Just some funny stuff I saw this week...

   Nothing profound here... but 3 pictures of stuff that I found amusing.  First is Lexus being displayed at the US Open that was dimpled like a golf ball.  They put dimples on a ball to help it 'tunnel' through the air better—so I wonder, did they test it in a wind tunnel?  Maybe all cars should have these!

  Next is a gift my sister gave my brother-in-law for Fathers' Day.  He has a mustache... and this is a tissue holder.  Lastly is a sign from a local restaurant.  I suppose it could engender a profound remark about the state of our  voyeuristic culture, but I've got nothing here.  I was laughing too hard.

If you can fake sincerity...

   Well, the US Open is over and here I am standing in front of the 7th green with my trophy...  OK, it really is the actual trophy, with all the winners from every year engraved on it, and I really am holding it, but that's a giant poster behind me.   If you had a chance to see any of the tournament, you saw plenty of views like this.   And if you are one of those people for whom watching golf is like watching paint dry, only not as much fun—maybe you accidentally caught a glimpse while channel surfing or waiting for World Cup scores on the news.
   It was an interesting experience and hard work.  We did 15,000-25,000 transactions a day in the merchandise tent.   The volunteers working there were mostly age 35 and up—emphasis on the 'up'—but Pebble Beach had hired 14 college interns to serve as management for those volunteers.  I've always had a prejudice against cheap affirmation, but I suppose these students–who have grown up in an era when educators' greatest fear is damaging their students' self-image—don't know anything else.  When they tried to affirm the volunteers in their charge—most of whom were three times their age or more—it sometimes sounded like they were talking to their golden retriever.  "Good job!  Yes, who's a good boy?!"
  I may be a little sensitive about this.  I'm trying to be better about genuine affirmation, without falling into cheap flattery.  So I practiced creative affirmation myself.  It did make it more enjoyable relating to the other volunteers, and they will remember me.  I think the actual managers appreciated it too.  When I went back today for the after-tournament half-off sale for volunteers and employees, one of the managers spotted me, his face lit up and he came over and shook my hand.  Which itself was genuine affirmation...

Herding Cats

   I've finished my first 2 days as a volunteer at the US Open... because I'm big and not afraid to be assertive, my job assignment so far has been "line control".   Yesterday my voice was almost completely gone by the end of my shift—I was at the head of the line for a bank of 40 cash registers and tried to direct the traffic, pointing each person as they came to the front of the line to an open register.
   Some people do not like being told where to go.

   It was almost entirely men, and men in the 40-60 age range.  Considering the kind of people who come to a US Open, where corporate tents and guests have come to dominate, I wondered about these guys.  Are they the reason many companies seem to make short-term decisions that are ultimately in their own worst interest?  After all, I was trying to get them to the place they would be served and make it out as quickly and efficiently as possible.  But being of that same age range and gender, maybe I was seen as an opponent, to be ignored or defeated.  And by doing so they frequently obstructed the flow of other customers and slowed it down.

   The other volunteers were great to work with, and I had a chance to talk and laugh with those closest to my post during the slower times at the very end of the day.  I'm hoping that the 'traffic cop dance' was good exercise as well (if you don't know what I mean, leave a comment and I'll elaborate).  Here I am in uniform, with logos:

Rolling with my Dad

   One of the things my Dad likes most about living in his retirement community is that there are so many opportunities to play sports and games.  One of his favorites—that he never played before moving here—is Lawn Bowls.  Don't ever say bowling—it's bowls. 
And although they look round in this picture of him making a roll they are actually more like rounded cylinders, with one end slightly larger.  This means they curve according to the way you hold that larger end.  Although I don't have the standard white uniform, they let me play with them.  Seeing myself making a shot from this angle is a good reminder of why I want to exercise some weight off during this sabbatical!

Where I Grew Up (mostly)

  I am back in my hometown during June... staying with my sister and her family in the house in Monterey my parents originally purchased when I was only a couple months old.  Although we had lengthy stays in Italy and Germany before my 10th birthday, this is where we always came back to, and I lived here from age 10 until my senior year when we moved to Pebble Beach (one town over).  After my oldest nephew was born my sister and brother-in-law moved into the Monterey house and have been here ever since, and my 2 nephews grew up in the same room my brother and I shared..   My Dad now lives in Carmel Valley, the warmest spot in the area.

   Anyway, Monterey is the original Spanish capital of California, founded in 1770, and tourism is the major industry.  My first job out of college was working in historic preservation for the city—I had the opportunity to help some researchers, got my name in the acknowledgments of a couple of books, and was once quoted as "an authoritative source" in a television news story.  The Monterey Peninsula has one of the most temperate climates in the world, rarely getting hot or cold.  I played golf here at Christmas and the temperature was 72° F.  I played the same course this week and it was 74°...  We like to say "If you want weather, you can drive to it!"  The Pebble Beach Golf Links, where I will be working at the US Open this week, lies right on water and the sea breeze and fog can make it downright chilly all summer long—which may have an impact on the outcome.  10 years ago the wind died just as Tiger Woods started playing the ocean holes, enabling him to build a record-breaking lead. 
   The picture above is of Colton Hall in Monterey, where the California constitutional convention wrote the state constitution in 1849.  The other picture is the city library across the street, where my office was located when I worked for the city.

Changing the game...

 

Sniffling briefly in Cambridge

Since my last post I have flown from Budapest to New York, hauled my luggage through the subways and streets of Manhattan, taken a bus from Manhattan to Boston where my luggage felt more at home riding the Boston subway, and arrived at home.  During the last day, including the busride, my nose and throat started itching, so apparently somewhere along my travels I picked up a cold virus (I have my suspicions, but will not name names ;).  Which would not be so bad except I am back on a plane tomorrow afternoon bound for LA, from which I have a 6 hour drive to Monterey on Tuesday.  This is a little sooner than I had planned, but it turns out the last training session for US Open volunteers is Tuesday evening...
   While in Manhattan I visited with 2 MIT alumni--JR Randall (above) who kindly made his futon available, and David Chan, who treated me to lunch downtown.  David was at the wedding in St. Louis but we really didn't have time to catch up there.  JR was in the Sloan fellowship leadership and David is a past president of MIT GCF, who came from Oxford and tried to imbue the fellowship with a certain amount of erudite couth.
  On Tuesday morning in LA I will have breakfast with someone I have not seen in almost 30 years, from my days in high school ministry at Carmel Presbyterian.  We reconnected through Facebook—in my opinion the most valuable thing these social networking sites do is allow us to find those our mobile society separates us from—and I'm really looking forward to it.  And since I'd like to generate some conversations on this site—do you see social networking sites as a positive or a negative?  Do they keep relationships going that our circumstances would otherwise prevent?  Or do they keep us from actual face-to-face conversations?

A pilgrim in Prague

     I didn't take any pictures today...  I hoped to take a couple from the train, of this incredible cathedral castle in Esztergom that I have failed to snap in time on both previous trips past it, but today was cloudy and rainy.  And either some of those raindrops were floating around or there was some snow mixed in...
   But over last few days I have been doing a lot of both the above:  Taking pictures and riding trains.  Monday in particular—Daniel and I got up early and rode 40 minutes on trolleys and buses to the train station, then 4-plus hours to Prague,  where I took 80 pictures (don't know how many Daniel took), then a 5-plus hour ride back (there was a stalled train blocking our tracks) with 30 minutes of trolleys and buses.  We arrived in Prague at lunchtime and were able to meet up with Ted Turnau, one of the new friends I made in Eger who is a missionary/professor in Prague (small world syndrome--one of the churches that supports him is in my neighborhood in Cambridge--CTK for you MIT readers).

     Prague is a beautiful city but it has been discovered by the tourists and those who hope to profit from them.  We did find one island of serenity there—one that I enjoyed even as I was a little sorry so few others were interested in it.  There is in Prague a place called the Bethlehem Chapel, where Jan Hus preached to standing-room-only crowds of 3,000 people at a time.  Hus ministry here preceded Martin Luther by more than a hundred years, but Luther acknowledged him as one of his spiritual forbears.  In 1415 Hus was summoned by the Holy Roman Emperor to a church council in Constance, Switzerland.  He was 'guaranteed' safe passage, then turned over to church courts, convicted, and burned at the stake as a heretic.  Among his heresies were teaching that the true church was the community of believers and not the hierarchy, and his call for ending the greed and corruption of the clergy.  One of his famous quotes:  “One pays for confession, for mass, for the sacrament, for indulgences, for churching a woman, for a blessing, for burials, for funeral services and prayers. The very last penny which an old woman has hidden in her bundle for fear of thieves or robbery will not be saved. The villainous priest will grab it.”
    Anyway, Daniel and I had the Bethlehem Chapel to ourselves, and it was one of the pilgrimage stops on my sabbatical.  I'm attaching contrasting pictures—the mass of tourists at Charles Bridge and the quiet solitude in Bethlehem Chapel.
    Tonight I am in Budapest again, with a long flight to New York tomorrow...