Monday, November 14, 2005

Lynch mob?

Last week I wrote a brief post about my fondness for puns. I received a mixed bag of comments and emails, many of which expressed an understanding of my fondness, but only a few claimed to actually share that feeling about them.

Well, yesterday one of those opportunities presented itself on a silver platter, and I was compelled to take advantage of it.

The day before—Saturday—Carol and I had been joined on the golf course by our good friend Ruth. We three play together frequently enough that all the course personnel know us and have almost come to expect to see us together.

One of those employees is called the “Starter.” Our course has three nine-hole layouts, and the starter’s job is to assign golfers to different nines when they begin their round to spread people out and thus speed up play. Sometimes he will ask two small groups to join together. His goal is to keep things flowing and moving while maximizing use of the entire course.

On Sunday Carol and I presented ourselves to the starter (whose name is Al) as ready to start. He asked me conversationally, “Ruth not coming out today?” He was looking around for another twosome or a single to put with us.

I told Al, “No, she couldn’t make it today.” As I was saying that, it hit me.

I paused just a couple of beats and remarked deadpan, “Yeah, Carol and I are going to just be Ruthless out there today.”

He looked up at me with a blank expression. Then understanding came. (It’s all in the delivery.)

He had the good grace to laugh. And once he started he just couldn’t stop. He must have repeated that line to everybody he saw that afternoon.

I’m hoping that by next weekend it will be safe for me to show up at the course again. There have been rumors that a lynch mob had formed, but I’m sure that’s just an exaggeration.

Maybe.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello,What a cool story! ha. I hope everything works out next week.

shyloh's poetry said...

OOPS sorry that up there was me. Wasn't logged in I guess.

kenju said...

That's funny, John. You took good advantage of the opportunity.

Karyn Lyndon said...

I can't believe you let the "coming out" part slip by.

Duke_of_Earle said...

Karyn,

Yeah, I know. Hindsight is always 20/20. (Or it's the view of someone's behind... I can't remember which.)

One of our favorite A. A. Milne lines from 30 years ago when we read Winnie the Pooh books to our toddlers was (with reference to the Pooh), "Being a bear of little brain..." Carol uses that line in reference to me quite a bit.

Anyway, in that vein, what hit me at the time was "Ruthless." I wasn't thinking in terms of Ruth being a debutante. (That is what you were referring to, right?)

John

Karyn Lyndon said...

Of course. What else?