Audrey, dressed in redwhiteandblue, and Michelle on the Fourth
"Dieu de batailles! where have they this mettle?
Is not their climate foggy, raw and dull,
On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,
Killing their fruit with frowns? Can sodden water,
A drench for sur-rein'd jades, their barley-broth,
Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat? And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine,
Seem frosty? O, for honour of our land,
Let us not hang like roping icicles
Upon our houses' thatch, whiles a more frosty people
Sweat drops of gallant youth in our rich fields!
-Constable
King Henry V
Act 3, Scene 5
We've had the heat alright. It kind of slowed down the party on the Fourth. But the party went forth: folks ate and drank and chilled as best they could. And felt bad for their brothers and sisters who had to spend the day on the Vineyard.
Last week, on one of those blazing hot days, Dragonfly Irrigation Systems appeared and installed a whole new sprinkler system for the club. Dave Guldi and his guys were quite conscious of leaving as small a footprint as possible on the courts. Dragonfly did great work for the club.
And the new sprinklers have been firing a-way.
(We should also note that one night last week, the staff, featuring Tom Ames, spread 1500 pounds of calcium chloride on the courts to help retain moisture. It's good, it's all good.)
The club has been crazybusy for almost all of June. The action should slow down now. Folks are streaming toward the Vineyard.
Tuesdays and Fridays are the busiest days. Monday is the slowest, 'cepting Monday prime-time when there are 3 courts reserved for in-house league play and you, yes, you can't get a court. The weekends are slow. Go figure.
At 8:00 a.m. the phone is beyond busy. The action is frantic. Please be kind to your friendly staff member who takes your reservation calls. We only have 5 courts.
| The next Round Robin is on Wednesday, July 21. The meal will be catered. Tennis starts at 6:00. |
We seek contributions from members. Insights, jibes, cracks, questions, suggestions, remarks, jokes.
Craig Lambert wrote a must-read article for Harvard Magazine about Bruce Wright's take on the 'high set' stance and movement in tennis. Take a look: High Set The article is accompanied by a separate video demonstrating the technique. High Set Video Thanks, Craig, for sending this nifty technical riff along to us.
The book? The club directory should be in your hand, always, but the website has much of this year's info.
We are going to try out a new feature on the newspage. Let's call it The Book Blurb. The Blurb will note books not necessarily about tennis, but authored by CTC members. So, if you members have recently, or maybe not so recently, written a book that you'd like blurbed, please let us know.
Let's start with:
Our latest book to be blurbed is New Classic American Houses, a book by Dan Cooper about the architecture of Albert, Righter, and our own John Tittmann. "New Classic American Houses is an architectural page-turner brimming with creative interpretations of traditional forms."
Hot off the presses, a new book by Faith Moore, Celebrating a Life, Planning Memorial Services and Other Creative Remembrances. "Celebrating a Life" provides the ideas, inspiration, and how-to advice needed for creating a meaningful memorial service. Light-hearted but sensitive, this thoughtful guide covers it all."
While We Were Sleeping by David Hemenway.
"This book powerfully illuminates how public health works with more than sixty success stories drawn from the area of injury and violence prevention."
The Parents We Mean To Be: How Well-Intentioned Adults Undermine Children's Moral and Emotional Development by Rick Weissbourd.
The New Yorker review said, "In this ardent and persuasive inquiry, Weissbourd, a Harvard psychologist, warns that 'happiness-besotted' parents do children a disservice by emphasizing personal fulfillment over empathy."
Inside Urban Charter Schools: Promising Practices and Strategies in Five High-Performing Schools by Kay Merseth "an inspirational and practical how-to guide for school reformers."
The club directory for 2010 doesn't exist yet. Membership hasn't been finalized. Other than membership listings, all of last year's information is available on the website.
Some useful links:
Here's a link to the espn site, with pro ranking.
And a club member (let's call him Sol) suggested a link to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I. The site is rich.
We still have the tournament draws (from 2001 to 2004) available on-line (including all of the results), thanks to the Java Kid. We are re-locating the links, however.
"On the court, tennis players exchange not only ground strokes but lots of information. It's a richly interactive sport, both verbally and non-verbally. If players communicate clearly, simply, and consistently, the game will proceed more quickly, and with less fuss and misunderstanding. Here are a few guidelines that can make the game more fun, friendly, and fair for all...."
We've had some requests to run Craig Lambert's piece, sampled above, on Tennis Communication. (We'd better leave this link up on the newspage permanently.)
Take a look
The Yearbook link will take you to the last newspage from 2008. 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.
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 said clicker can read the news pages for the whole year (2009). The less-than link (<) next to the honeycomb icon will take clickers to the previous issue of this year's newspage.
This Version:
