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Article / Updated 04-12-2024
The sheer variety of golf clubs you need can be overwhelming. Once you have all the clubs you need and you hit the links, how do you know which club to use for each shot? The following table gives you a quick guide to the kinds of clubs in your bag and the shots you take with them. Club What It’s For Driver Teeing off — and very occasionally hitting from a good lie in the fairway Hybrid club Getting shots of 150+ yards airborne 2- to 9-iron Hitting toward the green, usually from 120–190 yards away — use low-numbered irons for longer shots, high-numbered irons for shorter shots Wedges Hitting short, high shots from near the green or from sand bunkers Putter Rolling the ball into the hole after it’s on the green (or occasionally from just off the green) To figure out which golf club to use for a specific shot, you need to know the average distance you hit a ball with each golf club in your set. Then, you simply choose the golf club that fits the distance you need to hit. The best way to find out is to hit about 50 balls with each club. Eliminate the longest five and the shortest five, and then figure out the middle of the remaining group. That’s your average yardage. This table shows how far the average golfer generally hits with each club when he or she makes solid contact. When you start to play this game, you probably won’t attain these yardages — but while you practice, you can get closer to these numbers. Which Club Should You Use? Club Men’s Average Distance Women’s Average Distance Driver 230 yards 200 yards 3-wood 210 yards 180 yards 2-iron 190 yards Not recommended; 4-wood or hybrid = 170 yards 3-iron 180 yards Not recommended; 5-wood or hybrid = 160 yards 4-iron 170 yards 150 yards (consider a hybrid, instead) 5-iron 160 yards 140 yards 6-iron 150 yards 130 yards 7-iron 140 yards 120 yards 8-iron 130 yards 110 yards 9-iron 120 yards 100 yards Pitching wedge 110 yards 90 yards Sand wedge 90 yards 80 yards Lob wedge 65 yards 60 yards
View ArticleCheat Sheet / Updated 04-12-2024
Planning what you eat, your activity level, and the amount of food you eat are all powerful steps to improving your health. Managing diabetes means prioritizing your health and the way that you feel. Choosing the best foods and discovering how to combine them is key to achieving the best, most delicious, enjoyable, and sustainable diet.
View Cheat SheetCheat Sheet / Updated 04-12-2024
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Article / Updated 02-26-2024
Springtime in the Mediterranean (March through May) brings warm weather and new crops such as brightly colored, pencil-thin asparagus; dark leafy greens; and artichokes. Nothing is quite like seeing these welcoming veggies lined up in the produce aisle or at the farmers' market after a long, cold winter. Here are some simple Mediterranean-inspired veggie dishes to go along perfectly with a spring meal. Roasted Grapes with Walnuts and Feta Preparation Time: 8 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes Yield: 4 servings 1 pound red grapes, washed, dried and de-stemmed 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon honey 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1/4 cup walnuts 1/4 cup feta Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread the grapes out evenly. In a small bowl, whisk the olive oil, honey, and vinegar and drizzle over the grapes to coat. Place the grapes in the oven and drop the heat to 400 degrees. Roast the grapes for 15 minutes. To serve, top the grapes with the walnuts and feta. PER SERVING: Calories 234 (From Fat 119); Fat 14g (Saturated 3g); Cholesterol 8mg; Sodium 91mg; Carbohydrate 28g (Dietary Fiber 2g); Protein 3g. Braised Artichokes Preparation Time: 25 minutes Cook Time: 23 minutes Yield: 6 servings 4 small artichokes 1 lemon 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 leek 4 cloves garlic, sliced 1/4 cup mint or basil, chopped 1-1/2 cups chicken stock 1/2 cup white wine Salt to taste Using a sharp knife, cut off the tip of the artichoke stems and remove the artichokes' tough outer leaves. Cut a 1/2-inch piece off the top of each artichoke and trim any remaining thorns on the tips. Cut the artichokes in half. Place all the halves in a large bowl of water. To prevent browning, slice the lemon in half, squeeze the juice into the water, and place the lemon halves in the water as well. Using a spoon or paring knife, cut out the purple choke (not to be confused with the heart) in the center of the artichoke. Slice each artichoke half into 4 to 6 wedges and return them to the lemon water. In a Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Cut the leek into 1/4-inch slices, separate the rings, and rinse well to remove any sand. Add the leeks and garlic to the heated olive oil and sauté for 6 minutes. Drain the artichokes and pat dry. Add the mint and artichokes to the pan and continue to cook over low heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Pour in the stock. Bring the pot to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cover for 10 minutes. Stir in the white wine and simmer uncovered for 5 to 10 minutes or until tender. Season with salt and serve. PER SERVING: Calories 152 (From Fat 85); Fat 9g (Saturated 1g); Cholesterol 1mg; Sodium 113mg; Carbohydrate 12g (Dietary Fiber 5g); Protein 4g. You can save time by using frozen artichoke hearts rather than cutting them fresh. Just thaw them out and skip to Step 3. Leeks are grown in sandy soil, so rinsing fresh leeks well and separating the rings to remove all sandy debris is important. Grilled Fennel Preparation Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 8 minutes Yield: 4 servings 2 fennel bulbs 1 tablespoon plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 1⁄8 teaspoon salt 1⁄8 teaspoon red pepper flakes 1 orange 1/4 cup raw almonds, chopped Heat a grill over medium-high heat. Cut the fennel bulbs in half, drizzle them with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, and season with the salt and red pepper flakes. Grill the fennel for 4 to 6 minutes on each side. Using a sharp knife, cut the skin away from the orange, removing the white outer portion. Cut the orange in half; break it into segments. Toast the almonds in a skillet over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring or tossing constantly to avoid burning. Sprinkle the almonds over the orange slices. Thinly slice the fennel and toss it with the orange slices and almonds. Drizzle with the remaining olive oil and serve. PER SERVING: Calories 169 (From Fat 103); Fat 11g (Saturated 1g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 235mg; Carbohydrate 16g (Dietary Fiber 6g); Protein 4g. You can see how to cut fennel for this recipe here.
View ArticleCheat Sheet / Updated 02-23-2024
Once you know what makes houseplants happy, growing them is a snap. If you start with one of the 10 easy houseplants I suggest and then follow the guidelines and tips in this Cheat Sheet, you’ll have a green thumb before you know it. You can then join the large and growing clan of dedicated houseplant lovers, and you may even decide to branch out with more difficult plants or crafts, such as creating your own corsage. Good luck and welcome to the club!
View Cheat SheetArticle / Updated 02-22-2024
A corsage is a wearable flower arrangement. Although some people think corsages are unfashionable (or even corny), I guarantee that if you make one for yourself or your partner for a special occasion, you’ll get loads of compliments. Many houseplants’ flowers and foliage make stunning and long-lasting corsages, and you can create one yourself relatively quickly. Some examples are anthuriums, various ferns, many orchids, and gardenias. Follow these steps: Remove the flower you want to use from its plant, keeping about 3 inches (7.6 cm) of the stem. Wrap the stem with florist’s wire as shown in the first photo. Start at the top and work your way down to the base of the stem. Two or three passes are sufficient. Cut the excess wire with wire cutters or utility scissors. Wrap florist’s tape around the flower stem as shown in the second photo. You can purchase this tape at craft stores, online, or from florists. As with the florist’s wire, start at the top and work your way down to the base of the stem. Cut the excess tape with utility scissors. If you want, you can add a fern frond or some other delicately textured green foliage to the corsage (see the third photo). Hold the frond against the stem and at the back of the flower. Fasten the foliage to the flower stem by wrapping them both with another layer of tape. For a decorative touch, you can add a ribbon, and don’t forget to provide a florist’s pin like the one shown in the fourth photo. Now you’re ready to go to the ball! Place the finished corsage in a sealed rigid plastic container or in a plastic bag and keep it in your refrigerator until it’s ready to be worn. For more houseplant know-how, check out the Houseplants & Succulents For Dummies Cheat Sheet or buy the book.
View ArticleArticle / Updated 02-22-2024
Listen to the article:Download audio March Madness is the nickname for the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) Division I basketball tournament, one of the most exciting championship events in women’s sports. Happening alongside the men’s March Madness, the tournament always begins in mid-March. And like the men’s contest, it involves 68 teams (of the approximately 350 Division I women’s teams). Thirty-two teams are automatically entered into March Madness; the remaining 34 are selected by the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee, which bases its selection on how the teams performed during the regular season. The committee also seeds the teams, meaning they rank the teams and decide where to “plant” them within the tournament bracket. These rankings are announced on Selection Sunday. Four of these 68 teams are eliminated during the opening round of the tournament, called the First Four. The basketball committee then divides the remaining 64 teams into four regions of 16 teams each, and they are ranked 1 through 16. Each team’s rank is referred to as their seed. Where the games are played At the beginning of the tournament, the games are played on campus sites. The 2023 regional rounds — Sweet 16, Elite 8, and Final Four — will be played at two sites: Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle and Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina. The championship game will be at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Here is the 2024 schedule, for the women’s March Madness: Selection Sunday: March 17 (brackets, seeds, and team selections) First four: March 20-21 First round: March 22-23 Second round: March 24-25 Sweet 16: March 29-30 Elite Eight: March 31-April 1 Final Four: April 5 National Championship: April 7 You can watch games on ESPN and Sling TV. ABC will broadcast the title game. The 2023 top seeds The heavy favorite of the 2023 tournament is the top-ranked University of South Carolina, which beat Stanford for the 2022 title. The other number-one seeds, in order of best season records, are: Indiana University Stanford University University of Utah The number-two seeds are: Louisiana State University University of Maryland University of Connecticut University of Iowa There are many outstanding players in women's college basketball; here's a list of just ten who are considered some of the best today: Aliyah Boston, University of South Carolina Caitlin Clark, University of Iowa Haley Jones, Stanford University Ashley Joens, Iowa State University Elizabeth Kitley, Virginia Tech Cameron Brink, Stanford University Angel Reese, Louisiana State University Olivia Miles, University of Notre Dame Hailey Van Lith, University of Louisville Rori Harmon, University of Texas Origin of the women's NCAA March Madness tournament Although the NCAA Division I basketball tournament has been around since 1939, the women were not included until 1982. Women had a long fight with the NCAA before that, even after Title IX was passed in 1972, to realize this big change. Strangely enough, that first NCAA women’s contest in 1982 coincided with another championship tournament put on by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). (Incidentally, Rutgers beat Texas to win the AIAW championship, and Louisiana Tech beat Cheyney State to win the NCAA tournament.) Why were there two tournaments? Because up until the 1981-1982 school year, the NCAA was not interested in women’s sports championships. Those had been under the purview of the women-led AIAW, which had been governing women’s collegiate sports since 1971. Of the many ways it supported women’s sports, the AIAW played a role in the passage of Title IX in 1972, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs or activities that receive federal funding. However, in 1981, when the all-male-led-NCAA added women’s sports to its championship program for the first time, it created an uneven playing field in the battle with the AIAW for the governance of women’s collegiate sports. That fight lasted for about a year, but ultimately, the power and money of the NCAA won out. The AIAW folded in 1982. Inequities within March Madness Unfortunately, the NCAA hasn’t valued women’s sports as much as men’s sports throughout most of its existence. However, that is beginning to change, and one of the most conspicuous examples came with the 2022 NCAA women’s basketball tournament. An outcry on social media during the 2021 March Madness tournament pointed out the stark inequities between the men’s and women’s practice facilities and amenities. This led the NCAA to hire a law firm to conduct a review of gender equity related to the tournaments in general. The resulting report uncovered many examples of inequities related to spending on marketing and promotion, players’ meals and services, event staffing, and more. The report led the NCAA to try to level the field in 2022. It expanded the number of women’s teams from 64 to 68, the same as the men, and used the “March Madness” phrase for the women’s tournament for the first time. The organization also provided the same gifts to the men’s and women’s teams in 2022, staged similar fan events, and paid the game officials the same. However, there still remained a large gap between the NCAA’s spending on promotion, TV coverage, and more. In a March 11, 2022, Washington Post article, Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball, wouldn’t comment on the gap in spending between the men’s and women’s tournaments. However, he did say, “The work is not done. There is more to do, and we look forward to doing more after this year’s championship.”
View ArticleArticle / Updated 02-22-2024
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) hosts a basketball tournament every year that begins the week of March 19. The tournament includes 68 men’s teams and 68 women’s teams. (The NCAA expanded the women's field from 64 to 68 in 2022.) The men’s tournament is televised on CBS, TBS, TNT, and TruTV network affiliate stations; the women’s tournament will be available on ESPN, the ESPN app, ABC (for the title game), and Sling TV. The schedule for the 2024 men’s NCAA March Madness tournament is as follows: Selection Sunday: March 17 (brackets, seeds, and team selections) First four: March 19-20 First round: March 21-22 Second round: March 23-24 Sweet 16: March 28-29 Elite Eight: March 30-31 Final Four: April 6 National Championship: April 8 The schedule for the 2024 women’s NCAA March Madness tournament is as follows: Selection Sunday: March 17 (brackets, seeds, and team selections) First four: March 20-21 First round: March 22-23 Second round: March 24-25 Sweet 16: March 29-30 Elite Eight: March 31-April 1 Final Four: April 5 National Championship: April 7 Selection Sunday Each year on Selection Sunday, 32 teams gain automatic entry into the tournament due to winning their conference’s championships. The remaining teams rely on a selection committee to be granted entry into the tournament. This process takes place on the Sunday before the March Madness Tournament begins and, therefore, is appropriately named Selection Sunday. It is also the day when the brackets and seeds are released to the public. Brackets are the format in which the tournament runs. For example, on the day of the First Four games, there will be four brackets and eight teams playing; the four losing teams will then be removed from the tournament and the four winning teams will move to their new brackets and prepare for the next round of games. After the First Four, the regular tournament begins with 64 brackets including the winning teams that played in the First Four. The winner from each bracket will move on to the next set of brackets until eventually all teams have been “weeded” out and only two remain to play for the championship game. Seeds are essentially committee rankings. The teams in each division are ranked in descending order, with the strongest team (or team most likely to win) ranked in the number-one spot and the weakest team in that division is ranked number 16. The brackets are split up accordingly so the tournament's powerhouse teams are evenly distributed within the 64 brackets. The First Four round The First Four refers to the number of matches/brackets played — not number of teams. The First Four includes the eight lowest ranking teams in the men's division that play against each other, and the four losing teams are removed from the tournament. This part of the tournament is also known as “First Four Out” since four of the teams will lose out of the tournament before it even has really begun. The First Four Out was designed to get the 68 men's teams down to 64 so that the number of teams is the same as in the women's divisions. The brackets and dates, therefore, can be the same for both the men and women divisions. This part of the tournament applies only to the men's teams. In the First Round, those 64 teams play against each other to move on to the Second Round. Second round In the Second Round, the remaining 32 teams play in 16 brackets, and the winners of each bracket then move on to the regional semi-finals (Sweet 16 round); the losers again are removed from the tournament. Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds The regional semi-finals, also known as the Sweet Sixteen, is where the final sixteen teams are set up in matches against other teams within their regional divisions. The divisions are broken up into geographical areas and listed as follows: East West South Midwest The winners of the regional semi-finals are then moved to the regional finals where only eight teams remain, known as the Elite Eight. These eight teams play head-to-head to determine the winners, and the remaining four teams from all regions are matched up in the national semi-finals. The Final Four After regional finals, the remaining four teams from all regions are eligible to play in the national semi-finals. These remaining four teams are known as “The Final Four,” and this is where many people start watching the tournament. The final four teams then play, and the two winners from the national semi-finals move on to the national finals. Championship game The national finals or championship game is where the final two teams play to determine the winner of the current year's March Madness tournament. The NCAA has changed the format of the game several times in its history, as well as the name. In recent years the name of the tournament has been simply “NCAA Division 1 Tournament,” but the more popular March Madness title will always remain.
View ArticleArticle / Updated 02-01-2024
Mistakes are bound to happen as you explore barbecue cooking, but they are a part of the BBQ adventure. Here are five rookie mistakes to avoid: Being in a hurry. If you want fast, cook a grilled cheese. If you want barbecue, chill out. Slow is the essence of barbecue. Cooking at low temperatures for a goodly amount of time is what makes barbecue barbecue and makes the meat melt in your mouth. Before you cook, put some thought into how much time you're going to need, how you want to season or sauce your product, and the sides you want to serve with it. Good planning makes you less likely to get distracted when your meat needs you most. Taking meat from fridge to fire. Putting meat onto the grate right from the refrigerator adds a lot of cold air to your smoker, and that's likely to lead to condensation of creosote from the charcoal. The creosote floats up via the smoke and onto your meat, adding an undesirable flavor and texture. So let your meat sit at room temperature for about an hour before cooking. Most recipes count on your doing so and advise cooking times that are based on the meat starting at about room temperature. Letting meat rest at room temperature for more than an hour is a bad idea. When it gets too warm, it also becomes susceptible to bacteria. Adding sauce too early. Two mainstays of barbecue sauces, sugar and tomatoes, have low heat tolerance and cook faster than meat. Apply these types of sauces too early and you'll end up with a burnt, black, crackling coating before the meat is done. So wait until the meat is almost finished cooking before you add a sweet sauce with tomatoes. A minute or two on each side of the meat over a low to moderate flame is all the time the sauce needs to add taste and texture. Poking holes into the meat. Don't use a fork to move the meat. You want to keep the precious juices inside the meat, so use tongs. Stab it, and you provide a sure route for the juices to ooze out, taking with them any hope you had for great barbecue. Forgetting rest time: Slice into meat before giving it a chance to rest, and you lose almost half the juices. Meat juices go where the heat is lowest, so give them a chance at your cutting board and they run for it. Allow the meat to rest after you take it off the heat: The juices will be reabsorbed by the proteins that set them free in the first place. Cut into a well-rested piece of meat, and you find tender juiciness rather than a puddle around your desiccated pork chop.
View ArticleCheat Sheet / Updated 01-08-2024
Whether you’re a relocator moving to an apartment in a new city, a recent grad searching for your first rental house, or an experienced renter stepping up your game, you need a few tools to search for a new place to call home confidently. This Cheat Sheet covers a few critical steps for successfully finding a rental quickly.
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