Meet Joe THE
DiscLife.com's Slick, Professional Image Is About To Take A Serious Beating

by Joe THE / DiscLife.com
Web published on December 12, 2000

Hello fellow disc golfer! My name is Joe "THE" (known to the Philadelphia Corrections Department as Joe Mason), and I will be seeing quite a bit of you in the near future here at DiscLife.com. And I'm sure you're all asking yourselves, "Who the hell is this guy?" You're asking that question for good reason. See, I'm not a disc golfer whose dominance in the Advanced (a.k.a. "Bagger") division has won me massive headlines. As a matter of fact, more headlines are created by corduroy pillows than by my disc golf play. So, please allow me a couple of paragraphs to briefly (think Reader's Digest brief) answer the same questions put forth by Admiral James Stockdale in 1992's Vice Presidential debate: "Who am I? Why am I here?"

I am a disc golfer who resides in Philadelphia, PA. The course that I play at is in the Fairmount Park section of the city, at Sedgley Woods. Our course is the (disputed) second oldest pole hole course in the country. I am currently the Executive Assistant (fancy term for 'Vice President' or 'Lackey') of our club, in which my main purpose is to be ready to take over should our Executive Director (Topher Oxnam) get impeached for some sort of bribery and sex scandal that I have yet to make up.

I am also a regular contributor to our newsletter, Nice Up!, which comes out quarterly, and currently has a print run of over 400 copies per issue (not too bad for a club 'zine, eh??). One of my contributions is a 'toon called Sarcastic Plastic, which I collaborate on with my buddy Dave Stembel: I provide the "funny" and Dave provides the "art." (Some of these will be available here, which begs the question: Is this the first disc golf 'toon??? Probably not, but it still begs the question!) Another one of my submissions is a passive-aggressive-sarcastic article called "Joe's Big Mouth," in which I spout off about the dumb things I see happening in the sport of disc golf, or, at our course here in Philly (an article about me being a "cheater" can be found in the Adventures section). I'm in no way a professional writer, and don't pretend to be. I have fun writing, and hope you'll enjoy reading what I have to offer.

I began my disc golf career in the late-spring of 1994, when Shannon Winn brought me out to the course at Jordan Creek Park, in Whitehall, PA (near Allentown….yeah, yeah, yeah….THAT Allentown, like the Billy Joel song), and put a piece of plastic in my hand. My first drive went OB, into a tennis court. (Do you remember your first drive?) Despite this start, I continued on, and quickly fell in love with the game. It is at the course in Jordan Creek Park, maintained by the Barking Spiders Disc Golf Club, that I not only learned of this game, but also was anointed the nickname of "THE"…long story, maybe I'll tackle this in another article, or maybe I'll just let it be mysterious! I'm only a mediocre golfer, finding time to golf on weekends, and not too much more…having to work gets in the way!

As to the question of "why am I here?" -- I will be a regular contributor to DiscLife.com, and will try to provide a bit of levity to the site. This is a great website, but it needs a "funny pages," if you will. That's my goal…to be the JOE-kster. I hope to bring a bit of laughter to your day, and maybe even make you think! (YIKES!)

I don't care if anyone wants to drop me an email to tell me what you think. I know some of you will dislike what you see, and that's cool. I have no problems with people having their own opinion….even when it's wrong! You may email me with any comments or questions or criticisms…don't know if I'll use it, but you never know! I'm always going to try to do different things here so as not to grow too boring. My email address is joethe@disclife.com

Thanks for looking me up! I look forward to being a part of DiscLife.com, and would like to thank Brian for giving me the opportunity to contribute, and thank Todd Branch who, though I have never met him, was the one who gave Brian a copy of the Sedgley Woods newsletter with my article on cheating. You have great taste Mr. Branch!! This website will never be the same again!!!!!