Charlie

Are they twins?

The couple on the right were actually a couple, and were friends of mine for many years--both are now deceased. The others I vaguely recognize, but I didn't know them personally. The photo was taken several years before I moved to Philadelphia and discovered Rittenhouse Square.

Tab Hunter.

I know the couple on the right!!

I don't think I would have been interested in sports if my father hadn't enjoyed both playing and watching all sorts of sports. He bowled with a league, and after he retired he played golf regularly with his friends. In the winter he liked to ice-skate, so my parents and I would go to Bear Mtn in NY, where the three of us would skate together. He taught me to play baseball, and he often took me to Dodger and Giant games on Saturday afternoons. The only game he didn't play was tennis--he thought it was a rich man's sport--which may be why it took me so long to discover my affinity for it. My spouse, on the other hand, has never been interested in playing or watching any sport, and has always thought of himself as unsuited to athletics, largely because he was short and had poor eyesight. His father was a lawyer who had no interest in sports, and never encouraged him to play or even watch any sport. He never exercised until a gay colleague at work encouraged him to join a gym and lift weights when he was in his late 20s, and he has continued to do that for the rest of his life, so he certainly was physically fit enough to engage in sports if he wanted to. However, his two youngest brothers were much bigger than he was (I don't know where their genes came from) and were recruited by their schools to play football, at which they excelled. His youngest brother, now in his 70s and still built like a football center, is a passionate golfer, and his son was a competitive swimmer. I often talk sports with them, while my spouse chats with their wives.

I'll bet it's a fraternity initiation.

As a kid, I played baseball with neighborhood kids, but never organized sports at school. I had a badminton set-up in our backyard, and loved to play whenever I could get someone to play with me. My father belonged to a bowling league, and so I often bowled for fun. My father was also a baseball fan, and I spent many Saturday afternoons at Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds with him in my childhood and adolescence, until the Giants and Dodgers deserted for the lure of California money; I vowed never to root for either team again, and I never have, even though I eventually became a Californian myself. I was required to take and pass swimming in college--why, I don't know, because the school was in landlocked farm country--and it took me four years to finally pass. My father took up golf after he retired, but I tried playing it once with him and it was not for me. I have always enjoyed watching college football games, but never had any desire to play. I fell in love with tennis while living in London during Wimbledon, and I became a passionate spectator fan, but I never imagined playing it myself until I retired and moved to Palm Springs. A friend mentioned that the racquet club down the street was having an end-of-season membership sale and suggested that we join; I thought that at 62 I was too old to learn to play, but I was persuaded to join and take lessons. I quickly became hooked, and was taking lessons and clinics for months. It turned out that I was a natural at it--who would have thought?!--and soon I was playing matches almost daily, even joining a USTA team and playing in senior tournaments. Most of the men and women I play with now are younger than I am, and I will be despondent if I reach a point where I can't compete any longer, because it has become the center of my social life as well as almost my sole form of exercise.

When my mother was 89 and going blind, she came to live with my partner and me in a city in which she had no experience nor connections other than us. She joined a church, but she was too old to make new friends there, and I tried taking her to a senior center regularly, but it was too divorced from her daily experience isolated with us. She was safe and comfortable with us, but after a few years, she told us that she wanted to move into an assisted living facility for seniors, so she would have peers to interact with whenever she wished. She moved into one that was connected to the church, and the change in her was noticeable immediately. She had other old people to socialize with all the time, and communal activities which she enjoyed. Her mental and physical health improved for the next few years, until she had to move into the nursing area at 98; that's when the real decline began.

If I were you, I would read Auden's "introduction" after you have read the book, because it seems to me to be more of a review--and a somewhat patronizing one--than a helpful introduction.

Another wonderful thread! Thanks, Danny.

Another wonderful thread! Thanks, Danny.

Cathedral City has just begun a ban on short term rentals, which is a controversial issue there and in other towns in the valley.

Cathedral City has just begun a ban on short term rentals, which is a controversial issue there and in other towns in the valley.

Riverside County moved back into the most restrictive tier this past Friday (e.g., no indoor dining, no gyms, etc.), and will be there for at least three weeks before it is possible to move to the next tier again.

Riverside County moved back into the most restrictive tier this past Friday (e.g., no indoor dining, no gyms, etc.), and will be there for at least three weeks before it is possible to move to the next tier again.

Thanks for all these great photos, Danny. By the way, Joe Ackerley's My Father and Myself (post #378) is a fascinating book, though I don't know if it is still in print (I read it at least 40 years ago). Joe was gay, but he found out as an adult that his father was bisexual and was one of those guardsmen who had provided services for wealthy gay gentlemen.

Thanks for all these great photos, Danny. By the way, Joe Ackerley's My Father and Myself (post #378) is a fascinating book, though I don't know if it is still in print (I read it at least 40 years ago). Joe was gay, but he found out as an adult that his father was bisexual and was one of those guardsmen who had provided services for wealthy gay gentlemen.

I am thankful for having lived in a time in history when I was able to be myself and have all the things that I really wanted during my lifetime, including a loving family, great friends, a satisfying career, good health, and the means and opportunity for travel and adventure before this damned pandemic came along.

Monica certainly has strong Serbian roots, but she wasn't perceived as "Serbian" by the fans, mainly because she was already so Americanized by the time she came to their attention. She also benefited from being identified with Yugoslavia before the civil war which resulted in the break-up, in which Serbia was generally perceived in the West as the bad guy (another problem for which Novak is not responsible). You're right that the initial negativity was due to her loud vocalizations, which were unusual thirty years ago; a lot of older fans still complain about them and connect them with the rise of Eastern European players, like Sharapova and Azarenka. Some of the mixed reaction from American fans to Sonia Kenin is due to the feeling that she is too "Russian," even though they cheer similar outbursts from Serena. A lot of what happens to players' reputations has little to do with their actual talents or personalities. Novak was criticized a lot when he first appeared for frequently retiring from matches because of physical problems (Andy Roddick notably mocked him for that). I think that the funny impressions were Novak's way of trying to defuse that, but he also became extremely serious about his fitness, and it's probably one of the reasons why he now plays even when he is obviously suffering. I think he is respected more by his peers than he is by the fans.

I have missed only two of the PS Weekends, because I had commitments elsewhere. In 2021, if I am alive, I will be at home. However, I have the same concerns as Lucky about attending. We still don't know what the local and state ordinances will be in regard to various elements of the weekend. Even if the dinner has to be held outside, there are limits now on the size of groups that can dine together, which may still be imposed in 2021. Trio may not be an available venue, since they have very limited outdoor dining space, and they probably won't give it all up to us. The number of people who can attend a social gathering even at a private home is currently limited, and social distancing and masks are required. What is the Sunday party without physical intimacy?! Will we need to print our Hooboy handles on our masks to recognize one another? Commercial buffets are not allowed to operate, and what is a party without deviled eggs? What if it rains? (It never has as far as I can remember, but one year it was pretty cold to socialize outdoors.) For those of us who have spent months self-isolating, the PS Weekend is like suddenly jumping into an ice-cold pool, and may be more anxiety-inducing than stimulating. I hope things will be more normal here in April than they are now, but I am not confident that the event will resemble what we have experienced in the past.

I happen to think that Novak may turn out to be a greater player than Roger or Rafa, at least statistically. I also think that it is unfortunate that many tennis fans don't appreciate him as much as the other two. But I have watched many of his matches since he first appeared, and I know that many fans react negatively to the kind of enthusiasm that the Serbian fans show for him. Swiss fans have always been less numerous and rather subdued at Roger's matches, and the Spanish fans have long had many great Spanish players to root for. It is natural for the Serbs to be extremely proud of the first great Serbian player, and it is unfair that there is probably anti-Serb ethnic prejudice in the general tennis community that carries over to Novak. As I have written elsewhere, he was unlucky to come along when the Roger/Rafa bromance had already captivated the media, and he was regarded by them as an unwanted intruder in their script--a third party often gets turned by them into a villain rather than another legitimate contender for GOAT. Novak has made it clear that he is aware of that favoritism shown to the others and resents it, which probably makes the Serb fans even more demonstrative. I don't think Monica Seles was ever treated or regarded in the same way, since she was actually an ethnic Hungarian, played for Yugoslavia rather than Serbia, and became a US citizen while she was still a top player. I remember clearly that many fans and even commentators at the time didn't know where she was from in Yugoslavia and thought she was Croatian, like Iva Majoli and Goran Ivanisevic.

It may be an Amish-looking beard, but the Amish do not get tattoos (they believe the Bible prohibits them).

The Serbs are wildly enthusiastic for Novak because they have no other international figures to cheer for. In fact, if they were less jingoistically demonstrative at his matches, the rest of the world might appreciate him more on his real merits.

Longevity is hard to predict just from genes. My parents and grandparents all died natural deaths, but my father's life was shorter than either of his parent's lives, while my mother was much longer-lived than her parents--she lived almost twice as long as her father. The strange thing was that my father was always very healthy until the last six months of his life, while my mother was often sickly when she was young, yet she easily shrugged off colon cancer when she was 70 and breast cancer at 88. I have already lived longer than my father did, but I can't imagine living as long as my mother.

My paternal grandfather had six sisters; Aunt Annie lived to 101 and Aunt Clara to 103. My mother's cousin Grace lived to 100. My mother herself lived to 102. I knew all of them well, because I was an adult when they died, and enjoyed listening to them talk about life in the days before modern technology. Aunt Clara was born when Abe Lincoln was in the White House. My mother was born before the news about the Wright brothers' flight at Kitty Hawk had made the newspapers (radio still hadn't been invented then). People always say, "Oh, with your genes you will live to 100." I certainly hope not!