Beer of the Week

The beer: Chesapeake Bay Doppelbock

The brewery: Oliver Brewing Company, Baltimore, Maryland

Description (from Untappd): "This German style dark lager is smooth and flavorful with notes of chocolate, dark fruits and light toast."

Would I buy it again? It's time for the newest installment of my recurring series: "Nitpicking perfectly good doppelbocks because they're not Troegenator." So, what's wrong with this one? The initial taste is promising, but once you get past that, the aftertaste is somewhat lacking. It's missing the same malty sweet punch that Troegenators offer. It's fine, but just not in the same league. I wouldn't pass one of those up for this.

When Good E. Coli Goes Bad

Is there a type of bacteria out there with worse press than Escherichia coli? There are strains of E. coli that are not only neutral toward their human hosts but beneficial, playing a key role in our microbiomes by producing crucial vitamins or preventing harmful bacteria from colonizing our digestive system.

But of course, the mainstream media can only ever report on the negative aspects of E. coli. Though to be fair, while the number of neutral or positive strains significantly outnumber the number of negative strains, those pathogenic strains can cause traveler's diarrhea (with nearly a billion cases around the world every year), urinary tract infections, sepsis, gastroenteritis, and Crohn's disease. And those are just the common diseases. Some strains can even produce Shiga toxin, which has been used as a bioterrorism agent. Maybe it's little wonder we have negative associations with a generally positive bacteria.

The big question then is why. Why are so many types of E. coli perfectly harmless while others will so prominently ruin your day? That's the question a group of researchers from Australia sought to answer, and the answer comes down to a single word: cellulose.

Yeah, cellulose isn't just for trees and belly fat. As it turns out, E. coli also produces cellulose, using it in the structure of its cell walls to anchor to our intestines. Pathogenic E. coli, on the other hand, possess a mutation that prevents them from producing cellulose. Without that compound, harmful E. coli are able to inflame and irritate the intestinal wall, eventually passing through and into the blood stream. From there, they're able to spread and multiply, causing the various maladies we've come to know and love from E. coli.

While the research is obviously important for the purposes of preventing future infections, the researchers noted that it's doubly important in the case of E. coli, which is actually the most common pathogen associated with antibiotic resistance. MRSA may get the attention, but of 5 million yearly deaths caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, 800,000 were caused by E. coli. Finding another way to bring wayward E. coli to heel would certainly benefit the world at large, though in the meantime, if you want to give your digestive system a little bit of a boost, why not munch on a piece of paper? It'll keep your microbiota in line, I promise. Totally not trying to go viral on TikTok. Nope. Not at all. 

Review: Albany Country Club (Part 2)

It's time to take a look at the back nine at Albany Country Club, go here to see the front.

The tenth hole is a fairly short par 4 at 350 yards, the shortest on the course. Of course, when you're playing straight into a 20 MPH wind, 350 quickly becomes much more than that. So while the two bunkers pinching the fairway in from both sides could normally be cleared with a solid drive, they were very much a factor for our round. Of course you could lay back short, but then you're leaving yourself with 150 yards on a short par 4, and that just doesn't feel good. Fortunately the green is fairly open in the front, though there is a bunker left and a bunker behind that you really don't want to be in, considering the back-to-front tilt of the green. 

The tenth hole.

Approaching the tenth green.

The tenth green.

The eleventh hole is 550 yards and quickly sweeps left around trees and a bunker; if you want to hit driver, you'll need to hit a draw up the left side. You also need to get far enough on the drive to avoid being blocked out by more trees further up on the left side. The lay-up is complicated not by sand but by trees; the fairway is narrowed by a gate of trees about 100 yards out. It is very easy to get blocked out by them, especially when the hole's playing into the wind and you're 200 yards out on your third shot. This hole did not go well for me. The green is fairly small and undulating, and is flanked by bunkers. This hole, in my opinion, could do with some tree clearing, especially at the gateway 100 yards out. There is really not much space to work with.

The eleventh hole.

Approaching the eleventh green.

The eleventh green.

The twelfth hole is an interesting proposition. Looking at it from above, you wouldn't think much of it, other than it's clearly going to be tough. Water in front, four bunkers covering the rest of the green? Clearly precision will be in order. And while that's also true, there's a definite element of strategy and risk involve. The green slopes sharply from back to front; it may be the most heavily sloped green on the course. You very much want to be below the hole, but naturally that brings the water in front more into play. The alternative is to play safely past the hole, but at best you're going to have an incredibly fast, big-breaking putt. At worst? Well, I wouldn't want any part of a bunker shot from one of the two back bunkers. Downhill stance, green sloping away, water lurking beyond. The odds of getting up and down are minimal, to be kind.

The twelfth hole.

The thirteenth hole is a mid-length par 4 that doglegs right around a bunker to a blind landing area. The landing area is pretty wide open and the bunker's pretty easy to clear with a driver, so there's not much reason not to go for it. Much like the previous hole, the green here slopes sharply from back to front, and there are two bunkers around it, one front right and the other back left. Not a tremendously complicated hole, but the severely tilted green at least gives it something.

The thirteenth hole.

Approaching the thirteenth green.

The thirteenth green.

The fourteenth hole also doglegs right around a bunker, but the difference here is that the bunker is much further away and the hole's 445 yards, making it the longest par 4 at Albany CC by a significant margin. Even more so when it plays into the wind. It was essentially a par 5 for me. That bunker wasn't even really in play; I couldn't reach it, even though it was only 250 or so yards out. And don't think length is the only defense this hole has, as the green is protected by five bunkers, making it the most well-guarded green on the course. Par is a very good score here.

The fourteenth hole.

Approaching the fourteenth green.

The fourteenth green.

The fifteenth hole is on the longer side at 420 yards, and the essence of the hole is basically the same as the previous two. Dogleg right, bunkers in the corner of the dogleg. This is my favorite of the bunch, as the tee shot is just more fun in my opinion. The bunkers are more in your face and actually in play, and the fairway and landing area are more visible. The long, narrow green is sloped significantly from back to front and framed by four bunkers, two left and two right.

The fifteenth hole.

Approaching the fifteenth green.

The fifteenth green.

The sixteenth hole is trying a little too hard. The final par 3 at Albany CC plays 170 yards downhill over a pair of ponds (each complete with their own fountain) to a fairly large green with one bunker beyond. This is quite similar in general concept to the twelfth, except this hole is much less interesting. There's no punishment for bailing out long, as the green doesn't have a sharp back-to-front tilt. And the dual fountains are a bit silly. It's a bit disappointing, since the other three par 3s are among the strongest holes on the course.

The sixteenth hole.

The seventeenth hole is a mid-length par 4 that swings left around a road, so missing the fairway left is not the greatest idea. The outside of the dogleg has a pair of bunkers about 250 yards out, however, so if you want to get the drive anywhere close to the green, you'll need to either keep the drive close to the left tree line or swing a big draw around them. Of course, it's also better to hug the left side, as the green favors approaches from the left. The green itself is undulating and medium sized, with bunkers front right and left.

The seventeenth hole.

Approaching the seventeenth green.

The seventeenth green.

The eighteenth hole is a long par 5 that sweeps left for basically the entirety of its 570 yards. There's a small bunker left of the fairway, but the main obstacles are the trees and the narrow, sloping fairway itself. There are few flat lies on this fairway, as it mostly slopes from left to right. It's also very easy to either get caught up in the trees left or bounce through into the trees right if you don't play aggressively enough on the tee shot. The second shot plays uphill, with a bunker about 75 yards short of the green guarding the ideal right side. The green is long and narrow, with three bunkers left and one right.

The eighteenth hole.

Approaching the eighteenth green.

The eighteenth green.

Albany CC is a tough course. Tough in the classic parkland sense, with not particularly wide fairways, a generous but not overly dense helping of trees, bunkers pinching in the landing areas, and fast, undulating greens. The sort of course the PGA Tour plays week in and week out. You could imagine this course getting extra nasty if they grew the rough out at all. It's probably a little short to host the Tour nowadays, since it doesn't reach 7,000 yards, but back in the 60s it very easily could have. More importantly, unlike the Links at Gettysburg, Albany CC doesn't rely on a trillion water hazards for its difficulty. The course is hard, but it is entirely possible to go the whole round without losing a golf ball. I did, and I am extremely far from anyone's notion of an accurate golfer.

I do think this is a good, solid golf course, but many of the things that make it a tough course also hold it back from taking that extra step up, design wise. The greens are fine, but beyond that, Albany CC doesn't present anything really interesting. The challenges on the tee shots are pretty similar; there will be trees and a bunker or two pinching in the fairway in the landing area. It's fine and it works, but it's not exactly the most intellectually stimulating design. The positives definitely outweigh the drawbacks for me, at least, so I'd be happy to play the course again should the stars align for that to happen.

Beer of the Week

The beer: Double Nugget

The brewery: Tröegs Brewing Company, Hershey, Pennsylvania

Description (from the website): "Let's take Nugget and double it. Well, it wasn’t quite that easy, but it sure was a fun balancing act. To start, we boosted the Simcoe, and this complex hop’s notes of apricot, peach rings and bright citrus are the star of the show. Azacca enters the picture to add hints of juicy orchard fruit, and Munich malt brings a bready sweetness. To strike a balancing note, Columbus joins Nugget hops, grounding this limited release with a layer of dank pine."

Would I buy it again? I reviewed the normal Nugget Nectar four years ago (almost to the day), which I generally enjoyed but felt was a bit too hoppy. And here we have an imperial amber ale on steroids. Doubled, you might say. And honestly? This one's so close to being amazing. I want to love this one, I really do, but once again, it's just a bit too hoppy. There's that annoying little bit of bitterness on the aftertaste, and while it definitely doesn't ruin the beer, I can't help but be incredibly frustrated by it. So, just like the original, I'm not about to rush out to buy more

CPR Bowl LVIII: Taylor Swift vs. The Bee Gees

It's Taylor Swift's world right now, we're just living in it. Just look at the past few weeks: Announcing new albums, winning the Super Bowl, hosting academic conferences, there truly is no corner of this world Ms. Swift doesn't have a connection to.

Okay, fine, I'm exaggerating her influence slightly. She's not actually hosting Swiftposium 2024, held this past week in Melbourne, nor will she be making an appearance. No, it was just hundreds of scholars and scientists from nearly 80 legitimate academic institutions from all over the world gathered to "critical dialogue about Swift’s popularity and its profound implications for a range of issues including gender, fandom, popular culture, literature, the economy, the music industry, and more."

Now that we've set the scene, let's backtrack a bit and talk about CPR. It's an important skill for people to learn; while it may not be able to jump-start a stopped heart on its own, CPR can keep the blood flowing and brain functioning well enough until proper medical equipment arrives. People in cardiac arrest who receive CPR are twice as likely to survive than those who don't. Simply put, CPR saves lives.

A crucial aspect of CPR is, of course, the chest compressions, which need to be delivered at a rate of 100-120 beats per minute. Do you know what else is delivered at a similar rhythm? Music. Specifically, the Bee Gees song Stayin' Alive, which has been used as a metronome for CPR for decades. It's 103 bpm, right in the optimal range, and of course, you can't beat that title for relevance. 

Unfortunately, Stayin' Alive is nearly 50 years old at this point, which means its moving even out of the "dad rock" realm and into the world of "stuff your grandparents liked." The world understands The New York Times' effect on man, and we've moved on to new artists and new philosophical dilemmas. Which means CPR instructors need new music to act as a guide for kids who've never heard of the Bee Gees. 

That's why a group from Monash University created a Spotify playlist of 54 Taylor Swift songs at the crucial 100-120 bpm range, perfect for CPR. It makes sense. It's tough to think of a more popular artist today than Taylor Swift, and love her or loathe her, younger people will absolutely know her music. 

“If you can utilise something that people love and use it to empower them to feel confident in learning a skill that could save someone, then that’s really powerful,” said Dr. Stephen Nicholls, director of the Victorian Heart Institute, who presented the playlist at Swiftposium 2024. “There’s a CPR-suitable song for every Swifty Era.”

And indeed there is. While nothing can beat "Stayin' Alive" for sheer on-the-nose accuracy, Taylor Swift songs such as Long Live, Soon You'll Get Better, and King Of My Heart are certainly appropriate enough to keep cardiac arrest patients alive. There are a few questionable choices though; I'm not so sure I'd want to perform CPR to the tune of You're Losing Me, Is It Over Now? or perhaps worst of all, You're On Your Own, Kid. "Oops, sorry, I'd save you, but the song says you're on your own, and what Taylor Swift says goes."

Review: Albany Country Club (Part 1)

After the absolute majesty of the Links at Gettysburg, I think we all could use a palette cleanser. And so, welcome to Albany Country Club, a private course not quite in Albany, New York. Not only does it possess solid, interesting design, it provides a useful parallel to the Links at Gettysburg. Namely, Albany CC showcases how the architect can make a golf course difficult without needlessly punishing higher-handicap golfers.

While the club itself dates all the way back to 1890, the current Albany CC golf course was built in the early 1960s by one of golf's most famous architects, Robert Trent Jones. I'm not entirely sure what happened to the original course, but it was presumably a victim of postwar suburban expansion; the club sold off the expensive land and bought much cheaper land further out from the city. A classic story. I also can't speak to the quality of the original, though presumably since I haven't read anything about it, I can pretty safely say the new course is at worst, not a downgrade. 

Now, I've only played one RTJ course before this, and I feel like Cacapon doesn't fully capture the RTJ experience, as it's a very public and decidedly worn-out golf course. Still solid, with a great routing, but not at its peak. Albany CC is almost certainly much more faithful to the original design and to the classic RTJ tenet of "hard par, easy bogey," even with Albany have gone through one of the wettest summers on record and the course playing very, very soft. 

The first hole may actually be my favorite hole on the course. At 390 yards, it's not particularly long, but the thing is, at about 250 yards out the fairway drops precipitously down toward the green. You're left with a couple options. You can obviously lay back at the top of the hill, leaving you a downhill wedge shot, but there's a couple bunkers squeezing the fairway right at that point, so a lay-up is bringing them into play. You can of course hit driver, flirting with trees right, but then you're risking a dramatically downhill stance for the second shot, and that's not something you want coming into the green, which is quite small, guarded by four bunkers, and significantly undulating. A ridge running perpendicular about halfway through the green is especially troublesome; it is extremely difficult to judge a putt when the flag's on one side of this ridge, and you're on the other. I like this hole because there's no distinctly correct way to play it. Laying back has advantages and disadvantages, and hitting driver also comes with advantages and drawbacks. 

The first hole.

Approaching the first green.

The first green. That's me on the back of the green, facing an extremely dicey putt.

The second hole is 410 yards and doglegs slightly left around a bunker. The fairway is sloped fairly significantly from right to left, and that awkward stance notably complicates the second shot, especially if you've aimed away from the fairway bunker. The green is partially blind and surrounded by three bunkers digging in from all sides. Also, there's a tier running through the middle of the green. All in all, that adds up to a not particularly complicated hole, but one where it's difficult to really get the ball close to the hole for a decent birdie chance.

The second hole.

Approaching the second green.

The second green.

The third hole is 530 yards with a completely blind tee shot. Fortunately, while the playing corridor isn't dramatically wide, with trees on both sides, there are no bunkers in play. Just a fairway canted from right to left, similar to the previous hole. The second shot here is quite interesting, and successfully uses a tree as an interesting hazard, which you don't see too often. About 100 yards out, the fairway squeezes between a fairway bunker left and an overhanging tree right. If you find the left side of the fairway, you're relatively fine, but if you're out to the right, the sideslope of the fairway makes it tricky to get past the tree, or lay up in the ideal 100-yard spot. To get past, you'll have to hit a fade from a stance that encourages a draw. If you can't, you'll want to lay up short of the bunker, leaving a long third. This is not ideal either, as the green is fairly small, heavily undulating, and protected by four bunkers. Of course, people going for the green in two have to negotiate all that as well, an even tougher task from 250 yards out. Despite not having much space and requiring a pretty accurate tee shot, I think this is a good hole.

The third hole. Not much to see on the tee shot.

Approaching the third green.

The third green.

The fourth hole is about 400 yards and plays over pretty level terrain. The fairway is narrowed in the landing area by two bunkers right of the fairway; long hitters can definitely cut the corner, clearing the bunkers and leaving just a short wedge into the green. The rest of us have to either squeeze a driver between the bunkers and the tree line left, or lay up to the wider portion of the fairway. The green is well-bunkered, fairly large, and pretty undulating, with a deceiving amount of right-to-left tilt. Putts from above the hole are extremely quick.

The fourth hole.

Approaching the fourth green.

The fourth green.

The fifth hole is the first in a set of demanding par 3s at Albany CC. The hole is 170 yards, so not incredibly long, but it plays 50 feet uphill to a semiblind green. And don't think it's a forgiving green either, because it's narrow, only 15-20 yards in width. The green slopes from right to left, making the miss right particularly punishing. You are just not stopping a chip from right of the green close to the hole, and that means you're probably not getting up and down. Of course, the hole drops away left, so you don't really want to go left either. That left bunker is almost a kindness rather than a hazard, as it prevents golf balls from bouncing too far from the green.

The fifth hole.

The fifth green.

The sixth hole is a mid-length par 4 (not a huge amount of variation in par 4 length on the front nine) with a tee shot that plays slightly downhill. You can challenge the bunker and trees in the corner of the dogleg to give yourself a shorter second and a better angle into the green. Bailing out right means you'll have less green to work with, plus you'll have to clear two greenside bunkers. The green is fairly long and narrow, and filled with the usual Albany CC contours the golfer's become accustomed to.

The sixth hole.

The sixth green.

The seventh hole is 380 yards and plays straightaway to a fairway at the top of a small ridge. There are fall-offs on both sides of the fairway, though if you must miss this fairway, you definitely want to miss left. Not only are there fairway bunkers pinching in right, there's also a greenside bunker right and the green itself is not angled or sloped in such a way to welcome approach shots from the right. The green is quite large but very undulating; use the right slopes and you can get approach shots that land in one place and roll 30, 40 feet away. It's a fun green, but unfortunately the hole location we saw for our round was a little too unfriendly. It was essentially impossible to keep a putt from above the hole within 5-10 feet of the hole. It wouldn't have taken much to make the hole location fine, just moving the flag a few feet would have made all the difference in the world.

The seventh hole.

Approaching the seventh green.

The seventh green.

The eighth hole is the longest hole on the course, playing 580 yards. There's not much trouble on the tee shot beyond a few trees and a small, slightly silly-looking bunker that's not really in play and almost invisible when you're teeing off. The fairway rises up to about 350 yards out then slowly drops down, so the second shot will be blind. The second is complicated by a pond that cuts into the fairway about 50 yards out from the green. You need to be sure to lay back far enough that you're not bringing the pond into play on the second. There is not much fairway between the pond and the trees left. The lay-up is complicated slightly by the fact that the second shot is blind and you don't know exactly where the water is. The green is on a small peninsula jutting out into the pond and angled about 45 degrees from the fairway. You definitely want to hug the left tree line on the second shot; if you're out to the right you'll need to go over the water directly rather than skirting along the side. I remain unconvinced of the merits of blind water hazards, but at least on this hole you could lay up short of it easily enough and not hurt your chances of making birdie or par.

The eighth hole.

Approaching the eighth green.

The eighth green.

The ninth hole is up with the first in contending for best hole on the course. It's the shortest hole on the course at 166 yards, but it plays uphill to a small, narrow green that's very well guarded by three bunkers. The two on the left are very deep. But as with most of the greens on this course, simply getting onto the green isn't enough, as there's three distinct tiers, and if you end up on the wrong one, you're going to have a difficult putt. If you can control your distance correctly, though, you'll be rewarded with a short, relatively simple birdie putt. 

The ninth hole.

The ninth green.

That's it for this week, next week we'll take a look at the back nine.