Tennis Anyone?

The height of Grand Slam season has arrived, so let the games begin! Roland Garros (for those of you not in the 'know', that's the French Open) is underway in lovely, yet rainy, Paris France; and here's my question for the season: Can he do it??? Roger Federer won the Australian back in January, but can he take the French, Wimbeldon, and the US Open? He won all three last year; but can he repeat?? As the only man to win three of the four majors twice (he won all three of the aforementioned tourneys in 2004 as well) I figure that there is only one thing that stands in his way...

Yes, that smiling handsome Spaniard on the right could be his undoing. Twenty-year-old Rafael Nadal, (aka 'The King of Clay'), beat Federer in the last two French Opens (the semis in '05 and the finals in '06) and could do it again if Federer allows himself to get wound up in the psychology of the whole thing. Like the greats Jimmy Connors, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, and Pete Sampras, The French Open is the only Grand Slam that Federer has never won. However, a win at the French this year would give him a Non-Calendar Year Grand Slam as well as put him on a path for a possible Calendar Year Grand Slam. No, no pressure.

Here's something to think about though. During the last year, Federer and Nadal have competed on clay three times with the following results: The Masters Series Monte Carlo - Nadal beat Federer in the finals; Internazionali d'Italia - Nadal wins while Federer is knocked out in the third round; The Masters Series Hamburg - Federer beat Nadal in the finals. So, does the fresh win keep Federer's head above water, or does the pain of the last two years drown him in a sea of psychological angst? Looks like we'll have to wait and see; but my money's on Roger...

A Stroke of Genius

So there I was clicking around last night when I came across the Colbert Report from Wednesday night (Comedy Central has the good sense to repeat the previous evening’s broadcasts for those of us who just can’t make it until 11:30 on weeknights). Anyway, I stopped to check it out and proceeded to see one of the cleverest five-minute interviews I’ve seen in ages! The guest was Salman Rushdie – Booker Prize winning author and Iranian fatwa recipient. He was brilliant to say the least!!

The topic was that newspapers are starting to ‘remove’ literary critics from their staffs. Many people are finding this absurd while others simply do not know or care. It seems that Mr. Colbert resides in the former and asked Mr. Rushdie (who does critique from time to time for papers such as the New York Times) to commiserate with him. Although this isn’t word for word, this was the highlight of the interview:

Colbert: ‘Why exactly do we need literary critiques?’

Rushdie: ‘Without them we wouldn’t know what to read, much less what’s out there to read. For instance, you wouldn’t know about Paris Hilton’s memoirs.’

Colbert: ‘Paris Hilton reads?’

Rushdie: ‘Well, she has people that can read for her…’

HA!

This leads me to giving my ‘two cents’ towards this latest chapter in the Paris Hilton ‘saga’. Paris is off to prison – whoopee. Yeah know, I’m really sick and tired of hearing about her. She’s only 26, doesn’t seem to have more than a reptilian brain, and the only reason anyone gives a damn is because she was stupid enough to let somebody video tape her while she spread her legs for the ‘flavor of the week’. It truly saddens and angers me that she equals big news and that if you Google the word ‘Paris’ with the Google quick search on your toolbar ‘Paris Hilton’ is displayed at the top with ‘Paris FRANCE’ a distant third. What has this world come to? There are people on the streets of our nation and many others in great need of help due to war, illness, etc… But rather than pay attention to things like this, the vast majority of this nation would rather watch what this nitwit is going to do next. Maybe the Red Hot Chili Peppers were onto something when they told us to throw away our televisions...