Stuff We Shouldn't Do. 08/14/26
/Golf is a fun sport. Sometimes. There are rules. Etiquette. Things people are supposed to do but often don’t. No more than four people can play in one group, but twice I’ve seen a “fivesome” out on the course. This slows everything down. I’ve seen people who don’t know how to play, play. Which slows things down. And most egregious of all, is someone giving a lesson to someone else while people are waiting behind them. “Here, let’s try that again. You take the club back with a straight left arm and you finish with a straight right arm. Like this. No honey, not like that. Like this. Here, let me show you.” All the while you are waiting behind them to take your shot. I was behind this exact scenario a couple weeks ago. Playing with a friend and two other guys the course hooked us up with. Ahead of us was a foursome including a dad teaching his young son. The foursome I was playing in were bitching and moaning the whole time. “Can you believe this guy?” At one point the dad and son finally finish their lesson on the green and then, right before I’m ready to finally hit, the kid comes running back to the green to retrieve the golf club he left lying there.
Now. to be psychologically healthy, you can choose to ignore that kind of stuff. But what fun is that? Finally, on the 14th hole, the lesson giver quits. He comes past us in his cart on the way to the clubhouse. He said something like, “Oh sorry if we took too long, just giving a lesson to my son.” And the two other guys we played with said, “Oh, no problem at all, have a nice day.” In other words, almost exactly what Al and Marv said in the comic. Which once again proves the point John and I have known for 8 years. When stuff goes terribly wrong, at least you can make a comic out of it.
Our other comic deals with politics. We have made a point of not entering into politics. Garry Trudeau has done a wonderful job with that for decades now with Doonesbury. Anytime you bring up politics at a dinner, it almost always turns into a shouting match. It makes former friends hate each other. When the quarterback of my favorite team introduced the current President, I was ready to switch football teams. Then I thought I had no idea who my boyhood heroes like Mickey Mantle or Walt Frazier or Tom Seaver or Lawrence Taylor voted for. I didn’t care. So I will remain a Giants fan. And try to not talk about politics. I’ve been at dinners, like I’m sure we all have, when someone brings up politics and someone else, says, “Please, don’t bring that up.” And then there’s a little bit of silence until the phones come out and we trade “look at my adorable grandchildren” pictures. In our comic, after saying, “Please let’s not talk about politics,” there’s nothing more to say. Enough said. Next week we’ll talk about our reliance on cell phones. Which is an entirely neutral topic. Unless you ask me a question and when I answer, you are looking at your phone.
Have a great weekend,
Andy and John