Jayson and Sarah Benn owe a passion for music to their 3-year-old daughter Suzi. The husband and wife duo from Akron left separate bands to form Shivering Timbers after they started putting nursery rhymes to music to entertain their daughter.
The result is their debut album “We All Started In The Same Place.” Jayson provides backing vocals and plays guitar and banjo, and Sarah sings lead vocals and plays upright bass and banjo. Family friend Dan Auerbach, frontman for The Black Keys, produced the album in his Akron studio after the couple performed at his 30th birthday party.

Shivering Timbers

“The birth of our daughter made the band,” Sarah Benn said. “We weren’t playing together until then. You spend a lot of time trying to entertain a baby. She had an embroidery piece on the wall with ‘Now I lay me down to sleep’ on it. Jayson grabbed her toy ukulele and we started stomping and dancing around like a couple of monkeys, howling the lyrics over and over. I liked the way it sounded. That’s how we wrote our first song ‘Evening Prayer.’”
Most of the other songs on the album developed from entertaining Suzi.
“I wrote ‘Noble Duke of York’ while I was changing her diaper,” Benn said. “I wrote another song while I was nursing her. It was a period of creation. It came in weird ways. Another one was getting puked on.”
With such a musical upbringing, it’s no surprise Suzi is learning multiple instruments.
“She has instruments all over the house,” Benn said. “There’s always a little parade in our house with banging out rhythms and being silly. It’s just what we love to do, and it’s what she’s learning to love to do.”
Suzi stays with her grandparents when the band hits the road, but she could eventually replace drummer Brad Thorla and tour with her parents.
“When she comes to the basement when we’re doing rehearsals, Brad is really nice,” Sarah said. “He loves Suzi. He lets her drum. Sometimes she’ll sing. She gets to be the frontwoman for Shivering Timbers down in the basement. That’s the running joke in the band. Brad calls Suzi his future replacement. It would be awesome if she’s good enough in a few years and she wants to.”
“That’s always been the plan,” Thorla said. “I’m just the fill-in drummer until she can play shows with them. I’m alright with that.”
Thorla can’t make the band’s July 30 show at the Ottawa Tavern, but Suzi isn’t ready to step in yet. They have a friend filling in on drums, but Sarah and Jayson do occasionally perform as a duo. The band’s debut album was recorded before the band had a drummer. With Thorla playing drums, the band’s second album is shifting to a more adult sound.
“We have been leaning a lot more toward a darker, more adult album,” Benn said. “We’ve all come into our own and found our sound. I’m really excited about the next album. I can’t wait to make it. It’s much more powerful and stirring.”
The band plans to start recording the album in January before starting its first tour of Europe in March. Benn said the band is considering running a Kickstarter.com campaign to raise money for the next album.
“We’re really broke,” she said. “We’re totally working our butts off. Jayson has a job, and the band makes a little money, but it goes right out the door for all the equipment and travel. It’s expensive to be in a band. We’re totally independent. Every move we make comes out of our pockets. We have a mortgage and a child. We’re trying to make it all happen.”
Shivering Timbers plays at 10 p.m. July 30 at the Ottawa Tavern, 817 Adams St. Visit ShiveringTimbersMusic.com for more information.

The Champion’s Tour Charles Schwab Cup points leader Tom Lehman met with the media July 27 at the U. S. Senior Open at Inverness Country Club.

He has had a successful 2011 campaign thus far with three wins and seven top-10 finishes in 12 starts on the Champions Tour. Lehman played in last week’s Senior British Open won by Ross Cochran and is looking forward to competing in back to back major championships.

Lehman feels that it takes a certain mindset to be competitive in major championship golf. You have to enjoy the challenge of playing the most demanding courses that require quality shot making. Par becomes more relevant and consistent golf is rewarded.

He was asked to comment on the fact that Inverness has a reconfigured routing this week and is playing to 37-34 par 71 with no par 5 holes on the Back 9.

“Inverness has a Great Bunch of Holes,” Lehman said. “As you play through the back 9, you don’t even notice the lack of a par 5.”

He commented on the fact the the greens are small like Harbour Town and Pebble Beach but have more contour and are separated into smaller sections within the green complex than especially Harbour Town.

Read more from Fred at Back 9 Blog http://toledoohiogolflessons.com/back-nine-blog/

Thirty-two years ago, a tree appeared overnight at Inverness.

It’s still there, near the eighth tee – although much larger and now a permanent piece of Inverness lore.

“Oh my God, it’s huge,” said Judd Silverman, 2011 U.S. Senior Open Championship Director. “When they dropped it in overnight, it was just a little baby.”

Marc Stockwell, co-general chairman of the 2011 U.S. Senior Open, said the tree — planted to block an opening players were using as an unintended shortcut — still gets attention.

“Every time I take guests out there, I’m always telling that story,” Stockwell said. “It’s actually a rather unattractive spruce tree now. It has grown considerably, but we don’t dare cut it down because there’s a story behind it. When you’re out there and you get to the eighth tee, you tell that story because it’s part of the lore of the club.”

Known as the Hinkle Tree in honor of the golfer who inspired its planting, the tree is perhaps the most memorable part of the 1979 U. S. Open golf tournament.

Preparing to tee off at the eighth hole during the first round, Lon Hinkle and his playing partner Chi Chi Rodriquez eyed an opening in the trees that looked like a shortcut.

Hinkle took the shot, dropping his ball onto the adjacent 17^th green, before aiming back toward the eighth green. The maneuver shaved about 80 yards off the eighth hole’s intended dog-leg route.

Rodriquez followed suit and, as word spread, so did several other golfers. At the end of the first round, Hinkle was in a five-way tie for the lead. USGA officials were not amused.

Longtime Inverness member Dr. Robert J. Yoder was greens chairman for the tournament.

“Lon Hinkle took the shortcut on No. 8 and the USGA was concerned about the direction he was going,” Yoder said. “Most people didn’t even think about going that way. He created quite a stir and they felt they had to do something about it.”

Several officials, including Yoder, met that afternoon to discuss what should be done.

One option was to shift the tee forward, but concerns were raised it would make the hole too short, Yoder said. Ultimately an unorthodox route was chosen: Block the unintended shortcut with a tree.

“The USGA along with me decided to put a tree in there to block him — which was not highly successful; they still went that way – but it created quite a lot of notoriety,” Yoder said.

Yoder located a 25-foot spruce tree at the Bancroft Nursery.

“I’d been working with that nursery for a couple of years and knew she had the size tree I wanted,” Yoder said.

Planting equipment was called in from Detroit and the tree was in place by the start of the second round the next morning.

The plan wasn’t completely successful as Hinkle took the same shortcut in the second round – simply shooting over the newly planted tree – but ultimately ended up 20 strokes behind the eventual winner, Hale Irwin.

Yoder, now 84 and still living in Toledo, said he occasionally still visits Inverness.

“The tree is a little bit bigger,” Yoder said. “The trees around it got bigger too. You wouldn’t be able to do that now.”

Hinkle, a Flint native now retired from regular competition, played again at Inverness during the 2003 U.S. Senior Open.

Silverman said interest in the Hinkle Tree always increases when a big tournament returns to Inverness.

“Around a USGA event like this, it comes back,” Silverman said. “People say ‘Where is that tree? What was that again?’ They want to see it, so we’re going to try to put up a little sign by the tree that tells a little history of the tree.”

Dr. Robert May, co-general chairman of the 2011 U.S. Senior Open, said people of that era know about it, but it would be hard to find it now without knowing where to look.

“If you look at it now it’s hard to envision how it even had anything to do with anything because the other trees around it have grown up so there’s no way you can even try to go that route today like you could before,” May said. “But it’s still interesting when people come in that haven’t been here before, they all want to know where the Hinkle Tree is. It’s still out there.”

For 2011 U.S. Senior Open Championship Director Judd Silverman, Inverness Club is more reminiscent of a museum than a golf club, one that has played a significant role in shaping golf history.

“Once every eight to 10 years, they open the doors and you get to go in and see this great piece of art along with the best artists in the world,” Silverman said. “It’ll be a wonderful week for the community.”

On July 25-31, Inverness will host the 2011 U.S. Senior Open, the club’s ninth major championship and first since it hosted the 2003 U.S. Senior Open.

The clock

Perhaps the most important piece of art Silverman is referring to is the clock that stands in the clubhouse at Inverness, one that is depicted in the logo for this year’s Senior Open.

In 1920, Inverness forever changed golf when it opened the clubhouse doors to the visiting golf professionals for the first time in history. In appreciation, the players on that 1920 U.S. Open field took up a collection and purchased a cathedral chime clock for the club.

“I think many of the players in the field will certainly have an appreciation for what the club did way back when, when golf was really just getting under way in this country,” Silverman said. “That their peers back then pooled their money to buy this club the clock that still sits there —heck yeah, it gives you chills to see where [golf] started and where it is today.”

Ryder Cup roots

The man who orchestrated both getting the U.S. Open to come to Inverness and opening the clubhouse doors to the golfers in 1920 was S.P. Jermain.

The first president at Inverness from 1903-04, Jermain was responsible for establishing Ottawa Park Golf Course — the oldest public golf course west of New York City — in 1899. He later brought the first USGA National Public Links Championship to Ottawa Park in 1922.

Jermain also had the idea for what became the Ryder Cup and was responsible for establishing parks at Riverside, Walbridge, Collins and Bay View.

“That was incredible vision by S.P. Jermain to a) get the golf course built; b) to convince the USGA to bring the U.S. Open to Toledo; c) to push hard for the right to be able to invite the pros in the clubhouse and in the locker room, and then all the significant things that have happened at those championships,” Silverman said.

Silverman said Jermain’s impact needs to continue to be promoted.

“It’s unfortunate that he has sort of gotten lost through the years,” Silverman said. “We need to do a better job of promoting the effort, the vision that Mr. Jermain had. He deserves the recognition that he worked hard for. Not that he would care about the recognition, but his legacy needs to be carried on because he was such a visionary when it came to many things, but golf, for sure. Hopefully someday the PGA of America will award the Ryder Cup to Inverness in honor of S.P. Jermain, who had the idea for the matches.”

Memorable moments

That event 91 years ago served as the first of several memorable moments in golf history that took place at Inverness.

In 1920, Inverness was the site where the golf greats of two generations overlapped. Eighteen-year-old Bobby Jones, participating in his first U.S. Open, got paired with idol Harry Vardon, playing in his final Open.

Jones is the only player ever to have won all four major championships – the U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur, British Open and British Amateur — in the same year, a feat he accomplished in 1930. Vardon still holds the record for most British Open wins, with six.

Ted Ray of Great Britain won that tournament by one stroke over a foursome of runners-up, including Vardon. At 43, Ray still holds the record for oldest U.S. Open winner.

Another record that remains is the longest playoff in both U.S. Open and American golf history, which took place between George Von Elm and Billy Burke in 1931. The pair played a total of 144 holes before Burke emerged the victor in the first golf tournament to be broadcast nationally via radio.

Soon after, the USGA changed its rules to prescribe an 18-hole playoff in the event of a tie after 72 holes.

Future golf great Jack Nicklaus was 17 years old in 1957 when he participated in his first U.S. Open at Inverness.

Tway’s bunker shot

And — in what is recognized as one of the most memorable shots in golf history — Bob Tway won the 1986 PGA Championship after birdying from the bunker on the final hole.

Thomas B. Geiger Jr., a 33-year Inverness member who serves as president for the club’s board of governors and officers, vividly remembers where he saw Tway’s shot.

“Oh, I remember it really well,” Geiger said. “I saw it on a black and white TV set in the shoe shine room as I was gathered around with 20 police officers trying to figure out how we were going to move that crowd from [hole] 18 to [hole] No. 10 in an orderly fashion because we all thought there was going to be a playoff. So I had to see it on replay. The first place I saw it was on a 13-inch, black and white TV set.

“Obviously, like everyone, we heard the roar. And [Greg] Norman had a chance to make the putt to tie him and didn’t, but unfortunately, I was not in the crowd where I could visually see it happen.”

Tom Grzywinski, former Inverness caddie master, is one of those who witnessed the historic shot in person.

“I was standing alongside the green when it happened,” Grzywinski said. “My job was to collect the bibs with their names on it. When the ball went in, I was like ‘Oh my God.’ If you really, really look close at the picture, you’ll see me standing there saying, ‘Are you kidding me?’ It was an amazing shot. Greg Norman had led [all three rounds] and we all thought he was going to win, but he didn’t.”

Tway’s caddie gave the ball to Grzywinski, who gave it to Inverness, where it is now displayed in a trophy case.

“It was a historic shot,” said Grzywinski, now the caddie master at Sylvania Country Club. “He came back later on to try and duplicate that shot and he couldn’t come close to making it. It was a once-in-a-lifetime shot.”

Maintaining tradition

Inverness has featured some of the best golfers in the world at the various tournaments it’s held over the years.

“When you’re in a frequent rotation as Inverness has been for many, many years, you’re going to get the big names to come play,” Geiger said. “In a 50-year period, there was probably not a single big name that did not come and play at Inverness.”

Geiger said back in the 1940s and ‘50s the club used to host the Inverness Invitational, which predated the PGA Championship circuit and featured 16 of the top golfers in the world.

“There wasn’t a single great player that did not play at Inverness over a 16- or 17-year period,” Geiger said. “When you’re there on a frequency level, you’re going to get all the big names.”

And, like decades past, the 2011 U.S. Senior Open at Inverness will bring a collection of the best senior golfers from around the world to Toledo.

The champions from the past five tournaments at Inverness — Craig Stadler, Hale Irwin, Bob Tway, Paul Azinger and Bruce Lietzke — are expected to participate, in addition to last year’s U.S. Senior Open champion Bernhard Langer, former Ohio State Buckeyes John Cook, Joey Sindelar and Rod Spittle, as well as mainstays like Fred Couples and Tom Lehman.

“The fact that the membership continues to embrace national championship golf and continues to support and celebrate national championship golf is the most important thing that I’ve seen over the last few years,” Geiger said. “The private club business has been challenged in this economy, and our members continue to support championship golf and bring that to Toledo. It’s good for Toledo and good for Northwest Ohio.”

According to Geiger, holding future USGA championship tournaments at Inverness — including another U.S. Open, which the club has not hosted since 1979 — depends in part upon Inverness’ continued relationship with the USGA.

“The USGA and Inverness have a very close partnership and have for a very long time,” Geiger said. “We invited them to bring the tournament to Toledo in 2011 some five or six years ago now, so it is a process. We are continuing to try to nurture that partnership with the USGA because we want to host more of their events here in Toledo, Ohio, in the future. And the only way that you do that is by continuing to nurture that partnership.”

Another aspect that could help Inverness land future USGA championship tournaments is the continued support of the local community. In 2003, more than 150,000 people attended the U.S. Senior Open at Inverness, and Geiger anticipates a great turnout this year.

“We expect Toledo to support it just as well as it did eight years ago,” Geiger said. “Toledo’s a great golf town. We want to keep on proving that to the USGA. It’s proved every year at the Jamie Farr [Classic], and so we think we’re going to have a real good event. We’ve got to have a little bit of help from the weatherman, but we think we’re going to have a very, very good event.”

Toledo Free Press Special Sections Editor Sarah Ottney contributed to this report.

They graduated from four different high schools and worked at three different golf courses, but they all have the opportunity to finish college debt-free thanks to their jobs as caddies.

Four local teenagers — Daniel Graeff of Sylvania Township, Nathan Bradish and Andrew Mocek of Toledo and Maggie Adams of Maumee — are among the 16 high school seniors in Ohio awarded a Chick Evans Caddie Scholarship, a full tuition and housing college scholarship.

Graeff, Bradish and Adams will attend Ohio State in Columbus while Mocek will attend Miami University in Oxford.

Evans Scholars are selected based on four criteria: a strong caddie record, excellent academics, demonstrated financial need and outstanding character. More than 200 new Evans Scholars will begin school this fall at 18 universities nationwide.

The scholarship, which is renewable for up to four years, was an answer to Graeff’s prayers.

The Sylvania Northview graduate had dreamed of going away to college, but knew it would be more financially realistic to stay close to home.

“When I got it, I was really excited,” said Graeff, who has caddied for five summers at Sylvania Country Club. “That was my only plan for going out of town, so I was really excited to get it. It means a lot because I couldn’t have afforded going anywhere (without it). It was just a big answer to prayer because that’s what I got to do. I’m still thankful for it. It’s one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.”

Graeff, who played golf at Northview for three years, plans to major in biomedical engineering at OSU; his dream job would be to design golf clubs.

“There’s nothing I don’t like about golf,” Graeff said. “Caddying is more like a hobby than a job. It’s not hard for me at all. I can choose the days I want to work and it’s out in the sun and it’s golf so it comes really easy to me because I love to golf.”

Tom Grzywinski, Graeff’s caddie master at Sylvania Country Club, said there are a few local Evans Scholarship winners every year and he always points to them as a reason for club members to utilize caddies.

“At Inverness, it’s mandatory to take a caddie, but we’re a little different. Here it’s not mandatory; they do it to support the program,” Grzywinski said. “I always tell them, you just never know where these things lead to. I’m certain a lot of these kids will go to college, but maybe not. It’s amazing what these kids do then. They go on to different professions and it’s all because the members supported them.”

The Western Golf Association (WGA), headquartered in Illinois, has overseen the Chick Evans Scholarship Program through the Evans Scholars Foundation since 1930.

Scholarship funds come mostly from contributions by about 100,000 golfers across the country, according to the WGA website. Evans Scholars Alumni donate more than $4 million annually, and all proceeds from the BMW Championship are donated to Evans Scholars.

“The selection process for Evans Scholars is very demanding,” said Joe Desch, lead WGA director in the state of Ohio, in a news release. “Only the candidates with the highest qualifications are awarded Evans Scholarships. All 16 of our new Ohio Evans Scholars have demonstrated excellence as caddies, students and active participants in their schools and communities. We congratulate them on their success.”

This fall, 860 caddies will be enrolled in college as Evans Scholars, including 69 at Ohio State and 40 at Miami. More than 9,400 caddies have graduated as Evans Scholars – including 724 from Ohio State and 384 from Miami — since the program was founded by Chicago amateur golfer Charles “Chick” Evans Jr.

Unlike the other three local winners, Bradish is not a golfer himself.

“I learned a lot through the years and that helped,” Bradish said of caddying at Inverness for four summers.

Bradish, who plans to major in engineering at OSU, said the job has helped him overcome his natural shyness.

“It’s a fantastic job because you just get to be outside and not be cooped in anywhere and you get to interact with people a lot so that’s nice,” Bradish said. “It helps you talk more.”

The Toledo Christian graduate said winning the scholarship was surreal at first.

“I hadn’t processed what it meant yet and how big it was,” said Bradish, whose older brother, Jordan, had also won the scholarship. “It was a crazy feeling. I was really excited though. It’s just a huge financial burden lifted off my parents. It’s just a great opportunity. A lot of people don’t get to go to school for free. My parents were probably as excited or more than I was. They hit the lottery twice.”

Bradish’s brother, Jordan, who will be a senior at Ohio State this fall, said his appreciation of the scholarship continues to grow.

“Going for free is awesome,” Jordan said. “I’ve got a lot of friends here and they have to have jobs and take classes at the same time, so in that aspect it’s really nice.”

The brothers will both live in the Evans Scholarship House, where all scholarship recipients live.

“It will be fun to have him there,” Jordan said. “As a typical freshman, you live in dorms so you get to know people in your own class, but at the house there are 15 to 18 kids per grade, so that helps not only with class experience but also makes you comfortable with older people and helps you settle in a lot more in my view. There’s always something to do.”

Maggie Adams, who graduated from Springfield High School, will be one of the few girls living at the house at OSU.

Of the nearly 70 house residents, only about eight are female — a fact that prompted some advice from her older brother, also an Evans scholarship recipient, who recently graduated from Miami University.

“You can only imagine what an older brother would say,” Adams said, laughing. “He told me ‘No dating the boys in the house!”

At Miami, male recipients live in the house, while female recipients live in dorms.

Adams, who has caddied for four summers at Stone Oak Country Club, said interacting with country club members has been a good way to learn people skills.

Adams, who played golf for four years at Springfield, plans to major in communications and minor in Spanish at OSU.

“There was definitely a big weight off my shoulders knowing where I was going and that I didn’t have to pay for it either,” Adams said. “It was definitely a very exciting time. It’s just a big relief knowing that when I get out of college I’m not going to have thousands and thousands of dollars in debt. I’m going to be starting off a lot better than most people do after college.”

All four caddies plan to be at Inverness during at least part of the U.S. Senior Open — Mocek, Adams and Nathan Bradish as spectators or volunteers while Graeff and Jordan Bradish will be prepared to step in if a golfer needs a last-minute caddie.

Mocek, who plans to major in business at Miami, said he couldn’t believe it when he found out he won the Evans Scholarship.

“I was speechless,” Mocek said.

Mocek, who played golf for St. Francis de Sales and has caddied at Inverness Club for five summers, said he loves caddying because he loves golf.

“I just like how golf is an all-around game – not only physical ability but mental ability and concentration,” Mocek said. “I love the fact I can work around golf and then go out and play golf and the great people I can meet out there.”

Mocek will join his older brother, Matt, a junior at Miami, in the Evans Scholarship House.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Andrew said of starting college. “I can’t wait to meet my roommate and see what the whole Evans program is all about.”

Golf can be a game of inches, and not just for those swinging the clubs.

The grounds crew at Inverness Club has been preparing for the U.S. Senior Open since last year, when representatives from the United States Golf Association (USGA) began visiting the renowned Northwest Ohio course.

“They came in and basically we spent a lot of time walking the golf course, talking with them about the golf course setup as far as the length they want to play, the speed of the greens they want and the type of rough they want,” said Doug Spencer, greens chairman at Inverness.

This is where the 23-person grounds crew at Inverness began prepping for the inches game for the Open.

The course’s normal length for grass in the rough is 2.5 inches. For tournament play, the USGA was looking for the first cut of rough grass to be 1.5 inches. The second cut of rough should be 2.5 inches. Finally, the primary cut of rough is 4 inches.

“They come in and mark those areas because they want a certain width of each height,” Spencer said. “We start the mowing patterns that will deliver those cuts of rough and we have been at those heights for three weeks (about a month before the Open begins).”

Spencer, who has been an Inverness member for 17 years but is in just his second year as greens chairman, said the Inverness grounds crew is not having a problem meeting the USGA’s rigorous demands.

“We are well ahead of where we need to be,” he said.

That’s not to say the crew won’t be getting some extra help for the major tournament, however.

About 20 volunteers from around the country will arrive in Toledo the week before the tournament to help keep the course in proper condition.

“A lot of the volunteers come to work under the direction of the course superintendent who’s hosting the tournament because it looks good on their resume when they try to apply for other positions,” Spencer said. “It’s a great learning curve for them, and it’s a pretty close-knit group that likes to help one another whenever they can.”

Spencer said the USGA’s requirements have only made Inverness that much tougher for the course’s regular members.

“The golf course is a very demanding course anyway,” he said, noting its status as a tournament facility rather than a recreational venue. “From the standpoint of playing under those sort of conditions (mandated by the USGA), with the rough being the way it is, it’s very, very difficult. If you hit it off the fairway and get into some of that 4-inch rough and some of the stuff around the greens, it’s very, very difficult to play from that. I’m sure most of the members will be glad when it returns to its normal height.”

Although maintaining the rough areas to the ruling association’s liking is extra work, Spencer said it’s status quo with most of the other areas of the course.

“We pretty much maintain the golf course to tournament conditions every day for regular member play,” he said. “From a preparation standpoint, we don’t do much of anything different to the greens and the fairway we would not do on a normal basis. Obviously, we wouldn’t maintain as firm of a turf for regular members who play because what the USGA is going to want would really be agronomically impossible to continue for regular members.”

Spencer said his first experience working with the USGA has been a memorable one.

“It’s a lot of work, and it’s a lot of time,” he said. “But what I do is a labor of love anyway. It’s been very interesting. I have a little bit of turf background in my experience around the game of golf in the past, but I’ve learned so much in the last two years from Steve Anderson, course superintendent. The guys from the USGA have really been delightful to work with. It’s kind of cool sitting down to talk with those guys and trying to prepare for something of the significance of a major championship. I’ve enjoyed it.”

“Dreams are spiritual in origin and are there to help, not to hinder or criticize, so never allow yourself to become discouraged by your dreams.” - Wilda B. Tanner

Dear Lauri,
My daughter ended up sleeping in my bed last night. We had the same exact dream. We went to a huge kid’s play land, the size of a large home. I couldn’t find her and I was going all over asking for help. There were so many kids. My daughter said, in her dream, she was at a play land and couldn’t find me. She was asking adults to help her. Can we have the same dream at the same time? – Candice 30, Salt Lake City

Lauri: Yes, two people can have the same dream on the same night. It’s called shared dreaming and it usually happens to two people who are very close: husband and wife, best friends, mother and daughter. The reason why is because the two individuals are dealing with the same issue and their subconscious responds to it similarly by giving them comparable dreams. That being said, is there anything going on in your waking lives that is pulling you away from your daughter that would cause the two of you to miss each other? Are you working too much? Is there a shared custody arrangement? Anything like that? When you search for someone in a dream it often means you miss them or miss something about them.

Candice replies: Yes! I have been working more hours & she is starting a private school in a few weeks. She is going from half day at school to full day at school. I’m a single parent so we are super close. Thank you.

Lauri Quinn Loewenberg is a certified Dream Analyst, author of “Dream On It” and member of The International Association for the Study of Dreams. She joins The Kiss Morning Show on 92.5 every Tuesday morning at 7:10 analyzing listeners’ dreams. You can visit Lauri at www.thedreamzone.com

Although it’s rather old news, President Obama’s April 13 speech on the federal deficit still provides a wealth of insight into the man and his philosophy. Such an insight emerged when he said of Medicare, Social Security, unemployment insurance and Medicaid, “America would not be a great country without those commitments.”
In other words: President Obama is saying that America is not great because of the Declaration of Independence, which states in unprecedented clarity and wisdom the nature and foundation of human rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. She is not great because her founders expelled tyranny from her shores at enormous personal cost. Neither is she great because of the Constitution, which codifies both individual liberty and a carefully limited and balanced system of government while being designed to be amended.
Nor do the sacrifices America has made for the freedom of others make her great, to judge by President Obama’s words. America was not great when 364,511 of her men died to end slavery, or when she stood alone with Britain and the remnants of her empire against the rising tide of Naziism, Fascism and Japanese imperialism at the cost of 405,399 more American lives. She was not great when she took the lead in rebuilding war-shattered Western Europe, nor when 36,574 Americans died halting Communist China’s invasion of South Korea.
Obama’s America was not great when the railroads and early highways were built, nor when she successfully constructed the Panama Canal after French efforts failed. She was not great when Americans discovered electricity and the polio vaccine, invented the airplane and the light bulb, perfected the automobile and modern mass production, cultivated deserts, harnessed rivers and the atom, and built the dominant economy of the twentieth century.
Nearly two centuries of voluntarily philanthropy by such titans as Carnegie and Rockefeller, or those Americans who followed in their ponderous footsteps, do not make Obama’s America great. Neither do such massive humanitarian efforts as the Berlin Airlift.
To take the President at his word, the stuff of American greatness is found only in the seizure and redistribution of wealth through means that are rife with waste and corruption and that are administered by endless ranks of overpaid bureaucrats. Obama’s America is great only when taxation is perverted into “giving,” as if taxes were voluntary, and care for the needy is institutionalized under the crushing burden of government control and inefficiency. Apparently, we’re expected to think that America was not a great nation until the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.
The President is also implying that greatness can be legislated into being. Here too, he errs. Greatness cannot be created through passage of laws; rather, the true greatness that so characterizes the American spirit exists only where the people voluntarily obey the higher, unwritten laws of charity, duty and honor. It comes about not by compelling aid to those in adversity by force of written law, but rather when the people choose, often despite their own adversity, to comply with the natural, moral law which forms the bedrock upon which our Republic was founded. But since this President is evidently persuaded of his own greatness, despite his rapidly expanding record of profound incompetence, it is not surprising that the understanding of true greatness, be it personal or national, escapes him.

Thomas Berry, for the Children of Liberty, http://www.meetup.com/The-children-of-liberty/ <http://www.meetup.com/The-children-of-liberty/> .

An expected 125,000 mouths are a lot to feed.

As an army of visitors descends on Toledo’s Inverness Club for the U.S. Senior Open, a Minneapolis-based company is stepping in to provide concessions and catering.

Prom Management Group regularly caters 35 golf tournaments across the country, including FedEx Cup events such as The Players Championship and the Tour Championship.

Prom has to prepare an immense amount of food for the event.

Todd Hanson, a vice president at Prom, said the company expects to use about 20,000 hot dogs, the same number of hamburgers and 8,000 chicken breasts. He also anticipates using at least 1,500 cases of water, more than 1,000 cases of beer and about 75 cases of wine.

Food, including turkey club wraps, chicken sandwiches, cheeseburgers and hot dogs, will be available for purchase at nine concession tents dotted around the course.

Concession stands will also sell a full line of Pepsi and Anheuser-Busch products, as well as Woodbridge red and white wine — probably a cabernet savignon and a chardonnay, Hanson said.

A subcontractor — Dansig & Associates of NC Inc. — will have about the same number of venues, selling fresh-squeezed lemonade, ice cream, lemon chill and baked pretzels.

A 60-year-old company, Prom began focusing on sports in 1991 when it catered the U.S. Open just west of Minneapolis.

“That was kind of an eye-opener for the owners of the company as a great potential revenue source and area of growth for the company,” Hanson said.

Today, more than three-fourths of the company’s revenue comes from out-of-state sports catering — primarily golf, but also tennis and IndyCar.

Preparing for an event like this is a lengthy process. Prom visits the site a year in advance to get a general feel for the course and a game plan for concessions. About three months before the event, the company finalizes its plans.

Planning for the event was an even longer process for Inverness Club. Peter Swick, the club’s assistant general manager, said Inverness has spent two years preparing to host the Senior Open.

“I think most of us are excited about it,” he said. “It’s just crunch time.”

The club will provide catering for the players, their families, members of the United States Golf Association and a few businesses.

Jim Decker, championship coordinator for the 2011 U.S. Senior Open, said coordinating food is a critical part of making the event happen. After all, he’s dealing with an expected 125,000 visitors, and he expects a sizeable percentage of them to be hungry.

The request came a few weeks ago. The Toledo Free Press was going to be doing a lot of coverage on the 2011 U.S. Senior Open, so would it be possible to write a column about golf? At the time, I thought, no problem. Surely I’d be able to find an angle to discuss. I somehow got a story out of that incomprehensible Gallagher interview, after all. This’d be a piece of cake.

Weeks later, I was still drawing a blank. Golf. I don’t play golf nowadays. I don’t watch golf. Maybe a golf video game review? Nah. A list of great golf movies? Eh, I just did a piece on baseball movies, wouldn’t wanna repeat myself. A profile of a local putt-putt course? Okay, you’re stretching it, McGinnis.

A few days ago, I found myself driving on Route 199 toward my house. My head turned to the right and I caught a glimpse of Tanglewood Golf Course, where I…

A flood of memories opened to me, and suddenly I was back on the course, lugging my ridiculously heavy bag on a hot afternoon. Or, at least, a young version of me.

I’m still not sure why I played the game at all. Perhaps I felt some level of obligation, like I had to participate in some sport to get the full high school experience. I was the worst golfer in Eastwood High School history. That is not hyperbole, but a simple statement of fact.

In my freshman year, I had an average score of 190. There is no typo there. One-hundred-and-ninety strokes on average over 18 holes. I couldn’t hit for distance, I had no accuracy, I was uncomfortable with wood clubs so I only used irons (even off the tee) and on and on. I was a living, breathing embarrassment to the game. If the first Scots back at St. Andrews could have ever seen me play, they would haunt my dreams for daring to defile their creation.

So how the heck was I still on the team? Well, I really wasn’t. Pretty much everyone who tried out for the Eastwood team became a member. But only a few got to play in actual matches with other schools. I would show up every year for tryouts, show up for practices, play the obligatory number of additional rounds necessary to remain on the team, and (quite rightly) never participate in actual athletic competition.

Then, one day at practice, an actual, honest-to-goodness chance to shine arrived. Our coach, Mr. Gardner (a great teacher whose brother Randy has been a state representative for years), announced that we would be having a putting competition. Every member of the team would be paired off, winners advancing. This was music to my ears.

If my putrid game had anything that could be called a “strength,” it was putting. Years of playing and loving mini-golf had sharpened by skills, though the lack of any windmills or castles on a real course forced adjustments on my part. Though the real, full game would always be elusive, this was the one day where I was in my element.

I played my hardest. To everyone else, it was a fun game to help practice. To me, it was everything. This was my one chance to put in a respectable performance, to stand alongside my peers, to…win.

Sure enough, my years spent on the green felt of Putt-Putt courses were paying off, and before long, I found myself in the finals, against one of the best players on our team. I found myself up by a stroke, with only a three-foot putt left to win it.

And I missed to the left. Okay, no problem. Just putt again, tie and win in an extra hole. Except I missed again. I finally sank it on the third try. I three-putted a three-foot shot, redefining “choke” in the process.

I was crushed to the point of tears. I’ve always been an overly emotional sort, way too easy to cry. This was different, though. To me, this was a failure on a monumental level. My one chance to win at something — anything — and it was gone. And all my fault.

I still have admiration for the game, and for those who subject themselves to the pressure it entails. It’s the most unforgiving sort of competition — one mistake can nullify all the feats that have come before. I have no idea how those who play the game professionally deal with that pressure. The mental discipline and toughness required is remarkable.

The memory of one afternoon at Tanglewood reminds me of this. And reminds me why I’ve gravitated toward video game versions of the sport. When you three-putt on PlayStation, there’s always a reset button.