Are we for or against a greener golf game?

A few summers ago when I was an intern in DC, I had political aspirations. All of us interns were pretty ambitious, and whether our sights were set on a Nigerian ambassadorship, a seat in the Minnesota House, or the UN Secretary-Generalship, we knew that there were certain skills we were gonna need to get there, like the ability to match Senators' names with their states, and schmoozing.

I'm OK at making small talk - don't really enjoy it (I doubt I'm unique in that respect) - but in DC the schmooze factor was above and beyond anything I'd experienced growing up on the West Coast. The Intern Coordinator of the non-profit I was working for said that in order to make it as a schmoozer - and by extension, in politics - I'd need to become an expert on one of two things: wine or golf, neither of which sounded appealing at the time.

On the wine count: I've always been more of a beer drinker and I'm no good at spontaneously coming up with adjective-heavy verbiage to describe what I'm drinking ("harmonious aromatics hinting at ripe apricots, with a subtle trace of waxy botrytis," anyone?).

On the golf count: I'm not really into golf either, though I can appreciate the fact that without it, miniature golf, golf carts, and all those good times with my dad and uncle on the driving range wouldn't exist.

Thus, my desire to usurp Kofi Annan's position at the UN has been put on hold - for now. But as sustainability becomes more and more integral to the concept of political correctness, wannabe politicians are gonna have to start stepping it up from an eco-perspective and taking the environment into consideration in everything they do.

Lucky for them, when their Intern Coordinator asks, "Wine or golf?" they've now got their choice of schmoozing topics: biodynamic wine or eco-golf. Which would you choose?

-Toshio... off to Google mini-golf courses in the Bay Area...