The Physics of Fools at Prairie Schooner
August 31, 2016 § Leave a comment
The folks at the wonderful Prairie Schooner have been posting mini-essays on their blog as part of a series called Sports Shorts. Today I have one called “The Physics of Fools,” one of two (!) featured essays about my beloved pastime, candlepin bowling.
It’s an insular sport. You face away from your friends when you bowl, and there is no element of defense. Candlepin bowling, in particular, comes with a sense of geographic isolation, the border between candlepin country and tenpin country running roughly parallel with the Connecticut River.
At the same time, check out E. Thomas Finan’s delightful essay, “Geoffrey Crayon’s Reflections on the Puritanical Pleasures of Candlepin Bowling.”
It’s exciting to see my favorite regional sport get some love from a midwestern journal. I have another, larger essay that I’ve been shopping around that’s also about candlepin bowling, but it’s more about the game’s tenuous future in a limited regional market when people are finding other new ways to spend their leisure dollars.
Neil Serven 
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