Why do they wear green jackets at Augusta National? A writer for Golf Digest thinks it might be the result of Bobby Jones' conversion to Catholicism and love of G.K. Chesterton. Check out the story here. Excerpt:
Jones read and often consulted Giovanni Papini's The Life of Christ. Papini had converted to Catholicism, as Jones would do later in life. Authors Charles Price and Mark Frost have claimed that Jones' reading of Papini helped him decide to convert. English writer G.K. Chesterton, widely read during Augusta National's formative years in the 1930s, was another convert. Abbass believes Jones would have read his stories that featured the amateur sleuth Father Brown. Therein, according to Abbass, lies the reason the Masters jacket is green.
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The Chinese government denies it. The human rights group says their estimate might be low. My gut reaction: the Commies did it. Their hero was willing to kill well over 2 million people, why would his successors hesitate merely to evict 2 million?
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My most-recent blogging column is at The Register, but it requires a subscription. It's about recreation. Excerpt:
Although I incline toward Father Schall's favorable view of recreation, Mencken and Pascal weren't entirely wrong. Far from it. I especially agree with Pascal: Recreational pursuits can numb us to our approaching death and the final judgment we must all prepare for. Excessive and frenzied recreational activity contains a strong dose of existential idiocy.
But I don't think recreation and piety are opposed.
In fact, I've noticed an odd phenomenon in my life. After attending confession and saying the post-confession prayers and doing my penance, I want to drink beer. Granted, confession at my church is at 1 p.m. on Saturday afternoons and few things go together as well as Saturday afternoons and beer. But there is more to it.
After confession, I feel happy, joyful, grateful. I don't want to work in the yard or toil at the office. I want to have fun. Having just prepared myself for death, I want to celebrate life.
It's a paradox, but no coincidence. Our everlasting life springs from the death of The Mortal Immortal. It's an awesome fact to be revered, but also celebrated. Prayer is the reverential part. Recreation is the celebration. They're both proper and necessary reactions to this existential plight we call life.
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Leno on Paris Hilton:
This is the month for June brides. More bad news for Paris Hilton.
Paris Hilton is now in jail. On her first day, they did something called a booty check. Paris Hilton calls it a first date.
