Leonard Cohen in the Great Beyond

I think Hank Williams answered him. Rest in peace Leonard.

Where I come from, we bowl three balls a frame

I don't know why I felt compelled to blog about it, but I just read a fascinating New York Times article on duckpin bowling.  For the uneducated, duckpin is a variety of bowling that the Times describes as follows:

The grapefruit-size ball weighs less than four pounds and has no finger holes, and the squat duckpins look like out-of-shape cousins to the more familiar bowling pin. And even though a turn can include throwing three balls, instead of the two in the more common game of tenpin bowling, scores are still much lower.

As old-school pastimes sometimes are (stickball, anyone?), duckpin bowling is a regional phenomenon. I just happened to grow up in one of the regions, Connecticut. There was, and still is, a twenty-lane duckpin alley in my hometown, Johnson's Lanes. The smaller balls make it a good way for kids to learn bowling basics, and I probably went to a dozen birthday parties at Johnson's back in the late 1970s, when smoking was still prevalent enough that even kids at a bowling joint would come home stinking of second-hand Merritt 100s.

Pins are (from left) tenpin, duckpin and candlepin

Reading the article, it seems like duckpins are going the way of film cameras - eventually there won't be anyone left making or servicing the equipment. So if you're cruising around West Warwick, Rhode Island, make sure to stop in at Mac's Bowlaway. Or maybe you find yourself in Mt. Airy, Maryland, in which case Mt. Airy Bowling Lanes would be your best bet. Because lots of these places are endangered. And who knows, maybe you're the next Nick Tronsky and just don't know it yet.

Top duckpin bowler Amy Bisson Sykes, credit: New York Times

In Honor of NBA All Star Weekend: Soul Train meets Tom Tom Club meets Basketball