Had my first round of 2005 this past weekend. As a native of Michigan, playing in 70-degree Florida weather in mid-Feb was a blessing. But the first round is always ugly. The short game always goes first, too. By the back nine, all my chips were with my putter and five-footers were gimme two-putts. But as I rode along the fairways, I wondered what this golf season’s motivation would be. . . See, I was always a competitive golfer. I was hacking it up in local tourney’s when I was ten, all the way through high school, and even did some ...

Fed up with my insistance to make light of anything my high school Latin instructor tried to teach me, whether it be passive periphrastics or “cum clauses” with a genitive deponent, he said to me: “You know in Sparta, once a child was found to be left-handed, he was placed in a catapult and flung into the hillside, never to be seen again. . .frankly you should be lucky you’ve made it this far.” That’s stuck with me, far more than anything having to do with the language itself (frankly I learned more the second time I watched Gladiator). So because of ...

Super Bowl notes. . . Best commercial: The three CareerBuilder.com ads with the monkeys. Hits close to home with my job. . .I get those same looks of bewilderment the monkeys get whenever I pitch a story idea. Worst Commercial: At first I want to say that GoDaddy.com web hosting commerical with the bimbo on C-SPIN in the first half. The ad that actually had to be softened in order to air. Then again, there are countless commericals I don’t remember. So I’d like to announce my new website set to debut next week. . . Tom Brady: Neither leads a 4th ...