video The last public statement made by Tiger Woods was on December 2, but now it appears he's about to reemerge publicly. TMZ is reporting he will return to golf next month, while Charlie Gasparino, recently of Fox Business Network, reports he will first make a public apology, likely Friday. (more...)

President Obama's penchant for golf has made headlines before (though for very different reasons) so I guess it was just a matter of time before it became suspect in light of how long Obama took to address the nation after the Christmas Day terror attack. Golf might just be this White House's version of clearing brush. This from Michelle Cotter at TNR.com:

With the coming new year, however, POTUS has a prime opportunity to regroup, reload, and revamp his image. He could start by ditching golf. Seriously. Its venerable White House history notwithstanding, golf is a dubious pastime for any decent, sane person, much less for this particular president. Why would a leader vowing to shake up Washington--to alter the very nature of politics--sell his soul to a leisure activity that screams stodgy, hyperconventional Old Guard?

Also, apparently Obama is not the first president to be criticized for an obsession with the "elite" sport: Eisenhower was "mocked" by none other than man of the people J.F.K. for his penchant for golf (Kennedy was a closet player).

the aughts This week, the New York Times Magazine was dedicated to their newly traditional Year In Ideas thinkpiece. It's always a fantastic collection of new discoveries, shifts in ways of thinking, and products that we're likely to hear more about in years to come. It tries, in many ways, to be predictive; to isolate still-germinating concepts that will shape the world. I thought, therefore, that it made sense to see how they did. In the spirit of the end of the decade, I looked back at their first Year In Ideas released in December of 2001. Heavy on concepts that emerged following the terrorist attacks (such as "American Imperialism, Embraced") and the Internet ("Populist Editing"), the series was born at a fascinating moment in American history. (more...)

Tiger Woods slept with a lot of women outside of his marriage -- golf jokes, jungle cat puns and Ambien aside. But somehow new twists keep revealing themselves in this sexy saga, and voilà, the story has legs for days. I'm not even talking about Derek Jeter. It's these CGI Tiger Woods Machinima reenactments that are ruining journalism! At least according to the New York Times. (more...)

video Behold this version of the Tiger Woods scandal -- which looks to be in Chinese but may (according to our resident Internet expert) have come through Taiwan. The events, right down to the rumored face-scratching are being re-enacted using Machinima, which is the "use of real-time three-dimensional (3-D) graphics rendering engines to generate computer animation." Basically, the news has been gamed. (more...)

“And where Mr. Obama's basketball game is showy and often televised, his golf is furtive and off-the-record. He plays with junior aides and discreet longtime friends. There's no press allowed onto the course with him, no cameras -- and few witnesses. A foursome of loyal staffers often plays out ahead of him, clearing the way and trying to ensure no one spies.”

(more...)

Actually, I suspect the only thing Maureen Dowd is sad about is that she didn't think to launch the 'President Obama is a sexist golf player' meme herself, the way she did with Obama protesters are racists. (more...)

Meme alert! Get ready for the President's golf game to take the cablers by storm. Let's take a look at the signs. Barack Obama's fondness for golf is not a secret -- anyone who follows a White House correspondent on Twitter knows that their weekends are often spent waiting for the president to finish his 18 holes. This past weekend, however, Obama's favorite pastime got some extra, significantly placed, mentions. The first from CBS's Mark Knoller who noted that Obama has racked as many golf games in his first nine months than George W. Bush did in almost three years: (more...)