You think we could get Tiger to come to Regina Beach

Did you know that some of the high profile golfers get appearance fees to play in certain tournaments? The first time I heard about this was a number of years ago when Greg Norman was paid $1 million to play in some out-of-the-way tournament. He got the money just for showing up regardless of how he played. Where do I sign up for this!

This week Tiger is playing in Australia for the first time in 11 years. The Golf Channel website reported yesterday that Australia is paying him $3 million dollars just to step off his private jet onto Australian soil! And to top it off, the Australian government is paying half the fee.

Some people might be appalled by this. You've heard the rhetoric before, "professional athletes make too much money". It is true that there are much better causes than paying Tiger to hang out at your golf club. Just think about how many hungry people you could feed with $3 million.

But check this out. In The Golf Channel article, John Brumby, premier of the Australian province of Victoria, where the tournament is being played, stated that Tiger's appearance would have an economic return of at least $19 million. If your ultimate goal is to 'do good', you can do a lot more good with $19 million than you can with 3. What Australia does with the money is anybodies guess but if I had $3 million and could turn it into 19 just by having some guy step off a plane, I'd do it to.

And just a side note. Tiger won't just take the 3 million bones and burn it in his fireplace. He puts a lot of his money into the Tiger Woods Foundation which helps underprivileged kids. The rest of his earnings, now estimated by Forbes to be over $1 billion since he turned professional, are in the system somewhere generating economic activity which creates jobs which, you guessed it, feeds the hungry.

So take a pill, folks, and enjoy the tournament.

I wonder if we could entice him to come to Regina Beach, hehe.

Here's a little of the real Obama

I gotta be honest, I'm pretty tired of everyone bashing the incumbent president. God knows we had 8 years of Bush bashing and I'd like to have a break from all this negative stuff for a while. But I just checked out Obama's comments today about the Ft. Hood shootings. His comments last about 2 minutes and 35 seconds.

The first time I viewed the video things seemed to be going OK and then he starts repeating himself and saying 'ahh' a lot and basically not making a lot of sense. So I look at it again and, sure enough, the first minute and 45 seconds (I hovered over the progress bar to get the time) he's reading from some prepared notes and then, like a shot, you can tell when he gets to the end of his notes and decides to add a few closing remarks off the top of his head. He still glances down occasionally but it's likely just out of habit because its obvious he's putting his own sentences together. The result is dumbfounding.

And I don't mean this in a partisan way. I think one of the greatest speakers off-the-cuff I've ever seen is Bill Clinton. Heck, I can't think of anybody as bad as Obama. George W. had his has gaffs, for sure, but this is way out there. As far as thinking on your feet, Palin, for God sake, puts Obama to shame, and that's saying something.

Check it out for yourself.

I wish I was a better writer . . .

Man, there are a lot of good writers out there. Makes me wonder what I'm doing here.

One of my favourite writers is Roger Ebert. It helps that I usually agree with his movie reviews.

Attaining Eberts's writing ability is beyond my reach but what intimidates me are the Joe Blows who contribute to his blog. I'd be happy to be able to write like some of them. Check out this entry, reproduced below, by CanInDeed on September 25, 2009 3:03 PM.

And I like Ebert's response at the bottom . . .

CanInDeed writes:

Homer the Philosopher,

Tuesday

11:15 am : One should not end one’s life prematurely, for life is like a really bad movie, and ending it is like walking out before one knows its ending. [note to self, revise: of course we know the ending, we die.] This is the wisest thing I’ve said all day, but I woke up at 11:00 am, so things might improve.

2:15 pm : Still sitting at table, thinking.

4:10 pm : Took my weekly shower. The soap smelled like roses. Always stop and smell the roses. That sounds familiar, possible plagarism.

5:55 pm : Had epiphany: Life is like a box of crayons, if your parents buy you the really small box, you know you’re screwed from the outset. [note to self, revise: this has to tie in somehow with life-affirming stuff.]

7:25 pm : Uh, well, life is . . . Lost my train of thought.

9:30 pm : Regained my train of thought. The idea sucked.

11:15 pm : [note to self, don’t give up the day job.]

Wednesday

2:15 am : Just realized I don’t have day job.

3:15 am : Just heard the rat trap snap. Now where’s that cookbook?

1:30 pm : Slept late after my first decent meal in days.

3:45 pm : Getting bored. Must go for monthly walk around the block.

4:00 pm : Back from walk. Exhausted

6:66 pm : Just realized there is no 6:66 pm

8:10 pm : You talkin’ to me, ‘cause I don’t see anybody else in this room.

9:00 pm : Answered rap on door. Someone left a box of puppies. Now where’s that cookbook?

11:30 pm : Just shared a nice meal with the puppies. Thank God for dumpsters.

12:00 am : A new day begins. Smile. Life is like a box of puppies, you never know when things are going to get better, just that they will.

Ebert: Nothing eventful happened Thursday?