Dartoid’s Column

April 1, 2003
Column 136
Bananas, Tigers and Jane Fonda

Tucked away somewhere in the “sweaty hubbub of Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi is an air-conditioned oasis of American military life they call ‘The Ranch.'” According to Newsweek’s chief political correspondent, Howard Fineman, the installation is equipped with “basketball and volleyball courts, clipped lawns, a motel-style …

March 1, 2003
Column 135
A Leg in the Set of Life

For the past thirty-five years my father’s been kickin’ my ass at golf. It really pisses me off. And he knows it.

When he calls me he always asks how my golf game is. My answer is always the same. I tell him …

February 1, 2003
Column 134
Help Gayle Farmer Help Kids!!

CLICK: http://www.justgiving.com/runninggayle NOW!!

In real life I spend my time as a fundraiser for not-for-profit organizations, primarily those focused on children and animals and which have foreign operations. What this means is that I spend a significant part of most days crafting emotional dun letters …

January 1, 2003
Column 133
The King of Beer and the King of Darts

Today’s question is: how much is 35,447,466,667 and just what does this number have to do with the sport of darts?

Let’s examine the question. There are actually two parts.

How much is 35 billion?

Thirty-five billion is the approximate number …

December 1, 2002
Column 132
A Labor of Love

It had to be a joke.

When I flipped on my laptop the other day and polled for messages, buried among the list was a curious return address: [email protected]. Could it be? I immediately clicked away.

The e-mail was from John Lowe. One of the greatest …

November 1, 2002
Column 131
Arachnid Man to the Vortex — Back to the Future of Darts

The other day I dashed off a confirmation e-mail message to Mike Broderick, the creator of the outstanding web site about the Philadelphia area darts scene, http://www.phillydarts.com.

For months, Broderick and I had been trying to coordinate …

October 1, 2002
Column 130
An Open Letter to Sandi Cain

It’s been a strange day here in Dartoid’s World. And in my world that’s saying a LOT.

According to the radio, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was re-elected to another seven- year term with one hundred percent of the vote. By a tally of ELEVEN …

October 1, 2002
Column 129
Mabuhay from Manila!

Greetings from Manila, capital of the land of volcanoes, typhoons, earthquakes and even worse!

According to the Department of State, due to a rash of post-September 11 “bombings, kidnappings, murders and other violent incidents,” travel by Americans to the Philippines is pretty much a dumb-ass thing to …

September 1, 2002
Column 128
Meet Mac Jordomo

Some time back, while in a severely weakened mental state, I added my name to something called the Cyberdarts’ Darts E-Mail List Server. It’s run by Cyberdarts guru, Rick Osgood, from down in Houston.

Ever since, my laptop has been slammed with e-mail messages about darts from …

July 1, 2002
Column 127
To the Point (kinda) about To The Point

When you rearrange the letters of a word or phrase to form another word or phrase the result is often quite amusing. Sometimes it provides deep insight into the text being anagrammed. For example, the letters in Virginia Bottomley’s name (a long-time …