Reading through the last few pages and I keep thinking about the movie
Pineapple Express which is surely destined to become a cult-classic on and around college campuses everywhere. Has anyone seen it? I don't want to give too much away, because it is a real nail biter, but in a number of scenes (all of them?) the characters are extremely stoned and are talking about all sorts of things in the way that usually only stoned people do. Anyway, reading these threads leaves me with a hankering for a grape-orange-cherry-root beer-grape-lime Slushy and about 37 Oreo cookies. Is it possible to get a contact high from reading posts on the internet?
I think, if it were ever possible for all the facts to come out...we would all recognize that CBM was more influential than WE thought...but that is not to say he was more influential than MERION thought. Tom Paul makes an interesting suggestion about correcting what is in the Merion history books...what is in the Merion history books regarding CBM? What if it already acknowledges his role in full? I wouldn't expect it agrees with David's..."CBM was calling all the shots...", but it may well recognize the full scope of what we can agree on.
Jim, my Essay relies extensively on Tolhurst's discussion of the creation of Merion east in his excellent "Golf at Merion" and attempts to politely point out some (but not all) of the things about which Mr. Tolhurst was perhaps mistaken, and even provides what I think were viable explanations of how some of these errors may have innocently come about. Apparently TEPaul is not familiar with my Essay or he wouldn't be repeatedly asking me to tell him where I think the histories fall short.
I am not presumptuous enough to think that
Merion has any interest us "correcting what is in the Merion history books." If Merion would like to know in greater detail where I respectfully think their previous books might fall short, I'd be glad to provide them that information, but they haven't asked so far as I know and I don't expect they will. They are apparently quite content with the quality of research and analysis that TEPaul and Wayne have provided them throughout the years on these issues and I wish them the best with that. But with TEPaul and Wayne misleading them about what really happened, why do they need us?
Plus Jim, even if we were to take on this uninvited role of editors for Merion, shouldn't we at least show enough courtesy and professionalism to base our opinions on
the best available evidence?
-- Yet here we have the ringleader of this latest great idea refusing to even verify the contents of the April 1911 minutes letter, or to explain why, as recently as
yesterday he changed the wording of this supposed source material (again) to suit what seem to be his rhetorical purposes.
--
And we have most of the rest of the posters who apparently don't even give a damn!
In short, I value intellectual honesty and integrity, and that means I cannot simply take TEPaul's representations as truth. And so as long as TEPaul demands that we simply believe him when he dictates to us what happened at Merion, I want nothing to do with him or his Big Tent Circus attempt to close off conversation. To beat Shivas to the punchline, this bearded lady will remain single.
I hope that clarifies things.
Is this your rationale for CBM being a more likely source? The distance from Shawnee to either Ardmore, PA or Garden City, NY? It seemed so moronic that I thought I'd find out. I mean a stab in the dark is fine, but you should expect a total wiff most of the time, no? There are limitless reasons for Tilly to be at GCM as opposed to Philadelphia at any given time, but being closer to Shawnee doesn't seem to be one of them...
I haven't reviewed all the articles recently, but my impression is that CBM was AWT's primary source on what was ongoing at Merion, at least for the the crucial articles from the spring of 1911.
What is the first evidence we have of AWT actually having stepped foot on the ground at Merion East? When did he first write about seeing the course, either in progress or finished?