Writing Boots

On communication, professional and otherwise.

China is opening up, OK?

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In a speech to be included in the next issue of Vital Speeches International, China vice president Xi Jinping makes the country's economic policy quite clear:

What we have is an open world and an open global economy. Under such circumstances, countries need to develop an open economy if the were to accelerate development. The pace of growth of an open economy hinges on how wide it opens, and its prospect is determined by how well it opens. China will expand the breadth and depth of opening-up to deepen opening-up along the coast, accelerate opening-up in the hinterland and upgrade opening-up of the border regions. We will promote reform, development and people's living standards all through opening-up.

Any questions? Yeah, I didn't think so.

“A hundred years ago, golf was free”

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In The New York Times today, I explore the price of progress at the oldest public golf course in Chicago.

History buffs and golf bums will appreciate this bit, which didn't make the cut.

“For a long time South Side golf enthusiasts have been dreaming of that happy morning when they should wake to find a golf course at a distance of less than twenty to thirty miles from their homes,” began an article in the Chicago Daily Tribune, April 30, 1899.

When Jackson Park finally did open as a nine-hole golf course month later, “nearly 100 persons, many of them women, went over the course during the day, while hundreds of interested spectators were scattered along the links, watching the players struggle to get the little balls to the red flags ….”

Golf at Jackson Park was free back then—the parks didn’t begin charging greens fees until 1920—and Jackson Park was immediately crowded … On the Fourth of July in 1906, 1,400 people played the course. …