright) day.
Ironically, one of the newer part of the terminal retained the old little round lights for the better part of a decade.
https://i.ibb.co/Jsmzjjn/os4d45.jpg
Alas, in 2016, all of the little round lights were replaced by little *bright* round lights.
Currently, the darkest part of the terminal is the American ticketing area, which was completely redone in 2009. That area features "strips" of light reminiscent of the original 1959 terminal design. There are some little *bright* round lights scattered throughout this area, but the effect is not quite as garish:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afbYworHWGw
As of this writing, nearly all of the carpeting at the airport has been replaced with some type of terrazzo flooring. I believe that the entire ticketing area has been de-carpeted.
AFAIK, the only area of the terminal that still features wall-to-wall carpeting is the "moving walkway" on the third level. Skip to 4:15:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCTSfooGfz8
I could write much more, but I think you get the point.
The exact same area of the terminal (the juncture between old Concourses C and D) as photographed in 1959, 1988, 2008, and 2015:
https://i.ibb.co/W6WLwy8/1960.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/ZN5dL0f/1989.png
https://i.ibb.co/ZKJbtng/2008-03-01-9579.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/q11Sc4q/2015-02-12.png
In the mid-2000s, Concourses B and C were demolished, and Concourses A and D were consolidated into a new Super-D.
One final note: the Tampa airport has been mostly de-carpeted, as well:
https://i.ibb.co/PhLNXVt/download-2.jpgReplies: @Wendy K. Kroy, @Joe Stalin
I like the young lady peering between her legs in the mini-skirt in the 1984 pics.
But the invention of Blue LED giving birth to the white led I presume will give interior designers far more design choices when the future arrives and TPTB decide that design obsolescence has finally arrived.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liAgavAtdyc
The portion from 3:52 to 4:48 was not filmed at the airport. I'm not sure about the part filmed inside the restaurant. The "Ice Cream Shoppe" was, indeed, located in the terminal, near the hotel across from the entrance to Concourse E.
I think it's a Subway now. IIRC that Subway is the only 24-hour restaurant at MIA. You can smell the bread when they bake the buns.
Don Johnson is reading the sports section of the Miami Herald from November 26, 1984. This must have been filmed on or around that date. The episode aired on NBC on January 4, 1985.
This would have been the Monday after Thanksgiving, three days after Doug Flutie's legendary Hail Mary pass enabled Boston College's last-second victory over the Miami Hurricanes.
The top story is a preview of the upcoming Dolphins-Jets matchup on Monday Night Football. The Dolphins beat the Jets that night. They went on to clinch the AFC Championship but lost the Super Bowl to the 49ers. Dan Marino never got that ring.
And Philip Michael Thomas never hit the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) quadfecta that he always talked about.
After Miami Vice his career went nowhere fast. In the mid-'90s he made a series of cringe-worthy infomercials for the "Philip Michael Thomas International Psychic Network":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmT19YFy4mc
Dionne Warwick ended up suing him. She accused him of piggybacking on her Psychic Friends scam.
After that he dropped off the face of the earth.
The movie Miami Rhapsody features a scene shot in the exact same area of the airport. By that time (mid-'90s) an American Airlines ticketing booth had been built in the area where Don Johnson had been sitting.
https://i.ibb.co/X47MZC9/1994z3.png
There's something strangely comforting about airport stores with generic names. Plain, simple "Newsstand" has a nicer ring than Hudson News or NewsLink or (God forbid) CNN Newsstand.
https://i.ibb.co/B6gMkYQ/1994z23.png
I was trying hard not to make a joke about Sarah Jessica Parker's physical appearance. I'll confine myself to a quick mention that, a few years later, Antonio Banderas starred as a legendary horseman in The Mask of Zorro.
The same newsstand in 2007, after the shopping area had been remodeled. By that time the generic (non-Hudson News/NewsLink) newsstands had all been renamed "Miami News Now" or "Miami News To Go" or something to that effect:
https://i.ibb.co/py48WmX/95.png
Note the passengers with the shrink-wrapped baggage. For many years Miami was notorious for the criminality of its airline employees. Perhaps it still is.
A woman I know once carefully packed a sealed bottle of wine and a package of cookies in her suitcase. When she arrived at her destination the bag was dripping wine all over the conveyor belt. The bottle had been opened and her clothes were soaked. The package of cookies had also been opened. Someone had taken a big bite out of one of the cookies and then tossed it back in the bag.
Unfortunately, she couldn't prove that it had happened in Miami.
That entire section of the terminal was completely rebuilt in the early 2010s and now bears no resemblance to its former self.
1990 (note the presence of the AA booth - with Eastern in its death throes, American's Latin American hub was expanding rapidly; within months, American displace Air Jamaica and Continental from their longtime counter positions):
https://i.ibb.co/gDHCC43/1990-08.png
2014 (the entrance to the original Concourse D has been replaced by a "World Gateway" for passengers exiting from Customs):
https://i.ibb.co/r2XH9PQ/2014-12-20-16199089426-83659e2fb0-o.jpg
It's hard to believe that December 2014 was nine years ago. It seems like only yesterday, but at that time the Late Obama Age Collapse was just gearing up. Trump hadn't even announced his candidacy and the Coronapocalypse was still half a decade in the future. But that particular corner of the airport hasn't changed all that much since then.
The third-level moving walkway, most of which dates back to the '80s, is notoriously unreliable. The last time I was at the airport I walked on it even though it was broken - even though it wasn't moving, the "springy" material allowed me to move far faster than if I'd been walking on the carpet. A couple of people gave me strange looks but I didn't care.
The main reason MIA has been such a mess over the decades is that it's landlocked with no room for expansion. The terminal has been in continuous operation since January 1959. All of the newer parts have been grafted onto that original 1959 portion.
With huge passenger volumes and no extra breathing room, the airport does not have the luxury of shutting down areas that are being renovated until construction can be completed. Over the years, many travelers have had to pass through areas in the process of being torn down and rebuilt.
In the late '60s, there was an attempt to build a huge new South Florida "jetport" in the Everglades, but that project was shut down by the Nixon administration.
As late as 1987, Richard Judy, the longtime airport director, was trying to secure a large parcel for the jetport on the Dade/Broward line. That proposal, too was derailed by environmental concerns.
A couple of years later, Judy was forced out, ostensibly for corruption. That was when the real decline began. Judy probably did line his pockets a bit, but he wasn't nearly as greedy as the politicians who fired him.
By the late '90s MIA was widely regarded as one of the worst major international airports in the world. The epithet "Third World" was heard loud and often.
In December 1998, after a bitter, decades-long struggle, the skycap union finally relented and allowed self-service luggage carts on airport property. The very first passenger to use one of these carts was asked to make a brief speech. He said, "Congratulations on joining the twentieth century right before it ends." The microphone was promptly snatched away from him.
The nadir came in the mid- to late-2000s, when American was consolidating Concourses A through D into Super-D. In the '90s, it was relatively simple to leave one concourse, cross through the ticketing area, and enter another concourse - one could breeze through the security checkpoint in about thirty seconds. After 9/11, this became impractical, so post-security transfer corridors had to be built.
At one point Concourses A, C, and D were connected by a series of stark windowless corridors:
https://i.ibb.co/Jq9LX6V/1625239567-1e4a868521-o.jpg
(I didn't take any of these pictures, by the way.)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12724145/Student-spared-jail-blowing-50-000-partying-clothes-beauty-spending-spree-South-Africa-received-850-000-instead-85-monthly-grant-mistake.html
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/11/08/08/77545767-12724145-image-a-3_1699432473089.jpgReplies: @kaganovitch, @Dave from Oz
“Mother of two”. What does she immediately spend the money on?
Bring back the orphanages and the convents for wayward women.
Why cycles?
Most fashions are stupid, but it takes a little time for people to sheepishly admit it.
There are a limited number of possible lapel widths, so if you look far enough back you’ll find repeats.
I think he wanted Congress to pass a law enacting a national ban on abortion. The purpose of the Constitution was to limit what the federal government could do by listing what it could do. If something was not listed it was to be left to the states or individuals. Conservatives should be supporters of the Constitution. Most crime enforcement measures, including abortion law, really should be decided by state governments.
Instant classic. Like seeing the Dead play ‘Dark Star.’
Fashions don't seem to have shifted much in the 21st century. Perhaps the more tectonic shifts of mass migration and consequent multiculturalism render fashion shifts trite and therefore static and so an Ottoman-like atrophy has set in.Replies: @SFG, @TWS, @Catdompanj
In this century, jeans have gotten tighter and sweatpants (once considered physical workout/sports only attire) and pajamas are now acceptable publicly worn attire. I don’t recall water buffaloes wearing “juicy” sweatpants in the 90s. Nor was fat girls showing their bellies the norm.
Not to mention winter beanie hats (sans pompoms) becoming 3 season acceptable headwear, even indoors.
We did that, it was called astroturf or carpet on cement. I doubt any grass could be made faster.
One of the square ones would not be out of place in the coffee table book Accidentally Wes Anderson.
You might find it amusing, Mr Sailer, basically it’s a bunch of places in real life that have that same symmetrical cartoony look that Anderson’s movies do….
The key play in the Boston Red $ox 2004 ALDS win against the Yankee$ was the fact that, for the first time in recorded history, the $ox signed a guy for the stretch run who could actually steal a base when necessary. Good to have when you’re down to your last inning against Mariano Riviera.
Don’t be Bill Buckner!
Perfect pitch for Posada to make the throw, but hardly any throw to the wrong side of the bag will get a true base stealer.
Posada has several World Series rings but on that play he - despite being paid millions of dollars over the years to be a catcher, despite never having to work for a living so that he could get better at his craft ---- despite all that he basically failed to do what he was paid to do. Rivera and Posada, unlike Jeter and steroid-cheater Andy, each lost a World Series for the Yankees.
Did you miss baseball’s artificial turf era?
I hated real golf but always enjoyed clobbering balls by the bucket. How about a blog post on the aesthetic evolution of the driving range?
There is, now, an unbeatable coalition of folks for whom the absolute right to kill one's unborn babies is the only thing that really matters.Replies: @vinteuil, @Known Fact
My sense is that this coalition includes women who would never get an abortion but are deathly afraid their teen-age daughter might someday need one
Even pro-life radio guy Jesse Kelly, sadly surveying the results, bluntly admitted it: “Americans love their abortions.” Ann Coulter noted that pro-life absolutists who cannot morally accept some compromise stance are actually getting more babies killed. (Of course when does the left ever compromise on anything?”)
But the invention of Blue LED giving birth to the white led I presume will give interior designers far more design choices when the future arrives and TPTB decide that design obsolescence has finally arrived.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCcDirIZ9lQReplies: @Stan Adams
It’s from the “Milk Run” episode of Miami Vice:
The portion from 3:52 to 4:48 was not filmed at the airport. I’m not sure about the part filmed inside the restaurant. The “Ice Cream Shoppe” was, indeed, located in the terminal, near the hotel across from the entrance to Concourse E.
I think it’s a Subway now. IIRC that Subway is the only 24-hour restaurant at MIA. You can smell the bread when they bake the buns.
Don Johnson is reading the sports section of the Miami Herald from November 26, 1984. This must have been filmed on or around that date. The episode aired on NBC on January 4, 1985.
This would have been the Monday after Thanksgiving, three days after Doug Flutie’s legendary Hail Mary pass enabled Boston College’s last-second victory over the Miami Hurricanes.
The top story is a preview of the upcoming Dolphins-Jets matchup on Monday Night Football. The Dolphins beat the Jets that night. They went on to clinch the AFC Championship but lost the Super Bowl to the 49ers. Dan Marino never got that ring.
And Philip Michael Thomas never hit the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) quadfecta that he always talked about.
After Miami Vice his career went nowhere fast. In the mid-’90s he made a series of cringe-worthy infomercials for the “Philip Michael Thomas International Psychic Network”:
Dionne Warwick ended up suing him. She accused him of piggybacking on her Psychic Friends scam.
After that he dropped off the face of the earth.
The movie Miami Rhapsody features a scene shot in the exact same area of the airport. By that time (mid-’90s) an American Airlines ticketing booth had been built in the area where Don Johnson had been sitting.
There’s something strangely comforting about airport stores with generic names. Plain, simple “Newsstand” has a nicer ring than Hudson News or NewsLink or (God forbid) CNN Newsstand.
I was trying hard not to make a joke about Sarah Jessica Parker’s physical appearance. I’ll confine myself to a quick mention that, a few years later, Antonio Banderas starred as a legendary horseman in The Mask of Zorro.
The same newsstand in 2007, after the shopping area had been remodeled. By that time the generic (non-Hudson News/NewsLink) newsstands had all been renamed “Miami News Now” or “Miami News To Go” or something to that effect:
Note the passengers with the shrink-wrapped baggage. For many years Miami was notorious for the criminality of its airline employees. Perhaps it still is.
A woman I know once carefully packed a sealed bottle of wine and a package of cookies in her suitcase. When she arrived at her destination the bag was dripping wine all over the conveyor belt. The bottle had been opened and her clothes were soaked. The package of cookies had also been opened. Someone had taken a big bite out of one of the cookies and then tossed it back in the bag.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t prove that it had happened in Miami.
That entire section of the terminal was completely rebuilt in the early 2010s and now bears no resemblance to its former self.
1990 (note the presence of the AA booth – with Eastern in its death throes, American’s Latin American hub was expanding rapidly; within months, American displace Air Jamaica and Continental from their longtime counter positions):
2014 (the entrance to the original Concourse D has been replaced by a “World Gateway” for passengers exiting from Customs):
It’s hard to believe that December 2014 was nine years ago. It seems like only yesterday, but at that time the Late Obama Age Collapse was just gearing up. Trump hadn’t even announced his candidacy and the Coronapocalypse was still half a decade in the future. But that particular corner of the airport hasn’t changed all that much since then.
The third-level moving walkway, most of which dates back to the ’80s, is notoriously unreliable. The last time I was at the airport I walked on it even though it was broken – even though it wasn’t moving, the “springy” material allowed me to move far faster than if I’d been walking on the carpet. A couple of people gave me strange looks but I didn’t care.
The main reason MIA has been such a mess over the decades is that it’s landlocked with no room for expansion. The terminal has been in continuous operation since January 1959. All of the newer parts have been grafted onto that original 1959 portion.
With huge passenger volumes and no extra breathing room, the airport does not have the luxury of shutting down areas that are being renovated until construction can be completed. Over the years, many travelers have had to pass through areas in the process of being torn down and rebuilt.
In the late ’60s, there was an attempt to build a huge new South Florida “jetport” in the Everglades, but that project was shut down by the Nixon administration.
As late as 1987, Richard Judy, the longtime airport director, was trying to secure a large parcel for the jetport on the Dade/Broward line. That proposal, too was derailed by environmental concerns.
A couple of years later, Judy was forced out, ostensibly for corruption. That was when the real decline began. Judy probably did line his pockets a bit, but he wasn’t nearly as greedy as the politicians who fired him.
By the late ’90s MIA was widely regarded as one of the worst major international airports in the world. The epithet “Third World” was heard loud and often.
In December 1998, after a bitter, decades-long struggle, the skycap union finally relented and allowed self-service luggage carts on airport property. The very first passenger to use one of these carts was asked to make a brief speech. He said, “Congratulations on joining the twentieth century right before it ends.” The microphone was promptly snatched away from him.
The nadir came in the mid- to late-2000s, when American was consolidating Concourses A through D into Super-D. In the ’90s, it was relatively simple to leave one concourse, cross through the ticketing area, and enter another concourse – one could breeze through the security checkpoint in about thirty seconds. After 9/11, this became impractical, so post-security transfer corridors had to be built.
At one point Concourses A, C, and D were connected by a series of stark windowless corridors:
(I didn’t take any of these pictures, by the way.)
You know there are other effluent empires: Babylonian, Neo-Babylonian, Akkadian, Britannic, Dacian, Holy Roman, Fu-Manchu's Invisible Empire, Astro-Hungarian, The Imperium, Assyrian, Romulan.Replies: @Sollipsist
From what I can tell, Romulan fashion trends changed every time there was a new series. Same with the Klingons.
The first letter was penned by Lewis in May of 1941, the same month as the ending of the German Blitz. The letters were first published in an Anglican magazine. The last was written in November of the same year, after which they were gathered and edited prior to being published in book form in February of 1942.
Although written during WWII, I don’t think he was addressing the war in the passage quoted. His subject was the human tendency, (supported and encouraged by demonic powers) to ignore the fundamental and important —the state of one’s soul and God’s provision of Christ — to be constantly distracted by unimportant fads and fashions. They change constantly and we are constantly tempted to divert our attention to “that new thing” that is not only of no eternal value but actually harmful — crowding into the sinking part of the boat.
There is an excellent adaptation of the book made into a play currently touring in the U.S. produced by the Fellowship for Performing Arts. I saw it for a second time in September when it came to my city, where it sold out four performances on the University campus. I highly recommend it as well as another FPA production currently on tour, C.S, Lewis: Further Up, Further In.
The Palestinians understand our problem and they understand the solution.
IF boomers were afraid to go on the golf course, things might be a lot better in this country.
Yes, that was what I was trying to allude to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMEylcp7E7s
Don't be Bill Buckner!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-8DQhrZS3A
Perfect pitch for Posada to make the throw, but hardly any throw to the wrong side of the bag will get a true base stealer.Replies: @heywood
About one out of three AAA catchers in 2006 would have thrown Roberts out, about two out of three major league catchers would have thrown the ball to the right side of second base, not the wrong side.
Posada has several World Series rings but on that play he – despite being paid millions of dollars over the years to be a catcher, despite never having to work for a living so that he could get better at his craft —- despite all that he basically failed to do what he was paid to do. Rivera and Posada, unlike Jeter and steroid-cheater Andy, each lost a World Series for the Yankees.
What with Jewish Americans seemingly shocked that they are also evil whites in the eyes of their beloved golem, will they ease back on their lawfare assaults on the Second Amendment so that we can protect ourselves with lethal force when the saintly golem go berserk?Replies: @The Germ Theory of Disease
“will they ease back on their lawfare assaults on the Second Amendment?”
Nope. Not a chance.
Because novelty has charm. Any priest and all marketers know that.