Hannah Yun Interview, Part II: The Sequel

Hannah Yun graciously agreed to continue our ongoing/intermittent email conversation after we signed off on Part I in early February. With the Futures Tour kicking off this Thursday Friday, we thought it was high time to wrap things up. Technical difficulties aside, I had a great time and I want to thank Hannah and her family for the chance to interview her. I wish her the best this week and over the rest of her golfing career!

[Note to BerubeWatch fans of MH's days of yore (rather than "fore!") (10:01 am): Head on over to Citizen of Somewhere Else for my invocation of Berube's response to the Habermas-Lyotard debate/conundrum in light of the SUNY vs. UUP leadership throw-down currently happenin' in the Empire State. Excelsior!]

THE CONSTRUCTIVIST (2/3/10): Over the years now that I've been following women's golf closely and blogging about it, I've developed an informal taxonomy of kinds of players. To me, it seems like there are bombers like Lorena Ochoa, Ya Ni Tseng, Michelle Wie, Suzanne Pettersen, Vicky Hurst, Maria Hjorth, and Brittany Lincicome who may struggle with accuracy off the tee more (Lincicome, Wie) or less (Ochoa), but who know how to take advantage of their length; there are straight shooters like Cristie Kerr, Angela Stanford, Brittany Lang, Song-Hee Kim, and Sun Young Yoo who may not be quite as long as the bombers but reach the fairway much more reliably; and there are precision players like Paula Creamer, Ji-Yai Shin, Ai Miyazato, Seon Hwa Lee, Morgan Pressel, and Natalie Gulbis whose games are keyed by their ability to hit the fairway most of the time. Sure, there are players who are difficult to characterize--is Miyazato long enough off the tee to be considered a straight shooter instead of a precision player?--and the lines between kinds of players aren't that hard and fast. But generally the bombers average around 270 yards and hit the fairway less than 65% of the time; the straight shooters average between 255 and 265 yards and hit the fairway between 65% and 75% of the time; and the precision players average under 255 yards and hit the fairway over 75% of the time. In other words, to be successful on the LPGA, as all of the players I've named have been, you need to be more accurate the shorter a hitter you are and longer the less accurate a ball striker you are. So what do you think of this breakdown? If you think it's generally accurate, how would you identify yourself as a golfer within it? If not, what other category would you put yourself in and who else belongs in it? What kind of player would you most like to be?

HANNAH YUN: Well one thing that links all those great players together is that they all have a strong short game. Being 5'2" and 120 lbs., I've always had to keep it in play in order to compete. This past off-season I started working on making my swing more efficient, which helped me gain distance while maintaining my accuracy; I normally hit around 10-11 fairways a round. It was nice to see that I was hitting my drives consistently with Maria Hjorth a couple weeks ago because she's one of the longer LPGA players. I personally believe that it's possible to be both long and accurate.

By the way, I realized I never asked what classes you teach.

TC (2/5): Hey, you're not trying to change the subject there, are you? ;) I teach introductory world literature, American Studies, and multiethnic studies courses, intermediate-level courses in American literature, science fiction, and critical theory, and a range of advanced courses, usually on topics in those areas. All my syllabi are online at my home page. Check 'em out when you get a chance! I'll have some questions for you that connect to the American Identities course I'm teaching this semester in a little while, but for now I want to keep the focus on what kind of player you aspire to be. I don't know if you caught my blog post that elaborated on my opening question or fellow LPGA blogger Hound Dog's thoughtful response, but it sounds to me from your answer that you're aspiring to be a very rare kind of player, let's say a "straight-up bomber." The only players I can think of who attained that for any length of time in recent memory have been Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa. Nothing like setting your sights high, eh? If you don't mind sharing the information, what are the normal distances you hit each club (assuming no wind or slope or anything like that)?

HY (2/8): You want me to look at all your syllabi? Why do you think I left school? haha All of your classes seem like they have thought provoking topics, though.

I like to hit my 7-iron 150 yards; I'm not big on trying to max out my irons 'cause I figure that's why we have 14 clubs :P. My coach helped me to be more efficient with energy transfer in my swing so that lets me maximize distance but still maintain my accuracy. We've been tinkering alot with my driver and I just changed shafts to Graphite Design's new Tour AD shaft in my R9 head. I was able to go on the trackman system during a demo day at our club a couple days ago and it said I was hitting it over 260.

TC: Hey, "when you get a chance" can mean 15 years from now! So, OK, in my system, then, you'd have recently graduated from "precision player" to "straight shooter." I've just erased 4 different attempts to politely suggest that your becoming a "straight-up bomber" is dependent on whether you're still growing--each time I looked at one of them, I imagined you reading it and reacting like Ed does in Full Metal Alchemist when anyone comments on his (lack of) height. Let me hasten to add that I'm 5'6" and can sometimes hit a 7-iron 150, and that's only because I switched from forged irons to Callaway X-14 Steelheads some years ago.... I just couldn't see myself playing often enough to deserve Mizunos. :(

Since you brought up equipment, I'm wondering if you have any hybrids in your bag, and if so, how many and when/why you switched to them. Also, have you noticed any patterns in how the new grooves rules have affected your iron play and particularly your wedge game?

HY (2/14): Haha I'm used to people calling me short so I don't mind :) But I've never actually watched FMA so don't exactly know how Ed would react. But if it's like any other anime character that gets upset, I'm guessing flames in the background? haha

I have a 19 degree Taylormade Raylor that I use instead of a 5w actually. I found that I'd rather have an extra wedge to give me more scoring options than having a small gap between my woods. Also, the Raylor is designed to go through the rough better. I'm not sure if you remember, but the concept is similar to the La Jolla fairway woods that came out about 6-7 years ago.

I have the new grooves for all my wedges and irons but thankfully I haven't noticed a significant difference between the old and new grooves. Of course, I don't spin it as much as the guys but the only place I could tell a difference from was the bunker... Good for me I guess :P

TC: Bingo! I'll see if I can embed a youtube clip of Ed losing his temper here when this goes on the blog, but you already have an admirable knowledge of anime conventions. What do you like to watch? And draw?



[Too brilliant an AMV not to link to, even though there's no real reaction to what we've been talking about in it. The contrast between Ouran High School Host Club and FMA is too awesome to pass up.--TC]

[Ah, this one is short and sweet!--TC]



Interesting that you're not seeing all that much difference with the new grooves. From what I've been reading, we might see more "flyers" from the rough with them. If they put more of a premium on hitting the fairway, more power to you, eh? In a post I wrote today giving my reasons why I think Ai Miyazato will be LPGA Player of the Year in 2010, I speculated that the "bombers" on tour might have more of an adjustment to make than any other kind of player. Have you been talking about this with other players? Anything you've been hearing that might confirm my theory?

So you go driver, 3-wood, raylor, then 3-iron and 3 wedges, right? (Or do you skip down to 4-iron and carry 4 wedges?) Have you experimented with different loft combinations since you got the new grooves, or are you happy with your regular configuration?

Sorry to ask so many questions--been saving them up! ;)

HY (2/15): I haven't watched any anime in a while but I think my favorites would be Cowboy Bebop or Samurai Champloo. I read the Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece manga though. I only did a few sketches a couple years ago but I don't really draw a lot; I think I go through phases.

Right, if players see any change it'll most likely be from the rough, since it used to spin the same as when the ball would be in the fairway. The higher swing speed players will see more of a difference since they spin the ball more, which is why the guys will see a bigger difference than the women.

I go Driver, 3w, Raylor, then 4 iron. I used to use a 58, 52, PW configuration but I recently switched to a 60, 56, 52, and PW. I'm still trying to experiment with other lofts but I'm sticking with the one I have for now.

That's ok! Keep the questions coming :)

TC: Ah, an Adult Swim fan! I loved Cowboy Bebop and was fine with Samurai Champloo. But my favorites were Ghost in the Shell and Full Metal Alchemist. These days I'm keeping up with the new season of the latter through youtube and fandub sites like Anime Crazy, as we, ahem, haven't had cable for almost 3 years, ever since we got back from a year in Japan and realized there were only a few channels in the States we ever felt like watching. Through youtube, my girls have gotten into older shoujo anime like Ojamajo Doremi and Pretty Cure. And of course we're all huge Miyazaki fans. But I draw the line at moe romancey stuff like Kimi No Todoke that my wife is trying to get them into. I'll stick to the fantasy romancey stuff in Inuyasha, thank you very much. My older daughter turned 6 last December and is just starting to read in both English and Japanese. I'm really curious to see what manga she gets into. How old were you when you first started reading it? What got you into it? And do you read any from Korea/in Korean?

Makes sense to go to 4 wedges now that you're longer, I think. Having a lot of options from 100 yards in is what it's all about! How much time do you spend practicing with your wedges relative to your woods and irons? What kinds of games do you play to keep yourself focused while practicing those 30-to-100-yard shots?

HY (2/19): Mmm... I think I started getting into anime a few years ago because one of my friends in high school showed me. I've never read any Korean manga, though. Wow your older daughter can read Japanese already?! I can speak Korean well enough but I'm not very good and reading and writing :(

I try to spend an equal amount of time on every area unless I feel I have to focus in on one thing. I get bored easily so I try to mix things up and do different types of drills every day to keep myself competitve and focused during practice. The most important thing in pitching, and ball striking in general, is the strike and distance control so that's what I work on to hone in from 30 to 100 yards. Did I spell that right?

I'll do extra on things if I feel that I'm lacking in that area but I try to even out the time I spend on each part of my game.

TC: Well, she can sound out Japanese, which is a lot easier to do than in English, once you've got the basic hiragana alphabet memorized (she's even got a lot of katakana--mostly used for Japanizations of non-Japanese words--down, which is more than I can say now), because the sounds of the characters hardly ever change. Her vocabulary is pretty decent for someone who only spent 6 months in a Japanese day care center almost 3 years ago now, but we can't wait to get back there for a month or more at a time so she can experience elementary school there and get back in a setting where her friends are using Japanese all the time. She's kind of unilaterally decided that the official language here at home when she plays with her younger sister is English, so neither are speaking all that much Japanese over the course of a day--basically just when they're home with mom and I'm not there.

I'm assuming you grew up hearing a lot of Korean at home and that the Korean/Korean-American communities where you lived in California were large enough that you had friends your age who spoke it, too. Am I right? I'm wondering if there's anything in Korean pop culture today that's drawing kids in America to the Korean language.... What we're finding here in western NY is that there are a small number of American dad-Japanese mom families in Buffalo, but not really a critical mass of kids who have spent time in Japan recently enough for many of them to really get or stay fluent in their once-a-week Japanese class. The interest level in Japanese among the kids is pretty uneven. Miyazaki helps--all the little kids love Ponyo and Totoro, and even the older kids--but the pull of American pop culture and English is super-strong, as you'd expect. Our girls are dual citizens until they hit 21, when they have to choose between the U.S. and Japan (assuming the rules don't change). Do you have dual citizenship? What kind of attachment do you feel to Korean and Korea?

Oh, and by the way, were you all playing in a blizzard on the SunCoast Series this week? Those scores hurt my eyes!

HY (3/6): Sorry, Bruce! For some reason I thought I replied to this and was waiting for the next question.

I grew up speaking Korean with my mom because she didn't used to be very good at English but I don't remember speaking a lot of Korean outside with other kids. In fact, I became closer to other Korean-American kids when I started playing in the AJGA (American Junior Golf Association). I'd say my pronunciation is good but my vocabulary is limited to the basics.

I think Korea is the most popular in all of Asia and is even popular in some parts of the US in the entertainment industry; I know that most people who watch anime also watch Korean dramas. For such a small country Korea has really expanded out into the world, whether it's in business, sports, music, or tv shows.

I was born in San Jose, CA, so I'm a citizen in only the US. We used to go to Korea about once a year when I was little but we haven't been there since I was 10. I'm proud of being Korean and I enjoy listening to Korean music and watching shows online but see myself as an American. There was a big Korean community in San Jose but we moved to San Diego when I was 9 and there weren't that many Koreans there. Then we moved here to Florida when I was 12 so I basically grew up drinking sweet tea haha. This is actually a subject that comes up often between my parents and me because the two cultures are very different and I worry that when other Koreans see me they expect me to follow the Korean culture. Since I grew up here, I'm not comfortable following that although I have an idea on what to do. But at the end of the day, I stand firmly as an American with a proud Korean heritage :).

TC (3/16): No problem, Hannah. Things have gotten crazy on this end, what with New York state politics getting more melodramatic than any J- or K-drama, funding for public higher education becoming even more of a political football than usual, and little ol' me as chair of our University Senate feeling a responsibility to speak up for SUNY. I'm really worried that the state is going to cut us so sharply in the coming years that we'll soon be losing campuses like the LPGA was losing tournaments at the end of the Bivens era.... (Check out this month's posts at Citizen of Somewhere Else if you ever need a reason to get excited again about golf!)

And sorry for the delay on my end--this is the 4th try for getting this email through to your address!

My girls were both born in Dunkirk, NY, but we decided to do the paperwork needed to get them Japanese citizenship. We want them to be equally comfortable in both cultures until they're old enough to decide which country they want to be a citizen of (although why they can't keep dual citizenship their entire lives is beyond me). Now the struggle is as much financial as anything. It's looking very unlikely that we all can afford to go on a summer trip to Japan this year, now that the girls are being charged full fares. Guess who's going to be the odd one out if our tax refund isn't large enough? No fair! (Although the one bright side for me would be that I'd get to start playing golf regularly again, if I were left behind!)

So I'm wondering about a few things now as the Futures Tour kickoff event is about to begin. Obviously, playing golf as your job is a lot different than playing it as an amateur. What have been the biggest differences for you? What would you say you've already learned from/about being a professional golfer? And what are your goals this season on the DFT?

HY: I think it's good to be as knowledgeable as you can about every culture and I don't mean to step out of line but I'm sure your daughters will be thankful to you and your wife as they get older; especially because it's part of their heritage. I've only heard good things about Japan so I do feel bad for you...at least you get to play golf though. Give or take right? :)

It's definitely different playing as a professional than as an amateur. I think the biggest difference is the mindset I have going into a tournament and strategically planning how I want to play the course. Score is always the most important thing but one stroke on the Duramed Futures Tour could be worth hundreds of dollars. My parents have fully supported me throughout my life but I'd like to start being able to take the pressure off them as soon as I can; especially because my dad turned 61 last December and I feel bad for him haha. Plus I'd like to buy my first car this year ^_^. But all joking aside I've realized that I have responsibilities now as a professional golfer so I have to play to the best of my abilities. I also have to play smarter around the course to take as much stress off as possible while giving myself the most opportunities to score. My goal is to always be in contention every week and earn my LPGA Tour card for next year. I learned a lot last year and I'm continually learning but I have much more confidence in my game this year.

Thank you for your time and your patience! I know I took a long time on some questions but thanks for this great opportunity, I had a lot of fun during this experience. If there's anything I can do to help just let me know and I'll be continuing to read your blog! :)

Who Wants to Read a 9,000-Word Treatise Online?

Methinks Andrew Sullivan is laying a clever trap for Michael Berube in the November 2008 issue of The Atlantic:

The blog remained a superficial medium, of course. By superficial, I mean simply that blogging rewards brevity and immediacy. No one wants to read a 9,000-word treatise online. On the Web, one-sentence links are as legitimate as thousand-word diatribes--in fact, they are often valued more. (109)

A little later in his essay, Sullivan uses the word treatise in contrasting Aristotle unfavorably to Plato, Aquinas to Pascal--and he would have if he could have when comparing classical music to jazz at the end. But that last example of his actually goes in the opposite direction, an acknowledgment that treatises have their purposes and their places. Just not on blogs.

So here's a Mostly Harmless challenge for 2009: who can prove Sullivan wrong?

Move Over, Joe the Plumber!

Bobbio at Average Golfer considers the tax implications for Joe PGA-Tour-Winner of an Obama victory. Who said there'll be no Joe this weekend?

Berube's Back and There's Gonna Be Some Trouble (Hey La, Hey La)

Was it only 21 months ago (or so) that Michael Berube retired from blogging? That I wrote this tribute to his unauthorized mock-political party? That I instituted BerubeWatch to track his inevitable return?

Well, hang onto your hats, true believers. Berube's back!

For those who might be tempted to dig through the Mostly Harmless archives and figure out when this pop culture blog became a golf blog, I'll save you some time. You see, the seeds of MH's golfaramamania were, uh, seeded in comments over at Berube's old place. Whenever he'd take a break from his hockey blogging and golf blog, I'd always ask him, "what about the LPGA?" Eventually I figured I'd better fill that void myself. Might have been that time my prediction turned out to be right--and his? Well, not so much.

So, yeah, Michael Berube is to blame for the golf blogging I inflict on less than a hundred people a day. Putting aside the fact that that's a bigger and more regular readership than I ever got for obscure in-jokes and political satires, the only fitting punishment for him is for you to become a regular at his blog and leave him many many comments.

[Update 1 (10/3/08, 12:12 am): Yeesh, not only am I way late with this "news," now I find out I'm not even original with my title.]

[Update 2 (4:24 am): Aaargh, and I forgot to mention that Berube's bloggy return means that Annika Sorenstam will be back on the LPGA in 2011.]

And Now for Something Completely Different: BerubeWatch Returns!

I don't have a tv that does anything more than play videotapes and DVDs these days, so I'm not getting my political humor fix from Stewart and Colbert (and haven't since we left for Japan in late summer of 2006). Sad, eh? Thankfully, Michael Berube has been picking up the slack over at Talking Points Memo. Now we know why he didn't jump all over my call for him to run as mayor of Blogoramaville last summer....

Heeeee's Baaaaaa-ack! (Or Should that Be, "Heeee-ere's JP!"?)

A warm welcome back to JP Stormcrow! Last I saw him, he was brightening another recent installation of Berube golf course architecture with the following diamond in the rough:

[D’Souza’s] most recent book*, however, seems to have given some of his comrades second thoughts.

Don’t go fucking with my Grand Unifying Theory of Wingnut Mixed Political Metaphors dude! It requires Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism, D’Souza’s Enemy at Home and your BFF’s “Discover the Network” to retain sufficient nutter street cred to support the emerging understanding of 9/11 as collateral damage from a doctrinal squabble between the Liberal Fascist Mensheviks and the Islamofascist Bolsheviks over how to best achieve the Fascist Internationale.

So don’t start. I swear I’ll go over to that uppity little blog of yours and retroactively shut it down like a year ago and make comment threads begin to disappear one at a time.

*As Dave Meier points out, MB is actually referring to his book before last. His latest is might as well be titled Atheistic Creedism.

JP Stormcrow: the gift that keeps on giving. Don't be a stranger, dude!

Revolutionary Sunday: Secret Plans of the Vanguard

And this is where those plans are being incubated and hatched:

pre-historic golf

For all you golfers and WAAGNFNP loyalists here's proof that prehistoric man played golf long before he watched TV:



And here he is, doin' the Tiger under the watchful eye of the ultimate ur-golfer:

Berube Mayoral Campaign Kicks Off with Analogy Contest

Cross-posted at Citizen of Somewhere Else.

Because it's our last Friday in Fukuoka (for this year, that is) and we have it on good authority that "analogies are mostly the refuge of the simple-minded," I hereby announce that the Official Michael Berube Campaign for Mayor of Blogoramaville is leading off with an analogy contest. Just fill in the blanks on any or all of the following in comments!

1. Michael Berube:[x=Republican Presidential Candidate]::a:b
2. Michael Berube:[y=Possible Mayoral Competitor]::c:d
3. Michael Berube:[z=Possible Running Mate]::e:f
4. Michael Berube:g::h:i

And remember to keep it simple, stupid. No similes or metaphors allowed.

DRAFT BERUBE '08

Blogoramaville needs a mayor by 2009. The WAAGNFNP needs a vehicle for parodying actually existing political campaigns between now and then. It's a match made in heaven.

"But Constructivist," you say, "what is this 'Blogoramaville' you speak of? Skippy says we're livin' in blogtopia." Sorry, people, but blogtopia is so last microsecond. Hadn't you heard that it got invaded, conquered, surveyed, and parcelled out, like, bloggy years ago?

"Whatever," you reply. "How is your dumb riff on McLuhan any better?" Well, after Turner (Ted) proclaimed the Closing of the Electronic Frontier Era, we've entered a new phase of virtual community-building. Blogoramaville gets at the cheesy small-town stench (I mean, barnyard aroma) of so many bloggy interactions. It's where we're at. We ain't no global village.

"All right, I'm in," you answer, conveniently getting into the spirit of "our" "dialogue." "So if Townsville has The Mayor and Springfield has Mayor Quimby, what kind of mayor does Blogoramaville deserve?" Great question--thanks for asking!

We all know Blogoramaville is a wasteland of broken windows, unreadable graffiti, and angry extremists who have nothing in common but their complete lack of civility. We all know the families who have left for the big city, "gone on vacation" indefinitely to parts unknown, or been driven out of town by flame-thrower-toting flash mobs. We all know how much fun it is to persistently and ruthlessly mock the village idiots. But there has to be more to life in Blogoramaville than that. We need to elect a Mayor to figure out what that is.

This is where the WAAGNFNP's own Chairman-for-Life and Professor of Dangeral Studies Michael Berube comes in. Or would, if his loyal cultists Partyers could just--somehow--get organized.

Anyone got any ideas how to do that?

Besides the WAAGNFNP's own Tribunus Laticlavius of the Ministry of Offense and Defense, that is, who offers Berube the following campaign slogan:

"Vote WAAGNFNP in 2008--you'll never have to vote again!"

Pop Quiz Time Again

Ah, my stomach is bothering me again. Clearly, this is because

a) I ate too much sushi this evening;
b) I didn't wait long enough to start visiting Sadly, No!, The Poor Man Institute, Jesus' General, Pandagon, and Lawyers, Guns and Money again and am paying for even the vicarious and thoroughly-mocked exposure to Greater Wingnuttia;
c) I laughed too long and hard at Berube's latest;
d) JP Stormcrow's latest has brought my liberal guilt/conservative paranoia dialectic to a boil;
e) my second damn post at WAAGNFNP must have just gone up;
f) something else;
g) all of the above.

A Guy Goes to Sleep for a Few Hours and Misses the Weirdest LPGA Finish Evah; or, Sunday Bloody (Windy/Rainy/Apocalypsy) Sunday

So, please, tell me, shot by shot, what the FUCK happened over the last 6 holes of the Ginn Open! I can see the numbers in front of me:

• Ochoa finishing double-par-bogey-bogey-par-double for a 77 and second place (-9).
  
• Davies finishing par-bogey-par-par-double-triple for a 79 and third (-7).
  
• and Lincicome WINNING with a bogey-birdie-par-par-par-bogey finish for a 72 (-10).
  

But it's the how rather than the what or why that interests me most right now. Were they playing in the dark on 17 and 18? Are there grounds for a controversy here over the Tour forcing the field to finish?

And the field did suck--there were over 40 people under par at the beginning of the day and under 20 by its end. Ai-chan actually got a T24 (and almost $22K) by birdieing the 9th to get back to +1 for the tournament; Gulbis shot an 80 and just missed the top ten anyway; Meena Lee was the only person under par for the day and walked away with a T8 (and over $57K); Juli Inkster's E round (itself a collapse from her -3 start) got her a T4 (and over $118K)! There's more, but I have to run.

So much for my prediction that the conditions would favor the last few groups, eh? Or my all-but-1% concession to FHP at Pandagon.

Please, someone with the Golf Channel just describe 17 and 18 if that's all you have time for! Inquiring minds want to know--and this is definitely tabloid fodder.

[Update: For official Tour propaganda, this'll do. Anyone got more?]

Why It's Not Going to Be a Two-Golfer Race in the Ginn

A certain Dangeral Professor and I have been exchanging emails about the LPGA (it started over Melvin Tolson not being on the Academy of American Poets web site, honest, courtesy of one of the eagle-eyed readers of Slant Truth) and he was so bold as to predict that nobody will catch Ochoa and Davies this weekend. Here are some reasons he's going to be proven wrong:

1) The course is firm and hard today and scores are already high. People who were playing well at the start of the tournament are not anymore. Case in point: Meaghan Francella, who's been playing as well as anyone this year, just reeled off four quick bogeys on her front side. Sherri Turner, Karen Sjodin, and In-Kyung Kim are marching down the leader board. My friend Moira Dunn, who got it to -5 through 26 holes on Friday, proceeded to give every stroke back in her last ten that round, and it's taken her 10 holes today to get back under par. No such luck so far for Ai Miyazato, Stacy Prammanasudh, and Kyeong Bae among many others not taking advantage of the back 9 this morning and hovering around E or +1. Even Natalie Gulbis is off to a tough start today. So there are bogeys to be had out there today. Davies is a streaky player and Ochoa still has not figured out how to avoid the weekend collapses that plagued her early in her professional career (even last year at this event, her Saturday was ugly, if not as ugly as the Saturday two weekends ago). BTW, Ochoa just bogeyed the par-5 3rd--the same hole she doubled yesterday--to fall to -11 through 4.

2) There are birdies to be had for many. Shi Hyun Ahn is four-under through 13 today, tied with Birdie Kim, who's four-under through 9, and three other golfers who still have a legitimate shot at the win, all at -5 for the tournament. Sarah Lee, who's four-under through 8, joins Brittany Lincicome and Suzann Pettersen at -6. Se Ri Pak birdied two of her first three holes to join the front-runners, only one back of Mi Hyun Kim and Natalie Gulbis, four behind Ochoa, and six behind Davies. More than 3/4 of the people already under par in the tournament going into the weekend are under par today. It's true that there's a lot of pressure on those -4 or better to go low today and Ochoa and Davies can afford a mediocre round and still be in the mix, but knowing that makes it tougher on the two leaders to stay aggressive.

3) Sunday is predicted to be cooler, windier, and stormier all morning. Whoever adjusts best to the changing conditions, the stop-and-start golfing, and the new course after the front passes through will be the winner by the end of the day (the afternoon should clear up, so they should get the entire round in).

It's not that I'm rooting against the soon-to-be-world-#1 or the veteran who needs two more LPGA wins to qualify for its Hall of Fame. I'm just saying the old cliche, "there's a lot of golf still to be played," is as true as ever.

So we'll see who's right when I get up!

[Update: Well, this was worth getting up early for. Birdie Kim shot a 66 to get to -7 and in the thick of the race for third--it's been a long time since she's done anything good, so it'll be interesting to see how she handles the pressure and the conditions Sunday. Karrie Webb matched her for the low round of the day and at -4 has a realistic chance at a top 10 finish (not unlike Grace Park and Minea Blomqvist, whose 67s got them to -3). Brittany Lincicome shot her second 67 of the tournament to get to double digits under par, but still must be disappointed, as she bogeyed the par-5 17th when she had a real chance to post a 65 and put some pressure on Ochoa and Davies (both of whom had up-and-down rounds but ended up at -14, with a four-shot lead on their nearest competitors, thanks to their clutch birdies on 18). There were a bunch of 68s, led by Se Ri Pak, who ended the day in fifth place at -9. But Mi Hyun Kim (-6) dropped out of contention, Suzann Pettersen (-7) didn't play well enough to get into it, and Natalie Gulbis (-10) lost another stroke to Ochoa and Davies. I just don't see Nicole Castrale (-8), Sarah Lee (-6), or Hye Jung Choi (-6) doing well enough on Sunday to get into the mix--they're much more likely to get passed by Juli Inkster (-6), Shi Hyun Ahn (-5), Jee Young Lee (-5), and Carin Koch (-5).

So all in all, Floating Head Professor's pick is looking better than mine heading into Sunday. The weather remains the big x-factor, though. Depending on how much it rains and how cold and windy it gets, the course could become vulnerable to very low scores for those who hold on during the stormy weather and 20-30 mph winds expected for most of the morning. If it warms up quickly after the front passes through and the greens take enough water to get soft but the fairways remain hard, there's an outside chance a few people among the top 12 golfers at -6 and better could go really low, like, say, 62-65 low. But that's a really big if--much more likely is that people going off early will have a tough time scoring and the leaders' starts will be delayed, protecting them from the worst of the bad weather. Given Ochoa, Davies, and Lincicome's length off the tee, they stand to benefit the most from whatever conditions the weather and the course throw at the field (Pak and Gulbis have only average power). So if you're looking to disagree with Professor Berube's two-person-race pick, you'd be much better off saying it's a three- than a five-person one (but if you're truly insane, you might predict that Pettersen and Mi Hyun Kim are due for some Sunday magic).]

[Update 2: Eagle-eyed readers of this insignificant microbe of a blog will no doubt have noticed that my previous update spins away the fact that Ochoa and Davies extended their lead on the rest of the field between Friday and Saturday, because they will of course have already appreciated my point in doing so: with more people within striking range of them with 18 rather than 36 holes to go, the odds that both will bring their closest pursuers back into contention on the front nine on Sunday due to the difficulty of the weather and course conditions give my position against Berube's two-player-race scenario close to 50-50 odds. The fact that it's my only chance that Berube won't have been right plays absolutely no role in my calculated vagueness on what "odds" and "close to" means in the previous sentence. None at all.]

In Which We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled TV Humor Inventory for a Pop Quiz

My stomach has been killing me today and most of yesterday because:

a) I have the norovirus;
b) my WAAGNFNP premiere is today (my time);
c) I invoked Warren Ellis's Transmetropolitan in vain over at Is there no sin in it? (aka shirokuma-no basho);
d) I am wracked with liberal guilt;
e) I must bring myself to watch one of the Great (Blogging) Scotts do a Baudrillardean vloggy take-down of Ann Althouse's vlogging;
f) something else;
g) all of the above.

Whatever you do, don't believe Them when They tell you that trying to find fun or humor in being doubled over a keyboard can be fun and funny.

[Update 4/7/06: The answer, for those who were wondering, was f)--my stomach, either being psychic or a time traveller, was in pain from laughing at Berube's Vlogtopia post at the WAAGNFNP's sworn enemies, teh CT.]

GNF Watch

My first We Are All Giant Nuclear Fireball Now Party post, a sequel to my liberal guilt/conservative paranoia one here awhile back, should be up at Party HQ by the time U.S. clocks catch up to Japanese ones. I won't say anything more about it here, except that one of the Great (Blogging) Scotts probably won't believe me when I say it was drafted well before our initial exchanges in the "more annihilistic than thou" war of position that seems to be shaping up between Crooked Timber and the WAAGNFNP.

Just to up the ante in the shameless self-promotion sweepstakes, I'll note in passing that JP Stormcrow cleverly, humbly, and silently updated his Mostly Harmless Nabokov tribute at his place and the MOJ/MOOAD's. In fact, you can find many Mostly Harmless authors writing for the WAAGNFNP--when the inspiration strikes them and the queue opens up--yet none of them felt the need to devote a post to it here (i.e., are as lazy bloggers as I). Oh, and did I mention BerubeWatch (now with one link per word!) is getting great ratings in Germany?

On Liberal Guilt and Conservative Paranoia

OK, it's time to get over my giddiness of late and get back to politics. (Sorry, I've lived most of my life in a climate where spring lasts roughly three weeks in May and am now in the midst of veritable explosions of cherry blossoms.) My theme today is liberal guilt and conservative paranoia.

Let's start with some definitions and examples. There are many varieties of liberal guilt: among them, feeling bad about a situation you actually have something to do with but disavowing any relation to it; feeling bad about a situation and acknowledging your complicity in/responsibility for it but having no intention of doing anything to change it; feeling bad about your lack of success at changing the situation; getting angry at those in the situation for failing to respect how bad you feel about it; and so on. For a case study, check out the comments over at Berube's latest (and its spillover), where leftists and liberals of all varieties are tearing into each other in comments for not stopping the invasion of Iraq. You need a scorecard to tell all the factions apart!

The dominant strand of conservative paranoia, on the other hand, is quite simple: get them before they get us. Pick a random post from any of the Dick Vader/Darth Cheney dead-enders left in Right Blogistan for an example; I won't dignify them with a link and I leave the mocking to the professionals.

(While I'm doing the link-o-rama I should note that for other offerings of definitions and explorations of examples, you should check out what Anonymous Liberal, Amanda Marcotte, and Lindsay Beyerstein have written in the past several months.)

OK, now that I've got the stage set up, it's time for the plot. To argue that the War on Terra has brought out the worst reflexes of U.S. liberalism and conservativism and empowered those who have most given in to them, as I'm going to do in this post, is bad enough, but to suggest that close to the root of the problem are tendencies toward liberal guilt and conservative paranoia is worse. Pop psychologizing. Oversimplifying. Haven't liberals acknowledged Audre Lorde's critiques from the 1970s? Haven't conservatives outgrown Richard Hofstader's critiques from the 1960s? Hasn't American political culture moved on since then? If you clicked on any of the above links or have ever encountered a rhetorical question in your life, you won't be surprised that my answer is "not quite."

Let me emphasize from the outset that I am not making an argument for moral equivalence between what I called in the comments on Berube's Crooked Timber post "U.S. Sovereignty Liberalism" and "U.S. Dominion Conservatism." I am a lot more worried about the latter's paranoid logic than the former's guilty feelings. Here's Dominionist "logic": given how ugly America's history and foreign policy have been (though they hardly ever acknowledge this publicly), given how many people around the world are angry at the U.S. (but to ask "why so many more since the U.S. invaded Iraq?" is treasonous), and given 9/11 (which changed everything, duh), we'd better go get them before they come for us again (with "them" a particularly flexible and shifting target). The run-up to and the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq are perfect examples of why paranoia makes for bad national security "strategerizing," which raises the question of why the "liberal" response for far too long ranged only from rolling with the paranoia to criticizing the failures of execution of the old "the best defense is a good offense" strategy that stems from it. (You know, except for such weirdos as The Nation and much of Left Blogistan, whose wisdom and prescience earns them about as much respect and deference these days as those days.) Could liberal guilt have been the straw stirring the Kool-Aid that the corporate media and too many Democrats have been drinking for much of this century?

Since it's so difficult to gain perspective on one's own culture and history, let's take a quick look at Japanese Prime Minister Abe's terrible March, particularly the outcry around blogtopia (h/t: skippy) and the world to his insistence that the Japanese military did not coerce the "comfort women" into sexual slavery during World War II. Having mocked his claim myself, I wonder if all the people who are so forthright in their criticisms of Japanese conservatives' unwillingness to face the past frankly are willing to apply the same standards to U.S. liberals and conservatives when it comes to atrocities made in America. Would we see an outpouring of support in the U.S. if the Japanese Diet were to respond to Rep. Honda's proposed sexual slavery resolution with one of their own, calling for the U.S. President to take responsibility for, say, the U.S. government's endorsement of slavery, Indian removals, and so on, up to the fire bombing campaigns and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WW II, the entire Vietnam War, and the sexual violations by U.S. military personnel around bases all over Asia since the invasion and occupation of the Philippines? Or would we see the same kind of defensive and/or guilty reactions from U.S. political elites as we've been seeing from all-too-many mainstream Japanese politicians this past month?

It seems to me that liberal guilt and conservative paranoia are flawed strategies for dealing with the fact that citizens of a nation inherit all its history, not just the parts that they would like to remember or are convenient for them to memorialize. Just because my ancestors came to the U.S. from Poland and Hungary just before the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act shut down most U.S.-bound immigration for decades does not diminish the responsibility for the legacies of slavery all living Americans (and not only Americans) have to live with. Continually wallowing in guilt or repeatedly whirling in paranoia at our situatedness--our differential implicatedness--are worse than useless. In addition to wasting energy and distracting attention, both responses, while failing to exorcise responsibility, forestall exercising it. I'm not talking about reparations or apologies here; I'm talking about thinking through what restorative justice might look and act like.

While debates over our cruise down the road to Iraq are intensifying as we all wonder if the Bush team is really going to take that scary-looking exit for Iran, we don't need to go back to the nineteenth century to start the paranoia-guilt dialectic in motion. What I believe is fueling the War on Terra's version is the fact that during WW II the U.S. was the first and only nation-state to use what was at the time the ultimate WMD: the dropping of atomic bombs on civilian populations. Liberal guilt and conservative paranoia can't square the circle that the indiscriminate bombing of civilians was a war crime when Japan was doing it to China in the late 1930s yet became a key tactic for ending "the good war" when the Allies were doing it to the Axis just a few years later. U.S. historians have been arguing over the case for the air war and the use of atomic weapons for generations, but the mainstream political culture is still stuck in the same kind of "consensus" that allowed the right to successfully demagogue the proposed Smithsonian Enola Gay exhibit in the mid-1990s. But no matter how controversial it is within the U.S. to criticize the decision-making process that lead to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, no amount of internal controversy can erase the fact that America is exceptional in the WMD sweepstakes. The lesson conservative Dominionists take from this example of American exceptionalism can be found in the two Bush national security strategy documents. What most U.S. Sovereignty Liberals take from it is the need to distinguish good exceptionalism from bad exceptionalism, which helps explains why the principles they put forward for doing so receive so much criticism (from each other, from Dominionists, and from those who are more skeptical about the history of U.S. sovereignty).

If you a U.S. citizen, whatever your politics, you have inherited Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Whether you believe the atomic bombings were indefensible or justifiable--whether you see them as crimes against humanity or the least bad among terrible options during a time of War Without Mercy--your standing as an American citizen alone puts you in a position of unavoidable responsibility. Keep in mind that every justification for the atomic bombings that makes Japanese civilians responsible for everything the Japanese government did from the 1890s to the 1940s can be applied with greater force to the U.S. citizen/U.S. state relationship at any point in U.S. history. If American democracy is by, for, and of "the people," then as a legal member of that collective you bear some responsibility for what has been done in your name by the U.S. government, even if it took place before you were born, even if you tried to stop it.

Liberal guilt and conservative paranoia obscure and evade the fact that citizenship entails responsibility as well as rights. Perhaps soon post-9/11 Americans will come to understand that acting out on one's own paranoia only creates more and newer enemies while indulging in or seeking absolution from one's guilt does nothing to turn enemies into allies.

Not-Quite-Live-Blogging II: PGA and LPGA Tune-Up Edition

You know you love it! (But if you don't, head over to Citizen of Somewhere Else for more BerubeWatch and daddy blogging, or just scroll down for baseball and bad music, and we'll pretend this post never happened.)

While we wait for the contenders to get to the first tee, let's flag two big stories lazy LPGA journalists need to start covering.

Who's going to be the best of the LPGA Super Sophs this year? There was a lot of attention paid last year to the Rookie of the Year race, what with Ai Miyazato running away with the Q-School tournament, Morgan Pressel turning pro, Julieta Granada winning the million-dollar paycheck in the inaugural ADT Championship, and Seon Hwa Lee outlasting all of them to win the title. Well, so far this year, 7 of the top 14 money winners are members of that class of 2006. As of 4:00 am today (Japan time!) in the Safeway International, Jee Young Lee and Teresa Lu are in a race to see who can crack the top 10, Julieta Granada, Brittany Lang, and Morgan Pressel are fighting to eke out top 20s (Lu has joined them as of 5:00 am), and Seon Hwa Lee, Ai Miyazato, and Kyeong Bae are struggling to pass Veronica Zorzi and Nina Reis and make it into the top 50 (they couldn't do it by 5:00 am, although by 6:00 it looks like Lee may get into the top 50 if people ahead of her keep faltering). And at the end of the day they'll all still be chasing last week's winner Meaghan Francella on the 2007 money list. That's 11 sophs in all, seven of whom are already super by any standard. Who's afraid of the Sophomore Jinx?

Who among the LPGA's big names of the past decade who have struggled the last few years will get back on track in 2007? I'm talking Grace Park, Mi Hyun Kim, Laura Davies, Carin Koch, Sophie Gustafson, and Laura Diaz in particular. And will Karrie Webb, Se Ri Pak, Juli Inkster, and Pat Hurst be able to build on their successes in 2006? Add Annika Sorenstam to the mix and it'll be interesting to see how the stars who started in the 1990s will stack up in 2007 against all the now-seasoned competitors who started their careers between 2000 and 2005 as well as all the young 'uns.

All right, the last groups have started at Superstition Mountain--and Suzann Pettersen has cut Lorena Ochoa's lead to one stroke after only 3 holes, and has caught her after 5. (Looks like that 100-Yen Nishijin Crystal Ball is as reliable as ever--Jeong Jang is hanging in there, too, injured wrist and all. [Whoops, cancel that as of 6:15 am--she ballooned to a 39 on the front--maybe that crystal ball is better than I thought.]) At Doral, nobody among Saturday's top 10 has made a run at Tiger yet--looks like a race for second from here. I'll be back with updates as interesting things happen.

[Update 1 (6:42 am): Suzann Pettersen, Mi Hyun Kim (T11), and Brittany Lang (T16) have the rounds of the day thus far, all at five-under, although Pettersen, with 5 birdies in her first 7 holes, the lowest 9-hole score of the tournament (31), and a 1-shot lead over Lorena Ochoa through 12, is clearly the biggest story. Unlike Lorena, Tiger has a comfortable 5-shot lead after his front nine.

In other stories I've been following this week, Irene Cho took top rookie honors, shooting a solid 70 to finish at -3, with a chance to get in the top 20 if people still on the course falter. Angela Park did a free-fall down the leader board after double-bogeying the tenth for the second day in a row, although a late birdie pulled her within a shot of Paige Mackenzie. Among the Super Sophs, a costly bogey on 17 brought Jee Young Lee back to four-under on the day and -7 for the tournament (T6); Morgan Pressel fired a 68 to give herself a chance for a top-10 finish; Julieta Granada shot a 69 to tie Lang at -4 and guarantee herself a top-20 finish; and Teresa Lu is grinding her way back into a chance for a top-20 finish after a rocky start to the day. Among the vets, Laura Diaz is leading the way at four-under through 14 to bring her to -9, alone in 3rd, followed by Sophie Gustafson at -7 (T6); Laura Davies shot a 69 to put her even with Kim and Pressel; and Annika Sorenstam and Grace Park are getting left in the dust while Pat Hurst is going backwards fast, although they can't be as disappointed as defending champ Juli Inkster, who finished at the back of the pack.

BTW, if you want to read more about Korean LPGA stars and rookies, check out Seoul Sisters 5.1 (14 March 2007).]

[Update 2 (8:36 am): What a finish! Lorena Ochoa birdied 4 of her final 5 holes to hold off Suzann Pettersen, who did everything she could to win--firing the low round of the day (66), tying Ochoa as the only two players with all four rounds in the 60s, and beating Ochoa by being under par for each of her 8 9-hole rounds (Ochoa was at par for two of hers)--yet nevertheless lost by two shots to the soon-to-be world #1.

Laura Diaz (-10, T3 with Jeong Jang, who showed me that crystal ball of mine is flawed, after all) and Jee Young Lee (-8, alone in 7th) ended up joining today's 67 club. Vets Catriona Matthew, Sophie Gustafson, and Rachel Hetherington all posted 69s to join Annika Sorenstam and Shi Hyun Ahn in the top 10. Paula Creamer and Hee-Won Han finished one shot out of the top 10 at -6.

See why the LPGA is more exciting than the PGA this year? Tiger faltered a bit down the stretch but still won by two. Ho hum.]

[Update 3 (4:53 pm): Lorena Ochoa, in an interview after her victory: "It's very nice to see people that you know and especially to the workers here. When I went and talked to them on Tuesday, I think, I was spending time with them, and I told them, ‘Feel free to come and celebrate with me,' because this trophy is for all of you. It was very nice to see the reaction and to see them close. Hopefully they enjoy the day as much as I did. I'm very proud to be Mexican, and thank you to all of them for being here and, just working so hard throughout the year." Geoff Ogilvy, after Tiger's victory at Doral, commenting on the fact that "Woods has won 27.5 percent of his tournaments": "He only wins 30 percent of the time he tees it up," Ogilvy said. "I probably only play 13 or 14 tournaments that he plays in a year. I've got seven or eight chances he's not going to win. It's kind of inspiring." The power of hope through statistics, PR?]

[Update the Last (3/27/07, 7:35 pm): Time to get excited for the LPGA's first major of the year! As you can see from this week's Rolex Rankings, Lorena is as close to Annika as she's ever been. Once the LPGA updates its money list, I'll link to it here.]

Link Love: Returning Favors

Berube premieres at Crooked Timber--oh, the frivolity!

spyder premieres at WAAGNFNP--oh, the personal hygiene!

PZ Myers enters a new contestant in the Blogocalypse Sweepstakes Carnival at Pharyngula--oh, those misreaders of Mayans!

Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon and Bitch Ph.D. at, well, Bitch Ph.D. show why Texas is the most progressive state in the Union--oh, for the days when $500 went an entire pregnancy!

Another weather delay at the LPGA's latest means about a quarter of the field isn't likely to finish today. Scores are high. With the low score for the day only a 68 and only 4 of the 19 players under par thus far safely in the clubhouse, anyone who can keep it within a couple of shots of par today has a chance to win. (In a four-round tournament this early in the year, you can expect one bad round from just about everyone in the field.)

Funny line of the day, courtesy of onechan's yochien, from a newsletter segment on what to tell your kids when you're pregnant.

KID: Why is your belly bigger, mama?
MAMA: Because there's a baby inside.
KID: You ate a baby?!

Spring and All

It's spring in Japan! The Constructivist household is heading off on a cherry blossom bus tour later this morning and the Mostly Harmless crew has an explosive announcement to make upon our return. [Update: the tour was cancelled and we couldn't wait!] Now, though, here are some spring-like things for you all to look at, listen to, read, and hopefully enjoy....

The cover of the graduation brochure at onechan's yochien:



Yes, they have a graduation ceremony for the pre-school kids who will be entering the official school system in April--and these are their self-portraits. Sugoi kawaii deshita! Or rather, as the Hakata kids would put it, cho kawaii!

Tsuma and I scoured the YouTubes for two Japanese kids' tv song-and-dance numbers in particular, but apparently NHK does a good job of protecting its copyrights, so you'll have to click here, then click on the right (musical) button and then click the blue (musical) button to listen to one of them, "biolantan." I guarantee you won't be able to get it out of your head, even if, as it turns out, the lead singer who composed it (and the even better one you can only buy right now) admitted the lyrics are pure nonsense. I'll take that over the impure nonsense oozing from the White House any day.

Speaking of which, General J.C. Christian just opened the unofficial campaign HQ of Disco Rudy over at Second Life. And AltJapan gets into the spirit of Celebrity Death Match via google trends. Sounds like he's been reading a certain Arbitrary But Fun Friday at a certain ex-Blogue, whose auteur apparently has blog scratch fever. Gotta love the spring!

One last thing: English-subtitled versions of Legend of the Galactic Heroes on teh YouTubes get scanty after the first 9 episodes, but you can brush up on your Japanese by working your way backwards from here and supplementing it with this. Maybe Adult Swim will get March Madness and make a deal to get all 110 episodes translated and aired by 2010!

[Note: Mostly Harmless will be hosting the Blogocalypse Carnival on April Fool's Day 2007. Start your keyboards and send your links to the[underscore]constructivist18[at]yahoo[dot]com no later than the morning of Saturday, March 31. Anything that combines bloggy with apocalypsy matters will at least be considered.]

Postmodern Americana

Rocky & Bullwinkle. The Muppet Show. The Simpsons. Hip hop.

If you ever need to explain pomo to a friend, or exemplify it in a classroom, you could do worse than show a "Fractured Fairy Tale," play a clip from "Homer Bad Man" (you know, the Gummi Venus de Milo episode), or explain sampling. Feel free to elaborate in comments--imoto is up and in danger of waking up onechan! Time to entertain a ten-month-old!

[Update: Now that Pretty Cure 5 is over, I had time to check out Chris Clarke's DisneyWatch. I suggest you do, too, after checking out the latest Berube manifestation.]