Levy/Hash

I walked around Levy, into the even lower lower middle class section behind Kroger, bought a paper, and walked home in 32:42.

Late this afternoon, I jogged and walked for 48 minutes, mostly on the Little Rock River Trail, with the Hash, to cover a little bit more than three miles.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY from A Different Closet
On the first Friday after New Year’s, 1934, Karen Shoemaker’s maternal grandmother hosted a post-holiday potluck at her home in Springfield, Illinois, which began a tradition now maintained for five decades; Ellen Shoemaker explained to Ingram that the meal was established by her mother as an excuse for the disposal of holiday leftovers, but that it had evolved into a competitive feast shortly after the second World War, as he gazed at three pies and cakes, at least a dozen cassaroles, and platters of iced boiled shrimp, Oysters Rockefeller, and au gratin potatoes steeped in cheese on one of three folding tables.

Maple Street Loop/First Tee

I walked the Maple Street Loop this morning in 30:41. It was 34 degrees when I walked in at about 7:45 Central. It should be a nice late morning and early afternoon for golf. We'll see.

The weather was perfect. I played First Tee with Randall Hunhoff and Steve Beetsra, the dentist, from the back tees, or from 6,856 yards, in 103, with nines of 51 and 52. I had 2 pars, 7 bogies, 5 doubles, 3 triples, and 1 pentagonal. I used 33 putts. I had a decent chance of breaking 100. I was at 21-over after fourteen holes, but played the last four in 10-over instead of the 6-over I needed. The 5-over on one hole, No. 6, hurt. I was tired, plus I suck.

Oh. The highlights included the 551-yard second hole (the second time around, so No. 10), hit with two three-woods and a seven-iron for par, and the 475-yard fourth hole (again, the second time), which I two-putted from 92 feet (from the very back to the front pin) for bogey.

SENTENCES OF THE DAY from A Different Closet
The women were dressed alike, each in khaki pants and dark, wool flannel shirts, and perfectly weathered hiking boots, outfits likely ordered from L.L. Bean; Ingram had seen at least a dozen catalogues scattered around Karen’s house.

First Tee/Ghetto Cat Loop/Levy Loop

Yesterday afternoon I played First Tee with Zach Henson, of Zach and Lacey from the Hash, in 49, with 1 par, 4 bogies, 3 doubles, and 1 triple. I used 19 putts. Last evening I walked the Ghetto Cat Loop in 31:12.

I walked the Levy Loop this morning in 29:22.

Starting at about 3:30 p.m. Central, Mother and I walked two miles on the River Trail, out and back from the I-30 bridge in downtown North Little Rock, in 41:04.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY from A Different Closet
Ingram responded with his standard rebuttal, honed over the previous twenty years, that common sense was the sediment of advice handed children for the sake of security, consistency, and safety; he acknowledged its usefulness, but knew the underlying truths essential for progress were often buried beneath it, and that someone had to do the digging, even if it incited comments like Karen's, or led to the occasional flat tire.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY (for Thursday) from A Different Closet
There was always a radiance about her; it was there as they watched her walk from the kitchen, a luminous quality in the self-assured way she carried herself.

York Gary Loop/First Tee

Last night in Nashville I walked the York Gary Loop in 28:51, after I found out that the course I'd walked since the fall of 1997 was closer to 2.15 miles. In 1997 I weighed 192 pounds, and my theory is that I thought then something like, fuck, that's close enough. Usually, in those days, I didn't run when I was at my mom's. Anyway, go back and knock a couple of minutes off all my York Gary Loop times.

I played pretty well today, after 13 days off. I had three penalty strokes at First Tee, but still scored a 46 from the middle tees, with 3 pars, 3 bogeys, 2 doubles, and 1 triple. I"m not sure what my record is for putts over nine holes. I know I once had 30 for 18. Today I used 14, which I'm pretty sure at least ties my best, with five two putts and four one putts, from roughly five to seven feet.

I jogged and walked the Chandler Street Loop tonight in 35:28, with splits of 12:17, 11:50, and 11:21.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY from A Different Closet
All she approved of was the smile that acknowledged and balanced his oddness; he wore it often, like now, as he attempted to defend his thousand-dollar jalopy.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY (for Tuesday) from A Different Closet
“Wait a minute,” Ronald Hardman said. “Stop right there. Let me make sure I got this straight. You’re telling me this overnight gay sensation thinks he can take my seat? He knocks out A.J. Carmichael, and now he thinks he’s qualified to run for congress? They didn’t say anything about that on 60 Minutes, did they?”

Ghetto Cat Loop

I walked the Ghetto Cat Loop this morning in 29:43.

Levy Loop

I walked the Levy Loop tonight in 29:20.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY from A Different Closet
Green spoke of his conversation with Lance Dornfeld, when Jack Kemp’s name arose as a man elected to congress in his first political race; no one questioned his leadership ability, not from this sports-obsessed culture, where the quarterback of a championship football team is granted respect otherwise reserved for victorious battlefield commanders.
“Oh, I see,” Ingram said. “As a former point guard for Henderson State, I’m roughly as qualified for politics as Dwight Eisenhower and Jack Kemp, outside of the part where Eisenhower won World War II and Kemp led Buffalo to three AFL championships.”

Maple Street Loop/Hash

I walked the Maple Street Loop this morning in 29:39.

I ran and walked for 25 minutes on Eleanor's Hash run, set from Alsopp Park. We cut it short when the tornado sirens sounded. Hail fell.


SENTENCE OF DAY from A Different Closet
Green imagined he and Ingram might be mistaken for father and son as they walked the perimeter of Forest Park Golf Course; he wore a black suit and matching trench coat, and a pinstriped fedora, while Ingram a letter jacket, faded blue jeans, and a navy blue skull cap found in Lardner’s office closet.

Big Dam Bridge-River Trail

Mom and I walked the Big Dam Bridge and then a half mile on the River Trail to cover two miles in 43:59.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY from a Different Closet
With no further gesture, Lardner turned, retrieved his coat from a rack near the door, and stepped outside.*
*drawn from the three sentences written Saturday

NA/Levy Loop

NASHVILLE—Heck, I guess I need to at least record these in my diary. I walked for 34:11 on Monday, 31:57 on Tuesday, 31:53 on Wednesday, 29:53 on Thursday, and this evening i jogged and walked the Levy Loop in 24:37, and felt very good. Looking back now, after writing the times, I remember what I did. In order, I walked at random all over the southern section of Nashville; an out-and-back; the same out-and-back, except I went about 100 yards further out; and a two-mile out-and-back on Old Center Point Road. Twice I walked two laps of the inner loop at Nashville City Park with Mother in just under twenty minutes and, this morning, in 19:25.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY from A Different Closet
Clad in old Levi’s, and a new Pendleton crewneck sweater; it was plaid, with narrow red stripes running through wide tendrils of navy blue and green, or, Dartmouth green as Karen said after he unwrapped it at nearly midnight on Christmas; Ingram stepped in from the wind and cold and charcoal gray to see Bobby Green and Steven Lardner, wearing dark suits and bright ties, seated on the same Spartan furniture, twenty feet away, from which the young gay man and the old lesbian and the straight high school principal conspired to persuade him to take the job he assumed he was to begin this minute.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY (for Thursday) from A Different Closet
His experiences with political campaigns were limited to the roles of a volunteer, manning phones, handing out leaflets, but Green knew enough to know the principal concern of any campaign was money, and he knew the man to raise it.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY (for Wednesday) from A Different Closet
His evidence of Ingram’s ability included a handful of meetings, and episodes of Monday Night Football, the Larry Moss Show, and 60 Minutes, all enough to make him confident Ingram possessed the wherewithal of a capable political candidate.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY (for Tuesday) from A Different Closet
Karen never thought Ingram conventionally handsome, rather, as he put it, a bit ordinary; he could’ve passed for a shoe salesman at Sears, but sometimes, like now, he became in a breath the best looking man she’d seen.

York Gary Loop/Old Centerpoint Road/York Gary Loop/Nashville

NASHVILLE—Friday evening I walked the York Gary Loop in somewhere between 33 and 34 minutes. Saturday morning I walked a two-mile out-and-back on Old Centerpoint Road in 29:02, Sunday morning I walked the York Gary Loop in 32:42, and this morning I walked at random around the southern part of Nashville for 34:11. I also walked with Mother at the Nashville City Park for about twenty minutes on Saturday and Sunday.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY from A Different Closet
“It was just the way he was; you know, all boy all the time,” Julie Hopper said. “There was this ridiculous game he used to play. He called it the Miss Wherever Pageant. Wherever we went, he’d try to pick out the best looking girl and name her after the place; like, for instance, the best looking girl at a Waffle House would be Miss Waffle House. It was endless. There were Miss Walmarts, Miss War Memorial Stadiums, Miss Pizza Huts, you name it, Miss Faculty Dining Room. I’m not sure, but I don’t think gay men play that game. Also, this was kind of odd, he had a thing for kind of cute little boyish-looking teenaged girls. They almost always won his Miss Wherever contests. His friends all gave him a hard time about it. But, don’t misunderstand me, he wasn’t a pervert, at least I don’t think he was, but his winners were never the conventional beauties; you know, your typical big-breasted blondes, the kind of women who marry professional golfers or...I don’t know, New York Yankees. They just didn’t appeal to him.”

SENTENCE OF THE DAY (for Sunday) from A Different Closet
Their table sat next to a long row of windows, from which they could see students walking to and from classes, or congregated in small groups on an open area of concrete and brick, with several young Bradford pear trees growing from small, brick-lined, circular openings; a three-story, red-brick library served as their backdrop, one hundred feet away.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY (for Saturday) from A Different Closet
Old wood and new cotton—his room’s perfumes—lingered as he walked toward the Times-Record Building, three blocks further south on Capital Avenue; he heard a barge horn blow over the rumble of mid-morning city traffic; it was a cloudless, comfortably cool, perfectly blue day, and sharp sunlight, cutting along the old, stone-building shadows, contributed to the vigor of this southern fall morning.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY (for Friday) from A Different Closet
At a quarter past noon, The Hob-Nob was perfectly packed with a cross section of what Lardner perceived as the local populace, men in outdated suits, farmers, and laborers—little different from those in St. Louis—wearing filthy jeans and old sweatshirts or denim jackets; there were also a smattering of young adults, seemingly students, and a handful or business women, bank tellers or secretaries, he imagined.

Maple Street Loop/York Gary Loop/Nashville Country Club/York Gary Loop

NASHVILLE — I jogged and walked the Maple Street Loop on Tuesday morning, before I was called to Nashville, in 24:52. On Wednesday, I walked the York Gary Loop in 32:17. On Thursday, I played the Nashville Country Club in 96, with nines of 45 and 51. I don't have my score card with me, but I know I had 3 pars and 1 quadruple bogie, and otherwise a mixture of bogies and doubles. I also remember that, on the front nine, I played the first three holes in seven-over par, and the last six in three-over. I think I used 38 putts. I walked the York Gary Loop about two hours later in 33:09. I do not have convenient Internet access there, but if, when I return—after this quick trip to Levy to let Pam, Sam, and Jo out for while and restock their food and water bowls, and take care of some minor business—I learn I face a more prolonged stay, I plan to make occasional trips to the Howard County Library to access it there.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY (for Thursday) from A Different Closet
Lardner’s contempt for Ingram was fortified by each dead animal he passed, the multitude of farm-equipment establishments and prefabricated, metal luncheonettes with their flimsy signs advirtising hamburgers and blue-plate specials, all of which remained consistently intermittent into Arkansas, as the roads straightened and the earth flattened and the horizon extended further and further away, exposing endless fields of plowed dirt and tall grass and grazing cattle, through Corning and Pocahontas and Walnut Ridge, where Lardner at last stopped to dine at an old brick restaurant proclaiming itself to be, in neon and plastic, The Hob-Nob.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY (for Wednesday) from A Different Closet
“I hope not; let’s see.” Shoemaker was already turning the chicken as fast as he could. “No, thank the Lord, this does not quite qualify as ‘burned.’ It is closer to what my mother once labeled, ‘very brown.’ There is some damage, but it’s primarily cosmetic. Here’s another secret, or perhaps an amendment to the previous. Once you apply the sauce, do not begin conversations involving politics or religion.”

SENTENCE OF THE DAY (for Tuesday) from A Different Closet
He knew his mechanical ineptitude left him unprepared for analysis or diagnosis, so, as always before, he attempted to employ his principal automotive creed, the one which stated, “Don’t worry, and why bother as long as the car is in motion?”

Levy Loop/Chandler Street Loop

I'm bummed that the Reds were swept by the Phillies (and have not yet found within me more than vague hints of happiness for anyone who cares for the Phillies), the NFL Packers lost in overtime (and their quarterback, also the DFL Packers quarterback, now has a goddam brain concussion), and that Na Yeon Choi once again buckled like a buckle under Sunday pressure. The DFL Packers won something like 90-65 to go to 3-2, and I walked and jogged the Levy Loop this morning in 26:51.

At 5:46 p.m. Central, it's 77, breezy, and dry as (I'm running out of these) Melba toast. I walked the Chandler Street Loop slowly enough to keep from sweating through blue jeans and a pink Polo shirt, in 48:02. It was a relaxing walk, perfectly pleasant. There were lots of people out, grills burning, dogs being walked, a good beer-on-the-front-porch day.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY from A Different Closet
Throughout his writing career, Ingram had disliked the tedium of advance work—the repetitive interviews, the assembly-line reworking of angles offered by coaches and players and the heaped piles of statistical minutia, and was consequently pleased by its current absence; Karen Shoemaker would handle some of his workload, and others from the Morning Report sports staff the rest, as Ingram, with Bill Seale’s encouragement, proceeded on his course of renown.

OVERHEARD
"Merry Christmas, sir."
—a 10-year-old Latino boy on Emerson Drive. Don't fucking ask me, because I don't know

Kroger/Hash

Including the time spent going into Kroger to buy a box of Eggo Waffles, I walked for 41:33 this morning. I guess I went a little more than two miles.
I jogged for three minutes and walked for the next 34 minutes on Mike Wikeline's Hash run this evening from Cook's Landing, near the Big Dam Bridge.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY from A Different Closet
Ingram said he believed Shoemaker's god was no more than a variation of the lofty human idea maintained since before recorded history, merely an aspiration, or an abstract benchmark for the intrinsic meaningfulness of life; "My dad said, 'Keith, you do know Jesus died for you, don't you?' and Keith said, 'Yes, and I've always felt badly about that. He shouldn't have.' "

OVERHEARD*
"But, you know, I think about I have one more day for tomorrow, so I just try never gave up. And then just looking forward for tomorrow."
—Na Yeon Choi, after the third round of the Navistar Classic, which she completed tied for second, three strokes behind Cristie Kerr.
*the LPGA does not airbrush quotes, and to think, I spent twenty years turning, "Na, man, we ain't doin nuttin but like tryin to be out there and like, you know, tryin to win and shit, you know," to "We try to keep our goals simple."

Sweetheart Loop

I walked the Sweetheart Loop this morning in 43:58, with splits of 15:15, 14:30, and 14:13.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY from A Different Closet
After the apple pie, its crust sprinkled with pecan dust and buttered brown sugar, topped with slices of American cheese and vanilla ice cream, Green thought Lardner’s praise had been insufficient.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I think truth is an inner quality; it ain’t really transferable. Mine, yours, theirs, hell, they’s all different. I’ll tell you this. If you write about something, and someone who lived it tells you that you got it right, then you got lucky. I had a few people from those marches tell me I was close, but every time, every one of them, they all said, ‘But, here’s something you missed,’ or, ‘That was good, but you left this out.’ One guy said, ‘We wasn’t all marchin for freedom. I didn’t have anything else to do, and they was all them good lookin girls.’ I don’t think I put that in there anywhere. You could say I missed the truth, or skipped it, and, hell, they still gave me the goddam Pulitzer. Probably wouldn’t of got it if I’d of put god’s own truth in there about some guy marchin for pussy.”
—Bill Seale, in a converation with Bobby Green, from A Different Closet.

38th Street Loop

I walked the 38th Street Loop this morning in 29:45.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY from A Different Closet
Elsie told him it was fifteen-thousand square feet, which meant nothing to Seale; all he knew was that it was big enough to get lost in, and that the whole time he was there, he was scared he might break something; and now, nearly forty years later, he lived in a house exactly like it, minus about eight-thousand square feet; his only duties were to build fires in the winter and to wipe up or mop whatever he spilled.

First Tee/Levy Loop

Here's a rarity. I got so busy this morning I forgot to report on my walk. Starting about 10 Central, I walked the Ghetto Cat Loop in 34:55, burdened the last mile by a bout of hypoglycemia.

This afternoon I played First Tee from the middle tees with Randall Hunhoff in 47. I had 3 pars, 3 bogies, 1 double, and 2 triples. I used 20 putts, so I hit the ball pretty well, but, crap; I had two one-putt pars and a four-putt triple and a three-putt triple. Afterward, on the driving range, I met Mallory Fraiche (pronounced "fresh"), who made the best first impression in the history of first impressions, and is a month away from the LPGA Q-School.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY from A Different Closet
“Well, yeah, but that’s because the places you choose suck. I don’t want to eat at any restaurant where they think it’s a good idea to combine lettuce and fruit, or where half the plate has no fucking food on it.”

OVERHEARD
"I don't think people here understand how good they have it when it comes to golf."
—Mallory Fraiche, during a pause in practice to make the LPGA Tour

Levy Loop/First Tee

I jogged and walked the Levy Loop this morning in 24:59.

The Levy-Broadmoar Cup is back in Levy. I scored 47 from the middle tees at First Tee, with 4 pars, 2 bogies, and 3 triples. I used 16 putts. It's hard for me to brag, since Jeff Krupsaw said his recent onsets of Alzheimer's and Lou Gehrig's disease were responsible for his 56.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY from A Different Closet
This weathered old country scholar, seated in this cavernous, dimly lighted, unpretentiously glorious room, seemed perfect, exactly the man anyone would want as a father.

First Tee/Levy Loop

The courses at First Tee opened Monday after four weeks of greens repair. This afternoon I played the par-three course with Jeff and Jill Krupsaw in 33, with 4 pars, 4 bogeys, and 1 double. I then played the regular course from the middle tees in 51, with 3 pars, 3 doubles, and 3 triples. I used 16 putts. The greens are nice. I am whipped.

In fact, too whipped to do any more than walk the Levy Loop in 33:07.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY from A Different Closet
Seale was pleased to learn Ingram shared his belief that instinct played no part, that successful handicapping wasn’t affected by intuitition, and that superstition was hogwash here and everywhere.

38th Street Loop/York Gary Loop

NASHVILLE—Someone in my mother's neighborhood has wireless, with "password" for their password. The signal is very weak, and perhaps, of course, temporary, but as I once heard a woman at Kentucky Downs say, "It beats better than nothing."

This morning, at about nine o'clock Central, I walked the 38th Street Loop in 31:20, and this evening, starting at about seven, I jogged the two-mile York Gary Loop in 21:09.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY from A Different Closet
A few liberals offered sympathy, but those capable of instituting change, in politics and the courts, were forever aware of their constituencies, and such accountablility demanded caution; the trick then, as always, was for someone or something to first convince the public that change was right and necessary and in their interest, and was, at best, their idea.

Maple Street Loop/Hash

I jogged and walked the Maple Street Loop in 24:21. At 7:07 a.m. Central, it's 49 in Levy.

Late this afternoon, I ran non-stop for 24:24, rather quickly for some of it, so probably covered a little more than two miles of Finger Pickin' Good's Hash run.

Both Green Bay Packers won today, the DFL version with the chance to run up the score tonight, and things worked out in baseball so that the Reds will be forced to beat the holy living dog shit out of the Philadelphia Phillies, starting Wednesday. Oh well.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY from a Different Closet
Lardner had researched Ingram enough to know he graduated from Henderson State, no more than an inconsequential state school, Lardner supposed, located in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, surely an inconsequential town, where Ingram had been an All-Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference point guard with a penchant for ball handling and long-range jump shots, qualities of no significance to SAGA.

38th Street Loop/Levy Loop

I jogged and walked the 38th Street Loop this morning in 25:41. It was 50 degrees, and it's supposed to drop into the 40s tonight. I'll begin to complain about the cold shortly.

Starting at about 4:30 p.m. Central, I walked the Levy Loop in 30:43, and walked into my dry, cool house, with half the windows open, to see that San Diego led San Francisco 4-0 in the seventh inning, and that Atlanta and Philadelphia are tied 0-0 in the sixth. Here's what I need—either San Diego to win today and tomorrow, and Atlanta to lose at least one game in the next two days, or San Diego to win one game, and Atlanta to lose two. If either of those happen, then Cincinnati, the National League Central Division Champion Cincinnati Reds, will play San Francisco in the first round of the playoffs, rather than Philadelphia. Philadelphia is too fucking good. I think it will win the World Series. I would at least like the Reds to have a chance to make it to the National League Championship Series, which the won't if they start with Philadelphia, because Philadelphia is better than two motherfuckers.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY from A Different Closet
"AIDS now appears as an imminent threat to everyone," Green said. "We hope, when that truth is accepted, we will escape this discriminatory attitude which its proponents indeed endanger themselves by upholding."

Levy Loop/Chandler Street Loop

I noticed several days ago that it was warmer in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia, than in Levy, but figured that was a weird, isolated event. I remember once or twice last winter when it was colder here than there. But, heck, it's been warmer there for nearly a week, including this morning, when it was 68 in Levy and 75 there. Crazy. I jogged and walked the Levy Loop this morning in 25:13.

I'm not sure when walks first began to please me. No. Wait. I do. Once, in a I believe 1984, I walked 8,000 meters, a few meters less than five miles, in a few seconds under an hour, meaning I averaged slightly less than twelve minutes a mile, around Razorback Track in Fayetteville. After that, though, maybe not until this year. This evening's is an example. I walked the Chandler Street Loop, starting at about six o'clock Central, in 43:53. It didn't feel like I was walking fast, so I was surprised to see the first mile go by in 14:41. It inspired me to keep splits. Fuck, I'm bragging about a fucking walk. The second mile split of 14:47 was tremendous, since it's as uphill as two motherfuckers. I got the third mile in 14:26. You know, I wonder, they do have race walking in the Senior Olympics.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY from A Different Closet
Ingram knew it was conjecture among horsemen, and members of the sports staff at the paper, but the few remarks he heard were akin to metaphorical winks, forgiving, accepting.