First time I went bowling, I was just a kid. My brother took me with a group from his work. As you can imagine I knew little or nothing about the game, especially the scoring. Fortunately, there were others there who knew how it was done.

I took the simple approach. I aimed straight for the center pin and tried to bowl straight down the middle of the lane. On the third frame, that was exactly what I did. I hit that head pin straight on.

Most who know a little about bowling, know that is just about the worst thing you can do. Sure enough, after the pins finished bouncing around, two pins remained up, the two that are the farthest apart.

Now that is just not right. I hit them dead center and they were supposed to fall, all of them. My brother broke out in laughter so much he could hardly stand. The rest had a little laugh too.

I faced reality. I mean I was a beginner, and a 7-10 split is difficult for even the best pro. I figured 9 pins was better than 8 so I carefully took aim at the one on the right. I almost missed it.

As I watched, I was afraid the ball was going to fall off and into the gutter. Even as a beginner, I knew gutter-balls were the worst thing. I mean, even if I’m going to miss, I did not want to face the embarrassment of a gutter-ball.

Then to my amazement, the ball barely clipped the right side of the right most pin and sent it flying across the alley and into the other pin. My brother instantly stopped laughing and his mouth dropped open. To my amazement, both the pins were down.

The others were laughing all the harder, but not at me. They all saw my brother’s expression, but they clapped and cheered for me.

I have bowled many games since, but never did I again pick up the 7-10 split. If I bowled 8 hours a day for the rest of my life, I most likely never would. If I did, it would be the same way as the first – total luck. An almost miss turned out to be my claim to fame. I guess it was my lack of skill that helped me.

However, one thing I learned that first day, you can’t score anything with gutter-balls. Even if the ball should bounce back out of the gutter and knock some of the pins over, they don’t count. Gutter-balls are the worst thing. Not only do you not knock any pins over, but they are also so, so humiliating.

I guess Joe Biden ought to know what I’m saying. Since he has taken office, he has rolled one figurative gutter-ball after the other. However, it is worse yet. He doesn’t even have the common since to be embarrassed. He just keeps on bowling and saying how wonderful he is doing. To hear him speak, he’s throwing strike after strike.