DramatistDreamer

Having spent some time in London in the mid 1990s as a student, I have mixed views about the UK. There were some things I enjoyed about the people that I found myself in the company of and some events that were profound to my education and development, but there were also some disturbing cultural and socio-political attitudes that I encountered there as well. And way too much of a sanitized WWII and post-war mentality. And even then, a barely concealed hostility toward immigrants and children, even grandchildren of immigrants, particularly those from former colonies. One of my housemates at the time, a Bangladeshi student, experienced a very scary incident. I myself was accosted by some weird guy (who was white) and was fortunately scared off by another one of my housemates and the incident left me in shock to this day (so much so that I had blocked out the incident until a few years ago). It is sort of scary to realize that it has apparently gotten worse since then.

The NHK news broadcaster has had an excellent livestream and is really the best source for news coverage. I have watched them for years. According to NHK, the perpetrator is a former navy member who has arms training, so it is not outside of the realm of possibility that he would have acquired some skills or at least cultivated an interest in making weapons, especially since acquiring guns in Japan is so difficult (for good reason). The perpetrator also claims that his grievance with Abe was personal, not political. Abe left a huge imprint on Japanese politics but he was also a divisive figure. He wanted to shed Japan of its pacifist status, a status that he felt had been forced on the nation as a result of a sort of punishment for the aggression Japan exhibited during WWII and in the wake of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which still fuels a very active anti-nuclear weapons movement in the country, which often found itself at odds with Abe’s insistence that Japan have a militant that be fully trained and ready to act at a moment’s notice. In the wake of skirmishes with the Chinese government, not least of which surfaces often in the South China Sea, Abe was ever more insistent that his stance was the correct one. I don’t know whether there is any connection between the perpetrator having been in the military and Abe’s stance. I guess we will have to wait and see as more information unfolds.

OMG.

OMG, at Yakety Sax blaring in the background.🥴😂

There will be a brand new Wimbledon ladies singles champion this year. And we don’t have to be subjected to looking at Patrick Mouratoglu’s smug expression in the player’s box. Anytime I see Sinner, what immediately springs to mind is “Richie Cunningham’s younger and much taller brother”. And also, “Where’s the Fonz?”

Wasn’t Truss showing herself as loyal to Johnson, at least publicly? Probably a calculated move on her part, but doesn’t that make her look less than competent? Also, what a bloody mess! Totally on brand for Boris Johnson though.

Another front page for tomorrow.

I saw bits and pieces, and a chunk of the final set when I was simultaneously having a discussion via phone and happened to blurt out to a casual tennis fan that if Fritz, at 5-4 in the 5th set can’t find a way to break Nadal, he’d likely lose the match. At 6-5, I thought the same, although I might have given Taylor Fritz more credit than he deserved because I thought he would have gone on longer in the tiebreak, which he surrendered fairly quickly. Malik has more of an oval face and Anisimova has more of a heart-shaped face. Look at them when they’re not smiling.

My Aunt was part of the Windrush generation. A nurse who worked for the NHS for decades before deciding that she’d had enough of England. The Windrush scandal mainly affected the children of those who came on the Windrush, most migrated on a parent’s documents, while the U.K. never bothered to grant most of these children their own documents giving them legal status. My Aunt’s views toward England had pretty much hardened in the last decades of her life. Once she left England, she never bothered to return, though her children still live there. I doubt my Aunt would have been surprised at what England has (re)turned out to be. She lived there during Enoch Powell and the Brixton riots. She likely would have viewed England as being exactly what she thought it was all along.

Perhaps if you blended some of Molik’s features with Vera Zvonareva’s features together? With more of an emphasis on Zvonareva though.

As much as I like Anisimova, so far these SF matches ‘ain’t it’.

My Aunt (God rest her soul) lived in London for 32 years before she became disillusioned with England and repatriated back to the West Indies but since her children still live there, had she been alive today, I think she would be unsurprised yet disgusted by where the U.K. is today. No better than what it was socially and politically than what it was before. Shame.

Ever since Johnson was mayor of London, I always thought he was an oaf. I am surprised he has lasted this long but the Brexiteers were desperate for him to “get Brexit done”, I guess.🙃 In terms of the abortion issue, I think we are at the beginning of a wave of lawsuits that will challenge the ruling by the Supreme Court. And if I were to guess, I think the cavalcade of lawsuits will be a sustained wave.

McEnroe was once defaulted for destroying a television camera at the Australian Open, he physically turned over and smashed a piece of equipment worth thousands of dollars. He also once called an official “an abortion”.

Ons bested her own QFs result from last year, which means she definitely will gain points- Oh wait. Well, the money will still be good at least.

The turmoil continues.

Nick has probably observed from the top players on the ATP tour that winning has allowed them to cover a “multitude of sins” and decided to do ‘in kind’. John McEnroe hasn’t been on my particular feed but those who do hear his commentary have claimed that he was speaking about Nick’s behavior, which McEnroe should probably not do. Also given his alleged turbulent behavior with his ex-wife Tatum O’Neal, he should really sit out any further comment on Nick’s behavior, or alleged behavior.

Noooo, I love Ms. Mona Hammond! She was also very memorable in the sitcom Desmond’s Place. R.I.P. Queen!

What are the chances of Col. Alexander Vindman and his brother Yevgeny being interviewed as children in 1985 by Ken Burns? It opens a poignant video essay that is worth a viewing. No paywall to climb over.

That battle of the German ladies was quite a contest, but man that court looked slow! Well dang, I didn’t know about the DV charge that is pending. We will have to see how this flushes out. It’s going to be inter to see how the ATP handles this (or not). I mean, is anyone hearing about Basilashvili these days? Wasn’t he the player who had a DV case in the courts? EDT: *interesting*. This keypad is not the most intuitive, I tell ya.

POC= Person Of Color. This morning on the news shows, the only tennis news items that got mentioned were the dust up between Nick Kyrgios and Stefanos Tsitsipas and the return of Roger Federer to the grounds of the All England Club at Wimbledon. This mornings’ paper had an article in the sports section that only mentioned 4 people in the lede: Roger Federer, Venus and Serena Williams, and Rafael Nadal, asking how much longer can they play and proposing that perhaps they can play for longer than previously believed. Tennis higher ups are panicking because these are the few players that can sell tickets anywhere they go, regardless of the tournament or location. Someone who worked at the U.S. Open once told me that they “put butts in seats”.

It appears that you may be in the wrong thread. Here is the NYT Obituary for Peter Brook. It seems as though Hamlet may have had a special place for him.

That Wimbledon 100 ceremony, as nice as it was to see Venus was a total distraction to someone who hadn’t competed on a tennis court until this tournament for almost a year. Couldn’t they have waited until tomorrow? And only one POC on that damn court. What a legacy!

Oh wow, you’re welcome @slick jones! I am glad that any of my posts contribute to your efforts. Is anyone going to put all the information that you have compiled into a database? I feel like it deserves to go into. A sleek, accessible database.