The biggest problem of pool is that there are a lot of arrogant douche bags that ruin it for the novice player. The second biggest problems of pool and chess are the annoying noises.
The great joy of bowling is that I can enjoy a great round of bowling when some young teenage girl squat walks up to the line as if she were lugging a heavy watermelon with both hands and gently aims and slowly heaves it down the alley and gets a strike! Next person up is a beefy thirty-something male that curves a fast ball for a strike. These two people were within 10 points on final tally. Awesome.
Plus bowling has a more complex sound spectrum than either chess or pool. Too much silence in chess, too much clacking balls and obscenities in pool make for irritating sessions. Whereas bowling sounds are complex; the soothing of constantly rolling balls, the lovely clatter of pins falling, the gossip in the waiting chairs, the shouts of victories or defeats, it is calming and grounding amidst the chaos.
Pool and chess weed out novices early, making them less appealing to the general public.
See, and I like playing (I’m not one for watching others play sports) all of those (though I prefer racquetball to tennis). But watching ball after ball of mine drift into the gutter is just an exercise in frustration for me. I do enjoy the slippery-soled shoes as they remind me of dance shoes, which is my favorite physical activity of any by far.
Don’t know about chess, but you’ll see plenty of people in a pub who barely know one end of a cue from another enjoy taking half an hour for a game of 8 ball. Plenty of novices. One problem advancing is most of them were never taught how to hold a cue, or the person teaching them didn’t know. Like any sport, awful form will keep you from ever getting past novice. It’s like playing tennis where no one ever told you there was a backhand shot, and no one you play with knows either. Other problem is most of them don’t even know a higher game exists, I’ve seen people who can make shots but the notion of controlling the cue ball blows their minds.
Back to bowling, I guess it’s matter of taste. Some people like to play Crazy eights rather than Bridge, and not have to think much. Its your rec time, enjoy.
Pfft. Amateurs.
Okay, here goes: some of the pictures do not show a bowling lane at all. In that case it’s a Kegelbahn; in most cases probably a Bundeskegelbahn.
BTW, I was under the impression it’s called the “Penchant for Pedantery” award and comes in the form of a pendant? But I may have been misinformed. Again.
It takes a pretty skilled baseball player to hit a ball out of the park and a pro golfer may go an entire career without ever getting a hole-in-one. But even a novice bowler with a good buzz going is likely to get a strike once in a while. Plus, cool shirts.
Heheheh, I’d forgotten this terrible part in a terrible movie and I. . . .wait a second. . . THE NUNS THE DANCING FRIGGIN’ NUNS! Excuse me, I have to go inflame the internet with my opinion that Grease 2 is a far superior movie to Grease.
I was kind of confused as Munich really isn’t a bowling capital. Upon closer inspection, a lot of these lanes are Kegelbahn-lanes, aka candlestick bowling. The balls are smaller, and it’s nine pins arranged in a diamond. It’s all there in the Bloomberg article.
Oh, and yes, I have been to one or two of them, though I am a terrible bowler. When at Isar Bowling I only broke 100 in one of the three games. I suck at bowling. Kegeln is interesting, as there are different games to play.
Kegeln is a sport for seniors nowadays (regular and in clubs). Involves a lot of drinking and often a mandatory meal/food arrangement from the attached bar/restaurant (one of the reason why it’s becoming unpopular btw).
