Where's the bunny rabbit?

Help me Onechan. I've lost my bunny rabbit. Can you see it?



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Maybe it's here:



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What about the pretty green:



But doesn't its tail look a little funny?

[edit]

And here's and extra special question for bonus points: Who said "Usagi! Usagi! My kingdom for an Usagi?" Was it:

a. The Mayor of Townsville
b. Buddha
c. Elmer Fudd III

Bye,

Uncle Bill

Goodbye French Alps, Hello St. Andrews!

Here's how the LPGA money list, the Ladies European Tour Order of Merit, the Rolex Rankings, and the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index look after the Evian Masters. And here's who's already qualified for the British Women's Open (the final 20 spots were decided on the 30th in the last qualifying event, but it looks to me like there was a playoff at +1, so I'm not sure who's actually in).

So who are the favorites to win the first women's major to be held at St. Andrews? I think the last few weeks have cleared certain things up. Even at 85%, Annika Sorenstam is a threat to win any tournament she enters. But Lorena Ochoa is the best women's golfer in the world--even playing terribly for her for much of the Evian Masters, she could have been in a playoff with a par on her 72nd hole or won outright with a birdie. Who else must be considered a leading contender? Given that the difference between the Evian Masters Golf Club and the Old Course at St. Andrews is at least as striking as the difference between the Scottish Open's Loch Lomond course and any of the usual men's British Open sites, I wonder how many players will do what Se Ri Pak--and, from what I can tell from the leaderboard of the AXA Ladies tournament, the top JLPGA players like Yuri Fudoh, Shiho Oyama, and Sakura Yokomine--did this year and spend the week before the Women's British Open resting and prepping for the LPGA's last major and the LET's biggest tournament. Certainly Sophie Gustafson's decision to skip the HSBC didn't hurt her, as she contended this week right up until the last two holes of the tournament and finished T6. On the other hand, the momentum gained by Jeong Jang (2nd), Ji Yai Shin (T3), Momoko Ueda and Sun Ju Ahn (T6), and Eun-hee Ji (T16)--not to mention winner Natalie Gulbis, the resurgent Juli Inkster (T3), the charging Angela Stanford (T6), and the streaky Christina Kim (T6)--may give them an added boost at St. Andrews.

Big question marks, however, remain over many other people I'd expect to contend later this week. Do the fine finishes of Morgan Pressel, Laura Diaz, Paula Creamer, Nicole Castrale, and Meaghan Francella on Sunday portend well for this coming Thursday, or does their otherwise shaky play the rest of the week put them in the same category as Karrie Webb, Mi Hyun Kim, Shi Hyun Ahn, Seon-Hwa Lee, Ai Miyazato, Angela Park, Laura Davies, and Maria Hjorth--likely top 30s but questionable top 10s? And will the bad play of Suzann Pettersen, Cristie Kerr, Brittany Lincicome, Stacy Prammanasudh, Jee Young Lee, Meena Lee, Sherri Steinhauer, and Michelle Wie in France carry over into Scotland?

Well, here are the historical stats on this year's field's finishes at previous British Women's Opens. I wonder if the great play of young Korean golfers from the LPGA and KLPGA in 2007 will inspire Se Ri Pak and Mi Hyun Kim to get over their recent struggles in the UK. I wonder, too, who will step up in the race for the last spots on the U.S. Solheim Cup team, as Nicole Castrale, Christina Kim, Laura Diaz, and Meaghan Francella are fighting to catch Sherri Steinhauer or earn a captain's pick. And if my friend Moira Dunn will make the cut and break the $100K mark on season earnings in her quest to retain her card for the 2008 season. I'll make my picks from Chiba!

Post-Modern Monday: Rhinoplasty

Cross-posted at The Valve.

A decade or so ago I read an article about appropriation as a BIG THING in the art world. I thought it was silly. And so I did what any intelligent person does when confronted with high-toned silliness, I riffed on it.

I took Dürer's rhinoceros as my starting point:



I then scanned it into my handy-dandy Jobs-Wozniak Appropriator and concocted the following dialogue on bioengineering and informatics.

* * * * *

“Do you think he would mind?”
“Who?”
“Albrecht.”
“Albrecht Einstein?”
“No, Dürer, Albrecht Dürer, the print maker.”



“Mind what?”
“If I appropriated his rhinoceros.”
“What for?”
“I want to do some genetic engineering.”
“Genetic engineering?”
“Yes. I had this dream the other night. A voice kept repeating 'zebroceros' over and over again, with a very deep and meaningful intonation.”
“What's a zebroceros?”
“Well, it must be a cross between a zebra and a rhinoceros.”
“And you want to get into genetic engineering so you can make the cross. Isn't that going to be difficult? I mean, the zebra and the rhinoceros are such very different animals. Do you think the cross will take?”



“Don't see why not. This isn't like ordinary cross-breeding. Here we get right into the genetic material, the information specifying the organism's form and function. We just splice one strand of information into the other and voilà! we've got it.”
“I see. Tell me. Do you think we could make a rhinana?”
“A rhinana?”
“Yeah, a cross between a rhinoceros and a banana.”
“Well, if it's OK with Albrecht. It's his rhinoceros.”



“You mean there's no problem about the rhinoceros being an animal and the banana a plant?”
“Of course not. When you get down to the genes it's all just information. Bits and bytes of biocode.”
“Well, then let's try something between animate and inanimate. Wrapping paper. Yeah, a rhinoceros and wrapping paper.”



“But wrapping paper doesn't have any genetic code at all. No DNA to splice.”
“But it does have a pattern. And the pattern is information, just like the DNA. What should I call it”
“Wrappoceros? Papoceros? Zigzagoceros?”




“Oh.”

Natalie Gulbis Wins Evian Masters in Presselesque/Lincicomesque Fashion

Remember how Morgan Pressel won the Kraft Nabisco Championship? Remember how Brittany Lincicome won the Ginn? Well, both events were back in April, so you probably don't. Let me give you the short story: each played well under great pressure and difficult conditions on a day many people had a better chance--some a much better chance--to win but didn't. That to me sums up Natalie Gulbis's win at the 2007 Evian Masters. This is not a knock on Gulbis--in fact, both Pressel and Lincicome have played great since their unlikely wins, joining the ranks of the LPGA's elite players. Here's hoping this win has the same effect on Gulbis's career.

Because she beat a lot of great golfers today. She knew that Lorena Ochoa was making a charge ahead of her; at -5 through 13 holes, Ochoa got to -4, but a pair of bogeys, including a very costly one at 18, offset by only 1 birdie, dropped her back to -3 for the tournament. Despite this disappointing finish, Ochoa was the leader in the clubhouse for quite some time. Christina Kim had pulled even with her through 15 holes, but a bogey on 16 dropped her to -2 for the tournament. Meanwhile, Sun Ju Ahn was squandering her 33 on the front, which had also brought her to -3--her 37 on the back dropped her into a tie with Kim. Playing one group ahead of Gulbis, Momoko Ueda got it to -3 through 14, but like Ochoa finished with a pair of bogeys and a birdie to drop out of contention late. Gulbis's playing partner, Annika Sorenstam, was -4 through 9 and still at -3 through 14, but a +1 finish over her last 4 holes kept her out of contention. Gulbis herself couldn't get anything going on the back, either--at -5 through 9, and -4 through 14, she did well to stay there and pass Ochoa, but as she said during the post-tournament interviews, she was incredibly frustrated with herself while waiting for the groups ahead of her to finish, because she never thought she would be low enough to even get into a playoff. Ji Yai Shin, after all, was -5 through 10, and a double-par-bogey-birdie-bogey-birdie roller coaster put her at -3 with two birdie holes to go. Sophie Gustafson was in even better shape at -4 heading into the 17th. After a tough start, third-round leader Juli Inkster had clawed her way back to -5 through 13 and despite bogeying the next 2 holes was also at -4 heading into her last two holes, thanks to a clutch birdie on the 16th. Her playing partner Jeong Jang came into 17 with 2 straight birdies under her belt, bringing her back to -3 after a terrible front 9. So Gulbis certainly had cause for alarm. But after 17, things looked a lot better for her: bogeys by Shin, Gustafson, and Inkster, and a par by Jang meant that everyone still on the course was chasing Gulbis heading into the 18th. With Shin's birdie, Gustafson's bogey, and Inkster's par, only Jang could catch Gulbis, and she did with her 3rd birdie in her final 4 holes. But on the first playoff hole, the 18th, Gulbis just missed eagle and Jang couldn't make her 15-foot birdie putt to match her birdie. Amazingly, Gulbis had prevailed--just as Cristie Kerr had been telling her could happen while they were waiting for the final groups to finish their rounds.

So congratulations to first-time winner Natalie Gulbis! On a day that a lot of Americans made big moves--Meaghan Francella (70, +5, T30), Brittany Lang (70, +4, T24), Nicole Castrale (70, +1, T19), Paula Creamer (69, +1, T19), Laura Diaz (71, -1, T12), Morgan Pressel (69, -1, T12), Angela Stanford (70, -2, T6), and Christina Kim (70, -2, T6), among them--you made the biggest one of all!

Wind--and Scores--Up on Moving Backward Day at the Evian Masters

The LPGA third-round interview page for the Evian Masters puts it rather blandly--"Saturday's scoring average was 75.082, which went up nearly two shots from the first- and second-round averages which were at 73.388 and 73.357, respectively"--but sometimes you need to deadpan it when the best women's golfers in the world have one of their worst days of the year. Only 7 players got under par and only 4 more avoided going over par, while 9 failed to break 80, including people who started the day thinking about being in contention on Sunday like second-round co-leader Jin Joo Hong (80), first-round co-leader Brittany Lincicome (82), former top-Super Soph-in-tournament Kyeong Bae (82), #2 on the LPGA money list Suzann Pettersen (81), and, yes, Michelle Wie (84).

But enough about the negatives. Hall of Famer Juli Inkster (69) had the best round of the day and at -6 heads into the final round with a 2-shot lead on Jeong Jang (72), a 3-shot lead on Ji Yai Shin (70), Sophie Gustafson (72), and Diana D'Alessio (76), a 4-shot lead on Il Mi Chung (70), Natalie Gulbis (73), and Annika Sorenstam (74), and a 5-shot lead on Karrie Webb (73), Mi Hyun Kim (74), Laura Davies (74), and Momoko Ueda (74). Given that Angela Stanford's 69 got her to E and made up 5-6 shots on Christina Kim, Sun Ju Ahn, Maria Hjorth, Laura Diaz, and Linda Wessberg, I wouldn't count anyone in this group out--and I'd even give people at +1 like Lorena Ochoa, Seon Hwa Lee, Shi Hyun Ahn, and Eun-Hee Ji an outside chance if any of them can mount an incredible charge on Sunday. Which is more of a chance than Hound Dog gives them.

Unfortunately for them, even if Cristie Kerr keeps up her birdie pace over her final 6 holes or Morgan Pressel over her final 12 holes, there aren't enough holes left for them to get into the race. But everyone is looking to finish strong in the last round before St. Andrews and the Women's British Open. We'll see who's able to pull it off.