Dartoid’s Column

September 1, 1998
Column 60
Sydney, Australia

For the past twenty-four hours I have raced the rotation of the earth around both its axis and the sun and wound up losing big time. Now, while it’s a snowy Friday in the dead of winter back home on Cape Cod, I am typing away on a …

September 1, 1998
Column 59
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Sometime ago I came across an advertisment on the Internet for a sports bar called Colors Fun Pub (2, Jalan SS21/39) near Subang Airport, just outside of Kuala Lumpur. The gist of the ad was a sort of cyberspace trash-talk: that if you wanted your “butt kicked …

August 1, 1998
Column 58
Las Vegas, Nevada

I am inside what seems like the heart of a giant, spinning Christmas tree. I am surrounded by pulsating lights, flashing stars and bright, pounding multi-colored neon — a cavalcade of reds and blues and yellows bouncing off hundreds of ceiling high mirrors. Movement is constant and …

August 1, 1998
Column 57
Charlie Throws Pro

Sometime in the winter of 1995, carpenter by day and, now, fanatic darter by night, Charlie McDevitt made a fateful decision.

Not one to frequent the bar scene, Charlie went with friends to a little joint called Cousin’s Pub (721 Route #28) in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts on …

August 1, 1998
Column 56
Reykjavik, Iceland

When I touched down in Reykjavik a week ago my full knowledge of Iceland could have been scribbled in a moment on the side of a coal cracker flight. I knew that Reagan and Gorbachev held some sort of big-wig summit here in 1986. I knew that Boris …

July 1, 1998
Column 55
Denver, Colorado

I suppose it is as expected that Denver, dubbed the “Best Sports City” in America by USA Today, also lays claim as home to the number one darts bar in the world. It makes sense. Take a Super Bowl victory (finally), mix in a Stanley Cup (yawn), add …

July 1, 1998
Column 54
The King is Dead

When the letter arrived I knew it was bad news. My old darts buddy, Tommy Molina, just wasn’t one for penning newsy accounts of what was up in his life. His job had been dragging. His father had been in the hospital. Unemployment? Death? Like I …

July 1, 1998
Column 53
Chiangmai, Thailand

Near the tip of northern Thailand and roughly three hours by car, both east and west, from the Burmese (now Myanmar) and Laotian borders lies the centuries old provincial mountain town of Chiangmai. It’s here, both inside — and in the teak-treed forests outside — the old moat …

July 1, 1998
Column 52
Kathmandu, Nepal

The Indian Airlines Airbus A-340 touched-down gently at Tribhuvan Field outside Nepal. The temperature was a welcome 75 degrees, downright chilly compared to my last stop in the sweltering New Delhi heat. Around me the Himalayan mountains disappeared mysteriously into the top of the sky.

I simply don’t …

June 1, 1998
Column 51
Los Angeles, California

If I had a dollar for every hour I’ve whiled away in airports –flipping through discarded issues of USA Today and ogling teenage girls as they jiggle their way through the terminal — I’d be only slightly richer than if I had a dollar for every third …