May 2010 Archives

Readers of this column -- and of Golfweek Magazine -- know how highly regarded Rustic Canyon Golf Course is, but fewer may know that a few 3-woods up the highway in Ojai stands another classic design: Soule Park Golf Course. Little coincidence that the architects of both layouts are Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, whose respect for the game's tradition and for the natural contours of this fine planet lead them to craft some subtle and eminently playable golf courses.

This dynamic duo completely redesigned the original Billy Bell layout, respecting the old routing as much as possible, and bringing into play the beautiful, oak-studded and creek-crossed terrain. It plays a healthy 6,730 yards from the back, but has tees for all manner of players going forward. Greens are perpetually in excellent shape, and the operation is helmed by Rustic's very own Buddy Kalencki, one of the true gentlemen in the business and a thorough professional (PGA teaching pro as well!).

Recently ranked by Golfweek as #20 in the top 100 municipal courses in the U.S.A., Soule Park proves that good land and enlightened management can offer quality golf at affordable rates. Other daily fees try to snag $65 to $100 per round, while Soule Park can be played during the week for $31 bucks or under! But don't let the price lead you to think you'll be grumbling about another muni goat-track -- this course has great shot values and the kind of imaginative design that you wouldn't tire of playing once a week. That's the true test of a well thought-out design. Call 805-646-5633 for tee times.

Back in the day, a television deserved the ungainly sobriquet "idiot box." There were three channels broadcasting the same gruel, the picture was full of "snow" and you had to literally get up from your easy chair to switch stations. Man, it was almost enough to drive one to read a book!

Don't dust off that Dostoyevski just yet, comrades! Vizio -- well-known for shaving dollars off the price of a flatscreen -- has come up with a new box that combines the best of both worlds: great picture and internet connectivity. The VF552XVT TruLED HDTV lets you recline in bed, connect to Netflix and Amazon and Yahoo News, and even features a Bluetooth remote with a QWERTY keyboard that enables you to Tweet, update your Facebook status and even triples as a video game controller. Mais oui!!

The miracle is that it does all these tricks wirelessly, unless you have an Ethernet cable handy, which it also accommodates. XVT stands for Extreme Vizio Technology, a handle which the 552XVT demonstrates in spades. Two million pixels give you one razor sharp 1080p image, the Dynamic Contrast Ratio is also 2 million to one -- add it up and you have deeper blacks and brighter whites. It will even wash and dry your bedsheets (maybe the next generation....)!

This is the tv of the future today, and at a price that should have you jostling with Joe the Plumber at Costco, where you can find this gem for well under $2K. All that and no mercury in the LED backlights, and a great Energy Star rating -- 50% below 3.0. Go green, go connected, go Vizio!

Okay, I admit it: I am one of those hirsute critters, from stem to stern I was born to haul a shag carpet of body hair alongside and on top of my mortal coil. During a street basketball game, a rude individual even called out -- "Yo, motherscratcher, shave yo back!" I should have informed him that I wasn't sufficiently double-jointed to achieve that self-grooming status, much as I would have liked to! I did the old hot wax treatment once, and almost killed the kind lady who applied that sizzling goo to my back. Nasty.

Enter the geniuses at Braun and their fabulous bodycruZer, a miracle of modern engineering and a painless solution for we poor souls of the hairy brotherhood. The bodycruZer combines a Braun trimmer with a Gilette Fusion blade that will carve a smooth path from chest to toe, and even give you a nice close shave afterwards. And it's water-tight -- meaning you can haul it into the shower without high-voltage consequences. Nice.

The bodycruZer takes standard Gilette razor cartridges, so replacing blades is a snap. It charges faster than you can say ZZ Top, a couple of guys who should definitely seek an endorsement deal with Braun. There are three settings: trim, trim and shave and shave only. There's no pinching or pulling and the unit feels solidly built, befitting a product with the good name Braun emblazoned thereupon.