Jeremy Stewart

liberal social worker, football watcher and avivd MTB rider

[The Players’ Tribune @PlayersTribune]

Rodri in 2024: “When I turned 14, I went to this summer camp in the middle of the forest in Connecticut. Even the name, ‘Conn-et-ee-cut,’ sounded crazy for a kid from Madrid. But when I arrived, it was like I was stepping into a Hollywood movie. You know the movies where the kids go to the camp on a big lake and there’s wooden canoes and you’re climbing trees and sleeping in tents and starting fires with sticks? It was really like that. You’re eating the marshmallows and the biscuits, you know? Over the fire? With the chocolate?

S’mores. Incredible.

No phones. No Wi-Fi. I’m all by myself in a new country, trying to make friends. ‘Hello, I am Rodrigo. I am from Madrid.’ (My teammates are already laughing, I can hear them.) I was always saying, in my broken English, ‘OK, guys, when are we going to play football?’

‘Yeah, Rodrigo. We’re playing later. We’re gonna throw the pig skin around.’

I’m thinking: ‘The pig skin??’

‘Come on, bro. Like the NFL.’

Honestly, I kind of liked it. It was fun.

But I kept saying, ‘I want to play soccer, guys.’

‘Sawker? We’re not playing sawker, mayn.’

To make it worse, I actually arrived there during the start of the 2010 World Cup. I couldn’t even check the internet, so I was in pain. But there was a little computer in the office of the main cabin, and every single day, I would ask the camp counselors to tell me who won the games. Spain lost the first match to Switzerland, if you remember. I thought they were messing with me.

‘Switzerland? Really? You sure you googled it right?’

Anyway, time is going by, and Spain start playing better. Knockouts — they keep winning. Then the semifinal against Germany — I’m dying. I’m on a canoeing trip, I think. I keep asking the main counselor, ‘Please, please can you just find out the score?’

Finally, we get back to the cabins and somebody tells me: ‘Spain are in the final.’

I never felt so far from home, but also close to home, if you understand what I mean.

For the final, I begged the main counselor to let me watch on his computer. He said OK, sure. Then he brings out this computer, and it’s like a 10-inch screen. You remember those mini laptop PCs? It was one of those. Tiny. I’m thinking: It’s beautiful. I don’t care. Just let me watch.

I don’t know how we did it, because we were in the middle of the woods, but I must have found a stream that was not exactly legal, and I watched the final, surrounded by Americans who didn’t care about what was happening.

When Iniesta scored, I literally started screaming and I ran outside and sprinted around the lake.

‘Vaaaamoooooosssss!!!!!!!!!! Aaaahahhhhhhhhh ¡¡¡¡¡jajajajajajajaja!!!! ¡Viva España!’

The Americans thought I was crazy. They were shaking their heads.

They were looking at me like, ‘Wait, is the Spanish guy crying? Over the sawker?’

They couldn’t understand what it meant to me. They thought I was crazy. And maybe I am crazy.” https://t.co/iz5D3BWP4K

@ManCity | @SEFutbol

[HOUSE PORN @HOUSEPORN___]

This dog literally has a better life than I do 😭

[Harrison Ford @HarrisonFordLA]

May the fourth be with you

[PGA TOUR @PGATOUR]

The future of the game is bright 🏌️‍♂️

@TCHouOpen | #TOURVault

[Christopher Hale @ChristopherHale]

There has been no harsher critic to U.S. military action in Iran than Pope Leo XIV:

“War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading.  The principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined.

“Peace is no longer sought as a gift and a desirable good in itself, or in the pursuit of the establishment of the ordered universe willed by God, with a more perfect form of justice among men and women.”

“Instead, peace is sought through weapons as a condition for asserting one’s own dominion.

“This gravely threatens the rule of law, which is the foundation of all peaceful civil coexistence.”

[Jamie Kennedy @jamierkennedy]

Do you know the story of the Titleist logo?

The company was looking for a word that was synonymous with excellence. 'Titleist' was unanimously chosen as the name of the golf ball and brand.

An company exec suggested the handwriting of an office secretary, named Helen Robinson, who he said had "beautiful penmanship".

Helen was given a sheet of paper and asked to write the word ‘Titleist.’ The way she wrote the word on the page that day is exactly how one of the world’s most recognised marks continues to appear today, gracing every piece of Titleist since that day in 1935.

[Michael MacKay @mhmck]

It's OK for North Korea to send troops to help Russia wage war in Europe.

It's "unthinkable" for Germany, France, Britain and Poland to have their soldiers stop Russia from waging war in Europe.

In what universe does this make sense?

[Tumi Sole @tumisole]

Just Repost

[Brown Eyed Susan @smc429]

#Hero

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

A new mural has appeared in Ternopil, dedicated to children killed in Russia’s attack.

The artwork, showing a child shielding her toys from a Russian missile, was created by artist Andriy Yermolenko. He described it as “a cry for help to the global community.”

“The girl protecting her toys — that’s all she has. This is my cry for help. As an artist, I can speak about it through my work.”

On November 19, six children were killed in the Russian strike on Ternopil.

[Protect Kamala Harris ✊ @DisavowTrump20]

🚨NEW: Donald Trump has called for NBC Late Night host Seth Meyers to be taken off the air in an an evening tirade on social media. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr shared the post, hinting he may take action against the network.

RETWEET if you stand with @SethMeyers against Trump!

[Aaron Parnas @AaronParnas]

NEW: Epstein survivors release the most powerful PSA I have ever seen.

Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.

[Robby Roadsteamer @RobbyRoadsteame]

Another angle of the ICE Agents arresting me for singing in Portland Oregon!

🎥 By Alex Gonzo

RT so Elon has to pay me TWITTER AD revenue money for Lawyers 💖🌈

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

Joe Rogan on Trump's immigration crackdown :

“The way it looks is just horrific. When you're just arresting people in front of their kids, normal, regular people that have been here for 20 years—everybody who has a heart can't get along with that.”

[Golf Digest @GolfDigest]

The Tour Championship is broken. But we may have found the solution. 👇

[Football Confidential 🌐 @footballconfid1]

Richarlison… what an image… 🥹

This fella put in one helluva shift… this should not go unnoticed in all the post-match celebrations… he absolutely justified Big Ange’s decision to back him!

[PGA TOUR @PGATOUR]

Rory’s home club, Hollywood GC, reacts to his win ❤️

[Sean Martin @PGATOURSMartin]

Good morning! Today, I wanted to highlight the writings of Bobby Jones with some of my favorite quotes from one of his classic books.

The founder of Augusta National was not just one of the great golfers of all time. He also was one of its great writers and thinkers.

His book, “Bobby Jones On Golf,” is full of incredible insights, and instruction that was years ahead of its time. He was writing about “using the ground” decades before that term became en vogue.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from “Bobby Jones On Golf:”

1. “To me, golf is an inexhaustible subject.”

It’s a succinct, simple and eloquent summation of golf’s enthralling nature.

2. “By cultivating the habit of accepting difficult lies as part of the game, we can derive for ourselves more pleasure from the playing of it.”

You see the word ‘acceptance’ used a lot in contemporary psychology, especially around the practice of mindfulness. It’s an effective approach to handling the difficulties of life, and golf.

3. “I have never had any better advice in golf, from tee to green, than was contained in a telegram sent me by Stewart Maiden in 1919. It read: ‘Hit ’em hard. They’ll land somewhere.’”

Even in the era of persimmon and balata, many of the game’s greatest players, including Jones, Nicklaus and Palmer, advocated for swinging hard at it.

4. “Golf is still a game, rather than a science, and a game it is likely to remain. Possibly the feature of uncertainty is the chief reason for its popularity among players and spectators alike. One can never tell when the thrills will come thick and fast.”

In an era of Trackman and ShotLink, this is still a wonderful perspective. No matter how much we learn, the game is still defined by so much randomness.

5. “But one thing may well be accepted at the outset, that as long as one continues to play golf, the happy periods will be followed by sorrow.”

Amen.

6. “At the instant of impact, the hips have turned through their positions at address, and the lower part of the body is facing almost squarely toward the hole. The unwinding of the hips culminates in a sort of ‘wrench’ just before the club meets the ball, both legs combining to produce a sudden and powerful thrust up the left side of the body. … The feeling of giving the ground a wrench with the feet may be easier for some than the sense of compelling the hip movement in some other way. “

This still preaches on practice tees, and Instagram, today. The ground’s reaction to the force we put in drives the hip turn.

7. “The continual striving to improve our score, although entirely natural, nevertheless does detract to some extent from our ability to enjoy golf. … The real way to enjoy playing golf is to take pleasure not in the score, but in the execution of the strokes.”

This echoes our current focus on “The Process,” where the end result is emphasized less than the path to getting there.

8. “The average player, when he goes out for an afternoon, would best leave all his tinkering and theorizing behind.”

This just hits too close to home.

9. “The first purpose of any golf course should be to give pleasure, and that to the greatest possible number of players, without respect to their capabilities. As far as is possible, there should be presented to each golfer an interesting problem that will test him without being so impossibly difficult that he will have little chance of success. There must be something to do, but that something must always be within the realm of reasonable accomplishment.”

This describes Augusta National, which you could play almost exclusively with a putter, to a tee. Let’s have a great week!

[Just saying @kangaroos991]

Please do NOT share, got it? 🤣🤣🤣

[That Art Guy @ArtGuyNZ]

Glenn Phillips - Celebrity Photographer

#INDvNZ