Tennis Club News
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
A little gale will soon disperse that cloud
And blow it to the source from whence it came:
The very beams will dry those vapours up,
For every cloud engenders not a storm.
-Clarence
King Henry VI, Part iii
Act 5, Scene 3
We hope that everyone has met and welcomed our new Manager, Dennis.
Downpours and Drought, the story of the CTC. Some season we are having, no?
Play here at the club slows down, usually, in August, then picks up again after Labor Day. September is our second busiest month. The Vineyard is very crowded right now with our vacationing members. CTC Island?
Between the floods, Richard and Phyllis played, and Sheila carried on.
We've had many requests for Craig's Classy Ode to Joe. (Here a blush, and another blush.) We had hoped to have a movie of Craig delivering the Ode. It was some performance. Craig can orate.
Here is the Ode. Try to imagine a man with considerable declamatory skill:
A Classy Ode to Joe DeBassio
By Craig Lambert
Round ‘bout 7 AM, on a warm summer morning
This place feels like heaven, the day only dawning
Swing the gate, sign the sheet to avoid any fines
And look out on court two where Joe’s doing the lines
Revealing those white stripes at the start of the day
That will bring joy and heartache to folks on the clay
Who are soon to arrive, and to stroll out on new-
Ly swept courts, our club’s much-envied perfect Har-Tru.
It’s the work of DeBassio, said plain and simple—
A man with a smile, a mustache and dimple
Or two as he welcomes all comers. He’s the club’s friendly host—
He’s the guy who knows everyone. Joe’s got the most
Ways to charm those who call, write, show up, even text us—
In fact with most everyone called homo erectus.
At a party, no finer or more genial bartender,
Joe’s at home with all races, all creeds, every gender
And should you be a newbie, and feel somewhat at loose
Ends, take heart! Joe’ll notice and introduce
You to some warm-hearted friend, since he’s
The guy who knows everyone, and golly,
Gee whiz, geez: please remember it’s a social game—
Calm down, have fun, but mind your P’s
And Q’s….and have some lemonade—you’ll find
No better citrus juice at any club—the kind
We call citron Joseph is what’s known as “refined.”
Or even cultured. This guy’s mind
Has been most everywhere, from palaces to hovels
Because Joe’s read most all the great English novels.
One day out on the deck I heard three ladies fussin’
And whispering: you know Joe’s read Tolstoy—and read it in Russian?
Well, maybe not, but if you don’t know Hilary Mantel
Or Wolf Hall— well, DeBassio will almost give you hell
And feel sad for what you’re missing—hey you gotta get with it:
Professor Joe’s the man to catch up on your lit.
Out on the court, no better sport, nor finer wit and verve,
And let’s not kid ourselves, the big guy had a serve
That aced me many times. But when Joe missed a shot
He’d grin ear to ear and say, “You like that one or not?”
If you aced him, Joe’s ego didn’t take much time healing
He’d just yell out, “OK—never mind my feelings!”
Through all the years, with Tom, Billy, and dozens of staff,
DeBassio, the honest Joe, has been the better half
To all of us, he’s shown us how to play the game
That matters—it’s called life, and here, DeBassio’s the name
That’s sure to live in all our hearts no matter where we go—
The heart and soul of where we stand—so here’s to you, our Joe!
A call for contributors: The newsroom staff is reporting from a nearby friendly country. We need some on-the-spot correspondents. Please send us opinions or comments or jokes or observations or pleas. Or stories.
The tennis ladder has relocated. Check the Table of Contents tab for "Tournaments &
Ladders."
The ladder is up to date as of 10-8-13. We will try to update tennis ladder play in a timely fashion.
We have some sort of reciprocity with the Mt. Auburn Club. What is the deal? Please take a look at the 'Member's Portal' over there on the left in the Table of Contents.
Pierce Harman took zillions of pictures at the last year's Memorial Day party, most of which can be found at:
Pierce Harman.zenfolio. com/ctc_memorial.
The club book should be in your hands always. In the case of some misfortune whereby the book is not, the website has all of the year's activities and other info up-to-date.
The club has a new member named Pierce Harman who is, aside from being last year's Singles Champ, a professional photographer. Pierce seems to be mighty good at action shots. You can take a look at a slide show of Pierce's action shots of club members: 2012 slideshow. You might also follow the link to the section of Pierce's website to see a whole gallery of CTC pictures.
Some links of interest:
Rogers Cup
ATP World Tour
WTA Tennis
The club is booking courtson-line through a program some of you might know from the Mt. Auburn Club, Bookings Plus. What fun, what excruciating fun! Yup, no more painful dialing and re-dialing and hoping against hope that you can get that prime-time court. You will still be able to call the clubhouse between 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. and talk to a friendly, playful staff-person who can enter your on-line reservation for you, but doing it yourself will be so much more gratifying and easier. And did we say fun? The on-line reservation system, as well as our regular phone reservations, will go live when the courts are open. Please note the link to our reservation system over there on the left in the table of contents. The link will also give you a brief tutorial on how to use on-line reservations and thereby increase your fun.
Much to our surprise and de-light, folks seem to be availing themselves of on-line reservations. As we get busier, you might try to click on at 8:00 a.m. exactly.
Note that your passwords have changed. Read the Bookings Plus blurb about the change. It is still easy and wicked fun.
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? Membership for the coming year hasn't been settled, so the book will be a while in the making. In the meantime, the website will be updated as data dribbles in.
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:
"The fundamental question of information philosophy is cosmological and ultimately metaphysical. What is the process that creates information structures in the universe?" Heady stuff, no?Well, the club's own Bob Doyle who works much magic here behind the scenes tackled this little issue in his book, Free Will: The Scandal in Philosophy. And the club's own Craig Lambert wrote a nifty, readable article for Harvard Magazine on Bob and his place in the free will issue. Take a look at Craig's article,
Two Steps to Free Will.
In the midst of renovating garages and ruling vast sectors of cyberspace, Bob Doyle wrote a bit of a magnum opus:
Free Will: The Scandal in Philosophy by Bob Doyle. "The fundamental question of information philosophy is cosmological and ultimately metaphysical. What is the process that creates information structures in the universe?"
We have a new book by a club member, Game, Set, Match: Billie Jean King and the Revolution in Women's Sports, by club member, Susan Ware. The book is:
A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Sports Book.
We have some new books from club member, Julie Baer:
Love Me Later
Julie Baer presents us with a unique book. Her fantastic artwork depicts nature and people in a special way. -- Bookreviewcafe.com
I Only Like What I Like
"CHILDREN BEWARE –will have you trying the untried, 'cause it's FUN! The collages fill you up to the eyeballs."
Take a look at: William P. Homans, Jr., A Life in Court, by Mark S. Brodin. Bill Homans was a long time member of the club with "a storied legal career." A lot of folks at the club knew and liked Bill. He could tell a story or two, couldn't he?
We want to mention 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."
The club directory should be in your hands always. The website has all of the information in the book. Plus.
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.
"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
Look
at what was happening at this time last year.
The Yearbook
link will take you to the last newspage from 2013. 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 Cambridge weather site.
Click for weather forecast
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 (2013). The less-than link (<) next to the honeycomb icon will take clickers to the previous issue of this year's newspage.
