The Portfolios

The annual golfing tradition known as Pros vs. Joes took place recently, and it was not pretty for the Joes.

The pros – Pete and Remy – were looking to avenge their losses in the first two installments of the Fall Finish last year, when Johnny cakes and I destroyed them twice – first at Hackensack, then at Ridgewood.

One of the benefits of being a looper is that you can play top notch courses for free, by virtue of your friendships to the people who run these places. When the fancy clubs are closed to members, there are opportunities for the workingmen to enjoy themselves on the fairways and greens.

This time, sadly, it was more often the rough and the sand for me and my partner. It started off with a bad sign: I lost an entire brand new sleeve of Titleists on the first hole. Two in the water off the tee, and a third, dropped behind the pond, also failed to clear the drink. All day, the Joes won 2 holes, I think. The final verdict was a $36 dollar defeat.

We had a beautiful day for it, though. Late October, leaves changing color, a crisp breeze but sunny skies that meant the sweaters could stay off most of the day. Afterwards, three of us went down to the Hudson Tavern for a kingly feast. The pros were gracious enough to pick up the tab.

Congratulations to our boy Brad Turley, who won top honors at Shanghai’s Chili Cook-Off recently. Brad and Helen were staying at our home just before this, and were reminded what it means to hang out with a top chef in a big city: lots of restaurants! One night we even had two dinners, just so we could see more places. Brad, as is his wont, refused any suggestions that we split the tabs, picking up every check himself and chalking it up to research. I hope he writes these meals off as business expenses. Oh wait, he lives in China, where you get paid in cash and taxes are optional.

Oh, and let’s not forget who took second place in the Chili Cook-Off: Jarrett and Chris, who surely would have won top honors for poster design:

Make that four birthday posts in a row. I would be remiss if I didn’t include Dou Dou, Xianyi’s cousin and meimei, who was born October 11th. She turned twelve on Saturday!