As a reward for actual performance, as opposed to some other dubious measurement of popularity, I have no problem with this.

Think how many Oscars there are out there by comparison.

All of a sudden, the Oscar isn't so special, is it?

Golf isnt a sport at all

Although I don't play it, and have no plans to, I can understand the allure of playing golf. What I can't understand is the appeal of watching people play it, but the appeal is obviously there since tournaments always seem to draw large crowds (with a lot more people watching on TV.)

The tradition that cracks me up is the winnder of the Indy 500 race drinking milk. And how about that Emerson Fittipaldi? What a rebel.

In 1993, Emerson Fittipaldi drank orange juice instead of milk after his victory. Fittipaldi owned citrus farms in Brazil, and wished to promote his industry. As a result, he was booed in driver's introductions the following week by the crowd in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the heart of "America's Dairyland."

1. It's not hideous.

2. Being a department manager at Sears is a decent way to make a living, green blazer or no.

Yes you were. (And I hate your hair).

Dear Art Deco: I think, with her hair, she'd look fabulous in that green blazer, especially if it was left open a bit in the front.
Decent way to make a living or not, ("Working at Sears sucks" got 453,000 hits), the comedy reference is one we all get. Lighten up or die.

You think that's bad: http://t.golfweek.com/news/2010/jun/03/man-behind-colonials-tartan-jacket/?

Hey, that green blazer would go great with an orange flyswatter!

I'm not too sure it would go with the black, elegant, elbow-length gloves; they're too classy.

And, yes, I got the joke and found it very funny too!

BTW, Sears (who hasn't had a Kenmore appliance or a Craftsman tool in their home at some point in time?) is still in business, even after 100 years. The same cannot be said of Crazy Eddie's, Circuit City, Montgomery Ward (where Rudolf, the red-nose reindeer got his start), Bamberger's, and Gimbel's (famed for its rivalry with Macy's) to name just a few other stores.

Tacky sports jackets at Sears? Yep, but, they're still in business because they provided a better and honest service than the has-come-and-gone competition. And that tacky sports jacket fits their honest image quite well.

Even if it's hideous, why pretend such an item has to be fashionable?

I am, seriously, TOTES cool with the idea that such an artifact could have come from a tradition demeaning of women, horrific towards blacks, brutal to gays, dismissive to the disabled, and blind to the mentally retarded... Yet still be a fun thing for a golf champion to win.

Golf used to be a rich-guy game, remember? A lot of things that only used to happen to fat white men —things like hot water, literacy, and five full decades of life— are now available to almost everyone.

OF COURSE the jacket is out of style. So is a curtsy to whatsername (looking-it-up: Kate Middleton) when leaving Centre Court at Wimbledon. Who cares?

The best of the best used to come from a constrained and diminished sample of humanity. THAT'S THE POINT: Now they don't. But if history's best players all met for dinner at Applebee's this weekend, they'd have much to discuss.

"I am, seriously, TOTES cool with the idea that such an artifact could have come from a tradition demeaning of women, horrific towards blacks, brutal to gays, dismissive to the disabled, and blind to the mentally retarded... Yet still be a fun thing for a golf champion to win."

What tradition is that?

Sounds like you have panties wadded that a sporting event doesn't cater to groups that don't participate. Like NASCAR.

The PGA very simply isn't FOR groups based on how much hand-wringing someone might have. The Augusta National Golf Club selects their membership based on criteria that they determine, apparently to the astonishment and rage of others that wish to force people to associate with others not of their choosing.

If you belong to a chess club that doesn't comply with the ADA, I don't care, AND I oppose the actions of others to cause government force to be used against you. Pick your causes carefully, lest they be used as precedent against you.

> What tradition is that?

Oh, for example, the laughably transparent traditions of uppercrust pretension (green sportscoats!) in Deep South settings such as Augusta, Georgia, proud home to the Confederate Powderworks, but 54% black as of 2012... The year when the Augusta National Golf Club admitted its first women. (You can see all this stuff in Wiki, a website on the computer internet. Convenient!) Blacks were permitted to join in 1990. That was just 25 years ago, OK? Hammertime. This was long after Selma.

Yeah, sure... They think the jacket looks cool. From their culture of isolation and exclusion, we should not be surprised that a wool blazer in loathsome emerald is mocked by stylish redheads on the West Coast.

Indeed, they're happy that the rest of the world thinks of them as impenetrably backward: Discriminatory cultures readily accept the smirking denigrations of an Amy Alkon for their implicit promise, never violated, to keep their smartaleck women and their uppity blacks and their flaming gays out there on the coast, where they can't make trouble in the clubhouse. These people and their Chambers of Commerce only poke their heads out when they need to: The words "integration" and "civil rights" do not appear on the Augusta Wiki page.

They do this everywhere. You should read about Riyadh and Tehran and Tripoli.

OK, Tripoli is optional for now.

> Sounds like you have panties
> wadded that a sporting event
> doesn't cater to groups that
> don't participate.

No, I save my wadding for clumsy guys on blogs who're blind to the subtleties of both primitivism and progress.

To wit:

> lest

Dood.

"Subtleties"?
Are you one of those who make things up about these guys, like their naming "The Masters" for slave owners?

What is NOT subtle is the plain envy some have for that club. How OUTRAGEOUS that those old guys (average over 70) get to pick and choose, and exclude me!!

Step right up to be told with whom you may associate, then. You're right there with the "gay Mafia". Fortunately (today), your opinion is Politically Correct.

"Golf used to be a rich-guy game, remember? "

Actually, it's more of a rich man's game now than it used to be. I remember the days of par-3 courses, when a teenager with a beat-up half set of clubs (e.g., me) could go play nine holes after school for $2. And they had lights! The combination of property inflation, irate neighbors, and taxes put them all out of business.

> Are you one of those who

Why are you working so hard to be a cunt? Whence the imaginary conspiracy? This is weird. You're so eager for disagreement that you're flailing, and it's completely unnecessary: You're wrong anyway. There's nothing to "make up": The Deep South is rightly disdained for its abject and continuing poverty, and not just by liberal advice columnists. Amy lives in freaking Venice, California, one of the most stylish & trendsetting neighborhoods in North America. Compared to Augusta, its wealth shimmers, and she's enjoying her "exclusion" tremendously.

If your prattle about "political correctness" and "gay mafia" is sincere, then you've lost your way... But I suspect you're just menstrual, and maybe stung by some Shermanesque historical defeat of your own.

Sears is now owned by Kmart, and together the two of them have ruined Lands End. Not such a great recent track record. More and more Craftsman tools are made in China, as well, which never used to be the case. Quality is still OK (so far), but the brand has kind of lost its cachet.

What's the competitive brand for a crescent wrench?

Amy, I though that was plumber's butt...

The preferred choices I've noted for hand tools are Klein and Snap-On for high end, and Kobolt (Lowe's house brand) for low end. Of those, I think Snap-On is the only one that is all American made.

I've still got a bunch of old-school Craftsman hand tools that I received as a birthday present in 1976. The new stuff doesn't compare.

Ah, thanks, I've heard of Snap-On.

Are these brands as well-priced, reliable and well-guaranteed as Craftsman used to be?

Predicting your answer: yes. People forget how good everything is nowadays... Tools and clothes and furnishings. That's the nature of our rich American lives.

Not only does the average woman reading these words have ten or twenty times as many good blouses as her grandmother had at her age, but they're better. The buttons won't fall off, the colors are steadfast, they can be readily cleaned, and the fabric won't shrink.

I never had to learn about tools, or suffer the broken knuckles and garage odors that men of my relative (low) candlepower ought to have suffered, because there were so many ways for rich Americans to make money in air-conditioned offices doing girly things with computer mice.

And here's the miracle that no one sees,* the most compelling evidence of our wealth: I didn't need to use tools, because cars are so reliable. Since high school, I may never have gone more than 72 hours without a car (my own or a rental) when I wanted one, and we're from the bad side of the tracks.

Anyway, guitars are like that too. If you want to buy a bad one, you're going to have to look around, even if you don't have a lot of money.

* Virginia Postrel, David Frum,
Gregg Easterbrook and WR Mead 
can see the truth.