But Mr. Nicklaus was recently nominated for Honorary Citizenship of St. Andrews, an award in the gift of the community council - and failed to gain sufficient support in a democratic secret ballot. He shouldn't feel too bad, as the award has never been offered to anyone else in its five year history. Apparently it should only be offered to very worthy candidates and only on rare occasions. Fair enough: it's arguable that these things are often too cheaply awarded. Although Jack Nicklaus has been associated with the town long and favourably, I don't suppose he's likely to have done much directly for the community. Maybe he was just put up for the wrong award.
Unfortunately, detecting a "snub" (sigh), the press and a number of MSPs who obviously aren't doing any worthwhile work for their constituents have leapt on this and worried it with enthusiasm, roundly condemning our plucky little band of principled local dignitaries and generally causing hassle all round for a lot of individuals - none of whom are individually to blame, and all of whom no doubt had valid reasons for voting, or abstaining, in the way they chose.
Even more unfortunately, my favourite GM, who was considering running a one-off game for the first time in nearly two years, and also happens to be a community councillor, has been busy fending off unwelcome publicity instead of preparing a game.
In a suitably hypocritical measure, I have used Jack's innocent name to publicise my story while I have a go at the press and MSPs in question. Am I evil, bad and wicked?
