Founders Journal · Week of June 24, 1976

Dear Member,

The desert has made its position clear. There is no negotiation with June in Palm Springs. You accept the terms or you leave. Most of our members have accepted the terms.

The early morning sessions continue to fill faster than we can post them. Six-thirty on Court Three has become something of a ritual — the same faces, roughly the same order of play, the same argument about who is serving first. I find this enormously comforting. Routine is underrated. Particularly when it happens before the rest of the world is awake.

We had a small padel competition this week — nothing formal, no trophy, no committee. Four pairs, a round robin, and a disagreement about the score in the third set that I suspect will not be fully resolved until autumn. The winners were gracious. The runners-up were gracious also, though they have asked that I note they were runner-up on points only, and that the final set was played in conditions they consider irregular. I consider this a reasonable position and have recorded it here accordingly.

On the golf course, Wednesday morning produced one of those rounds where the golf itself is largely incidental. The Desert Nine was in good shape. One member holed out from the fairway on the seventh. He has mentioned this four times since. We expect at least two more mentions before the week is out. He has earned them.

At the bar, Rafael has introduced something he is calling the Summer Arrangement — which is simply the Founders Margarita served slightly colder and with a little less ceremony. Nobody has complained. Several people have asked for two.

Vivian spent part of the week sourcing something for the kitchen she won't be specific about. She used the phrase a small project twice, which in my experience means something considerable is being planned quietly. I have learned not to ask. The results are always worth the patience.

The book is moving. Some weeks it moves faster than others. This was a slower week — not because nothing came, but because what came needed to be sat with for a while before it was ready to be written down. I think this is how the best things arrive.

Until next week — stay on court, stay in culture.