Tennis Club News

Monday, June 17, 2002


Oh, the sun never shines in Cambridge, Mass.

The rain falls and falls, and the phone rings and rings.

-Hello, Cambridge Tennis Club.
-Hi, I'd like to make a reservation for 10:00.
-We're closed. It's been raining for 40 days and 40 nights.
-Oh, has it rained that much? I can't see well out my window.

-Hello, Tennis Club.
-Hi, I know that it's been raining for 40 days and 40 nights. My husband and my kids and all our pets have just washed away down Brattle Street. It's just terrible. But I was wondering if a court might be open by 3:00. I'd really like to play.
-But...we're...flooded.
-How about 4:00? Do you think you might have a court at 4:00?

(Here's one just in off the wires from a reader.)
-Hello, Tennis Club.
-Hi, I have a court at 5:00. Is it going to rain?

-Hello, Tennis Club....


 

Tournaments

The tournament draw has been posted on the special Club Tournament bulletin board inside the clubhouse. We have links to a site with the draws posted and kept current. (Draw sheet formats are beyond the capability of HTML and have been done in the past in java on a site maintained by a Friend-of-the-Club. The friend reports that she had to "restructure her java environment.")

The first round of the tournaments should be played by July 4.

Note The Finals have been re-scheduled to Saturday, September 14, and Sunday, September 15.

(Note: The Men's Singles draw will be posted soon. There are 20 entrants and the coding presents some difficulties.)

Last year the tournaments were...how shall we say it?...hot? interesting? So, since our Friend-of-the-Club is willing to help (she does more than help: she does all the heavy lifting. Java! indeed), we're going to list the draws and outcomes of last year's tournaments, as they are made available to us. Folks who follow the tournaments online might figure out who our Friend is and tell her thanks when you see her. We sure thank her.

 


WOMEN'S TEAM

"The Women's Team is coming off one of its most successful seasons in recent memory. The inimitable mother/daughter team of Williams and Morss had an undefeated record. The rest of us (mortals) scrambled through 3 set matches, managing to win about half of them.

We are indebted to the coaching of Juliet Godson for her encouragement, wisdom and expertise. She kept our spirits from flagging and greatly enhanced our performance."

-Cynthia Ellis


JOKE ALERT please skip this next bit if you want to avoid jokes, or if you think that jokes are inappropriate to the CTC website, or if you're in a hurry and just want information.

Computer Haiku

In Japan, they have replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft error messages with Haiku poetry messages. Haiku poetry has strict construction rules - each poem has only 17 syllables; 5 syllables in the first, 7 in the second, 5 in the third. They are used to communicate a timeless message, often achieving a wistful, yearning and powerful insight through extreme brevity.

Here are 15 actual error messages from Japan that are the essence of Zen:

Your file was so big.
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.

The Web site you seek
Cannot be located, but
Countless more exist.

Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.

Program aborting:
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.

Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.

Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.

First snow, then silence.
This thousand-dollar screen dies
So beautifully.

With searching comes loss
And the presence of absence:
"My Novel" not found.

The Tao that is seen
Is not the true Tao- until
You bring fresh toner.

Stay the patient course.
Of little worth is your ire.
The network is down.

A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.

Three things are certain:
Death, taxes and lost data
Guess which has occurred.

You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.

Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.

Aren't these better than "your computer has performed an illegal operation?"


Rick Rose's Doubles Clinics have switched from Mondays and Wednesdays, and are now running on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

He's accepting feedback.

The clinics run from 10:00 to 11:30 and cost $14.00. And they are very popular. Check them out.

 


Club member, Charles Ansbacher is again conducting the Boston Landmarks Orchestra in a series of free outdoor concerts. You can read all about them, and him, and find a concert schedule at the Landmarks Orchestra website.

 


Here's a link to the espn site, with pro ranking.


Take a look


at what was going on at the club on this date last year.


Website Update: Events, Members, and Reservation Requests are not active parts of the site nowadays. Timelines is not for civilians.

The Governors and Committees page, the Activities page (round robins, tournaments, etc), and the Rules page have all been updated. We thank the folks who have kindly done some on-line proofreading. And we solicit any additional proofreading. Or comments. Or essays, rhapsodies, haiku, bulletins, rants, objections. Or praise. Especially items that we might actually put up on the page. Anonymity is assured.

 

 

The Yearbook link will take you to the last newspage from 2001. From there you can see the whole of the Persistent Archive of last year's news.


Website Note: The time and temperature icon below is a link to a Boston weather site.

Click for Boston Weather

Joe DeBassio, Webmaster


Website Note II: The honey-comb icon is also a link. It takes the clicker to an archive of all the past news pages so that you can read the news pages for the whole year (2001). The less-than link (<) next to the honeycomb icon will take you to the last issue of the newspage.

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