USED CHAMPIONSHIP BALLS
Pardon a slight technical glitch that caused me to abort that previous entry ("He's Federer, He's Betterer") following an unforced error (hardly my first of the tournament). Here are a few more musings from the first day at Wimbledon, and parts yonder:
-- England and the USA, as you've heard it put, are two nations separated by a common language. Tis true. Yesterday I was amused by the signs posted on the ground, such as "Please Keep Off The Hoarding" and "Used Championship Balls". As to the latter, it seems that you can buy a can of balls that were used in a Wimbledon match for just 3 pounds.
-- The Independent, one of the tabloids here, has a sports columnist named Paul Newman. Today he wrote about Serena Williams, who arrived for her match on Court 1 yesterday wearing a white raincoat even though the day was bathed in sunshine. "I just love coats," Serena said. "I'm always buying Burberry coats. I don't know why, because I live in Florida."
ANA, WILL YOU BE MY PALINDROME?
Some sportswriters fancy Ana Ivanovic because she's the No. 1 seed. Others because she looks like this. Me? I fancy her because she's a fellow blogger. Here she is writing about how she and her Anatourage celebrated her victory in the French Open last month. Check out the photo.
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The most popular bevy on the grounds here is a Pimm's & Lemonade. It's like sangria except that someone subbed in gin and tea for red wine. The queues for Pimm's are almost as long as those for tickets to see Rafael Nadal's match. Also, you can buy a magnum of champagne here at a concession stand for just 95 pounds, which is more than $200.
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Our friend from Phoenix, An Inconvenient Ruth, reports that she was driving along in Paradise Valley last week and came across a sign that read simply, "LOST BEAR". We both wondered if that meant someone was searching for a bear or if the very fact that a bear happened to be in Phoenix was proof enough that it was lost.
"LOST BEAR" is a sign ripe for tagging. With a little spraypaint, white-out and ingenuity it can become a sign imploring passersby to abstain from imbibing ("LAST BEER") to one that advertises your obsession with the woman who once starred on "Golden Girls" ("LUST BEA").
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Lorelai: "What's the opposite of ennui?
Sookie: "Off-ui?"
And people wonder why I love Gilmore Girls (recently named the 32nd-best show of the past quarter-century by Entertainment Weekly, by the way).
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Speaking of EW, the current issue ("The New Classics") has an inspired backpage column entitled "The First 26,000 Years: Highlights", a facetiously done timeline of the greatest entertainment moments from cave drawing to "The Facts of Life". Writer Josh Wolk was clearly giggling (or snorting something) as he wrote about Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, the "first work ever to so conveniently inspire a porn parody title. And yet no one ever remembers Salieri's Hot Sausage in B Minor."
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If you had the figure "11" in your office Wimbledon stalker pool (that is, number of stalkers whom Wimbledon officials have banned from the grounds this year), you win.
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About this blog
NBCSports.com's John Walters goes into the world of college sports and well beyond. From Notre Dame to the latest in pop culture, JDub tackles it all.
Hey J-Dub-
Please remember to look right as you cross the road.
The "Pick-off the Yankee" with the wrong way driving is still a popular game over there.
EW -- the mag, not the commenter -- loves the lists. I hope they do their "Top 25 Lists of the Last 25 Years" soon. I firmly believe they drop completely random choices into their lists just to make it easy for the Letters guy.
Spider-Man 2 is No. 36 over the past 25 years? Seriously? Freaks and Geeks is No. 13 among TV shows? C'mon. "Mr. Show" ahead of "Curb Your Enthusiasm"? Silliness.