Sligo Creek Golf Course

For decades the small but nice nine hole golf course in Sligo Creek Park has been home to hackers and whackers of all calibers. Montgomery County has a very fine system of public golf courses but has limited facilities in close in locations. The Sligo course is really the only option for those in Silver Spring who want to get in a quick round. I grew up playing on county courses and spent a lot of time learning to play at Sligo. Nowdays, I don't play golf anymore so I don't know why I care so much that the county has chosen to close the little course in Sligo. Yet it bothers me and I don't want to see it happen.

After all, it is not much of a course. It is not very challenging and only nine holes when the norm is eighteen or more. The county says that the real issue is money. The course just does not pay for itself and they are faced with serious money problems these days. Of course they neglect to mention that all of the public courses in the county along with virtually all of the many other recreational facilities lose money. To me the issue is bigger than this one little second rate course. Most of the other courses in the county are in the outlying suburbs where there is more wealth. The little course at Sligo unique in that it has been an attraction for minority golfer and newbies. It is not considered a challenging course and thus not usually frequented by the serious hard core golfers. It is a great course for a new player who can go there and stink up the links without drawing the ire of his fellow golfers. It has been said that over the years the Sligo course has been more welcoming to women as well but I can't really comment on this.

The real issue to me is that I think it is another "dis" in the long series of "disses" to the folks who reside in the East County by our government. I am getting pretty pissed about this and it is beginning to stick in my craw. It seems like when there is money to be saved, it is the East County that takes on the burden and the golf course is just another example of this. I am tired of my portion of the county getting the "red headed stepchild" treatment and perhaps the planned closing of the Sligo Creek Golf Course is the place for us to draw the line. It is a good time to voice your opinion about this to your county leaders.

Doves and weddings

Recently, we have had two visitors in our Hillandale neighborhood. For about two weeks now two lovely snow white pigeons had taken up residence on our street. One of them is very fancy with small flanged wings on his feet. They mostly hang out together around our neighbor's bird feeder. Watching them got me interested and my wife did a little research on them.

Apparently, it has gotten to be a big summer wedding experience to release white doves (pigeons) during the ceremony. It is a big time business and can cost quite a lot of money. But of course, weddings are supposed to be silly and extravagant so why not release some birds and piss some more money away. There are legitimate companies that use white pigeons that are trained to "home" back to their roost and I suppose that this is not too bad of an idea but not all of them make it back. Also, there are a lot of fly-by-night operations that actually release white doves (not able to home) and don't care where they go afterwards because they charge enough up front to write off the bird. Then you have your really cheap yahoos who go out and buy doves to release at the wedding on their own.

The problem with white doves and pigeons (who are not smart enough to make it home) is that they are not equipped to survive in the wild. First and foremost is the white color which is just about the worst thing that an animal in the wild can be wearing. It is like a soldier in Iraq wearing day glow orange. Even the occasional white wild animals do not last long in the wild as predators can spot them too easy. (Darwin knew of what he spoke.) Aside from the lack of camouflage, domestically raised doves and pigeons do not have the built in survival skills. They don't fly very well and have no "street" sense. Once on their own they are bound to become table fare for hawks, dogs, cats and anything else in the mind for a slow, pretty meal.

So, in short, don't do this. If you are getting married why not just skip the dove thing altogether. Use the money you save to buy some more of those silver and white almonds wrapped up in ribbons and mesh that everybody throws in the trash afterwards and spare the doves....

Lebanese Taverna

Twenty eight years ago, my wife to be and I rented a small house in Arlington. A friend told us about the excellent Lebanese Taverna , a family run restaurant on Washington Blvd. and we went to check it out. We fell in love with the food and the wonderful family that ran the place. I can't tell how many times we have enjoyed their food over the years. Well, the little family restaurant has grown into a mini corporation with numerous restaurants and cafes all over the DC Metro area. They also run a grocery store. Has success been a good thing? Well, yes and no. For decades the Arlington restaurant was our favorite place and the place to go to meet and greet the family that ran the business. However, they have expanded the place and remodeled it in recent years. The last time we went with friends, our lovely intimate little restaurant has grown into a monster. The food was still excellent but the place was so popular and crowded that we could barely move around. Worse yet, remodeling affected the acoustics so that the place now sounded like a noisy disco and we were unable to carry on any sort of conversation. We have never gone back to our beloved Arlington location. Nowdays the best location to go to is the DC restaurant in Woodley Gardens on Connecticut Ave. I think the best cooks work there and that place has the most extensive menu. When we want to celebrate a special event, it is the DC location that we head to.

The Silver Spring location is more of a Cafe and has a much more limited menu. The decor is modern and strikes us as only so-so but on nice days you can eat outside, and the party around the fountain is always a treat. When we want Lebanese, we go to that location most of the time as it is close to home and easy to use. Although we miss some of the items to be found at the DC location, the limited menu is still good and offer up plenty of good (and fairly healthy) Middle Eastern food. I highly recommend the food there as it is much better than the usual franchise pap that is offered up in the other eateries found in downtown Silver Spring. The best deal is one of the two sampler platters that they offer up. The more expensive has some meat dishes but we find that the cheaper of the two which is mostly vegetarian is a much better deal and offers better variety.

My only regret is that we never see any of the original family members in any of the locations. I suspect that they have just gotten too successful and wealthy over the years. Anyhow, writing this has made me hungry. Might just have to head on down there this evening for some flat bread and hummus.

More Silver Docs

Ok, my wife and I made it to our first Silver Docs film for the year. We went to see "Crude" which was shown last night. It is an important film by a well know director (Joe Berlinger) and we expected a treat. However, the film did not really do it for us. It was a bit long and tedious and frankly, disorganized. The film does cover the human interest portion of the Texaco oil disaster in Ecuador, but really does not cover a whole lot more. There is very little background or historical information about the issue. Texaco is made to be the bad boy but the truth is that there must have been plenty of bad boys involved to make such a mess of things. Very little information is given on the successive Ecuadorian governments that were willing participants in the scheme to exploit the rain forest for oil or the state's relationship with the Indians who lived on the land before and after the disaster. Much time is wasted on redundancy and the filmed needed to be streamlined and better organized. There is a long piece about the singer Sting's wife and her visit and support. It is all nice but really did not deserve the time wasted and was not that material to the subject of the documentary.

All of this, plus the jerky, in your face, hand filming that sort of made me seasick made the film less than a stellar experience.

I appreciate Berlinger's effort as this is a critical story that needs to be out in the public eye.

There are many more juicy selections on the Silver Docs film festival. If you got some time this week you should check it out.

Duckpin Bowling in White Oak

Ok, so it may be lowbrow entertainment, but it is still fun as hell. I am talking about the duckpin lanes located in the White Oak Shopping Center on New Hampshire Ave. Duckpins have always been a regional sport and the little brother to tenpins which people seem to always prefer. However, duckpins is cool! And, much harder than tenpin bowling. There are not many duckpin lanes left in the area. One of the few left around is the White Oak Lanes, a real old school bowling ally where you still have to keep score with a pencil. Sited down in the lower bowels of the shopping center the place feels like you are back in the 1960s. Go check it out. The little bowling balls feel great and are small enough for any kid to hurl down the lane. If you score over 100 then you have had a decent game.

Ice cream in Silver Spring

Serious topic today. I don't mess around when the subject matter is ice cream. 24 years ago my wife and I lived in North Woodside. We loved the neighborhood because we could walk to the various stores in the area and to downtown SS (had a Hecht's and J. C. Penny back in those days) for shopping. It was for us a big treat when York Castle opened up in the little stip mall on Georgia Ave. right before 16th street peels off of it. This was not your mama's ice cream store. The owner came from Jamica and the store featured an outstanding assortment of tropical fruit ice cream-not to be found anywhere else. We loved to walk there with our dog Hero on summer evenings to try out new flavors. Well, York Castle is still there serving up tropical delights that you have never heard of, and after 24 year we still drop in for ice cream. There is an whole array of tropical flavors to try. My favorite flavor over the years has been the fresh coconut and when peaches are in season, the fresh peach ice cream is to die for. But you have to try them all at least once. If you have never been to York Castle then you just don't know where the best ice cream is in the DC area.

Jennifer Cutting and the Ocean Orchestra to play downtown

This great local Celtic and progressive band will perform free of charge on June 18th at 7:00 p.m. The concert will be outdoors on the Silver Plaza (Ellwort Dr. near Georgia Ave.-look for the fountain) The event is part of the Silver Spring Swings summer concert series, sponsored by the Silver Spring Regional Center. Last March, we went to Strathmore to see the wonderful Irish band "Danu" and the Ocean Orchestra was there as the opening act. It was the first time I have seen Jennifer and her band preform and we enjoyed the show. I especially loved the talented and electric looking (blue hair) fiddle player. I am not sure if she is a regular member of the group though. Go see it. It's free.