Thursday, September 13, 2007

What's up with Vermont ?

I mentioned yesterday that Google Analytics shows that this blog has never received a hit from Russia. As I said,the folks there were probably too busy to stop by yesterday.
Another place that has yet to send a visitor my way is the U.S. state of Vermont; making it the only state not to visit. Even Guam beats Vermont.
I thought if I wrote a entry about the place, maybe someone there might give my blog the once-over.Of course, I know as little about Vermont as Vermont knows about me so I needed to do a little research.
I came across a site that gave trivia on Vermont ( among other things ) . A list was given.....but one entry was on the list twice.
I suppose, that if an entry is put in twice it means that this fact is considered important. So, here it is :
"Rudyard Kipling, living in Vermont in the 1890s invented the game of snow golf. He painted his golf balls red so that they could be located in the snow."
"English writer Rudyard Kipling invented snow golf while living in Vermont. He painted his golf balls red so he could find them."
I went to the Wikipedia article on Rudyard Kipling and found no mention of snow golf and/or red balls.However, a visit to the Wikipedia article on snow golf gives better results.Not only does that article mention Kipling but it tells us that the annual World Ice Golf Championship has been held in Uummannaq, Greenland since 1997.
I wonder why the event isn't held in Vermont ? Here's a clue.
According to the World Ice Golf Championship :
"Ice golf was known right back in the 17th century. A painting by the Dutch painter Aert van der Neer (1603-1677) shows players with a club in their hands attempting to get a ball into a hole in the ice covering a frozen canal in Holland. At that time the game was called "kolven". ".
Is Vermont taking credit for something undeserved ? Maybe , they're claiming snow golf and ice golf are different.
To find an answer to this pointless important question , I'm sending a link to this blog to the ice golf folks at icegolfer@golfonice.com
We'll see.

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