Please Vote For Me

This is an excellent documentary on democracy, from the angle of an "election" held in a 3rd grade class in an elementary school in Wuhan, China. It's fun, intriguing, educational, and challenging (in 5-part youtube video):

Translation: Java vs. ABAP

at: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg7vv9mn_0g4gzf7g3

On Death

I am not afraid of death but maybe a little scared of the process of dying. -- Billy Grahm

送別 - 城南舊事

破镜可否重圆

Will the circle be unbroken:

玩与读书

偶然听到一句话，觉得很有意思：你要是玩都玩不好，你怎么去读书呢？你自己喜欢的东西都做不好，怎么去别的呢？

Bobby Fischer (3/9/43-1/17/08)

On the day when l.i.u. flew back from TW, one of the world's most prominent chess player died in the winter cold of Iceland. Bobby Fischer was arguably the best chess player of our time. He was the Tiger Woods of golf, and Michael Jordan of basketball. They became famous--and rich--by playing well in one sports. They are so much better than all the rest that they became the face of the game itself. Well, OK. Maybe not quite.

This is one (perhaps the oldest) model of being very successful--being the best in what they do. No gimmicks, no tricks. But it's probably also the most difficult--there can be only one in each field. What a feeling to be in that position...

Oh, well. It's not for everyone...not me at least.

But even the best is mortal. When they die, it's the end of an era. Mr. Fischer's era ended with these last words: "Nothing soothes pain like the touch of a person." Quite an unremarkable end, but what a legacy and inspiration he has left behind.

What would be on his tombstone? Perhaps someone can travel to Iceland and tell us...

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer]

US immigration

Preferences (est. wait time):

• immediate family (USC, i.e. U.S. Citizen): no wait
  
• spouse;
• children (unmarried & under 21);
  
• parents;
  
• 1st (USC): 6 yrs
• children (unmarried & > 21);
  
• 2nd (LPR, i.e. Legal Permanent Resident):
• A: 5 yrs
• spouse;
  
• children (unmarried & under 21);
  
• B: 9 yrs
• children (unmarried & > 21);
  
• 3rd (USC): 8 yrs
• married children;
  
• 4th (USC): 11 yrs
• siblings;
  

Timetable:

• Visa Bulletin

尼古拉·奥斯特洛夫斯基

尼古拉·奥斯特洛夫斯基于1904年9月29日出生在乌克兰一个农民家庭。他排行第五，是家中老幺。

奥斯特洛夫斯基一家为生计所累，所有孩子自幼便挑起了养家的重担。但非常难得的是，尽管一贫如洗，但所有孩子都学会了读书习字，并念完了小学。
未来的作家在孩提时代便体现出了极强的求知欲和极高的禀赋，他非常痴迷文学。
第一次世界大战和国内战争期间，奥斯特洛夫斯基积极参加了地下革命。

1920年，奥斯特洛夫斯基在利沃夫战役中受了重伤。伤愈后，他在基辅铁路工地工作。在此期间，他得了伤寒。此外，他还感染了骨结核，病情迅速恶化。

1927年初，22岁的奥斯特洛夫斯基完全瘫痪，卧病在床。他的双目开始失明。正是在这一人生的艰难时刻，他决意通过文学作品，来展现自己所处时代的面貌和个人的生活体验。他最初创作了小说的前几章节，但手稿却在邮寄过程中不慎遗失。自那时起，作家便开始了长篇小说《钢铁是怎样炼成的》一书的创作。
尼古拉·奥斯特洛夫斯基的一生是个奇迹：尽管饱受病痛折磨，但他10年来从未向死神低头。在体能严重哀竭的情况下，他执意要将这部描写自己这代人命运的小说留传后世。

《钢铁是怎样炼成的》一书是本自传体小说，从中可以读到有关作者生活的大量真实片段。奥斯特洛夫斯基的朋友对他的文学创作给予了大力支持，帮助他誊写一页页书稿。1931年10月，小说的第一部封笔，并于1932年付梓。第二部于1933年5月杀青，1934年出版。

奥斯特洛夫斯基刚刚开始小说创作时，并未配备助手。他的妻子赖莎·波尔菲里叶夫娜·奥斯特洛夫斯卡娅早出晚归，忙于工作。尽管疼痛难忍、躯体几乎不能动弹，但奥斯特洛夫斯基还是借助刻字板，独立完成了小说的开篇。1931年初，他的母亲与妹妹前往莫斯科与他团聚，他才改为口述著书。每天，他需要克服常人难以想见的困难。他不仅需要记住作品的总体脉络，将构思形象化、细节化，还不能遗忘所写的句子及所用的词语。他通常在深夜里文思泉涌，成功的人物形象和优美的文字喷薄而出，为了抓住转瞬即逝的灵感，他只能整宿不眠，反复吟咏脑海中的珍贵片段。小说中的每个句子都经过了他的精心锤炼。

《钢铁是怎样炼成的》一书获得了空前的成功，超出了所有人的预期。早在1934年，该书就被翻译成乌克兰语、波兰语、摩尔多瓦语和楚瓦什语。读者的来信如雪片般纷至沓来。

一些文学评论家，尤其是现今的评论家，一直置疑奥斯特洛夫斯基小说的艺术价值。争鸣当然是允许的。但不容置疑的是，这部作品曾帮助世界不少国家的众多读者度过了乍看上去似乎无法逾越的难关，它令众多濒于绝望的人获得了重生。这样的事例不胜枚举。这才是小说的真正价值所在。而奥斯特洛夫斯基与病魔搏斗所体现出的勇敢精神，已成为全人类顽强抗争的宝贵榜样。

[http://news.xinhuanet.com/2006russia/2006-02/06/content_4142786.htm]

明天會更好

I was touched by their passion in their youth...with a bit of meloncholy. It was another time, another world (words below video).



明天會更好

(MV畫面截自TVB)
曲：羅大佑
詞：羅大佑 / 張大春 / 許乃勝 / 李壽全 /
　　邱復生 / 張艾嘉 / 詹宏志

（蔡　琴） 輕輕敲醒沉睡的心靈　　　　　
慢慢張開你的眼睛
（余　天） 看那忙碌的世界是否依然　　　　　
孤獨地轉個不停
（蘇　芮） 春風不解風情　
吹動少年的心
（潘越雲） 讓昨日臉上的淚痕　　　　　
隨記憶風乾了

（甄　妮） 抬頭尋找天空的翅膀　　　　　
候鳥出現牠的影跡
（李建復） 帶來遠處的飢荒無情的戰火　　　　　
依然存在的消息
（林慧萍） 玉山白雪飄零　
燃燒少年的心
（王芷蕾） 使真情溶化成音符　　　　　
傾訴遙遠的祝福

（黃鶯鶯） 唱出你的熱情　伸出你雙手
讓我擁抱著你的夢　　　　　
讓我擁有你真心的面孔
（洪榮宏） 讓我們的笑容　　　　　
充滿著青春的驕傲　　　　　
為明天獻出虔誠的祈禱

（陳淑樺） 誰能不顧自己的家園　　　　　
拋開記憶中的童年
（金智娟） 誰能忍心看那昨日的憂愁　　　　　
帶走我們的笑容
（王夢麟） 青春不解紅塵　
胭脂沾染了灰
（李佩菁） 讓久違不見的淚水　　　　　
滋潤了你的面容
（費玉清） 唱出你的熱情　伸出你雙手　　　　　
讓我擁抱著你的夢　　　　　
讓我擁有你真心的面孔　　　　　
讓我們的笑容　　　　　
充滿著青春的驕傲　　　　　
為明天獻出虔誠的祈禱

（齊　豫） 輕輕敲醒沉睡的心靈　　　　　
慢慢張開你的眼睛
（鄭　怡） 看那忙碌的世界是否依然　　　　　
孤獨地轉個不停
（江　蕙） 日出喚醒清晨　大地光彩重生
（楊　林） 讓和風拂出的音響　　　　　
譜成生命的樂章

（合　唱） 唱出你的熱情　伸出你雙手　　　　　
讓我擁抱著你的夢　　　　　
讓我擁有你真心的面孔　　　　　
讓我們的笑容　　　　　
充滿著青春的驕傲　　　　　
讓我們期待明天會更好

（蘇　芮） 唱出你的熱情　伸出你雙手　　　　　
讓我擁抱著你的夢　　　　　
讓我擁有你真心的面孔　　　　　
讓我們的笑容　　　　　
充滿著青春的驕傲　　　　　
讓我們期待　　　　　
明天會更好（齊秦和聲）

（余　天） 唱出你的熱情　伸出你雙手　　　　　
讓我擁抱著你的夢　　　　　
讓我擁有你真心的面孔　　　　　
讓我們的笑容　　　　　
充滿著青春的驕傲　　　　　
讓我們期待　　　　　
明天會更好（蘇芮和聲）

（合　唱） 唱出你的熱情　伸出你雙手　　　　　
讓我擁抱著你的夢　　　　　
讓我擁有你真心的面孔　　　　　
讓我們的笑容　　　　　
充滿著青春的驕傲　　　　　
讓我們期待明天會更好

PC troubleshooting

http://www.fonerbooks.com/power.htm

Military Units & Ranks

军 | Corps
师 | Division
旅 | Brigade
团 | Regiment
营 | Battalion
连 | Company
排 | Platoon
班 | Squad
--
將 | General
上校 | Colonel
少校 | Major
上尉 | Captain
中尉 | Lieutenant
軍校生 | Cadet

軍士 | Sergeant
下士 | Corporal
列兵 | Private

童趣

1. 兒子兩嵗多的時候，講話多了，也學了一點點聖經經節。有一天，他在乾媽家裏玩，為一些小事正在生大姐姐的氣。正好乾媽要送大姐姐去學校，就哄他說，“那我們一起出去把大姐姐丟到垃圾桶，好不好？”“好哇！”兒子高高興興地上了車。到了學校，乾媽囘過頭來對他說，“我們去把大姐姐丟到垃圾桶裏吧！” 兒子想了想，說，“不要。” “爲什麽？” “因爲‘神愛世人’啊！”
2. 兩嵗的兒子不愛穿衣服，即使是在冬天，也是勉爲其難。爸爸總是要對他講一番道理，說，"你看，手手都冰冰了，不穿的話會感冒，還會發燒，要打針，還要吃苦苦葯葯。那好可憐哦！"他才極不情願地穿上。有一天，吃飯吃到一半，他忽然高興地對爸爸說，"你看，我的手是暖暖的耶！"爸爸毫無防備，摸摸他的小手，說，"真的！""耶！太好了！我可以脫衣服了！"爸爸這才發現中了兒子的圈套，又無言以對，只好讓他脫掉一件衣服。
3. 三嵗多的兒子開始愛唱歌，有時候會要求大人唱他喜歡的歌。有一天，他對爸爸說，“我們來唱‘陰刀’的那首吧。”爸爸莫名其妙，努力思索兒子會唱的歌，才發現他愛唱的那首‘詩篇二十三篇’裏有一句：“引導我走義路”, 其中的頭兩個字都是高音，聼起來真的是像。原來是兒子在‘斷章取音’，不禁啞然。
4. 幹媽一家在辦綠卡，全家人正高高興興地在家裏照相。三嵗半的兒子在旁邊看著，着急地說，“我也要照相！”姐姐笑著安慰他說，“你是在美國生的，長大就是公民啦。”兒子更急了，說，“我不要公民，我要綠卡！”

Car won't start

It's time to learn some car repair knowledge. My car won't start but there's a clicking noise when the key is turned. After replacing a new battery, the problem persists. So we're changing the starter.

The starter, as its name suggests, is the part that gives the engine the initial boost. Here's a diagram for how it's connected:

(From these diagrams, it is not hard to understand how a car thief can start the engine by by-pass the ignition key.)

Here's a description of how it works:

The starter motor is a powerful electric motor, with a small gear (pinion) attached to the end. When activated, the gear is meshed with a larger gear (ring), which is attached to the engine. The starter motor then spins the engine over so that the piston can draw in a fuel/ air mixture, which is then ignited to start the engine. When the engine starts to spin faster than the starter, a device called an overrunning clutch (bendix drive) automatically disengages the starter gear from the engine gear.

Once the engine is started, the circuit for the starter is cut (at the Neutral Safety switch) and the started goes to siesta until the next start (hey, I'd like to have that job).

To replace one, the steps are the following (basically un-wire and un-mount the old one and mount and wire the new):

1. Gather the necessary tools needed such as wrenches, sockets, screwdriver and pliers.


2. Place the vehicle on ramps or jack up the front and support with jack stands. It is very important to block the rear wheels to keep the car stationary during this procedure. Never work under a vehicle not supported properly.


3. Make sure ignition is OFF and the remove the negative (ground) battery cable from the battery.


4. Note the location of all wires before removal to make for easier connection.


5. Remove the large starter cable going to the battery at the starter location.


6. Remove any other wires attached to the solenoid.


7. Remove the starter attaching bolts (usually there are two or three).


8. Remove any supporting brackets that holds the starter.


9. Drop the starter down away from the car. On some cars you may have to turn the wheels to one side, remove the idler arm, remove or loosen transmission oil cooler lines, exhaust pipes, or ground straps to give you enough clearance to get the starter motor away from the car.


10. Install the new starter in the reverse order of removal.


11. Reconnect battery cables and other wires to solenoid.


12. Place old starter in the new starter box for proper core return.

The price for a new (remanufactored) part ranges from $80+ to $110+; and for the labor Sears charges $75.

False Dilemma?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You're_either_with_us,_or_against_us

Interestingly in Star Wars, Episode III: 'Only a Sith deals in absolutes,' says Obi-Wan Kenobi (a Jedi Knight) to Anakin Skywalker (a Sith, who uses the 'dark side' of the 'force').

Sapere aude!

Latin for 'dare to know' or 'dare to be wise'; sometimes translate to 'dare to think for yourself' or 'have the courage to use your own reason'

『繁星』與『良心』 —— On Kant's Tombstone

His friends chose the dictum from the Critique of Practical Reason (1788) for his tombstone: “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me” (5:161.33-6; tr. Guyer 1992, 1).

苏林华

苏林华 （现居泰国）

寒 梅 着 花 未 ？—— 故乡之旅

每诵王维之诗：“君自故乡来，应知故乡情，来日绮窗前，寒梅着花未？”即百感云集，因我之故乡竟有四个之多，迄不知何所适从。但去年，我仍有幸可行旅于三个故乡之间（即：福建、美国与泰国），至于第二故乡台湾，虽已十年未往，但仍可在通讯中保持连系。今依序报导如下：

第 一 故 乡 —— 福 建

自我出生，而迄1948年9月底离榕往台湾，我在福建省计待了21年又半。
去年4月中旬，我专程返榕，参加福州私立鹤龄英华中学毕业60周年庆典，历时三天；事后级会发行了精美之彩色照特刊，作为永久性之纪念。我也在此期间，第 四度往访莆田市黄石镇之镇海堤，并在纪念馆内与乡亲们会面，再度瞻仰当年为建堤及修堤而努力之家父与八位乡贤纪念像。我也与格致初中时代之级友们，及厦大 福州级友们曾分别午宴。
其二是去年七月中旬参加厦大母校『萨本栋教育科研基金会』2004年度董事会，承朱校长两度邀宴，并带领我们参观漳州新校区。我离厦之前，并专程往访机电母系和教师们欢叙，并合影留念。

第 二 故 乡 —— 台 湾

自1995年9月底被资源委员会选派到台湾水泥公司工作之时算起，至1980年一月初应聘美国而离台为止，我在台湾，前后超过30年（其中还包含了应聘菲律宾工作之一年时间），故它是我的第二故乡。
但1985年5月初，我重访台北，回访母公司『台泥』，却是“儿童（后起之秀）相见不相识，笑问客从何处来？”为之一叹！ 不过我的老长官辜振甫老董事长却末曾忘记过我。因为我虽已离开台泥二十多年，但我于2001年初印成拙作《苏林华文集》后，曾寄赠一册予辜公，居然立即得 到他8月14日之回信，除嘉勉一番外，还提起当年在巴拿马共同奋斗之往事，其函摘之如下：
“顷获文集一册，至感盛意，吾兄除服务台泥暨士敏二十余年外，并写下技援巴拿马的史业；嗣后又参与海内外各地水泥厂之创建，贡献卓著。”
后一个月，继二次『辜汪会谈』之后，我又寄去刊在北京『中华英才』大型杂志内之拙文《我所认识的辜振甫先生》，及新华社记者之专访，迅即得到他9月20日 之又一回音，函曰：“获惠书暨承赠『中华英才杂志』205期之摘印本，至感盛情。期刊中、大陆之行报导犹深在脑海中，衷心期盼两岸和平解决纷争。篇中并有 吾兄撰文，奖饰逾恒，无任铭感。……”他如此念旧，至情溢于言表，令我十分感动！
今年一月三日，辜公病逝，次日泰国世界日报等均大幅刊出，且连载多日；而在台之老友李贤武兄亦多次寄送『中国时报』，亦是如此报导。在奥地利之严家騤级 友，因与辜夫人为亲戚（按：辜夫人严倬云为严复之嫡孙女，騤兄则为严公之堂侄）得辜二公子成允（台泥现之董事长）发英文讣闻，承騤兄他送我一影本；我虽与 辜家之第二代并无来往，但仍礼貌上发一传真吊唁，附寄一文，至于能否转达则未知，但我之心意，辜公在天之灵应会知之！
由于多年前，李登辉氏创『两国论』，致大陆之海协会与台方之海基会（按：辜公为董事长）断绝来往，原定访台之汪道涵先生亦中止其行，我有感於此，且亦拟将 前在『中华英才』上刊登，但被『国台办』删节之文登全，故于2003年中，另写好一文“故国神游，多情应笑我”寄送『厦大机电系友通讯』承主编鲍光庆兄在 其八月号及九月号之上刊出，并评之为“这篇辜文，具有内部新闻价值，对研究两岸关系很有帮助”。继因见到报端刊出厦大台湾研究院刘国深院长曾电辜家吊唁之 消息，而他去年年中到泰国，为『中山学会』演讲，我去听讲而认识，故托在母校之陈华兄代送拙《文集》予他；这时又以电子函件发此文予之，次日即得过且过其 1月26日之电子邮件称：“『故国』一文已详读，前此亦收到大作……感触很深，尤其前辈对事物观察之细致，叹为观止；先生爱国情深，见识不凡，后辈敬佩不 巳”——这当是他对拙文甚而对辜公行止之一感评。（但他对我之过份嘉许，令我汗颜，谨向他致谢！）
辜公逝后，辜夫人邀汪公来台参加『追悼会』，汪公以年过九旬远行维艰，但仍派海协会之孙亚夫副会长（按：他系1950年在闽出生，为厦大历史系毕业生）及李亚飞秘书长前来，面送汪公手书，以表悼意，引为佳谈。
一般人士均认为辜公为企业家、业余之政治家，但却不知他之国学根底与文学修养。我原也有此错觉，待今年二月初在南加州之一书店买到刚出版之一新书《辜振甫 人生纪实——劲寒梅香》后，才对他多一了解，知他年轻时出版过小说，也写过不少旧诗，甚至他喜油画、摄影、古典音乐与京剧，所以他八旬之后曾说：“如果还 有来生，我会选择做个文学家”。于此我才了解，他2001年8月14日于收到拙《文集》后，在函中写到：“（兄）今将多年著述，汇编成辑，益见文学造诣之 深，无任钦佩”。此固然是他勉励之言，但他会对我之陋文加以留意，则可知他对写作方面有所关怀也。最后，我仅录1953年辜公在《台湾诗选》上发表之《落 花》一诗，作为我对他送别之意：
“草掩江楼日半斜，主人星散落天涯；群凫似解伤春意，争入青沟趁落花。”

第 三 故 乡 —— 美 国

1980年一月初，我自台飞美，应聘于宾州之富乐公司（Fuller Co）及亦移民至1985年入籍；先后在美国境内之三个公司工作过，历时11年。1990年初，应泰国工商钜子廖氏家族邀聘来泰国，算至今年（2005 年）1月16日，已足15个年头了。每年90%之时间是在『泰石油宝麟公司』之大水泥厂内坐镇，只三数星期回美休假；及（或）有一星期左右回榕探亲或去母 校探访。这15年内之回美时间，累积起来，也有一年之久，故我在美，虽号称已25年，但实际定居之时间只12年——但它仍是我的第三故乡。
今年1月29日获准休假回美，『长荣』（EVA）班机自泰先飞台北，继往美西之洛杉矶，飞行时间 17 小时，但在同一历日降落，当即由小儿中弘与媳接往其家；次日，加上两孙，午餐于洛市之福州餐馆，下午南游拉荷亚（La Soiia）海滨。至2月4夜，次女中丽与婿莫思危自北加州矽（硅）谷专程驱车南下，是夜我们均宿于长女中慧之家。翌日，我们四人偕上惠特尔镇 （Whitlier）之『玫瑰山冈』为内人献花，她静卧此处青草地里已十年於兹（按：一月八日为忌日），此时，山冈小树上开满了小红花，颇似『梅陇春晓』 之境，只是“感时花溅泪，恨别鸟惊心！”。
二月六日为我78岁之生日，晨和次女与婿同至邻近之『圣喜基督教会』做礼拜；夜则子女三家邀宴我於『罗兰岗』之叙香园，为我庆生，之后至长女之宅切蛋糕， 发红包及合影，颇为热闹，继而，还特地打电话至国都华盛顿，与正在该地George Washington大学攻读政治系大一之18岁外孙女张洛萱（Angela Chang）通长途电话，她向我祝贺生日，我则勉之，他日可以像蒋夫人宋美龄一般地在美国国会发表演讲！
二月七晨，次婿及次女轮流开车，邀我上其家过年，9时半出发，下午4时45分抵达，扣除中途午餐1小时多外，车程6小时。我们是沿着五号公路而驶，一路上 风光明媚，气象万千，颇有『山阴道上，应接不暇』之况。进门后即见到相别三年现16岁之外孙女亦婷，已是亭亭玉立，而14岁之外孙亦白也是高眺许多；由于 他俩在中学内所习的第二外国语是中文，所以我送他们一些台湾出版附以注音字母的中文故事书，可惜他们现学的是『汉语拼音』，却把已学过的注音字母忘了；亦 婷近读世界历史，对二次世界大战史大有兴趣，问我『参加』过『二战』否？我称我是身处於『二战』之时代，而我们中国对日抗战还比『二战』早上几年，她大感 奋，於是我送她一份蒋夫人在美国会之演讲稿，她即当场朗诵，发音确是道地之美国音，优美之至！
2月8日，小女陪我在宅前照相，继访市府广场与旁之现代化图书馆；中午应台泥旧同事兼是旧邻居陈立人夫妇在中式自助餐馆内午宴，回忆卅多年前之往事，也提 到刚逝世之『辜老总』与许多在美之旧同事。夜间即是农历之除夕，小女大涮火锅；由於我生日之宴，亦婷与亦白须在矽谷上学，未能南行，故今夜我们五人合宴， 也是另一种之大团圆。 夜8时半，在近处思科公司（CISCO CO.）工作之外甥赵继与媳刘映带其独子达文前来拜年，我们也是三年未见面，故欢谈许久，并留影焉。
其实这次加州之旅，给我印象最深的则是参观了在洛杉矶市世界日报所举办的『蒋宋美龄世界文物展』。蒋夫人是我从小学开始，即一直崇敬之人物，今日得以目睹 其遗物与功迹，实是平生之幸事，她对中国之丰功伟绩，尤其在对日抗战期间及其前所作之努力与贡献，更以她为争取盟邦之援革而访美，1943年2月18日在 美国国会大厅所作之廿分钟，锵然有声的演讲，都使她之英名永垂不朽！
遥忆我读高三时，福建省教育厅督学兼省立永安中学校长之英文专家林天兰博士编了一种『英语文萃』之类的杂志，家父还特地去搜寻，寄来洋口英华中学给我作课 外参考，以应高中会考，我却带之到学校后山大声朗诵，以期他日也可成为政治家。 而今天下午，我和两女和次婿有机会坐在会场小银幕前，瞻仰及倾听62年前，蒋夫人在美国77层国会厅堂之宏大场面内之演讲，兴奋之至！她着中国旗袍，雍容 华贵之仪态、冷静而又带美国南方标准口音之流利讲词，风霏了整个会场中之美国国会议员；大概每讲完两段，议员们即大鼓掌；至演讲完毕，议员们全部起立，鼓 掌达四分钟之久。（请用马表计时，四分钟有多长啊！）——后我在会场出口买了一卷录音碟，又在门口取了赠送之中英文演讲稿，返家后静听一遍。经过现代高科 技处理后，已无杂音，十分清晰。
展览会场内分有四个展区，几乎都是真迹之文物，例如包含了蒋宋结婚时宾客之签名簿，已给虫蛀过的，依稀可见胡适等名人之签名，有蒋夫人穿过的旗袍、鞋帽 等……最名贵的当是数十幅她手绘的国画，上且有蒋中正总统的亲笔题字。 由此使我忆及前几年，我休假往美，去纽约州之长岛南侧亚美村（Amityville）为在其处过世之百龄陈金屏姨扫墓，并由当年与她同住之女医师兰大夫 （Dr.Laing）之两子Fred和Iyan，和专程自纽约的市区前来会面之咏棠兄之女周文惠陪同。由於前一时，报载原住长岛北侧『蝗虫谷』孔宅之蒋夫 人搬出旧宅，移居纽约市区，家人却忘将挂在墙上之一幅蒋夫人手绘国画卸下，事后往索，新房主拒还，几上法庭，最后洽妥，由新房主交拍卖场，家人以三万美元 之价买回，皆大欢喜！——据说，孔宅出售之消息传出后，前来参观者，人山人海，该星期天竟达三万人之多，有劳警方派出大批人员维持交通。也因此，我於扫墓 之后，有劳兰大夫之两子，带我及文蕙侄女前往此名宅探访，经当地邮差指引，直接进入丛林中，见到她所住两层楼之旧木屋，可是走近时，见到新屋主之『拒访 牌』故只能在远处拍照后而归。
在会场出口处，也买到一全套DVD，其收入则归妇联会。DVD计有三片：一为，自1899年农历2月12日她出生之日起，而至公元2003年10月23日 逝世时止106岁间，超越三世纪之往事纪录，计60分钟；二为，她逝后在纽约市巴罗托缪大教堂之追思礼拜，计60分钟；三为，在台北市国父纪念馆举行追思 礼拜，计100分钟，由周联华牧师主领，现任妇联总会会长辜振甫夫人严倬云女士报告生平；所有政商名流，如国民党主席连战、親民党主席宋楚瑜、台北特别市 市长马英九、前任行政院院长孙运璿（坐轮椅来的）及商界领导人辜振甫先生等均静坐第一排，并未上台讲话；妇联会所邀请的是当年直接受过蒋夫人照顾及栽培过 之子弟辈上台表达其感恩之言，第一位是『国民革命军遗族学校』之代表傅达仁，这时我才讶然而知，这位名震全台之蓝球国手及台视体育主播竟是革命遗族，其父 曾官拜中将；他历述“蒋妈妈”对遗族之关心与照料，他讲话时，所有遗族子弟肃立，约二、三百人；继由蒋夫人创办之华兴中、小学之数百校友们及青少棒选手们 起立，静听一位棒球国手之感言（按：青、中青及少棒选手们多选择『华兴』就学，得过多次世界冠军）；还有一位张姓小姐上台发言，说她接受蒋夫人所办之振兴 医院之治疗，消除癌症，说时声泪俱下，又说她年前去中国各大城市旅游，遇到大陆之友人，提起蒋夫人，他（她）们都说：“蒋夫人是中国人的光荣！”…… 周牧师讲道『葡萄树与枝子』以颂蒋夫人，并请蒋夫人原所隶属之基督教卫理公会在台北之卫理堂唱诗班献诗，最后一首是『天上人间』圣歌，期望大家他年都能在 天家与蒋夫人再相逢！ 总之，那天之追思礼拜，节目之妥善安排和颇具诗情画意之气氛，是感人至深的！ 故夜间，我和次女观看此DVD之三片和聆听蒋夫人之国会演讲至半夜，心情激动之至！
我想对一位时代人物之评价，应以社会大众之公论为依归，使其得到其历史上应有之定位。过去国共斗争，大陆方面对蒋夫人之抨击是不遗余力的，但她逝后，一般 之感评，则赞扬者居多；以我去年四月返榕，听到卅几岁外甥之感评，他说：“宋美龄能够在美国国会公开演讲，实在是了不起的人物”，这是年青一辈之代表性的 观感！即使在台湾，许多趋向台独之士，原也对蒋夫人不认同，例如前年陈水扁夫人在纽约，抨击蒋夫人是『军阀夫人』，及她本人才是『中华民国首位第一夫 人』，引起纽约老华侨之公愤，而拒绝参加她的邀宴；但蒋夫人逝后，陈水扁总统却下令全台湾下半旗，并拟於他过境纽约之时，在蒋夫人葬礼中为之复盖国旗；而 他还真以现任总统之身份，赠送了蒋夫人一块金光闪闪的『褒扬状』之牌，这次也在会场上展出，我看到一位老先生戴着一副老花眼镜，由女儿陪着、隔着一道玻 璃，一个字一个字地抄写下来。正是“人世几回伤往事，山形依旧枕寒流”，此固“彼一时，此一时”也！
总之，蒋夫人被众人尊为“中国的永远第一夫人”是当之无愧的！

第 四 故 乡 —— 泰 国

已如上述，我来泰工作已超过15年了。在前此一年中之大事有：
（1） 去年3月7日，厦大泰国校友会庆祝成立六周年，在曼谷阿玛丽大酒店内举行
承厦大朱崇实校长等光临，我亦专程自北标府之厂区前往参加并与朱校长会面。
旋因本会作两年一度之改选，由张祥盛校友担任第四届主席；我这“客卿”（按：我原为厦大美洲校友），也自『名誉顾问』之列『升级』为『荣誉顾问』（只此一位！）。
8月21日泰国校友会之老、中、青三代校友和眷属们计108人，南下罗勇市之黄金海岸举行大联欢及迎新大会，次日抵芭达雅（Pattaya）观光区，游其 处之东芭乐园及访『龙虎园』，由该园董事长亦是校友会主席之张祥盛学长与其弟张祥裕学长（该园总经理）招待『鳄鱼午餐』；我则被邀即席讲话，题为：“发扬 厦大之奋斗不懈精神”。
（2） 因感我『第一故乡』之情，故前时接待泰国福州十邑同乡会名誉理事长及现任理事长访问我大水泥厂，彼等印象深刻，故坚邀我为『名誉顾问』，而与现任泰国大法官等并列；因此其后大小活动，如排得出时间，均往参加。
（3） 泰国留学中国校友总会於十一月下旬成立两周年，出了一本特刊《湄南情怀》，邀我写文，我应之，后被刊入『四十年代』老校友之内。
（4） 在我公司内，许多大小庆典，纪念会或贵宾来厂访问等，我均须参加，后者还得上台致欢迎词及报告厂况，但我因无机会学泰语，故均用英语，久之，有些厌烦。但 今（2005）年之1月13日，泰国排名第一之朱拉隆功大学（ Chulalongkorn University）法律系师生百余人到我厂观摩『环保作业』，以备订立泰国之环保法令，有些学术气息，故我欣然以应，即在我厂之大讲堂内接待之，我致 欢迎词，并报告本公司成立之缘由及经过，及建厂之三阶段，现之生产及销售实况、『品质管制』与『品质确证』（按：本公司得到政府认可之ISO9001『品 质管制』ISO14001『环保』及ISO18001『工业安全』三项大证书）等。
我对到厂参观之朱拉隆功大学法律系师生们说，各位在本厂内可以到处看到红花绿叶及绿色之锦草铺地，可以证明我们的环保成果。我们在所有主机之大烟囱前方均 装有大型的电气吸尘机，计有24部之多，排尘量之标准我们自限於每平方公尺（标准状态）不得超过50微克，而泰国政府规定是不得超过200微克/平方公 尺。最大一台之电气收尘机装於三号窑之冷却机出口，每小时可以处理42万立方公尺之废气，可知其巨大与收尘效果，故我们可以确保清净之环境！
师生们听得颇有兴趣，我讲毕，有一学生代表（女）上前对着我用英语致谢词，继由校方代表向我送一嵌有校徵（即五世皇朱拉隆功大帝之照片）之泰制花瓷精品杯。
行文至此，应可收场了：何处应是我的家呢？何处应是我告老返乡之『乡』呢？何时应辞离现职，退休回乡呢？（我想应是回第三家乡美国了，因为我的子女三家均 在其处！）不过老友周咏棠兄说：“你尽管做下去吧！且等老板开口后再退休。你还可以再做两年，等足80岁时再辞！”，各位学长有以教乎？

http://jdx.xmu.edu.cn/message/list.asp?id=10

For the Beauty of the Earth

[121 Words]

For the beauty of the earth
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies:

[Refrain]
Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our joyful hymn of praise!

For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth and friends above,
For all gentle thoughts and mild:

For Thyself, best gift devine,
To our race so freely given;
For that great, great love of Thine,
Peace on earth and joy in heaven:

[words by Folliot S. Pierpoint, rev.; Setting by John Rutter]

Nikon lens codes

[121 know]

A -- The original bayonet lens type (1959). Manual focus lens. Considered Pre-AI
ADR -- Aperture Direct Readout. A fancy way of saying that aperture scale can be seen directly by the cameras that have overhanding prisms (ala F4, F5). Started with AI lenses in 1977.
AF-I -- An autofocus lens with an Integrated, coreless focus motor (1992). All AF-I lenses are D-type, but some older bodies can't autofocus with them (N60, N8008).
AF-S -- An autofocus lens with a Silent wave, integrated, coreless focus motor (1996). Basically an update to AF-I. Some older bodies can't autofocus with them (N60, N8008).
AI -- Aperture Indexing (1977). Manual focus lens.
AI-P -- An AI lens variant (1988) that was "chipped" to send data to the camera.
AI-S -- A variant of AI designed to be used with Program and Shutter-priority exposure modes (1982). Manual focus lens. Distinguished by smallest aperture being printed in orange and a small scoop on the bayonet flange, which transmits aperture info. Otherwise same as AI.
ASP -- Lens has aspherical elements in its optic design.
C -- A lens coating type (Nikon Integrated Coating) for Pre-AI lenses. Distinguished by a C after the lens designation and a black filter ring.
CRC -- Close Range Correction, means that the lens was designs to provide superior focusing at close distances and with flat fields.
D -- (1992) Adds distance information to the data transmitted to the camera via chip. Distinguished by the D or G after the lens designation.
DC -- Defocus Control lens, allows the photographer to change the degree of spherical aberration in the out-of-focus areas to provide for better bokeh.
DX -- Indicates a lens designed to cover the smaller image circle of the digital camera bodies. May still work on 35mm bodies at some focal lengths. {Once again we have to talk about what DX means. All of the current (as I write this) Nikon DSLRs (plus the Fujifilm DSLRs) have a sensor that's smaller than a 35mm frame. It's often referred to as APS size, as it's very close to the frame size of that now mostly forgotten film type. To wit, the 35mm frame is about 36mm across the long axis, while the Nikon DSLRs have sensors that are all about 24mm across the long axis. That means that any traditional 35mm Nikkor lens has an image circle that is far bigger than is necessary on the DSLRs. The DX series lenses are designed with an image circle more appropriate to the smaller sensor size of the digital lineup. Essentially, these lenses are designed solely for use on Nikon DSLRs (and the Fujifilm DSLRs). The advantage of a DX lens is that it can be smaller and lighter than a lens of similar specifications that needs to cover the full 35mm frame. }
E -- A special type of AI lens (1977) introduced with the consumer-oriented EM body. Says Nikon Series E on the lens. Light in weight, plastic in construction, but optically good.
ED -- Extra-low Dispersion element(s) used in the lens.
G -- Removes the aperture ring from a D-type lens. Thus needs to be used on camera with Command dial control of apertures. With some older cameras (N90s, for example), can be used in Program or Shutter-priority exposure mode, though.
IF -- Lens uses internal focusing rather than moving or turning outer elements.
IX -- Lenses for the Pronea system (Advanced Photo System). Can't be used on the 35mm or digital bodies.
K -- Another Pre-AI lens type, this time with rubber focus rings.
N -- Originally, the actual designation used for the first AI lenses; beginning in 2005 it now stands for Nano Crystal Coat, a special type of flare reduction coating applied to newer lenses.
NIC -- Nikon Integrated Coating. A fancy way of referring to Nikon's glass coating system, which is used to help reduce flare and ghosting.
PC -- Perspective Control lens, allows the front of the lens to be shifted relative to the rest of the lens to correct for perspective. All PC lenses are either AI or AI-P in type.
RF -- Rear Focusing, means that lens achieves focusing by moving the rear elements; similar to IF.
SIC -- Super Integrated Coating, a multi-layer flare reduction coating, usually applied to the more complex zoom lenses.
VR -- Vibration Reduction lens, corrects for camera movement during exposure. VR function only works on cameras with 5 or more autofocus sensors (e.g., not F4, N90s, N60, N70, N8008). Lately, Nikon has been using a VRII designation to indicate some advances to the vibration reduction system.

[http://www.bythom.com/lensacronyms.htm]

The One Thing

[121 Thoughts]

IF, there's only one thing I can ask of God, I would ask for insightfulness. It's wisdom, a deep understanding beyond the surface. It's seeing through the appearance to reach the core of the matter. It's knowing the reasons that give rise the event, and can predict how it will unfold itself. It helps one to act more rationally and less emotionally. It quietly observes, and interpretes without being conspicious. It draws the attention to the matter itself, and less to observer. It can calm a raging storm in one's heart, yet it can also spark a lightening that penetrates the darkness of the night.

What's FMLA, FTDI, SDI and when they can be important?

[121 Know]

FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993): up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave of absense in a 12-month period; basically it garantees you still have a job with the same company (might not be the same position); it doesn't garantee that you will get paid during this peroid of time (for pay you'll need SDI or FTDI from the state); restrictions apply; this is a federal law;

PDL (California Pregnancy Discrimination Law): job-protected leave for women having a baby; runs concurrently with and very similar to FMLA; this is a state law; not sure if it also garantees full salary from the employer??

CFRA (California Family Rights Act): up to 12 additional weeks of leave after PDL; this is a state law; think of it as an extention of PDL; not sure if it garantees that you will get paid during this period?? (or you'll get paid only from SDI or FTDI??);

SDI (California State Disability Insurance): up to 6 weeks of payment (55% of salary or $840, whichever is less); this is funded by the state and comes from mandatory employee contribution; more info: http://www.edd.ca.gov or call 1-877-BE-THERE;

FTDI (Family Temporary Disability Insurance): basically a special case of SDI with similar rules; this one is specialized for caring new baby or sick family member (spouse, parent, children); one can use FTDI in addition to an SDI benefit at the same time;

HDTV

http://www.cnet.com/4520-7874_1-5108580-3.html

Last two games in World Cup 2006

[121 Events]

It strikes me as amazing how the last two games of the world's most popular soccer tournament could pivot on just two individuals--one for each game. In the 3:1 match between Germany and Portugal, all 3 goals of Germany were scored by the same player--Number 7 Bastian Schweinsteiger (means "pig climber"?) of Bayern Munich club. (Ok, the second goal was a mistake by the Portugal defender, but it was his free-kick.)

For the championship match between Italy and Frence, which was 1:1 in standard time and ended with 5:3 (Italy) after penalty kick, all the watershed moments evolved around one men--Number 23 Marco Materazzi--in a even more dramatic fashion:

Materazzi fouled Florent Malouda for France’s early penalty, headed Italy’s equaliser, said or did something to cause Zinedine Zidane’s mind to blow and then stroked home a penalty in the shoot-out. (BBC)

After having such a luster and controversial show in front of the whole world (surely what he acutally said or did to the French Captain during the 110 minute of the match will be a topic for sports gossip long after the game), it might be time for the 1.93-meter-tall 33-year-old defender to take a long rest, or even retire, from his dramatic career. Enough is enough.

(Question: If Paparazzi means a 'buzzing insect' in dialectal Italian, what would Materazzi mean?)

I know

I know you're not perfect
but neither am I

I like it just teh way you are
Would you be my valintine
tonight

No Title

The fear of loosing you
and the willingness and
desire to suffer
often look at each other
eye to eye

How precious it is
for you to give your tenderness
to me

I've never fell in
so completely, strongly

I have my silliness and stupidity
yet you're so forgiving

When I have difficulty explaining
myself
your understanding helps me
to untangle myself

When I see you welcoming me
you seem to be everything
that is important
in the world
to me

If

If God can let it happen,
I can let it happen

If God can forgive,
I can forgive

If God can love,
I can love

If God can make, and love it,
I can accept it and love it as well

The Science of Second-Guessing

[121 Quotes]

QUESTIONS FOR STEPHEN HAWKING
Interview by DEBORAH SOLOMON (NY Times 12/12/2004)

What do you think was the most important physics idea to emerge this year?

We won't know for a few years.

What about the recent discovery that teleportation of very small particles is actually possible? Will we one day be able to whisk ourselves through space the way they did on ''Star Trek''?

The ''Star Trek'' version is bogus, but there's a sense in which Hawking radiation -- the light and particles that come out of black holes -- escapes by teleportation.

Speaking of black holes, you recently confessed that you had made an error in your famous theory about them.

My discovery that black holes emit radiation raised serious problems of consistency with the rest of physics. I have now resolved these problems, but the answer turned out to be not what I expected.

Do you feel that scientists correct themselves as often as they should?

More often than politicians, but not as often as they should.

What is your I.Q.?

I have no idea. People who boast about their I.Q. are losers.

How can we know if you qualify as a genius physicist, as you are invariably described?

The media need superheroes in science just as in every sphere of life, but there is really a continuous range of abilities with no clear dividing line.

Are you saying you are not a genius?

I hope I'm near the upper end of the range.

With all your intense erudition, why do you bother writing pop-science books about the universe, the latest of which is the illustrated version of ''On the Shoulders of Giants''?

I want my books sold on airport bookstalls.

Are you always this cheerful?

Life would be tragic if it weren't funny.

Seriously, how do you keep your spirits up?

My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus.

Indeed, incurable motor-neuron disease has confined you to a wheelchair and caused you to lose the ability even to speak. Is a computer your only means of communication?

I use an on-screen software keyboard, called E Z KEYS. I access this keyboard via a single button switch that I hold in my hand.

You have long been associated with Cambridge University, in England, and I'm wondering whether you find Americans to be equally knowledegable about science.

I have found far greater enthusiasm for science in America than here in Britain. There is more enthusiasm for everything in America.

How can you say that? Just last month a Gallup poll found that only 35 percent of Americans accept Darwin's theory of evolution, while 45 percent prefer the creationist view.

Maybe it is because people in America have less sense of belonging to a tradition and culture than in Europe, so they turn to fundamental religion.

Do you believe in God?

I don't believe in a personal God.

What do you think of President Bush's plan to get to Mars in 10 years?

Stupid. Robots would do a better job and be much cheaper because you don't have to bring them back.

Do you think people will ever live on a planet besides Earth?

Yes, if we don't self-destruct first.

What do you and your academic friends make of the debate over embryonic-stem-cell research in this country?

In Britain, like most of the developed world, stem-cell research is regarded as a great opportunity. America will be left behind if it doesn't change policy.

Could stem-cell research help you at all?

Like Christopher Reeve, I'm very much in favor, but unlike he did, I don't expect to benefit personally.

[See more Stephen Hawking quotes here: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking]

Maud Powell

[121 People]

The 19th centry American violinist is not a well-known figure nowadays, but she was in her time. Born in Peru, Illinois on August 22, 1867, she became the first great master of violin in America, premering works of Tchaikovsky and Dvojak to the U.S. audience. She began her music education in Aurora, Ill (a town 40 miles west of Chicago) and later went to Chicago, Leipzig, Berlin, Paris, and London for further study. She played with almost all the top orchestra in Europe and the U.S. She was married to her manager and died at the age of 52 of heart attack.

Her first name pronounced 'MAWD', and is a short form of 'Matilda' (has german origin for 'strength in battle.'

From Knowledge to Actions

[ 121 Thoughts]

1. Do I know what's the right thing to do? [knowledge]
2. Do I want to do the right thing? [will]
3. Do I feel-like doing what I want to do? (*) [action]

(* Take the example of free will. Judaism says that free will is the decision between what you "want" to do, and what you "feel like" doing. For example, if you harmed someone, you know that you "want" to apologize. Sure, it's the right thing to do and will make peace. But you don't "feel like" doing it because it may be embarrassing and unpleasant. -- zz)

From mediocrity to greatness

[121 Thoughts]

How do you get someone to be great?

Many people are so used to inner conflict that they've accepted it as status quo. They accept mediocrity as a way of life, as if greatness is only for "great people." People often don't know what they really want from life. And if they don't know what's worth pursuing, they lose the motivation to try.

Teach people to have goals, and teach them to figure out what goals are worthwhile. Keep asking: "What do you want?" Focus them: "Can you be truly happy if you're striving to be mediocre? Can you be at peace if you're not feeling fulfilled?"

Body and Soul

[121 Thoughts]

When you're locked in a moral battle, and both choices seem equally tempting, how do you know which "voice" is talking?

If the result of a decision will be comfort and ease, then it's probably your body talking. Whereas if the result will be more kindness and patience, then that's your soul.

[source]

Of late / For the latter

[121 Words]

Recently.

黃錦波

[121 People]

祖籍廣東省臺山市水步鎮華寧村，1943年出生於香港，畢業於香港皇仁書院中學。

1961年赴美定居，後獲醫學博士學位；

1972年到美國加州開設診所。

1978年當選為美國加州喜瑞都市副市長；

1984年當選為美國加州喜瑞都市市長。

“在喜瑞都市任市長期間﹐我發展了一個城市的經濟﹐把一個畜牧業的鄉村變成一個非常富有的都市﹐這些都是我對美國發展城市經濟方面的貢獻。”他說﹐城 市也是一個企業﹐需要管理,一個城市的發展﹐市長就是企業的最高領導﹐是決策者。當然﹐這是全體議員﹑副市長和執行城市經理人的貢獻﹐不是我一個人做的。 在發展喜瑞都市經濟時﹐我們投資6000萬美元在喜瑞都市建起了美國一流的大劇院﹐還建起了全美最大的世界名牌汽車銷售一條街﹐共有25家汽車公司的幾十 個牌子的車在此銷售。 (chinesenewsnet.com)

　　“在我的城市﹐我很驕傲的就是沃爾馬。”黃錦波說﹕“我當市長﹐招商引資﹐沃爾馬來了﹐但是我的同事(其他副市長﹑議員)反對﹐不要他們來﹐我是唯一 支持他們來的人。同事們說他們賣的東西很便宜﹐會引進很多外來的居民﹐影響到我們的交通﹑治安﹐影響到我們的氣派﹐因為沃爾馬的外形好像一個工廠﹐很簡 陋。我與沃爾馬商談我的同事為什麼反對﹐他們願不願意改進﹐把我們擔心的東西去掉﹐我要他們蓋商店時﹐要配合我們的五星級酒店﹐合同中也寫明要優先安排我 們城市的居民就業﹐這就使我們城市的居民有工作做了﹐還增加了稅收﹐同時﹐沃爾馬的外形在美國的城市裡也變成一流的﹐非常漂亮。他們的營業額很高﹐員工薪 水﹑稅收收入也不少﹐90年代我們城市居民的平均收入是全美國排第二位的城市。” (chinesenewsnet.com)

１９６３年，黃錦波考入了猶他州鹽湖城的藥劑學院，並做了５年的藥劑師。在此期間，他開始為猶他州醫科大學的入學考試做準備。競爭是激烈的，報考的 １２００人中，學校只錄取８０人。黃錦波最終被錄取並且只用了３年半的時間學完了醫科大學的全部專業課程，成為這所學校自１９４８年以來第一個在如此短的 時間內修完學分的學生。１９７１年，黃錦波取得了醫學博士學位，完成了他人生奮鬥最重要的知識儲備。
１９７２年，黃錦波正式開辦診所行醫，以後又先後涉足房地產和股票生意，還創辦了中美電視臺。

13939 San Antonio Drive
Norwalk, CA 90650-4036

Golf lesson 1

Golf is a game of the 'opposite': if you're right-handed, you use your left to guide the swing; if you want the ball go up, then hit down on it; if you want the ball to go left, then hit towards the right;

* Grip:

• the pad of your palm should be on top of the handle;
  
• the V should point to the right shoulder;
  
• should see only two knuckles of your left hand when you look down (that's a neutral grip and ball will go straight; a weak grip is seeing 1 knuckle and tends to slice the ball; a strong grip is seeing 3 and tends to hook);
  
• your right hand's fingers should touch the grip between first and second lines;
  
• your right index finger should point straight down when extended;
  
• grip force should be about 4 on a scale of 1-10 (swing the club with a relatively loose grip will max the natural momentum from the weight of the club, e.g. try holding the club with only two fingers and swing it)

* Stance:

• your left heel should be about 2 inches (the length of the foot of the club) from the line of the ball;
  
• the distance between the head of the club and your lap should be the 'rule of ten' (i.e. for a 7 iron, 3 fingers away, 9 iron, 1 finger away, and so on);
  
• chin up so at least the arm can fit under it;
• put the club perpendiculat to the line of target (that's a square position)
  

* Swing:

• remember your body is in a tube;
  
• turn your shoulders, but don't drop your shoulder, which will over tilt the hip;
  
• swing from inside to outside (crossing the target line), don't 'chicken-wing' it (many golfers have this problem);
  
• to illustrate the turn, hold the club with your arms horizontally behind your back, then try the swing action and see the turn;
• when the club hits the ball, it flattens the area of the ball at the contact point; and the ball travels on the club surface for a brief moment; the more you flatten the ball the further your shot will be
  

* Follow-through:

• feel the right toe going into the shot;

* Tips: when someone yells "fore" it's a warning of the ball flying in--duck and don't look.

MACARTHUR'S PRAYER FOR HIS SON

While fighting in the Pacific during WWII, General Douglas MacArthur, whose father was Civil War hero Lieutenant-General Arthur MacArthur, wrote this letter to his son, Arthur IV:

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak; and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

Build me a son whose wishes will not take the place of deeds; a son who will know Thee -- and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge.

Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail.

Build me a son whose heart will be clear, whose goal will be high, a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men, one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.

And after all these thing are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom and the meekness of true strength.

Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, "I have not lived in vain!"

剧雪

[121 People]

第一次在《上一当》中看到剧雪，很喜欢她的角色和演出。她是空政话剧团国家一级演员，长得美丽大方。为人朴实低调，又有内涵。在这年头，这样的人都少有，更何况演员？先生是何群，中国第五代导演。据说是高材生。

Forty-two degrees

The interesting fact about rainbow, as discovered by French philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes, is that the angle from the level of your eyes to the top of the rainbow is always about 42 degrees.

zz The Chosen One

[122 People]

The Chosen One
Tiger Woods was raised to believe that his destiny is not only to be the greatest golfer ever but also to change the world. Will the pressures of celebrity grind him down first?

by Gary Smith
ALT TEXT
photograph by Michael O'Neill

IT WAS ordinary. It was oh so ordinary. It was a salad, a dinner roll, a steak, a half potato, a slice of cake, a clinking fork, a podium joke, a ballroom full of white-linen-tablecloth conversation. Then a thick man with tufts of white hair rose from the head table. His voice trembled and his eyes teared and his throat gulped down sobs between words, and everything ordinary was cast out of the room.

He said, "Please forgive me ... but sometimes I get very emotional ... when I talk about my son.... My heart ... fills with so ... much ... joy ... when I realize ... that this young man ... is going to be able ... to help so many people.... He will transcend this game ... and bring to the world ... a humanitarianism ... which has never been known before. The world will be a better place to live in ... by virtue of his existence ... and his presence.... I acknowledge only a small part in that ... in that I know that I was personally selected by God himself ... to nurture this young man ... and bring him to the point where he can make his contribution to humanity.... This is my treasure.... Please accept it ... and use it wisely.... Thank you."

Blinking tears, the man found himself inside the arms of his son and the applause of the people, all up on their feet.

In the history of American celebrity, no father has ever spoken this way. Too many dads have deserted or died before their offspring reached this realm, but mostly they have fallen mute, the father's vision exceeded by the child's, leaving the child to wander, lost, through the sad and silly wilderness of modern fame.

Earl Woods
Earl says he didn't discover his own destiny until Tiger was born.
photograph by Bill Frakes

So let us stand amidst this audience at last month's Fred Haskins Award dinner to honor America's outstanding college golfer of 1996, and take note as Tiger and Earl Woods embrace, for a new manner of celebrity is taking form before our eyes. Regard the 64-year-old African-American father, arm upon the superstar's shoulder, right where the chip is so often found, declaring that this boy will do more good for the world than any man who ever walked it. Gaze at the 20-year-old son, with the blood of four races in his veins, not flinching an inch from the yoke of his father's prophecy but already beginning to scent the complications. The son who stormed from behind to win a record third straight U.S. Amateur last August, turned pro and rang up scores in the 60s in 21 of his first 27 rounds, winning two PGA Tour events as he doubled and tripled the usual crowds and dramatically changed their look and age.

Now turn. Turn and look at us, the audience, standing in anticipation of something different, something pure. Quiet. Just below the applause, or within it, can you hear the grinding? That's the relentless chewing mechanism of fame, girding to grind the purity and the promise to dust. Not the promise of talent, but the bigger promise, the father's promise, the one that stakes everything on the boy's not becoming separated from his own humanity and from all the humanity crowding around him.

ALT TEXT
Tida taught Tiger Eastern serenity to complement Earl's fire.
photograph by John Burgess

It's a fitting moment, while he's up there at the head table with the audience on its feet, to anoint Eldrick (Tiger) Woods — the rare athlete to establish himself immediately as the dominant figure in his sport — as Sports Illustrated's 1996 Sportsman of the Year. And to pose a question: Who will win? The machine ... or the youth who has just entered its maw?

Tiger Woods will win. He'll fulfill his father's vision because of his mind, one that grows more still, more willful, more efficient, the greater the pressure upon him grows.

The machine will win because it has no mind. It flattens even as it lifts, trivializes even as it exalts, spreads a man so wide and thin that he becomes margarine soon enough.

Tiger will win because of God's mind. Can't you see the pattern? Earl Woods asks. Can't you see the signs? "Tiger will do more than any other man in history to change the course of humanity," Earl says.

Sports history, Mr. Woods? Do you mean more than Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson, more than Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe? "More than any of them because he's more charismatic, more educated, more prepared for this than anyone."

Anyone, Mr. Woods? Your son will have more impact than Nelson Mandela, more than Gandhi, more than Buddha?

"Yes, because he has a larger forum than any of them. Because he's playing a sport that's international. Because he's qualified through his ethnicity to accomplish miracles. He's the bridge between the East and the West. There is no limit because he has the guidance. I don't know yet exactly what form this will take. But he is the Chosen One. He'll have the power to impact nations. Not people. Nations. The world is just getting a taste of his power."

Surely this is lunacy. Or are we just too myopic to see? One thing is certain: We are witnessing the first volley of an epic encounter, the machine at its mightiest confronting the individual groomed all his life to conquer it and turn it to his use. The youth who has been exposed to its power since he toddled onto The Mike Douglas Show at three, the set of That's Incredible! at five, the boy who has been steeled against the silky seduction to which so many before him have succumbed. The one who, by all appearances, brings more psychological balance, more sense of self, more consciousness of possibility to the battlefield than any of his predecessors.

This is war, so let's start with war. Remove the images of pretty putting greens from the movie screen standing near the ballroom's head table. Jungle is what's needed here, foliage up to a man's armpits, sweat trickling down his thighs, leeches crawling up them. Lieut. Col. Earl Woods, moving through the night with his rifle ready, wondering why a U.S. Army public information officer stationed in Brooklyn decided in his mid-30s that he belonged in the Green Berets and ended up doing two tours of duty in Vietnam. Wondering why his first marriage has died and why the three children from it have ended up without a dad around when it's dark like this and it's time for bed — just as Earl ended up as a boy after his own father died. Wondering why he keeps plotting ways to return to the line of fire — "creative soldiering," he calls it — to eyeball death once more. To learn once again about his dark and cold side, the side that enables Earl, as Tiger will remark years later, "to slit your throat and then sit down and eat his dinner."

Oh, yes, Earl is one hell of a cocktail. A little Chinese, a little Cherokee, a few shots of African-American; don't get finicky about measurements, we're making a vat here. Pour in some gruffness and a little intimidation, then some tenderness and some warmth and a few jiggers of old anger. Don't hold back on intelligence. And stoicism. Add lots of stoicism, and even more of responsibility —" the most responsible son of a bitch you've ever seen in your life" is how Earl himself puts it. Top it all with "a bucket of whiskey," which is what he has been known to order when he saunters into a bar and he's in the mood. Add a dash of hyperbole, maybe two, and to hell with the ice, just whir. This is one of those concoctions you're going to remember when morning comes.

Somewhere in there, until a good 15 years ago, there was one other ingredient, the existential Tabasco, the smoldering why? The Thai secretary in the U.S. Army office in Bangkok smelled it soon after she met Earl, in 1967. "He couldn't relax," says Kultida (Tida) Woods. "Searching for something, always searching, never satisfied. I think because both his parents died when he was young, and he didn't have Mom and Dad to make him warm. Sometimes he stayed awake till three or four in the morning, just thinking."

In a man so accustomed to exuding command and control, in a Green Beret lieutenant colonel, why? has a way of building up power like a river dammed. Why did the Vietcong sniper bracket him that day (first bullet a few inches left of one ear, second bullet a few inches right of the other) but never fire the third bullet? Why did Earl's South Vietnamese combat buddy, Nguyen Phong — the one Earl nicknamed Tiger, and in whose memory he would nickname his son — stir one night just in time to awaken Earl and warn him not to budge because a viper was poised inches from his right eye? What about that road Earl's jeep rolled down one night, the same road on which two friends had just been mutilated, the road that took him through a village so silent and dark that his scalp tingled, and then, just beyond it ... hell turned inside-out over his shoulder, the sky lighting up and all the huts he had just passed spewing Vietcong machine-gun and artillery fire? He never understands what is the purpose of Lieutenant Colonel Woods's surviving again and again. He never quite comprehends what is the point of his life, until....

ALT TEXT
POSITIONING THE PRODUCT
At Nike headquarters Tiger learns a few tricks of the TV trade.
photograph by Lynn Johnson

Until the boy is born. He will get all the time that Earl was unable to devote to the three children from his first marriage. He will be the only child from Earl's second marriage, to the Thai woman he brought back to America, and right away there are signs. What other six-month-old, Earl asks, has the balance to stand in the palm of his father's hand and remain there even as Daddy strolls around the house? Was there another 11-month-old, ever, who could pick up a sawed-off club, imitate his father's golf swing so fluidly and drive the ball so wickedly into the nylon net across the garage? Another four-year-old who could be dropped off at the golf course at 9 a.m. on a Saturday and picked up at 5 p.m., pockets bulging with money he had won from disbelievers 10 and 20 years older, until Pop said, "Tiger, you can't do that"? Earl starts to get a glimmer. He is to be the father of the world's most gifted golfer.

But why? What for? Not long after Tiger's birth, when Earl has left the military to become a purchaser for McDonnell Douglas, he finds himself in a long discussion with a woman he knows. She senses the power pooling inside him, the friction. "You have so much to give," she tells him, "but you're not giving it. You haven't even scratched the surface of your potential." She suggests he try est, Erhard Seminars Training, an intensive self-discovery and self-actualizing technique, and it hits Earl hard, direct mortar fire to the heart. What he learns is that his overmuscular sense of responsibility for others has choked his potential.

"To the point," says Earl, "that I wouldn't even buy a handkerchief for myself. It went all the way back to the day my father died, when I was 11, and my mother put her arm around me after the funeral and said, 'You're the man of the house now.' I became the father that young, looking out for everyone else, and then she died two years later.

"What I learned through est was that by doing more for myself, I could do much more for others. Yes, be responsible, but love life, and give people the space to be in your life, and allow yourself room to give to others. That caring and sharing is what's most important, not being responsible for everyone else. Which is where Tiger comes in. What I learned led me to give so much time to Tiger, and to give him the space to be himself, and not to smother him with dos and don'ts. I took out the authority aspect and turned it into companionship. I made myself vulnerable as a parent. When you have to earn respect from your child, rather than demanding it because it's owed to you as the father, miracles happen. I realized that, through him, the giving could take a quantum leap. What I could do on a limited scale, he could do on a global scale."

At last, the river is undammed, and Earl's whole life makes sense. At last, he sees what he was searching for, a pattern. No more volunteering for missions — he has his. Not simply to be a great golfer's father. To be destiny's father. His son will change the world.

"What the hell had I been doing in public information in the Army, posted in Brooklyn?" he asks. "Why, of course, what greater training can there be than three years of dealing with the New York media to prepare me to teach Tiger the importance of public relations and how to handle the media?"

Father: Where were you born, Tiger?

Son, age three: I was born on December 30, 1975, in Long Beach, California.

Father: No, Tiger, only answer the question you were asked. It's important to prepare yourself for this. Try again.

Son: I was born in Long Beach, California.

Father: Good, Tiger, good.

The late leap into the Green Berets? "What the hell was that for?" Earl says. "Of course, to prepare me to teach Tiger mental toughness."

The three children by the first marriage? "Not just one boy the first time," says Earl, "but two, along with a girl, as if God was saying, 'I want this son of a bitch to really have previous training.'"

ALT TEXT
HERO WORSHIP
Actors in the "I am Tiger" ad know a star when they see one.
photograph by Lynn Johnson

The Buddhist wife, the one who grew up in a boarding school after her parents separated when she was five, the girl who then vowed that her child would know nothing but love and attention? The one who will preach inner calm to Tiger simply by turning to him with that face — still awaiting its first wrinkle at 52? Whose eyes close when she speaks, so he can almost see her gathering and sifting the thoughts? The mother who will walk every hole and keep score for Tiger at children's tournaments, adding a stroke or two if his calm cracks? "Look at this stuff!" cries Earl. "Over and over you can see the plan being orchestrated by someone other than me because I'm not this damn good! I tried to get out of that combat assignment to Thailand. But Tida was meant to bring in the influence of the Orient, to introduce Tiger to Buddhism and inner peace, so he would have the best of two different worlds. And so he would have the knowledge that there were two people whose lives were totally committed to him."

What of the heart attack Earl suffered when Tiger was 10 and the retired lieutenant colonel felt himself floating down the gray tunnel toward the light before he was wrenched back? "To prepare me to teach Tiger that life is short," Earl says, "and to live each day to the maximum, and not worry about the future. There's only now. You must understand that time is just a linear measurement of successive increments of now. Anyplace you go on that line is now, and that's how you have to live it."

No need to wonder about the appearance of the perfect childhood coach, John Anselmo; the perfect sports psychologist, Jay Brunza; the perfect agent, Hughes Norton; the perfect attorney, John Merchant; and the perfect pro swing instructor, Butch Harmon. Or about the great tangle of fate that leads them all to Tiger at just the right junctures in his development. "Everything," says Earl, "right there when he needs it. Everything. There can't be this much coincidence in the world. This is a directed scenario, and none of us involved in the scenario has failed to accept the responsibility. This is all destined to be."

His wife ratifies this, in her own way. She takes the boy's astrological chart to a Buddhist temple in Los Angeles and to another in Bangkok and is told by monks at both places that the child has wondrous powers. "If he becomes a politician, he will be either a president or a prime minister," she is told. "If he enters the military, he will be a general."

Tida comes to a conclusion. "Tiger has Thai, African, Chinese, American Indian and European blood," she says. "He can hold everyone together. He is the Universal Child."

This is in the air the boy breathes for 20 years, and it becomes bone fact for him, marrow knowledge. When asked about it, he merely nods in acknowledgment of it, assents to it; of course he believes it's true. So failure, in the rare visits it pays him, is not failure. It's just life pausing to teach him a lesson he needs in order to go where he's inevitably going. And success, no matter how much sooner than expected it comes to the door, always finds him dressed and ready to welcome it. "Did you ever see yourself doing this so soon?" a commentator breathlessly asks him seconds after his first pro victory, on Oct. 6 in Las Vegas, trying to elicit wonder and awe on live TV. "Yeah," Tiger responds. "I kind of did." And sleep comes to him so easily: In the midst of conversation, in a car, in a plane, off he goes, into the slumber of the destined. "I don't see any of this as scary or a burden," Tiger says. "I see it as fortunate. I've always known where I wanted to go in life. I've never let anything deter me. This is my purpose. It will unfold."

No sports star in the history of American celebrity has spoken this way. Maybe, somehow, Tiger can win.

"TIGER HAS THAI, AFRICAN, CHINESE, AMERICAN INDIAN AND EUROPEAN BLOOD," TIDA SAYS. "HE IS THE UNIVERSAL CHILD"

The machine will win. It must win because it too is destiny, five billion destinies leaning against one. There are ways to keep the hordes back, a media expert at Nike tells Tiger. Make broad gestures when you speak. Keep a club in your hands and take practice swings, or stand with one foot well out in front of the other, in almost a karate stance. That will give you room to breathe. Two weeks later, surrounded by a pen-wielding mob in La Quinta, Calif., in late November, just before the Skins Game, the instruction fails. Tiger survives, but his shirt and slacks are ruined, felt-tip-dotted to death.

The machine will win because it will wear the young man down, cloud his judgment, steal his sweetness, the way it does just before the Buick Challenge in Pine Mountain, Ga., at the end of September. It will make his eyes drop when the fans' gaze reaches for his, his voice growl at their clawing hands, his body sag onto a sofa after a practice round and then rise and walk across the room and suddenly stop in bewilderment. "I couldn't even remember what I'd just gotten off the couch for, two seconds before," he says. "I was like mashed potatoes. Total mush."

So he walks. Pulls out on the eve of the Buick Challenge, pulls out of the Fred Haskins Award dinner to honor him, and goes home. See, maybe Tiger can win. He can just turn his back on the machine and walk. Awards? Awards to Tiger are like echoes, voices bouncing off the walls, repeating what a truly confident man has already heard inside his own head. The Jack Nicklaus Award, the one Jack himself was supposed to present to Tiger live on ABC during the Memorial tournament last spring? Tiger would have blown it off if Wally Goodwin, his coach at Stanford during the two years he played there before turning pro, hadn't insisted that he show up.

The instant Tiger walks away from the Buick Challenge and the Haskins dinner, the hounds start yapping. See, that's why the machine will win. It's got all those damn heel-nippers. Little mutts on the PGA Tour resenting how swiftly the 20-year-old was ordained, how hastily he was invited to play practice rounds with Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, with Greg Norman and Ray Floyd and Nick Faldo and Fred Couples. And big dogs snapping too. Tom Kite quoted as saying, "I can't ever remember being tired when I was 20," and Peter Jacobsen quoted, "You can't compare Tiger to Nicklaus and Palmer anymore because they never [walked out]."

He rests for a week, stunned by the criticism — "I thought those people were my friends," he says. He never second-guesses his decision to turn pro, but he sees what he surrendered. "I miss college," he says. "I miss hanging out with my friends, getting in a little trouble. I have to be so guarded now. I miss sitting around drinking beer and talking half the night. There's no one my own age to hang out with anymore because almost everyone my age is in college. I'm a target for everybody now, and there's nothing I can do about it. My mother was right when she said that turning pro would take away my youth. But golfwise, there was nothing left for me in college."

He reemerges after the week's rest and rushes from four shots off the lead on the final day to win the Las Vegas Invitational in sudden death. The world's waiting for him again, this time with reinforcements. Letterman and Leno want him as a guest; GQ calls about a cover; Cosby, along with almost every other sitcom you can think of, offers to write an episode revolving around Tiger, if only he'll appear. Kids dress up as Tiger for Halloween — did anyone ever dress up as Arnie or Jack? — and Michael Jordan declares that his only hero on earth is Tiger Woods. Pepsi is dying to have him cut a commercial for one of its soft drinks aimed at Generation Xers; Nike and Titleist call in chits for the $40 million and $20 million contracts he signed; money managers are eager to know how he wants his millions invested; women walk onto the course during a practice round and ask for his hand in marriage; kids stampede over and under ropes and chase him from the 18th hole to the clubhouse; piles of phone messages await him when he returns to his hotel room. "Why," Tiger asks, "do so many people want a piece of me?"

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ADVISE AND CONSENT
Agent Norton has Tiger's ear as they judge product designs.
photograph by Lynn Johnson

Because something deeper than conventional stardom is at work here, something so spontaneous and subconscious that words have trouble going there. It's a communal craving, a public aching for a superstar free of anger and arrogance and obsession with self. It's a hollow place that chimes each time Tiger and his parents strike the theme of father and mother and child love, each time Tiger stands at a press conference and declares, "They have raised me well, and I truly believe they have taught me to accept full responsibility for all aspects of my life." During the making of a Titleist commercial in November, a makeup woman is so moved listening to Earl describe his bond with Tiger that she decides to contact her long-estranged father. "See what I mean?" cries Earl. "Did you affect someone that way today? Did anyone else there? It's destiny, man. It's something bigger than me."

What makes it so vivid is context. The white canvas that the colors are being painted on — the moneyed, mature and almost minority-less world of golf — makes Tiger an emblem of youth overcoming age, have-not overcoming have, outsider overcoming insider, to the delight not only of the 18-year-olds in the gallery wearing nose rings and cornrows, but also — of all people — of the aging insider haves.

So Tiger finds himself, just a few weeks after turning pro at the end of August, trying to clutch a bolt of lightning with one hand and steer an all-at-once corporation — himself — with the other, and before this he has never worked a day in his life. Never mowed a neighbor's lawn, never flung a folded newspaper, never stocked a grocery shelf; Mozarts just don't, you know. And he has to act as if none of this is new or vexing because he has this characteristic — perhaps from all those years of hanging out with his dad at tournaments, all those years of mixing with and mauling golfers five, 10, 20, 30 years older than he is — of never permitting himself to appear confused, surprised or just generally a little squirt. "His favorite expression," Earl says, "is, 'I knew that.'" Of course Pop, who is just as irreverent with Tiger as he is reverent, can say, "No, you didn't know that, you little s---." But Earl, who has always been the filter for Tiger, decides to take a few steps back during his son's first few months as a pro because he wishes to encourage Tiger's independence and because he is uncertain of his own role now that the International Management Group (IMG) is managing Tiger's career.

Nobody notices it, but the inner calm is beginning to dissolve. Earl enters Tiger's hotel room during the Texas Open in mid-October to ask him about his schedule, and Tiger does something he has never done in his 20 years. He bites the old man's head off.

Earl blinks. "I understand how you must feel," he says.

"No, you don't," snaps Tiger.

"And I realized," Earl says later, "that I'd spent 20 years planning for this, but the one thing I didn't do was educate Tiger to be the boss of a corporation. There was just no vehicle for that, and I thought it would develop more slowly. I wasn't presumptuous enough to anticipate this. For the first time in his life, the training was behind the reality. I could see on his face that he was going through hell."

The kid is fluid, though. Just watch him walk. He's quick to flow into the new form, to fit the contour of necessity. A few hours after the outburst he's apologizing to his father and hugging him. A few days later he's giving Pop the O.K. to call a meeting of the key members of Tiger's new corporation and establish a system, Lieutenant Colonel Woods in command, chairing a 2 1/2-hour teleconference with the team each week to sift through all the demands, weed out all the chaff and present Tiger five decisions to make instead of 500. A few days after that, the weight forklifted off his shoulders, at least temporarily, Tiger wins the Walt Disney World/Oldsmobile Classic. And a few weeks later, at the Fred Haskins Award dinner, which has been rescheduled at his request, Tiger stands at the podium and says, "I should've attended the dinner [the first time]. I admit I was wrong, and I'm sorry for any inconvenience I may have caused. But I have learned from that, and I will never make that mistake again. I'm very honored to be part of this select group, and I'll always remember, for both good and bad, this Haskins Award; for what I did and what I learned, for the company I'm now in and I'll always be in. Thank you very much." The crowd surges to its feet, cheering once more.

ALT TEXT
TALE OF THE TAPE
It's not just his feet but all of Tiger that Nike will clothe.
photograph by Lynn Johnson

See, maybe Tiger can win. He's got the touch. He's got the feel. He never writes down a word before he gives a speech. When he needs to remember a phone number, he doesn't search his memory or a little black book; he picks up a phone and watches what number his fingers go to. When he needs a 120-yard shot to go under an oak branch and over a pond, he doesn't visualize the shot, as most golfers would. He looks at the flag and pulls everything from the hole back, back, back ... not back into his mind's eye, but into his hands and forearms and hips, so they'll do it by feel. Explain how he made that preposterous shot? He can't. Better you interview his knuckles and metacarpals.

"His handicap," says Earl, "is that he has such a powerful creative mind. His imagination is too vivid. If he uses visualization, the ball goes nuts. So we piped into his creative side even deeper, into his incredible sense of feel."

"I've learned to trust the subconscious," says Tiger. "My instincts have never lied to me."

The mother radiates this: the Eastern proclivity to let life happen, rather than the Western one to make it happen. The father comes to it in his own way, through fire. To kill a man, to conduct oneself calmly and efficiently when one's own death is imminent — a skill Earl learns in Green Berets psychological training and then again and again in jungles and rice paddies — one removes the conscious mind from the task and yields to the subconscious. "It's the more powerful of the two minds," Earl says. "It works faster than the conscious mind, yet it's patterned enough to handle routine tasks over and over, like driving a car or making a putt. It knows what to do.

"Allow yourself the freedom of emotion and feeling. Don't try to control them and trap them. Acknowledge them and become the beneficiary of them. Let it all outflow."

Let it all because it's all there: The stability, almost freakish for a close-of-the-millennium California child — same two parents, same house all his 20 years, same best friends, one since second grade, one since eighth. The kid, for god's sake, never once had a babysitter. The conditioning is there as well, the two years of psychological boot camp during which Earl dropped golf bags and pumped cart brakes during Tiger's backswings, jingled change and rolled balls across his line of vision to test his nerves, promising him at the outset that he only had to say "Enough" and Earl would cut off the blowtorch, but promising too that if Tiger graduated, no man he ever faced would be mentally stronger than he. "I am the toughest golfer mentally," Tiger says.

The bedrock is so wide that opposites can dance upon it: The cautious man can be instinctive, the careful man can be carefree. The bedrock is so wide that it has enticed Tiger into the habit of falling behind — as he did in the final matches of all three U.S. Junior Amateur and all three U.S. Amateur victories — knowing in his tissue and bones that danger will unleash his greatest power. "Allow success and fame to happen," the old man says. "Let the legend grow."

To hell with the Tao. The machine will win, it has to win, because it makes everything happen before a man knows it. Before he knows it, a veil descends over his eyes when another stranger approaches. Before he knows it, he's living in a walled community with an electronic gate and a security guard, where the children trick-or-treat in golf carts, a place like the one Tiger just moved into in Orlando to preserve some scrap of sanity. Each day there, even with all the best intentions, how can he help but be a little more removed from the world he's supposed to change, and from his truest self?

Which is ... who? The poised, polite, opaque sage we see on TV? No, no, no; his friends hoot and haze him when they see that Tiger on the screen, and he can barely help grinning himself. The Tiger they know is perfectly 20, a fast-food freak who never remembers to ask if anyone else is hungry before he bolts to Taco Bell or McDonald's for the 10th time of the week. The one who loves riding roller coasters, spinning out golf carts and winning at cards no matter how often his father accuses him of "reckless eyeballing." The one who loves delivering the dirty joke, who owns a salty barracks tongue just a rank or two beneath his father's. The one who's flip, who's downright cocky. When a suit walks up to him before the Haskins Award dinner and says, "I think you're going to be the next great one, but those are mighty big shoes to fill," Tiger replies, "Got big feet."

"THE MACHINE WILL WIN, IT HAS TO WIN, BECAUSE IT MAKES EVERYTHING HAPPEN BEFORE A MAN KNOWS WHAT HIT HIM"

A typical exchange between Tiger and his agent, Norton:

"Tiger, they want to know when you can do that interview."

"Tell them to kiss my ass!"

"All right, and after that, what should I tell them?"

"Tell them to kiss my ass again!"

"O.K., and after that...."

But it's a cockiness cut with humility, the paradox pounded into his skull by a father who in one breath speaks of his son with religious awe and in the next grunts, "You weren't s--- then, Tiger. You ain't s--- now. You ain't never gonna be s---."

"That's why I know I can handle all this," Tiger says, "no matter how big it gets. I grew up in the media's eye, but I was taught never to lose sight of where I came from. Athletes aren't as gentlemanly as they used to be. I don't like that change. I like the idea of being a role model. It's an honor. People took the time to help me as a kid, and they impacted my life. I want to do the same for kids."

So, if it's a clinic for children instead of an interview or an endorsement for adults, the cynic in Tiger gives way to the child who grew up immersed in his father's vision of an earth-altering compassion, the seven-year-old boy who watched scenes from the Ethiopian famine on the evening news, went right to his bedroom and returned with a $20 bill to contribute from his piggy bank. Last spring busloads of inner-city kids would arrive at golf courses where Tiger was playing for Stanford, spilling out to watch the Earl and Tiger show in wonder. Earl would talk about the dangers of drugs, then proclaim, "Here's Tiger Woods on drugs," and Tiger would stagger to the tee, topping the ball so it bounced crazily to the side. And then, presto, with a wave of his arms Earl would remove the drugs from Tiger's body, and his son would stride to the ball and launch a 330-yard rocket across the sky. Then Earl would talk about respect and trust and hard work and demonstrate what they can all lead to by standing 10 feet in front of his son, raising his arms and telling Tiger to smash the ball between them — and, whoosh, Tiger would part not only the old man's arms but his haircut too.

They've got plans, the two of them, big plans, for a Tiger Woods Foundation that will fund scholarships across the country, set up clinics and coaches and access to golf courses for inner-city children. "I throw those visions out there in front of him," Earl says, "and it's like reeling in a fish. He goes for the bait, takes it and away he goes. This is nothing new. It's been working this way for a long time."

"That's the difference," says Merchant, Tiger's attorney and a family friend. "Other athletes who have risen to this level just didn't have this kind of guidance. With a father and mother like Tiger's, he has to be real. It's such a rare quality in celebrities nowadays. There hasn't been a politician since John Kennedy whom people have wanted to touch. But watch Tiger. He has it. He actually listens to people when they stop him in an airport. He looks them in the eye. I can't ever envision Tiger Woods selling his autograph."

See, maybe Tiger can win.

Let's be honest. The machine will win because you can't work both sides of this street. The machine will win because you can't transcend wearing 16 Nike swooshes, you can't move human hearts while you're busy pushing sneakers. Gandhi didn't hawk golf balls, did he? Jackie Robinson was spared that fate because he came and went while Madison Avenue was still teething. Ali became a symbol instead of a logo because of boxing's disrepute and because of the attrition of cells in the basal ganglia of his brain. Who or what will save Tiger Woods?

Did someone say Buddha?

ALT TEXT
FACE THE MUSIC
Handling the press is another skill Tiger's learning at Nike U.
photograph by Lynn Johnson

Every year near his birthday, Tiger goes with his mother to a Buddhist temple and makes a gift of rice, sugar and salt to the monks there who have renounced all material goods. A mother-of-pearl Buddha given to Tiger by his Thai grandfather watches over him while he sleeps, and a gold Buddha hangs from the chain on his neck. "I like Buddhism because it's a whole way of being and living," Tiger says. "It's based on discipline and respect and personal responsibility. I like Asian culture better than ours because of that. Asians are much more disciplined than we are. Look how well behaved their children are. It's how my mother raised me. You can question, but talk back? Never. In Thailand, once you've earned people's respect, you have it for life. Here it's, What have you done for me lately? So here you can never rest easy. In this country I have to be very careful. I'm easygoing, but I won't let you in completely. There, I'm Thai, and it feels very different. In many ways I consider that home.

"I believe in Buddhism. Not every aspect, but most of it. So I take bits and pieces. I don't believe that human beings can achieve ultimate enlightenment, because humans have flaws. I don't want to get rid of all my wants and desires. I can enjoy material things, but that doesn't mean I need them. It doesn't matter to me whether I live in a place like this" — the golf club in his hand makes a sweep of the Orlando villa — "or in a shack. I'd be fine in a shack, as long as I could play some golf. I'll do the commercials for Nike and for Titleist, but there won't be much more than that. I have no desire to be the king of endorsement money."

On the morning after he decides to turn pro, there's a knock on his hotel room door. It's Norton, bleary-eyed but exhilarated after a late-night round of negotiations with Nike. He explains to Tiger and Earl that the benchmark for contract endorsements in golf is Norman's reported $2 1/2 million-a-year deal with Reebok. Then, gulping down hard on the yabba-dabba-doo rising up his throat, Norton announces Nike's offer: $40 million for five years, eight mil a year. "Over three times what Norman gets!" Norton exults.

Silence.

"Guys, do you realize this is more than Nike pays any athlete in salary, even Jordan?"

Silence.

"Finally," Norton says now, recalling that morning, "Tiger says, 'Mmmm-hmmm,' and I say, 'That's it? Mmmm-hmmm?' No 'Omigod.' No slapping five or 'Ya-hooo!' So I say, 'Let me go through this again, guys.' Finally Tiger says, 'Guess that's pretty amazing.' That's it. When I made the deal with Titleist a day later, I went back to them saying, 'I'm almost embarrassed to tell you this one. Titleist is offering a little more than $20 million over five years.'"

On the Monday morning after his first pro tournament, a week after the two megadeals, Tiger scans the tiny print on the sports page under Milwaukee Open money earnings and finds his name. Tiger Woods: $2,544. "That's my money," he exclaims. "I earned this!"

See, maybe Tiger can win.

How? How can he win when there are so many insects under so many rocks? Several more death threats arrive just before the Skins Game, prompting an increase in his plainclothes security force, which is already larger than anyone knows. His agent's first instinct is to trash every piece of hate mail delivered to IMG, but Tiger won't permit it. Every piece of racist filth must be saved and given to him. At Stanford he kept one letter taped to his wall. Fuel comes in the oddest forms.

The audience, in its hunger for goodness, swallows hard over the Nike ad that heralds Tiger's entrance into the professional ranks. The words that flash on the screen over images of Tiger — There are still courses in the United States I am not allowed to play because of the color of my skin. I've heard I'm not ready for you. Are you ready for me? — ooze the very attitude from which many in the audience are seeking relief. The media backlash is swift: The Tiger Woods who used to tell the press, "The only time I think about race is when the media ask me" — whoa, what happened to him?

ALT TEXT
WHAT, ME WORRY?
Tiger is laid-back but in control at Nike apparel meetings.
photograph by Lynn Johnson

What happened to him was a steady accretion of experiences, also known as a life. What happened, just weeks before he was born, was a fusillade of limes and BBs rattling the Woods house in Cypress, Calif., one of the limes shattering the kitchen window, splashing glass all around the pregnant Tida, to welcome the middle-class subdivision's first non-Caucasian family.

What happened was a gang of older kids seizing Tiger on his first day of kindergarten, tying him to a tree, hurling rocks at him, calling him monkey and nigger. And Tiger, at age five, telling no one what happened for several days, trying to absorb what this meant about himself and his world.

What happened was the Look, as Tiger and Earl came to call it, the uneasy, silent stare they received in countless country-club locker rooms and restaurants. "Something a white person could never understand," says Tiger, "unless he went to Africa and suddenly found himself in the middle of a tribe." What happened was Tiger's feeling pressured to leave a driving range just two years ago, not far from his family's California home, because a resident watching Tiger's drives rocket into the nearby protective netting reported that a black teenager was trying to bombard his house.

What happened was the cold shoulder Earl got when he took his tyke to play at the Navy Golf Course in Cypress — "a club," Earl says, "composed mostly of retired naval personnel who knew blacks only as cooks and servers, and along comes me, a retired lieutenant colonel outranking 99 percent of them, and I have the nerve to take up golf at 42 and immediately become a low handicap and beat them, and then I have the audacity to have this kid. Well, they had to do something. They took away Tiger's playing privileges twice, said he was too young, even though there were other kids too young who they let play. The second time it happened, I went up to the pro who had done it and made a bet. I said, 'If you'll spot my three-year-old just one stroke a hole, nine holes, playing off the same tees, and he beats you, will you certify him?' The pro started laughing and said, 'Sure.' Tiger beat him by two strokes, got certified, then the members went over the pro's head and kicked him out again. That's when we switched him to another course."

SEE, MAYBE TIGER CAN WIN. HE'S GOT THE TOUCH. HE'S GOT THE FEEL. "MY INSTINCTS," HE SAYS, "HAVE NEVER LIED TO ME"

Beat them. That was his parents' solution for each banishment, each Look. Hold your tongue, hew to every rule and beat them. Tiger Woods is the son of the first black baseball player in the Big Seven, a catcher back in the early '50s, before the conference became the Big Eight. A man who had to leave his Kansas State teammates on road trips and travel miles to stay in motels for blacks; who had to go to the back door of restaurant kitchens to be fed while his teammates dined inside; who says, "This is the most racist society in the world — I know that." A man who learned neither to extinguish his anger nor spray it but to quietly convert it into animus, the determination to enter the system and overcome it by turning its own tools against it. A Green Berets explosives expert whose mind naturally ran that way, whose response, upon hearing Tiger rave about the security in his new walled community, was, "I could get in. I could blow up the clubhouse and be gone before they ever knew what hit them." A father who saw his son, from the beginning, as the one who would enter one of America's last Caucasian bastions, the PGA Tour, and overthrow it from within in a manner that would make it smile and ask for more. "Been planning that one for 20 years," says Earl. "See, you don't turn it into hatred. You turn it into something positive. So many athletes who reach the top now had things happen to them as children that created hostility, and they bring that hostility with them. But that hostility uses up energy. If you can do it without the chip on the shoulder, it frees up all that energy to create."

It's not until Stanford, where Tiger takes an African-American history course and stays up half the night in dormitories talking with people of every shade of skin, that his experiences begin to crystallize. "What I realized is that even though I'm mathematically Asian — if anything — if you have one drop of black blood in the United States, you're black," says Tiger. "And how important it is for this country to talk about this subject. It's not me to blow my horn, the way I come across in that Nike ad, or to say things quite that way. But I felt it was worth it because the message needed to be said. You can't say something like that in a polite way. Golf has shied away from this for too long. Some clubs have brought in tokens, but nothing has really changed. I hope what I'm doing can change that."

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photograph by Michael O'Neill

But don't overestimate race's proportion in the fuel that propels Tiger Woods. Don't look for traces of race in the astonishing rubble at his feet on the Sunday after he lost the Texas Open by two strokes and returned to his hotel room and snapped a putter in two with one violent lift of his knee. Then another putter. And another. And another and another — eight in all before his rage was spent and he was ready to begin considering the loss's philosophical lesson. "That volcano of competitive fire, that comes from me," says Earl. A volcano that's mostly an elite athlete's need to win, a need far more immediate than that of changing the world.

No, don't overestimate race, but don't overlook it, either. When Tiger is asked about racism, about the effect it has on him when he senses it in the air, he has a golf club in his hands. He takes the club by the neck, his eyes flashing hot and cold at once, and gives it a short upward thrust. He says, "It makes me want to stick it right up their asses." Pause. "On the golf course."

The machine will win because there is so much of the old man's breath in the boy ... and how long can the old man keep breathing? At 2 a.m., hours before the second round of the Tour Championship in Tulsa on Oct. 25, the phone rings in Tiger's hotel room. It's Mom. Pop's in an ambulance, on his way to a Tulsa hospital. He's just had his second heart attack.

The Tour Championship? The future of humanity? The hell with 'em. Tiger's at the old man's bedside in no time, awake most of the night. Tiger's out of contention in the Tour Championship by dinnertime, with a second-round 78, his worst till then as a pro. "There are things more important than golf," he says.

The old man survives — and sees the pattern at work, of course. He's got to throw away the cigarettes. He's got to quit ordering the cholesterol special for breakfast. "I've got to shape up now, God's telling me," Earl says, "or I won't be around for the last push, the last lesson." The one about how to ride the tsunami of runaway fame.

The machine will win because no matter how complicated it all seems now, it is simpler than it will ever be. The boy will marry one day, and the happiness of two people will lie in his hands. Children will follow, and it will become his job to protect three or four or five people from the molars of the machine. Imagine the din of the grinding in five, 10, 15 years, when the boy reaches his golfing prime.

The machine will win because the whole notion is so ludicrous to begin with, a kid clutching an eight-iron changing the course of humanity. No, of course not, there won't be thousands of people sitting in front of tanks because of Tiger Woods. He won't bring about the overthrow of a tyranny or spawn a religion that one day will number 300 million devotees.

But maybe Pop is onto something without quite seeing what it is. Maybe it has to do with timing: the appearance of his son when America is turning the corner to a century in which the country's faces of color will nearly equal those that are white. Maybe, every now and then, a man gets swallowed by the machine, but the machine is changed more than he is.

For when we swallow Tiger Woods, the yellow-black-red-white man, we swallow something much more significant than Jordan or Charles Barkley. We swallow hope in the American experiment, in the pell-mell jumbling of genes. We swallow the belief that the face of the future is not necessarily a bitter or bewildered face; that it might even, one day, be something like Tiger Woods's face: handsome and smiling and ready to kick all comers' asses.

We see a woman, 50-ish and Caucasian, well-coiffed and tailored — the woman we see at every country club — walk up to Tiger Woods before he receives the Haskins Award and say, "When I watch you taking on all those other players, Tiger, I feel like I'm watching my own son" ... and we feel the quivering of the cosmic compass that occurs when human beings look into the eyes of someone of another color and see their own flesh and blood.

Father of the Tiger

[121 People]

By Earl Woods:

I concur with Thurgood Marshall -- there is nothing wrong with speaking the language of your culture when you're within that culture. But to be upwardly mobile in society, one must learn to speak the best English that one can.


The worst part of getting older is realizing what you could have accomplished if you'd known then what you know now. Every old person, no matter how content they seem, feels that sense of regret. It's a bitch, but it's part of life. So be nice to me.

When we Green Berets were in Alaska on maneuvers for a long time, nothing tasted better than hobo coffee. We'd fill a can with water, boil it, pour in some coffee and let it brew. When it was done, we'd throw a little snow in the can, which made the grounds instantly settle to the bottom. At that point we'd dip our cups. Then we'd pour in more water and brew the same grounds. We'd do this over and over. None of the grounds got in the cup, and we'd get 10 batches of coffee from a handful of grounds.

Lying about your score or cheating at golf is really stealing. They constitute the worst kind of stealing, which is stealing from yourself. There is no end to the misery this brings on a person. I taught this to Tiger at a very young age, and to this day he's incapable of lying. He may not give you a full answer, but he never lies. The one time Tiger lied as a boy, he got physically ill.

Las Vegas - Hotels at the Strip

The Ultimate's

[121 Words]

(1) ultimate < (2) penultimate < (3) antepenultimate < (4) preantepenultimate