BSR

Brenn Wyson, aside from the physical attributes, the Bahstuhn accent drove me nuckin' futs.

On my aunt & uncle's next Australia trip, my uncle wants to go to Rottnest Island and hang out with the quokkas. He saw a bunch of tennis players taking pictures with quokkas and thought they were the cutest little creatures he had ever seen, like chubby miniature kangaroos. They're lucky in that as a United Airlines retiree, they get cheap flights & hotel discounts everywhere. I doubt they would travel all the way to Perth otherwise, no matter how adorable quokkas are.

I agree. After my aunt & uncle's first trip to Australia, of course they shared all their stories and photos with their (adult) children. At that point, they were dismayed to find out that their children (and now their 3 grandkids) knew almost nothing about Australia.

I do know something about Australia, but mostly because I'm a big tennis fan. Whenever they say where a player is from, I look it up on Google Maps. So on a blank map of Australia, I'm pretty sure I can pinpoint most of the cities. I even know where Mt. Issa is! (thank you, Patrick Rafter) Plus I hear things about the country (this year's wildfires, for example) watching the AO every year. I also hear about it a lot because an aunt & uncle who live in Manila travel there often - 4 trips already, with another planned as soon as Covid19 passes. They simply love it and more than anything love Aussie people. But yeah, without tennis & my aunt, I don't know if I'd know much about Australia.

I don't know if older athletes are taking miracle anti-aging drugs, but I do know that top-ranked tennis players have a huge advantage over lower-ranked ones because they can afford to pay full-time teams of physiotherapists, physical trainers, nutritionists, etc. When top-ranked doubles team Cabal & Farah hired a physio to travel with them full-time, they said they couldn't believe what a difference it made. At last year's US Open, Novak had a "recovery truck" waiting for him after his matches (for ice baths, icing down specific body parts, massages to get rid of lactic acid, specialized concoctions of foods & fluids, and God knows what else). How much do you think all that cost? And how many players outside of the very wealthy few can afford it? Meanwhile, lower-ranked players can't even afford a full-time coach, forget the squadron of specialists that the top players employ.

Once Novak shot himself in the foot, Domi became my favorite, even though I doubted he could handle the speedy courts. Apparently Ashe was playing a lot slower than the lightning-quick outer courts, which helped Dominic out some. Even more helpful was that as nervous as he was in the final, Zverev was dropping a 40-pound cow in his shorts. First first-time Slam winner since Marin Cilic (US Open 2014), first male Slam winner born in the 1990s, and first Slam won by someone outside the Big 3 since the 2016 USO. Domi's a great guy and works harder than just about any guy on tour. Congratulations, Dominic Thiem!

The pictures of Felix in just a pair of boxer briefs come from a hazing of sorts. Apparently it is a Canadian tennis tradition (don't ask me who started it or when) that all Canadian Davis Cup players have to go through a practice session in just their underwear.

A friend's story, but worth posting, I think. A friend was at an after-hours spot in the Alphabet (back when NYC still had an Alphabet City) when she ran into who she thought was her old high school crush. Quite inebriated, she confessed she had the world's biggest crush on him for all of high school because he looked exactly like actor Matt Dillon. The guy told her that she was mistaken, he wasn't her old high school classmate. "Oh, sorry, so what's your name?" "Matt" Only after the fog of alcohol lifted did she realize she had been talking to Matt Dillon.

Let me state for the record that I am a die-hard Novak fan. In his weekly mailbag, SI columnist Jon Wertheim responded to one of my questions, which I signed "from the world's biggest Novak fan not of Serbian descent." My take on this: First, I was furious at him for doing something so stupid. Once I calmed down, I started reading & watching all I could about the incident. Yes, Novak apologized. Even though it was obviously crafted by his publicist, I thought his apology was sincere (no fan bias, I swear!). But as Martina Navratilova pointed out, apologizing via Instagram is like breaking up with your girlfriend through email. Show your face, face the music, and get through the damn presser. You're a 17-year veteran of the tour -- suck it up. What troubles me most about this is how self-destructive it was. He knows the rules, he knows that hitting anyone on court is an automatic disqualification, yet he smacks balls around with line judges, ballkids, and photographers all around. He smacked a ball earlier in the general direction of the photographers' pit. It hit a barrier, not a photographer, but had the ball strayed a bit ... Then he smacks a ball behind him knowing full well that there are line judges & ballkids back there. It was just a matter of time before something like this happened. During the 3-year drought between Novak's 1st & 2nd Aussie Open titles, a commentator once described Novak as "a troubled young man." The remark got me all upset, which meant it was true. Obviously, Novak figured things out & got his act together. But this disqualification makes me think that Novak still has a few demons to wrestle.

They tried something similar in Las Vegas -- drive up & the stripper comes out to you. But the club had to stop, something about lap dances had to be behind closed doors, not in the great out of doors.

Borna Coric http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YnHQqx4tRFo/WK-f5PxhtOI/AAAAAAAAC0g/c8WvjqgV0I4aXb0d34WM9BVqkBIQhDgAACK4B/s1600/16_zpsj4gudctm.jpg

I was stunned by disbelief that Novak, who turned pro back in 2003, was defaulted. Holy ****! Smacking a line judge with a ball?? That's something a hotheaded 17-year-old does (and I would dare say it's stupid when a 17-year-old does it). Shocking stupidity for someone who's been on tour for coming on 2 decades. BUT ... Novak's exit leaves the field wide open. And for the first time since the US Open 2016, a player outside of the Big 3 (Roger, Rafa, Novak) will win a Slam. Also, no one left in the draw is a Slam champion. Note that of the ~2,000 men with a current ATP ranking, only 7 players have won a Slam, mostly because the Big 3 are such hogs. My head tells me Medvedev will win it now. My heart wants Vasek Pospisil to pull a rabbit out of a hat (his boyish face just melts me, he's the nicest guy on tour, and he's been playing great tennis since coming back from back surgery). And the horny depraved bastard in me wants Borna Coric to hoist the trophy. With the super-fast court, I just don't see Dominic Thiem winning it because his long backswings can't adjust to the speedy surface.

How are they dealing with Covid19? Are masks required at all times? Any new restrictions on interaction with the dancers? How busy were the two spots?

I always wear a mask in public indoor spaces because 1) I believe it makes a big difference and 2) the governor of NV issued a mandate that all businesses require a mask. Instead of "no shirt, no shoes, no service," the sign you see at the door now says "no mask, no entry." I never wear a mask outdoors because I never get all that close to anyone. Whenever I pass someone while outdoors, I leave them a wide berth. Risk of transmission in those circumstances has to be pretty close to zero. Besides, it was 109° yesterday, it'll reach 111° today, and 113° tomorrow. If I had to wear a mask in this heat, I'd suffocate.

I saw a feature about a retiree who went back into the work force at a fast food restaurant. He quickly went from an entry-level position to the regional director of training. One of his biggest challenges was getting kids to understand the importance of showing up on time for their shift. He said most of them simply cannot grasp the concept.

I'm so glad I saw your post because I never would have discovered Gameboys otherwise. It's very Filipino -- the characters constantly overreact, with just way too much drama, to the point that I almost groan during some episodes. On the plus side, the acting is excellent, I love Gav & Pearl, and some of the storylines are really well done. Cairo's guilt about his father's illness was particularly touching. I found it interesting how much English the characters spoke, with English words in almost every sentence and whole sentences in English sprinkled throughout. I thought my relatives used so many English words/sentences while speaking Tagalog because they've been living in the US for decades, but apparently even Filipinos in the Philippines intersperse tons of English in with their Tagalog. I have a crush on the Gav character. Sure, the actor's cute, but it's Gav's personality that really wins me over. His cheeky grin just slays me. New episodes come out once a week on YouTube. I binged through the first dozen in 3 days. Now it'll feel like an eternity between episodes. Anyway, if you're looking for a good binge-watch, I'd recommend Gameboys. Although a bit overdramatic at times, it's fun, sweet, and heartfelt.

Wow, Eric Heiden sure as hell aged gracefully. I had no idea he was so smokin' daddy hot. Thanks for the pic.

I'm glad this thread was revived & that I spotted this post. "Trémulo" was terrific - a sweet, simple story with a couple of very good, and hot, young actors. If you search for "Tremulo Julian Hernandez" on YouTube, a version pops up with English subtitles.

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I posted this in the general binge-watching thread, but thought it was worth re-posting here: Toy Boy has been renewed for Season 2! No specifics yet on production or projected release dates, but at least they definitely got the green light.

Yuppers, it's true, some 13K Manhattan apartments were empty in July, the highest number in 14 years. Rents have dropped 7.6%, and landlords are throwing in all sorts of incentives (paying broker fees, cleaning services, a free month's rent). So the Manhattan real estate market hasn't crashed but is experiencing a helluva dip. Note that Lehman collapsed in Sep 2008 but NYC real estate sales hit their low point in Mar 2011. It will take a while for the full impact of Covid19 + the George Floyd riots + rising crime rates to sort themselves out.

The landlord must maintain a rent-stabilized apartment to code, but that bar is set awfully low. I've been inside some real sh*thole NYC apartments that were supposedly up to code. As for property taxes, the assessment on rent-stabilized units is adjusted in line with the rent collected. So the landlord can pay the property taxes, but he's not making much of a profit.

It sounds like you know more about bullfighting, at least the specifics & terminology, than I do. All I remember is that the torero (technically the rejoneador because he's on horseback) remains on horseback from start to finish. If he dismounts at any point, it's a big no-no, and he'd probably get booed out of the bullring. The obvious barrier to entry is that a bullfighter must master superb riding skills. The other barrier to entry I would think is even more of a challenge: training a horse to obey his rider when faced with a pissed-off, charging, 2,000-pound bull. Since horses are skittish by nature, to find & train ones that can handle the stress of a bullfight has to be a helluva tall order.

Wow, a fellow bullfighting fan, this board is more diverse than I thought! I've seen rejoneos in Salamanca & Madrid, but on both occasions, it was advertised as a special event. I don't know if any plaza de toros offers rejoneos on a regular schedule. The number of bullfighters who learn their art on horseback is vanishingly small, I'm guessing.

As a big tennis fan, my bucket list includes attending matches at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, and Wimbledon (been to the US Open a bunch). For places to see: Buenos Aires, Santiago de Compostela, the Taj Mahal, and Stonehenge. Two other things I want to do: see a "rejoneo" (a bullfight in which the torero is on horseback) in Ronda, the cradle of bullfighting, and dine at Abac, the 3-star restaurant of Jordi Cruz, my favorite judge on Spain's Master Chef. OK, I'd have to meet Jordi too, get my picture taken with him, and tell him he's the Simon Cowell of gastronomy (brutal critiques but always tells the truth).