Bowling

Pros about bowling:

1. The concept of the game -- rolling a heavy ball at high speed down a smooth lane and knocking down as many pins as possible -- is simple but fun.
   
2. This is subliminally assisted by the "fun" (if you will) of handling the big, smooth bowling balls, of hearing the "*CRACK!*" noise the pins make when you strike them, etc.
   
3. It can be a group activity, a thing for couples to do, etc. In fact, if the guy is better than the girl, he can flirtatiously help his girl bowl; and if the girl is better than the guy, he can congratulate his sexy bowling queen. (This second one actually happened last night. Made me really wish I had a girlfriend.)
   
4. It's not too expensive -- $9 for two games which last 2 hours. (There's a catch to this that we'll address later.)

And that's about it. Now, onto the bulk of what bowling's all about ...

Cons about bowling:

1. Most of the bowling alleys I have been to (in the state of Indiana) have been operated by and populated by white folks from the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum. That in itself lends the bowling alley the same "seedy" feel that most bars have. When I go bowling, I don't want to feel like I'm going to a bar. That's the real problem, isn't it: bowling has been "claimed", if you will, by the same crowd who has also laid claim to NASCAR, pool (billiards), and poker.
   
2. Bowling requires physical strength (in the wrists and in the arm, mostly). Because of this, the weaker you are, the less able you will be to win at bowling. I am one of the weakest people in school and have a hard time bowling with a ball heavier than 7 pounds. Because of this, I object to the notion that bowling is a great social event for everyone to participate in. It's much more analogous to inviting everyone at med school to come out for a night of Indoor Soccer or hockey or something. It's nothing at all like pool (which may require physical skill but not much in the line of physical strength) and it's certainly not like a boardgame, a game of cards, or mahjong (which may require skill but none of it physical).
   
3. Even at 6½ pounds, the ball hurts my wrist so much that "proper technique" really hurts my wrist and makes me feel like I'm going to snap something. The only way I can comfortably bowl winds up placing the ball in the gutter 50% of the time and striking down all or nearly all of the pins the other half of the time.
   
4. I can't run because I feel like I'm going to slip.
   
5. I dislike bowling shoes and don't understand why they won't allow us to wear sneakers like you can at a basketball court. "Scuff the floor," schmuff the floor! I don't buy it. And you sure as hell can't run better when the shoes are as smooth and the floor is as polished as they are at a bowling alley!
   
6. I dislike having to wait so long for my turn. It took ~2 hours for 6 people to complete 10 rounds in a game with 2 bowls of the ball per round times 2 games. Yes, that calculates to only 30 seconds per bowl of the ball (speedy!) but therein lies my point: I have to wait 5 minutes between turns for only 1 minute of action.
   
7. I dislike that the wait between turns is not long enough for you to wander off and do something else (like play a complete game of pool or play at the arcade or something). See above for the calculation of 5 minutes between turns.
   
8. And hey! Now that I think about it, doesn't this mean that I was only bowling (myself) for about 20 minutes? You mean to tell me I paid $9 for only 20 minutes of entertainment? That's like asking me to spend $54 just to see a normal 2-hour movie!
   
9. I dislike how bowling (more so than some other sports) seems to encourage poor sportsmanship on both sides: sore winners as well as sore losers.

And now some concessions:

• I'll agree that bowling would be a lot more fun as a couples' activity. You still get one lane all to yourself but now it's only a 1-minute wait for your turn to come back up and instead of being there for 2 hours you can complete two full games in about 40 minutes. Very much worth every penny of $9 per person.
  
• I'll concede that it's my personal problem, and not a problem of bowling's necessarily, that I am uncomfortable being surrounded by "bar people" and not having many white-collar folks around.

Anyway, game 1 = 42, game 2 = 64. Almost all of those points played out as either 0's and 1's or 8's, 9's, or spares. (I sometimes get one or two strikes but not a single one last night.)

In response to Reply #1: Blogger doesn't allow HTML in the comments section outside of Bold, Italics, and hyperlinks for whatever stupid reason, so I'm going to have to post this here: