"Bowling" for the right to call it that

In these lean economic times, bowling is my one extravagance. Maybe I shouldn't really call it an extravagance, actually, as it's pretty cheap compared to most other ways I could be spending my spare time. But it feels like an extravagance for whatever reason. And I will bowl a 150 one of these days...but I digress.

The last time I went bowling, there was a party of three in the next lane. University students, I think. And they were bowling very, very badly. I'm not talking about people who are just learning how to bowl and are still hitting a lot of gutter balls (that still happens to me more often than I'd like!). They weren't even really trying. They were just tossing the balls every which way and not even always rolling them hard enough to make it all the way to the end of the lane. (Yep, just like Mr. Burns.) They did seem to be having a good time, so more power to them. But I do wonder why anybody would spend money on something like that!