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Childhood memories of Bethpage Black course run deep for this fan
by Keith Chartrand, Daily Sun
Editor’s Note: This is part one of a three-part series of columns. Sports Editor Keith Chartrand looks back at his experiences at the U.S. Opens in 2002, 2004 and 2006 — all played in the New York Metropolitan area.
The idea, the concept seemed
Having a public golf course host a major championship, let alone a U.S. Open championship would never fly.
But in 2002 not only did it get off the ground, it soared.
So much so that this week, for the second time in only six years, Torrey Pines, a public course owned by the city of San Diego, will host golf’s national championship.
It might never have happened if the 2002 U.S. Open on Long Island’s Bethpage Black course hadn’t been such a success.
To me, Bethpage was more than just a golf course. First, to clarify, Bethpage is a town on Long Island but Bethpage State Park is actually in the town of Farmingdale.
However silly, it is fact. As a little kid growing up in Massapequa Park, the next town due south of Farmingdale, the last thing Bethpage was synonymous with was golf.
Every Saturday and Sunday morning I would accompany my father in his morning jog — he’d be doing the hard part actually running and I would ride my bike alongside — father and son sharing time. The dew on the grass and ducks quacking accompanied us as we moved along the bicycle path that weaved along the Massapequa Preserve, ultimately ending at Bethpage State Park. At the time neither of us had the legs to make the 10 mile trek to Bethpage. A couple of years later I tried the ride on my own, only to get yelled at by my mother for being gone so long.

thevillagesdailysun.com

Liv Tyler is momentarily confused when told her new movie is scary.
“Wait a minute, which movie are we talking about?” she queries from her cell phone while shuttling from one appointment to another in New York.
The confusion is understandable. She has two movies opening a week apart.
The first is a disturbingly realistic suspense drama called “The Strangers,” in which she plays a woman terrorized for hours by a trio of masked psychos. The low budget scare-fest is by first-time writer-director Bryan Bertino, a former movie grip.
Next week, she co-stars with Edward Norton in Louis Leterrier’s action-packed “The Incredible Hulk,” based on the Marvel comic book about a scientist (Norton) who suffers a radiation mishap that turns him into a raging avenger whenever he’s angry. Tyler plays the scientist’s colleague and girlfriend.
The actress describes the effects-laden action drama as “a love story and a road trip.” And she’s been on the road promoting both movies for the past several weeks.
“I’ve made two movies at once before, but I’ve never actually promoted two at the same time,” she says apologetically. “So this is a first.” (She also has wrapped a low-budget comedy called “Smother,” with Diane Keaton and Dax Shepard.)
Given her output, it’s not hard to believe that Tyler spent most of last year working. Though it was a productive time, the past year wasn’t easy for the daughter of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and stepdaughter of rocker Todd Rundgren.
She recently separated from her husband, musician Royston Langdon, after five years of marriage. Acting has kept Tyler focused on the positive — as has her 3-year-old son, Milo, her only child with Langdon.
At 30, Tyler is no longer the pouty ingenue she was when she appeared in fashion ads in her teens and in her dad’s music video, “Crazy.” With a natural, almost ethereal beauty, Tyler entered the modeling industry at 14 but soon tired of the grind and set her sights on acting. The tall brunette made a successful transition from modeling to acting beginning with her debut at 17 in Bruce Beresford’s “Silent Fall.”

detnews.com

Five Top Chef wannabes, including Chicago chef Stephanie Izard, took over Tramontos Steak and Seafood during the elimination challenge that will determine the finalists, and you can watch the episode tonight at the Wheeling restaurant.
The restaurant, 601 N. Milwaukee Road, will hold a viewing party from 7 to 10 p.m.; the airs at 9 p.m. on Bravo. Televisions will be set up through out the restaurant and the upstairs RT Lounge and hors doeuvres will be complimentary.
In addition, staff will create appetizers based on the episode and develop cocktails inspired by the remaining contestants. Chef Rick Tramonto, who appears as a guest judge for both the quick fire challenge that grants a contestant special priveledges and the elimination challenge, will be on hand and will sign copies of his cookbooks.
The episode focuses on Chicago steak houses and Tramonto said the chefs take over this steak house and run it for the night. Tramonto and his staff are prohibited from revealing details about the episode.
Top Chef started with 16 young chefs. Each week judges have told one to pack your knives and leave. Wednesdays episode pares down the field to the final four chefs who will battle it out in Puerto Rico (airs June 4). The season four finale airs June 11 with one being crowned Top Chef.
During Top Chef season three, chef Dale Levitski, an Arlington Heights native, made it to the finale round and lost to Hung Huynh in the final challenge in Aspen, Colo. Levitskis Town and Country restaurant is slated to open in Chicago later this year.
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dailyherald.com

You wouldn’t like being Gay Talese. It’s hard work and the rewards don’t seem very obvious to someone with a website and a password and high-speed Internet access, the ultimate vrooooom vroooooom vroooooom… Remember vrooooom? No you don’t, but that’s okay because Tom Wolfe isn’t New Journalism anymore, his old hats are old hat. Gonzo is the way of the world. Everyone writes in lower case. The world has abandoned traditional words and grammar in favor of shit that fits on a phone screen. Will u b there 4 a few mins? Meet u at ur apt 4 dinner? No time for apostrophes, my friend. Can’t be bothered with articles. Won’t. Fuck that. No point. By the clicking of our thumbs, something wicked this way comes.
Meanwhile, Gay sits in his home office and contemplates the future and fumes that the rest of us, the young people among us especially, won’t read the goddamned newspaper, that we won’t get off our asses and talk to people and discuss ideas and consider the world. And of course he’s right, Gay is often exactly right about things, that’s the problem with him, he’s right and we know it and we feel bad at 10:15 p.m. when we already know what’s going to be on the front page of tomorrow’s newspaper from checking the website, so what’s the point of paying some guy named Oscar to drive in from Flushing to drop the printed version on our doormat? Is it just so we can hold in our hands the source of 63 percent of all our ink stains? The ink-to-news ratio in American journalism has dropped precipitously, and that’s not good news for those of us who don’t always wear dark colors.

nypress.com

I’ve officially changed my position on the race for president.
 I began as “interested,” moved to “concerned,” switched to “bemused” and now I have arrived at “disgusted.” (Stay tuned for “aghast.”)
One of the latest pieces of news from the campaign trail is that Hillary Clinton has challenged Barack Obama to “a Lincoln-Douglas-style debate” with no moderator.
I don’t mean to keep bashing Clinton, but exactly in what century does she think she’s living?
For those of you not old enough to remember, the historic 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates were a series of seven debates between Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Stephen A. Douglas as they viewed for an Illinois seat in the U.S. Senate.
Although ultimately it was Douglas who won the seat, the debates are credited with raising both Lincoln and the debate over slavery to national prominence.
The debates are also famous for their 19
century format: One candidate would speak for an hour, and then his opponent would speak for an hour-and-a-half. Then the first candidate got a half-hour “rebuttal.” The complete text of each debate was published in big city newspapers and later issued in book form.
For good or ill, we live in the 21
Our individual and collective attention spans, patience, and willingness to listen to politicians speak has been dramatically reduced. Can you imagine listening to a one-hour speech by Clinton? Followed by a 90-minute response from Obama? And then Clinton for another half hour?
I’ll bet they don’t subject their supporters to an hour-and-a-half speech, much less the general public!
Clinton said, “I’m offering Senator Obama a chance to debate me one-on-one, no moderators . . . Just the two of us going for 90 minutes, asking and answering questions.”
Her campaign spokesman, Maggie Williams, said there would be no questions from the media.

wickedlocal.com

-Drama Taking its name from a popular anatomy book, Grey’s Anatomy centers around the personal lives of interns at Seattle Grace Medical Center, a fictitious hospital in Washington State. High melodrama is always on the operating table as the doctors of Grey’s Anatomy laugh, cry, fight and make out in-between open-heart surgeries. Engaging characters and a super-hip soundtrack make this one hospital fans can’t resist checking into.
Ooh Grey’s Anatomy, you’re just starting to get good again. Don’t blame me, even Entertainment Weekly admitted that the show tanked a little in season 4. Now, you’ve got Rebecca’s fake pregnancy, Callie’s sexuality, Meredith and Derek’s close working relationship, George’s friendship with Lexie, and many other things to keep me counting the minutes until Thursday nights. ABC released the episode descriptions for the rest of the season and it sounds like Grey’s will leave us this season with some shocking revelations and storylines that will keep us talking all summer.
On this Thursday’s episode, “The Becoming”, the nurses become fed up with McSteamy’s man-whore ways, and install a “date and tell” policy at the hospital. According to ABC, this leads to some startling revelations. You mean like the fact that Erica and Callie are together? I’m still waiting for it. Meredith and Derek continue to work together on their clinical trial and I’m expecting some more longing moments between them. You know all they really want is to be together! Many Grey’s fans have heard that, on this episode, Callie turns to McSteamy in a time of need but it’s not for what you might think.
The following week, Grey’s gives us the episode, “Losing My Mind”. Alex will learn that Rebecca really isn’t pregnant and I hope the you-know-what hits the fan. That is LOW, Rebecca, and we expect more from you. Didn’t it taint your opinion of her, even a little? Maybe she has a good explanation. Meredith tries to quit therapy with Dr. Wyatt (guest star Amy Madigan) but she won’t let her. Good, because I think I’m going to like having her around Seattle Grace. When the staff gets news of Burke’s big accomplishment, Cristina is forced to face her feelings. Any Sandra Oh screen time is golden so bring it on!

buddytv.com

candy store and dessert boutique. It’s perched at 801 N. Harlem, just north of Chicago Avenue.
The store will offer old fashioned candies like Now and Later, Sugar Daddy, and Good & Plenty.
Sweet P’s also offers gourmet candies not easily found in the area. One example is Fretzels-a hand-
lived in Galewood.
The store is named after the character from Popeye and a nephew’s nickname. A freelance cartoonist

westsuburbanjournal.com

In a meet full of impressive performances at the Hillsdale College track on Wednesday, Mary Somerville took center stage.
The Hillsdale Academy senior won four events and shattered a school record to lead the Colts past the Waldron Spartans 99-36 in SCAA action.
Somerville was the anchor leg on the victorious 3200 meter (11:20.8) and 1600 (4:24.50) relay teams and won the 800 in 2:33.1.
However, her best performance came in the mile, where Somerville ran a 5:26.9, 12 seconds faster than the old school record and the best time in the area this year.
“We’ve been seeing this from Mary all season in practice,” said Hillsdale Academy coach Mike Roberts. “It’s great to see her show it on the track. She’s worked very hard to get here and we’re proud of her.”
Somerville started strong in the mile, taking an early lead and getting faster with every lap.
“I just felt like I had a better rhythm than usual,” Somerville said. “I knew I was going fast but I didn’t know quite how fast until the finish. I just kept going as hard as I could.”
Somerville’s performance was far from the only great one on the day for the Colts, who won 13 events.
Clara Leutheuser won three, including the high jump (5-0), the 400 (1:01.6), and the 200 (28.2), and Grace Leutheuser won the 100 (13.8), the long jump (14-7), and had a leg on the winning 1600 relay.
Laura Wonders (pole vault, 7-0) and Heather Lantis (shot put, 33-3.25) also won events for the Colts, who won all four relays.
The Spartans won both hurdle events behind sophomore Katie Baker (100, 17.6 and 300, 51.4) and also picked up event wins from Allie Eaton (discus, 79-5) and Ashley Jagielski (3200, 13:19.8).
On the boys side, the Spartans got two wins from Tim Jagielski in the 1600 (4:31.8) and 3200 (9:57.9), but couldn’t handle the deeper Colts, who won the other 15 events in the meet and won overall 104-28.

hillsdale.net

A lawyer and a close friend of John McCain, Jordan Wright has been collecting the merchandising detritus of presidential campaigns for five decades. Those stickers, signs, and (most importantly) buttons that Oval Office aspirants produce to woo Americans might seem like mere ephemera, but the items often last longer than campaign promises. In his years of collecting, which started at the age of 10 in Manhattan, Wright has amassed more than a million pieces of campaign memorabilia: items from the first George W. to today’s less-heralded version. This summer Wright’s collection will be the main exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, and will be on display from June through Election Day. A few weeks ago, the Voice had a chance to talk with Wright, who is the author of the new book Campaigning for President: Memorabilia from the Nation’s Finest Private Collection.Click here for a gallery of images from the collection.
Village Voice::This is a really interesting book, and is an exhaustive collection. How did you get started in all this — it had to do with Bobby Kennedy, yes?
Jordan Wright: Yeah, in 1968 Bobby Kennedy was running for president and I was 10 years old. I come from a very apolitical family, and in ‘68, the Vietnam War was raging, the civil rights movement was happening, the environmental movement was starting, and I could not get a conversation at home on these subjects. The straw that broke the camels back was that one day my dad came home with the evening Post, and said that “King’s been shot,” and I didn’t know we had a King. (But of course he was referring to Martin Luther King) So, one day coming home from school I got off at the wrong stop to stop at Bobby Kennedy’s headquarters next to Tony’s Pizzeria, and there they were talking about all things I was interested in, and as added bonus when I left, they gave me buttons. So I kept coming back. After a while, it occurred me that if Bobby Kennedy was giving out buttons, Hubert Humphrey was, Richard Nixon was, and I roamed around the city going from headquarters to headquarters picking up buttons.

blogs.villagevoice.com

‘02. Hugh Grant. An irresponsible playboy becomes emotionally attached to a woman’s 12-year-old son. (PG-13) (2:00) USA: Fri. noon, 2 A.M. (CC)
‘53. Spencer Tracy. Supported by her mother, a New Englander finally tells her salty father she wants to be an actress. (NR) (1:45) TCM: Fri. 6 A.M. (CC)
• The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland
‘99. Voices of Kevin Clash. After a game of tug-of-war causes him to lose his favorite blanket, Elmo must venture into Grouchland to get it back. (G) (1:15) HBO: Tue. 7 A.M. (CC)
• The Adventures of Ford Fairlane
‘90. Andrew Dice Clay. A low-life private eye solves a rock ‘n’ roll murder involving a recording executive and his wife. (R) (1:45) ENC: Mon. 1:45 A.M. (CC)
‘05. Charlize Theron. In the last city on Earth, underground rebels dispatch their top assassin to kill a government leader. (PG-13) (1:45) SHO: Mon. 3:15 P.M., TMC: Fri. 1:15 A.M. (CC)
• The African Queen
‘51. Humphrey Bogart. An imperious woman makes a gin-soaked boat captain fight Germans in the World War I Congo. (NR) (1:45) TCM: Wed. 11:45 A.M. (CC)
‘01. Haley Joel Osment. In the future a cutting-edge android in the form of a boy embarks on a journey to discover its true nature. (PG-13) (2:50) TNT: Sun. 3:10 A.M. (CC)
‘97. Michael Jeter. Abandoned by a disagreeable clown, a golden retriever with a knack for basketball befriends a lonely boy. (PG) (1:40) ENC: Thu. 8:50 A.M. (CC)
‘94. Brendan Fraser. Attention-hungry musicians decide to grab the media spotlight by taking staffers at a popular radio station hostage. (PG-13) (1:40) ENC: Thu. 6:20 P.M. (CC)
‘80. Robert Hays. A pilot afraid to fly follows his stewardess ex-girlfriend and must take over for the poisoned crew. (PG) (2:00) COMEDY: Sat. 1:30 P.M. (CC)
• Akeelah and the Bee

post-gazette.com