It Was A Couple of Days

They came. They drank. They lip synced.  They also played golf, bowled and played shuffleboard.  Gordon & Mitch were throttled by Kathi & Rich in the 4-Ball competition, dealing the former  their first loss in this event in AI history and raising the question of what Title IX has done to the comfortable male hegemony in the AI and what can be done to make The AI great again.

Friday night's bowling similarly brought with it a controversy in that Reef, the erstwhile  and self satisfied technophobe, claimed that the bowling computer made an error and failed to record his spare in the first frame of game 1.  When he ended up on the short end of a 1 pin difference with AI tyro Tom Korpolinski, he brought this protest before the BFS Committee.  After due diligence & interviews with other players in this Lexi Thompson-esque (Ernie) imbroglio , The Committee has ruled in Reef's favor, turning his 1 pin deficit into an 8 pin victory, his 9th title.  There was similar drama on the women's side of the lanes as perennial champion Edie was tied by another newcomer, Christina Korpolinski, who was sporting her very own bowling shoes because in her words "I bowled once."  Edie and Christina's 210 was 2 pins clear of 3rd place finisher Kathi and insured that Edie's undefeated streak remained intact.

Round 1 of The AI Golf Championship was played, to use the term loosely, at Bay Hill under somewhat blustery conditions and with something less than skill.  The rotating partners format provided each player an opportunity to not only torpedo their own chances but to sabotage those of their partner(s) as well.  The opening pair of Kathi/Gordon raced out in 25 points leaving Rich/Mitch 7 points behind after the first 6 holes, a deficit from which they would not recover.  The second pairings saw Kathi add 18 points to her total with her partner Rich, while Mitch dragged Gordon down to a mere 16 points.  The final pairings seemed to favor the formidable husband/wife duo, winner of several titles at Bay Hill, but no, Mitch again dragged his partner down, this time to 17 points, including hole #16 where the duo recorded zero (0) points.  Rich was reasonably steady, at least in the context of the group, and Gordon played the final 6 in 7 over par (gross) which, for this group, was tantamount to scaling Everest on the back of a yak with a television strapped to one's back.  And so, Round 1 ended with Kathi on top with 60 points, followed closely by Gordon with 59, Rich 6 back at 54 and Mitch muddling in the basement with 51.

Yet another formidable feast of Italian specialties was proffered by The Banquet Director along with several gallons of wine, some of which ended up on the right shoulder of The Director who temporarily forgot he was holding a glass of wine in his right hand when saluting the group as they sat down to eat.

Dinner was followed by the hotly anticipated 4th iteration of the AI Lip Sync Challenge.  This year's maelstrom began with Mitch's rendition of the 60's maudlin "Tell Laura I Love Her."  This tale of death and destruction set a mood of gaiety that would inform the rest of the proceedings and was followed, in no particular order, by Edie channeling Odetta, Reef's wistful rendition of Two Tons of Steel's "Not That Lucky", Heimsch's self examination, "People Are Strange", Kathi's barn burning evocation of Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now", Emma reaching across generations with Otis Redding's "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay", Nora and her Pips taking "The Midnight Train to Georgia" (woo woo), Gordon again trying to infuse this bacchanal with a hint of culture performing "Imaginary Landscape 4" by John Cage, a piece for 12 radios, 24 performers and director.  We settled for Gordon and a boombox. And Sean, with help from Alexander Hamilton (Kate G) delivering an emotive performance of "Satisfied" from an obscure eponymous Broadway show.  The program concluded with a solo version of the classic duet "Closer to Fine" by our own Indigo Girl, Kate G.

It's Easter Sunday at AI-XXI and, on cue, everyone is risen.  Some staring blankly at English Premier League football on the telly while others are staring blankly at the Sunday NYT.  Round 2 awaits.