BSR

None, really. If Novak isn't already vaccinated, then he will have to skip this year's AO. Novak's only chance of playing is if he is already vaxxed and is just being super-secretive about it (remember how weird he is about privacy). What's odd is that all 3 Serbian sports papers report that he is in Belgrade and is practicing hard -- something they've seen for themselves, not just some crazy rumor they heard. If he knew he was skipping Australia, then he'd be on the ski slopes, not the practice court.

I'm reading conflicting reports from Serbian news sources. Because the Serbian press has whipped itself into a frenzy over this issue, they're reporting every single rumor they come across. One of the Serbian sports papers even cited Emilio Sanchez as a "source." WTF?! Since when is Emilio Sanchez the definitive authority on Novak Djokovic?? According to the guys over on Men's Tennis Forum, of the 3 big Serbian sports newspapers, 2 are saying Novak is skipping the 2022 AO, 1 says he is playing. None of the 3 is getting their news from the horse's mouth. I'll wait to hear what Novak has to say. Apparently he has no chance of getting a medical exemption. If he has not gotten the jab yet, it's already too late because a player needs to get the 2nd shot at least 2 weeks before arriving in Australia.

Since the university paper was 19 pages, I admit that I only skimmed it, but the writer made a distinction between mainstream news orgs and sensationalist tabloids, not between mainstream and alternative journalism, like Tim Pool or Substack.

I tried a search in Spanish but got the same result: Romanian 39yo w/9 priors & Moroccan 29yo w/17 priors, but no information beyond that. I read 3 news reports, none gave names or photographs. Plenty of other links, but I stopped after 3 because I assumed they all withheld further info. I also found a paper written by a university student (I can't figure out how to link the PDF) where he states that the ethical standard for Spanish mainstream news orgs is to not identify suspects by their name or image in order to maintain presumption of innocence and to avoid trial by public opinion. However, it does not look like there are any laws prohibiting the publication of names & photos.

I saw a recipe on YouTube for Filipino chicken salad that called for Miracle Whip, condensed milk, canned pineapple (drained) and sweet relish. I mentioned it to my mother and commented that it sounded disgusting. She responded that that's how Filipinos make it, and in fact, I had eaten & enjoyed that recipe many times at various relatives' homes. Imagine my horror.

Dominic Thiem announced via Twitter that he was withdrawing from the Australian Open. His first tournament back will be Córdoba, Argentina.

You won $10 million from a scratch ticket?! I didn't think scratch tickets had such big payouts. A friend back in Boston won $100K off a scratch ticket, and I thought that was huge.

Uh oh, the likelihood that Novak will the Australian Open just dropped like a rock. While he has not officially withdrawn from the ATP Cup, a member of his team leaked, "It is 99 percent sure that Novak won't go to the ATP Cup. He is training here (in Belgrade) but he has decided to give that tournament a miss." If Novak skips the ATP Cup, then he's not playing the AO either. Roger is definitely out, Rafa is a maybe, Novak is looking far less likely. If none of the Big 3 plays the Australian, then that is the end of an era, or at least the beginning of the end. Until recently, the Big 3 not only played every Slam but won almost all of them as well. I don't know if Roger ever makes it back. Rafa should be back on tour, just maybe not in time for the AO. Novak has no physical issues, but who knows if the other 3 Slams will impose vaccine mandates in the future. Given their ages (Roger 40, Rafa 35, Novak 34), the Big 3 Era had to end at some point, but I still hate to see it.

I saw an interesting stat from Madrid: 12/23/2020: 2,621 new cases, 210 new hospitalizations 12/23/2021: 20,195 new cases, 144 new hospitalizations I wish they had a breakdown of how many of those 144 hospitalizations were Omicron vs. Delta.

From the horse's mouth: Rafa says he's experiencing only mild symptoms. He doesn't worry about the Covid itself, more how long it will take to recover and how long he is unable to train and practice. Even if he recovers in time to make it to Australia, he will have missed precious preparation time before a Slam and after a 6-month layoff. That would be tough for any player, even more so for a 35-year-old.

An interesting wrinkle in Rafa's comeback from injury: he has tested positive for Covid. No word on how he's feeling, but given his age, fitness, and 2 vaccine shots, I'm guessing that physically he's fine. He has enough time before the start of the AO (Jan 17) to shed the virus and test negative, but his participation in the warm-up tournament (Melbourne, Jan 4) he planned on playing might be in jeopardy. On the podcast I'm listening to, they said that once a player tests positive, first he has to test negative then wait 7 days before he can board a plane for Australia. If he can't play Melbourne, his only other tune-up option is Sydney, but that's the week right before the AO, and top players almost never play the week before a Slam. Another option is going into the AO with no competitive match play (Novak often has before both the AO and Wimbledon yet has gone on to win the tournament). No warmup is far from ideal, however, for a player who's been out with injury for 6 months. No word yet on whether Novak is vaccinated, but we'll find out soon because he's entered in the ATP Cup, which starts Jan 1. Dominic Thiem caught a cold while in Dubai (tested negative for Covid) and has withdrawn from both the ATP Cup and Sydney. His participation in the AO is a wait & see.

"I'm into everything" can also mean "that'll be extra."

Huh, you learn something new every day. It's been 33 years since my year in Salamanca (Spain), yet I had never heard of yeísmo & had always thought the Y and the LL had identical pronunciations. I even found a YouTube video on the subject to hear the difference, but it's so subtle that I'll never pick up on it. The only differences I hear are between countries. (Some) Spaniards pronounce the Y & LL more like the J in English, Mexicans like the Y, and Argentines like ZH or SH. If a handsome Argentine speaks with that melodic porteño lilt and all those drawn-out zzzhhhh's, I melt like butter on a hot summer afternoon.

I googled it, and it sounds like "probably not" is correct. According to immigrationhelp.org -- "The amount of time that it takes to get a marriage Green Card is different for every case ... On average, it takes 10-38 months to get a Marriage Green Card." So 10 months if everything goes perfectly, but since when does cutting through red tape go off without a hitch?

If this marriage lasts less than a year, is that enough time to get the young man a green card?

Was there a one-day pause for St. Patrick's Day?

Nuns ... Catholic school ... too traumatic to go into detail

I have no idea why I typed Dalí, must have been a brain fart. Dalí was a painter, not an architect. From the Wiki article, apparently Gaudí quit the Episcopal Palace years before it was finished, and another architect completed the project. Maybe that's why the Episcopal Palace is the only Gaudí work I like, because Gaudí's over-the-top style was moderated by another architect. I admire La Sagrada Familia for how different it is. Anyone can recognize it instantly because it looks like no other church on earth. But judging just the aesthetics, I still think its fugly.

Or one man's underrated is another man's overrated. I'm with @Rockey, I thought Sagrada Familia was fugly. I'm just not a fan of his architecture, although I can appreciate how different it is. In the category of underrated, I nominate Dali's Episcopal Palace in Astorga, León, Spain. It reminds me more of a fairy tale castle than a church.

Mexican food looks and smells so appealing, but since they add a ton of cilantro to so many dishes, I can't eat it. Yup, I'm in that ~10% who thinks cilantro tastes like soap. Sometimes I see a Mexican recipe that sounds really good and wonder if I could sub out the cilantro for Italian parsley or another herb.

A player's name on the entry list means even less than I thought. I just read over on MTF that all active players with a ranking above the direct entry cutoff get automatically placed on the Australian Open entry list. Also, I was mistaken about no fine or penalty. If a player withdraws less than 42 days before the start date, he gets sanctioned (I didn't bother to read the 90-page PDF to find out what the "sanction" is). In any case, a player can always get a doctor's certification of injury (big air quotes around "injury") to weasel out of whatever fine or penalty.

I liked one of the comments, something like, "Why do people go to touristy places and then trash them because of all the tourists there?"

Correct, a player's name on the entry list is simply a placeholder. The player can withdraw at any time before his first match, without fine or penalty. But a last-minute withdrawal is kind of a sh*tty thing to do, and given Novak's longstanding relationship with Tennis Australia in general and Craig Tiley in particular, I doubt Novak plans on making a big public statement by pulling out last-minute. I'm guessing that Novak sincerely intends to play. Novak may already be vaccinated, but like I said in a previous post, he has a rather extreme view of privacy. He attended a concert in NYC that required proof of vaccination for entry. Maybe he got the shot, maybe a connection sneaked him in against the rules, who knows?

According to the ATP website, Novak is on the entry list for both the ATP Cup and the Australian Open. I keep reading conflicting reports on whether unvaccinated players (~35% of the men are unvaxxed) will be allowed to play, or even to enter the country. The Victoria premier said that unvaxxed players would be barred from entry, yet the WTA said that unvaxxed players would be allowed to play but with a 14-day hard quarantine (i.e., the player is not allowed to leave their hotel room, which means no practice and very limited training) and regular testing. Honestly, I can't be sure what's going on. Rafa and Dominic Thiem are also on the AO entry list. Notable absences are Roger, who announced a while ago that he would not be ready for Australia, and Stan Wawrinka, who's been out for so long I forgot what his injury was. On the women's side, the most notable absence is Serena. Uh oh, hamstring injuries are notoriously slow to heal, and it looks like hers was a rough one. Either that, or she's about to make a retirement announcement. Also out is the oft-injured Bianca Andreescu.