On Thursday, July 10, I found myself attending a Rockies-Brewers game at 1pm CDT.  We arrived earlier than that, and had a few adult beverages on our way to a nice tailgate.  On our way into the parking lot, we saw some people playing Cornhole (as Cincinnatians call it).  But more interesting to me was a game being played a couple of cars down from us.  I hadn't seen it before.  It involves golf balls separated by a length of nylon rope being thrown like horseshoes to wrap around three horizontal bars for different scores.

The game appeared two days later on Cape Cod where I was attending a family reunion.  It was all the crowd wanted to play, after it was set up and people began to watch.  And throughout the week of vacation, we all wondered what it was called.  I thought, after this self-induced Internet blackout of vacation, a quick Google search would solve it for me in seconds.  Not so fast, my friends.  Here's a bit of what I found...

Like most outdoor games, it's a game of many names. It's also commonly referred to as:

Norwegian Horseshoes, Ladder Golf, Snakes, Hillbilly Golf, Polish Golf, Horseballs, Tower Ball, Bolo Golf, Gladiator, Bola, Snake Toss, BlongoBall, Ladder Toss, Bolo, Rodeo Golf, Dingle Balls, Bolo Polo, Cowboy Golf, Redneck Golf, Pocca Bolo, The Snake Game, Willy Ball, Ladder Ball, Slither, Zing-Ball, Snakes & Ladders, Hillbilly Horseshoes, Flingy Ball, Top Toss, Norwegian Golf, Monkey Bars Golf, Swedish Golf, Polish Horsehoes, Dandy Golf, Montana Golf, Lasso Golf, Australian Horseshoes, Ladder Game, Monkey Balls, Rattlerail Toss, Golfball Horseshoes, Arizona Golf Balls, Spin-It, Ball Dangle, Bolo Ball, Poor Mans Golf, Bolo Toss, even Testical Toss!

Sheesh.  I guess there needs to be a bit of consolidation on the naming front.  I trust some enterprising company to come along and standardize this puppy soon.  Otherwise it will spin out of control.  As the beer flowed on vacation, the family came up with suggestions that are not listed above, and perhaps should not be listed anywhere, now that I think about it.

So, I had a moment of immense dread and total helplessness.  I knew I was screwed and there was nothing I was going to do about it.

The moment just after the spoon full of summer squash got into her mouth, her sneeze arrived.  I even had to clean off the cover of Learn to Tango with D, as it was near ground zero at the time.  Parenting is glamorous.  Don't let anyone tell you differently.

Claire,

Could you please, please, please go to sleep, preferably earlier in the night than you usually do.  You see, Mommy and Daddy need their rest. 

Well, your mother does.  Dad just wants to use the evenings to work on D, Python, & Erlang stuffies.  He's fairly settled in his new job, and getting there with his new MacBook Pro. 

So, if you could go to sleep earlier in the night, then dsource could make some progress, and then maybe that web framework that Daddy's friends are working on could benefit as well.

Love,
Daddy

Ooof.  When you run again after a (way too) long layoff, your legs are jello.  It felt good to get the blood flowing again, though.  It's a good 'hurt' and I'm off to do it again today...