Men’s Adventure Magazines is a blog the focuses on the pulp adventure magazines of the 1950s. It’s creation was inspired by the classic article “Weasels Ripped My Flesh” (it also inspired Frank Zappa). Also check out “Chewed To Bits By Giant Turtles.” Some of the ripped-bodice covers may perhaps not be suitable for work.

Guideposts magazine (the magazine founded by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale) has put up a nice post on why you should think like a golfer. Here’s an excerpt:

I found one of the keys to life on a golf course. Golf course, you might wonder? How could a game that makes grown men cry like babies and throw their clubs like toddlers hold the key to anything but frustration and pain?

It’s simple really. The amazing thing about golf is that at the end of the day golfers don’t remember the multitude of horrible shots they made. All they remember is their one great shot and this memory inspires them to come back again and again in an attempt to make another great shot. It’s no wonder that golf is so addicting.

Author Jon Gordon is absolutely right about this one. I can have an absolutely terrible round, but that one shot—the one that’s hit flush, feels like a knife through butter, and stops just an inch from the hole—keeps me coming back. It’s an addicting feeling that every golfer knows. And at least in my golfing group, it’s become a bit of a joke. Often, while struggling through a series of bad holes, someone in the group will hit a nice shot and say “That’s the one”—as in, “that’s the one that’ll bring me back.”

Another quip along the same lines: “I’ll be able to go home now.” No player wants to go home without at least one good shot to think about. I actually tacked on another nine with a buddy when he felt that he hadn’t yet had “that shot” (no one ever has to twist my arm to get me to play another nine).

And Gordon is right about another thing. We’d all be better off if we took that attitude with us at all times.

Last year, I wrote about the Garia, a $17,000 luxury golf car with Porshe pedigrees.

Now, the company is making a US-street-legal version:

The world’s best golf car goes street legal.

On and off the course, golf cars have become the new standard for convenient and green transportation.

With an estimated market share of over 70% by 2012 there is no doubt that smaller electrical vehicles also known as NEVs (neighborhood electric vehicles) or LSVs (low speed vehicles) are here to stay.

And now The Garia Luxury Golf Car, manufactured at the same factory that builds the Porsche Boxster and Cayman, is also available as LSV.

Built to the highest standards of the automotive industry, The Garia features a Formula 1 inspired front suspension, a drive train built by an Italian company that also produces Ducati gearboxes, and aluminum profiles made by the same company that supplies aluminum profiles to Aston Martin, Jaguar and Volvo.

Available in August 2010, The Garia LSV is fitted with street legal safety equipment such as seatbelts and side mirrors, and it also has a hydraulic brake system.

Its small size makes it perfect for the city, and with tax-based incentives in many countries and an increasing number of states and countries that allow LSVs to be operated on roads with speed limits of 35 mph (50km/h) or less, LSVs no longer belong to the future market – they are the market.

“The Garia LSV is ideal for shorter trips and recreational purposes and it is possible to drive directly from your home to, for example, the golf course. This is something many people will appreciate, and it makes The Garia LSV a unique product” says Anders Lynge, Creative Director of Garia A/S and designer of The Garia.

Within the past few years, vehicles traditionally designed and used for recreational purposes are increasingly being used for non-recreational purposes. Any distinction between a golf car and a NEV/LSV has become blurred, and recent studies indicate that the number of privately owned vehicles in the U.S., mainly golf cars or modified golf cars, will increase to 118,000 by 2012 (from 98,000 units in 2006).

Contact your local dealer for pricing and info. Find your local dealer at http://www.garia.com

Very cool. But WAY out of my price range.

Wired Magazine has an article this month on the golf cart culture of The Villages—that huge retirement community in Florida that boasts “free golf for life” in its cable television advertising.

Interestingly, the entire development was built around the idea of golf cart mobility. Retirees can take quick jaunts from their homes to the local course, WalMart, drug store and so on. Since a cart gets around 40 miles to a charge, it’s all most need.

We stayed in a hotel at The Villages on our way to Disney World this past summer, and I was astonished at the vast fleet of carts buzzing around. Now I know why.

I can’t see this catching on everywhere, however. Open golf carts, with their light weight and lack of traction will never work in a foul weather climate like Michigan. In addition, the batteries will quickly lose their power in the cold.

And if we all go to electric cars, I wonder where all of that electricity will be generated. The power has to come from somewhere. If its not being generated by individual cars with internal combustion, it’ll have to be generated at plants, and then transmitted to homes and charging stations. That’s going to require an enormous amount of infrastructure. Nuclear plants are theonly way to go. But the same people who are working to get rid of the auto also have effectively killed the nuclear plant.

A group of doctors writing in the British Medical Journal have claimed that repeated use of titanium drivers can damage the hearing of golfers.

Here’s an excerpt from the BBC:

Ear specialists suspect the “sonic boom” the metal club head makes when it strikes the ball damaged the hearing of a 55-year-old golfer they treated.

They outline the details of this case in the British Medical Journal.

The man had been playing with a King Cobra LD titanium club three times a week for 18 months and commented that the noise of the club hitting the ball was “like a gun going off”.

It had become so unpleasant that he decided to ditch the club, but by this time he had already suffered some hearing loss.

Doctors at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital carried out tests on the keen golfer after he attended their clinic with unexplained tinnitus and reduced hearing in his right ear.

The tests confirmed that his hearing problems were typical of those seen with exposure to loud noises.

In tests of six drivers, the researchers found that the Ping G10 was the worst offender, creating a 130 decibel bang.

The researchers also suggested that players use earplugs when playing.

I don’t even know where to begin with this story. When I first read it, I had to check to see if the dateline read April 1. But they apparently are at least semi-serious.

Still it doesn’t make any sense. A driver just can’t be loud enough to do that sort of damage—especially as the sound is dissipated in the open air. Just for comparison’s sake, the 130 decibel Ping driver would be nearly as loud as a jet engine at 100 feet (140 db) and is louder than a pneumatic riveter at 4 feet (125dB), a rock concert (115dB) and a snowmobile (100dB). Physical pain is caused by sounds over 125dB, so that Ping might cause players to flinch every time they swing—which can’t possibly be good for driver accuracy.

It’s only a matter of time before someone calls for golfers to wear helmets because people have been seriously injured when they were hit, or safety glasses because a tee popped up and scratched a retina.

When I read the story to the thirteen-year-old Thing One, he pointed out another problem with this story. Wearing earplugs on the course would only create an additional hazard, since you wouldn’t be able to hear someone shout FORE! to warn you of an incoming ball. Smart kid.

A health spa is offering Dads a heated golf ball massage.
No, I have no idea.

Like so many Americans, I’ve been seriously considering trading my my larger vehicle (an Oldsmobile minivan) for a smaller one. But I’ve grown accustomed to having space in my car to store my golf bag, my Sun Mountain Speed Cart, and a small duffel with golf clothes, shoes, extra balls, etc. I can easily carry all of those things, and still have room for a pair of boys.

Still, with gas heading for $5 a gallon, a change makes a lot of sense.

The question for me is “what small cars are the most golf friendly?” Which ones have a trunk (or hatchback area) large enough to carry my clubs, cart and duffel? I don’t want to have to keep one of those items in the shotgun seat.

Making a small car golf friendly ought to be on the designer’s specifications.

Any suggestions? I have a couple of criteria:

First, it ought to get 25+ in the city (My van currently gets around 21 or 22 in the daily drive to work). And second, it has to have sufficient storage.

I also vastly prefer to drive American or perhaps European. Toyota, Honda and Mazda are definitely out of consideration. (GolfBlogger headquarters is, after all, in Michigan).

I’ve had the idea that the Pontiac Vibe might be the right size (I get the family discount on GM products, so I’m looking there first and foremost). I’ve even visited a Pontiac dealer. But I’m not sure.

Let me know your opinions. Leave a comment below.