If you’re a right hander faced with trying to pick up a 10 pin, or a left hander trying to get a 7 pin (arguably the toughest single-pin conversions), and you’re having trouble, try this: Don’t aim at the pin, don’t aim at one of the arrows. Instead aim at the REFLECTION of the pin on the lane. I have no idea why this works, but I was taught this a few weeks ago, and I pretty much cover the 7 pin nine times out of ten.
What, did you think I was going to discuss “Angel”?
PAD
• 
As a southpaw, I wanted to say “thanks” for taking us into account with the bowling advice.
I thought we were going to get an essay about Michael Moore.
Drat.
Ok, but where do you stand for the 7-pin? On the left, center or right side of the lane ?
I used to go bowling quite a lot years ago. Thanks very much for the tips, now, maybe I can go to Talpiot’s bowling center again and score big with the new knowledge!
Ok, but where do you stand for the 7-pin? On the left, center or right side of the lane ?
Personally, I set up as far right as I can go. I stand with my left toe on the far right dot.
PAD
Didn’t Angel go to a bowling alley with Jasmine? 😉
Well, you could have discussed West Wing or Enterprise. 🙂
I could be wrong.. (again).. However, we could discuss West Wing’s writing style. I think it’s reasonably good, just about every week. But how much of the policies that are mentioned on the show could we discuss? I’m not a politician or a lawyer, so much of what they say and cover on the show I couldn’t argue one way or another.
In regards to Enterprise, I may be one of the few viewers — dare I say even Star Trek fans — that actually likes the show, and enjoys seeing a show that ties together the Earth we know with the ST scifi technobabble world of the 24th century. A little backstory is a wonderful thing, in my opinion.
But if Peter is ever approached to write any Enterprise books, I wonder if discussing the show here would be a bad idea? A quick comment like “wouldn’t it be cool if pink elephants take over the ship, and the crew needs purple mice to scare them off the ship,” might seem like fun, but if PAD is writing about that same said storyline… wouldn’t problems of the legal kind raise their ugly head?
I don’t know. I’m probably talking out of school, as usual. Just a passing thought. [[zing!]] See? It’s gone now.
No, I thought you’d discuss Smallville…
Bowling tip.
Come up to Canada. or at least Ottawa, Canada. Many of our bowling alleys are of the ‘5 pin’ variety which, with its correspondingly smaller ball, is much easier on the wrist.
As for ENTERPRISE backstory, more like revisionist history. Where did those ‘phase pistols’ come from when the original pilot of ST had them using lasers? Did technology take a giant leap backwards between ENTERPRISE and the original series?
Wouldn’t it be great if this thread turned into a debate on the pros and cons of bowling theory or something in the vein of the “Buffy” and “Angel” debates? Hee.
As for Enterprise, that show is a waste. I keep seeing all these signs that the show COULD be good. “Vanishing Point,” for example, was getting pretty good until one of the writers brought in his eight-year-old son to write the “oops, it was all a dream!” ending. Linda Park has shown signs that she’d be a good actor if she were ever given half a chance, and John Billingsley somehow manages to shine despite the material. His fighting the Borg infection was the only good part of that episode. When did Berman and Braga stop caring?
As for revisionist history, I’d say that it’s more like just sloppy writing and the hiring of an epileptic monkey for continuity control.
PAD, why in God’s name aren’t you discussing Smallville’s “Calling”? 🙂
Now that was one fine piece of acting and writing. I’m already looking forward with much anticipation to the finale!
Always remember, when you are shooting a single pin spare, shoot it cross alley. So if you’re shooting a ten pin, shoot it from the left side; if you’re going for a seven pin, stand on the right.
And while shooting at the reflection is helpful, it is best to shoot at the point where the reflection meets the bottom of the pin.
And don’t forget that the middle of the lane is usually oilier than the outside… the ball should go through the middle, or it may hook too much.
Eric L. Sofer
The Silver Age Fogey
x<]:-)(
Captain Comics Board Administrator
http://www.eboards4all.com/07422/
I don’t bowl, but I have never heard of the ‘5-pin’ game of bowling StarWolf described. How are the pins arranged? It doesn’t seem like they could be set up in the triangular arrangement that 10 pins are. Also, are the lanes narrower as a result of fewer pins as well? Just curious.
Someone else mentioned West Wing (thanks, Simon DelMonte!), so I thought I’d chime in and say that last night’s episode, combined with last week’s episode, were two of the finest episodes that the show has featured in the last two seasons.
I cringed when I heard there would be a “kidnapping” plot, mostly because it sounded contrived, but it really worked for me. That, combined with really stellar performances by Martin Sheen, Richard Schiff, Stockard Channing, and Dule Hill made it an excellent episode, and a good swan song for Sorkin. I worry about the future of the show, but the “shocking” ending opens up worlds of possibilities for the early episodes next season.
I hope Sorkin comes back and writes at least a few episodes next season, but I doubt it. Wells talked like he wanted to coerce him back for some episodes, but we’ll see.
As for bowling…I haven’t bowled in years. I like it, but it’s never something I manage to find time to do. 🙂
I haven’t been bowling in years. Now I’ve got the itch…
..but since some others have already dropped in a few West Wing comments, I’ll add that I agree: Sorkin sure as heck knows how to write himself an exit, and the actors delivered on it exceedingly well. The resonances to whatever been’s going on in the writer’s own life were as unavoidable as they were carefully handled, from the fears of being a father/creator to the moment one knows one has lost the ability to be a good steward and bravely steps aside. Casting John Goodman was a masterstroke, though I now know I’ve been watching my DVD of O Brother, Where Art Thou? too much lately, because I kept waiting for him to grab for a tree branch or call Toby “coarse and vulgar”….
And, thankfully, Sorkin resisted giving us the answer to the question about Donna and Josh that shouldn’t have been raised so bluntly last time out. From press reports, next year’s creators want the show to get “sexier”, so expect the perfect sublimation of this relationship to take a more predictable path. Too bad. I suspect Sorkin dropped those scenes in last week as a team player, and was glad to see he didn’t feel–or wasn’t–compelled to move them further forward this week. If these two must get together in a more generic TV romance, I’m glad it wasn’t done on his watch.
Truly– two wonderful episodes, worthy of the show’s better, earlier days. This is why I haven’t been watching Angel, since the build-up was worth the wait. Here’s hoping that’s a dynamic that’s in the air for next Tuesday night…..
(Oh, on that: anyone catch the A&E Biography on Buffy last night? Aside from the astounding omission of any mention of Faith/Eliza Dushku, I was struck by something Whedon says in one of the clips, discussing the way the show began to click with the Angelus storyline: “Our first rule became: Buffy in pain, show good. Buffy not in pain, show not so good.” I couldn’t help but think that, like many a good insight, this one became dogma and got overapplied.)
Five-pin bowling has the pins set up in a wide ‘V’ shape with the middle pin worth 5 points, the ones on either side ‘3’ each, and the ones at the ends ‘2’. The ball is small and light enough to hold comfortably in the palm of your hand.
I’ve never checked to see how the lane width compares with the ten-pin variety.
One of my sons, who’s 15 years old, is trying to learn a bit about the art of bowling. He goes to visit a ring at one of the local shopping plazas in my hometown, and he loves being there to bowl. He’s sometimes tried to throw the ball with both arms, and it’s worked in some cases, but it’s still not the best skill he’s been using. Either it does clip some pins and knock them over, or it misses and falls into the side slide altogether. I’ll tell him to try out what you’ve suggested, PAD, and if he can master it, then he just might someday be on his way to being a real bowler champ, making me one very proud dad.
http://www.hickoksports.com/history/fivepin.shtml
has some information on that version of bowling. Scroll down to get to the text, however.
Thanks for the link, Starwolf. I’ll probably print it up later.
Hey, wasn’t there a bowling scene on the Alias season finale? 🙂
On Enterprise.. is it just me or are Mayweather and Hoshi both suffering from a bad case of Harry Kim Syndrome? Please give them some plot to work with. Besides that, Enterprise has great potential. Love Trip. I’m hoping to care more about these characters in Season 2.
I too enjoy Enterprise, though I agree that the writing is very off. While I’ve enjoyed most of the eps this season, I find that while that start strong, have a good middle, the endings have been falling flat.
I don’t think that they have gone to an 8 year old to finish the stories, so much as just gotten lazy, I think B & B only have so much creativeness in them per ep, and so by the time it comes to writing the endings they’re exhausted.
I also agree that the history has been revisionist in some eps, but it seems that except for DS 9’s Tribble ep, that all of the othe series just acted like ST:TOS never really took place anyway.
My wife who is not a big ST fan loves Enterprise, but has expressed her concern over the way the serries seems to be headed with the season ender.
SPB
Seeing that Star Trek Enterprise has been mentioned, I was wondering, what does everybody think of the fact that the Borg have either made an appearance recently, or that they’re going to? At least, that’s what I’ve heard, that there’s been an episode produced lately with the Borg, of all nemeses that Starfleet could face, and if I’m right, they’ve been awfully overused in recent years, haven’t they?
Good grief, the Berman staff really have to try harder than that, especially given that this is, after all, a prequel series.
The Borg were so successful on TNG and then Voyager, I guess they think it will boost the ratings among Trek fans. And let’s face it, the Borg were the best villains to be introduced in a long time. Personally, I’d like to see some other villain, besides the Borg- but when Voyager got bogged down with the Kazon (how awful were they?) the Borg and 7 of 9 reinvigorated the series. Will it work for Enterprise? I think Enterprise has potential to be a great show, but another Borg episode isn’t the way to go. I’m interested to hear other opinions on this?
PAD, why in God’s name aren’t you discussing Smallville’s “Calling”?
Possibly because it was already under discussion in the “Buffy” thread.
PAD
SPOILER
Yes the Borg were used in Enterprise as a way trying to boost the ratings. They even tied it into the TNG movie First Contact. But as has been the case with most of the eps the ending was a let down.
I expect that in the last ep of the serries they will have to explain that every single starfleet & vulcan computer had its memory banks erased by some mysterious force. Because that’s the only way to explain why no one in the future remembers any of these events or can find them in the library computer!!!
What I’d really like to see is the Enterprise crew run into a pre-Borg civilization. A race of people who rely heavily on implants and bionics, who could possibly be a precurser to the borg race. That I think would be more interesting, while still having a Borg like feel to it. It would at least be 1/2 an original idea.
SPB
I’m going to have to admit, the Borg, as a metaphor for many sinister collective ideologies and groupings in reality, are by far one of the best ideas to appear in Star Trek over the years. Metaphors like them are something that should be tried out in many sci-fi and comics stories.
On the topic of the Borg, its a shame PAD’s “Vendetta” never became an ep or a film, because that woukld have been great. While more sobering than many of his other works, it really ties in TOS and TNG better than many other storylines.
Chris