DramatistDreamer

Twitter can be a pain but just be aware that IG is owned by Facebook and they mine and harvest all your data for third parties to use/buy. Just as long as you're aware.

How are people going to see them in the U.S. when coverage of the matches are so scattershot? That's a major problem. The WTA, in particular, went for that short money with no long term thinking on how they could make the sport more accessible. Are there droves of little brown kids from Compton who have access to WTA TV and Tennis TV? What about TC's online tier that is exorbitant? US Tennis needs to stop price gouging and trying to handpick faves and open it up to more people. Although Europe (which makes their matches far more accessible) had great numbers. Of course, having the men's and women's champions be European surely made a difference but Eurosport makes their matches much more accessible than their U.S. counterparts do.

These people in the Trump WH make me sick. I find every word they spew to be so distasteful, it's nauseating to me. At times, I cannot even stomach to hear their voices, which is why I haven't even tried to post the verbal confrontation that happened between a reporter and Huckabee Sanders. I literally cannot stand the lot of them.

It's a very similar analogy though. I know there have been some dips in viewers when Tiger wasn't playing but overall, golf's numbers have stayed close to what they have been over the last decade or so. With the emergence of golfers like Jordan Spieth, casual interest has held on, especially at major events. On any given Sunday, you can see golf on CBS during warm weather months. ESPN also regularly covers golf and I'm always seeing highlights on the local/regional nightly news. The Masters, The U.S. Open and the Ryders Cup all get good media coverage (more than 30 seconds, that's for sure) and I don't even watch golf! LOL. If anything, there are more public tennis courts than golf courses open to the public in the U.S.

I remember after Serena won her first major, she was still winning tournaments but she wouldn't become a true Slam contender again for another two years (until 2001 when she lost to Venus at the U.S. Open). U.S. viewers stayed loyal to the sport perhaps because Venus was winning a lot, then you also had Lindsey Davenport who was also a contender for big titles and on the men's side you started to see the emergence of Andy Roddick but all in all, fans were still following the sport (plenty of men were following Kournikova, for reasons we all can guess). Back then, CBS, NBC and even ABC (sometimes) was showing tennis. For many years (especially in the 90s), it was possible to see the autumn swing (which was mainly in Europe, in those days) almost every weekend on basic cable! No expensive digital tier! This is what I mean by accessibility of the sport. I hear tennis fans complaining that they subscribe to WTA TV, yet they're still missing matches! Tennis is the only sport, I truly follow on a consistent basis yet, I sometimes find myself watching NBA finals or even an occasional holiday game between teams(on ABC and ESPN, ESPN3) because it's nice to be able to consistently catch games. Tennis used to be this way but is no longer-- in fact, tennis makes it difficult to find and keep up with the sport. You have to be a dedicated fan to put up with half this nonsense.

The article says that the viewership is up from last year, I know. Compared to Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, even the Australian, Roland Garros seems less accessible to the U.S. audience. Roland Garros barely got any media coverage in mainstream media. Only NYC sports news the women's final got less than 30 seconds, the men's got a bit more because Nadal is a known name. Even the fact that two U.S. players (Sloane and Madison) reached the SFs got no coverage in the mainstream media. I hate to say this but since ESPN has basically abandoned the clay court season (and tennis in general, to a certain extent), there has been scant broader coverage of tennis outside of the very small, insular tennis media. Not everyone has TC, which tends to favor U.S. men (who, per usual, did poorly at RG). You can't grow a viewership this way.

He just cannot go one day without lying.

Snake with that weed, where's Joey? That was cute. LOL-ing at the fact that every school dance since the DJH days has had some sort of disastrous aftermath.

Not surprising since the French is the least accessible of all the Grand Slam tournaments to watch.

Constant lying must take a lot of a person.

When a client's legal team up and leave, there is clearly no more they can do.

This editorial is a good reminder that Kim was not only successful at getting the U.S. to stand down on those joint military exercises with South Korea but also got Trump (and the Bolton wing) to back off of their maximum pressure strategy. A plodding, incremental strategy was what both North Korea and China favored. Even South Korea (who I read was absolutely left unaware that Trump was going to offer to stop joint military exercises) believed that the incremental strategy was the most realistic. Trump truly got nothing that hadn't been done before. The North Koreans, on the other hand, got the ultimate legitimacy of their sovereignty. North Korea Is a Nuclear Power. Get Used to It.

What a great collection of pictures. Thanks for posting these, @DRW50.

These folks in the Trump W.H. sure know how to make themselves look foolish!

I sincerely hope this happens but right now, it sure looks as if the AT&Ts, Comcasts and Verizons of the world have a vice grip on the infrastructure (cables, wires, etc.). These corporate behemoths are already digging into 5G so that they can claim that for their companies as well. In Europe, the big corporations that have built the networks decided to lease to a variety of smaller companies, which keeps fee rates competitive. There has been no such luck getting the big telecommunications titans to do the same. Maybe the advance of technology will allow the most nimble start-ups to bypass the proprietary infrastructure of the big companies--allowing the smaller companies to build their own smaller networks. A few years ago, I read about municipal governments building their own community webs-- basically intranets, that are built, installed, owned and operated by the municipal government. My only question was about access to broader networks and quality of security. I would love to see this be successful. I think I'd rather pay my dollars to a local utility or a locally-based company than a giant corporate behemoth located half-way across the country.

In regard to the SCOTUS overturning Net Neutrality rules, one NYT Tech columnist argues that by the time the Obama had instituted the rules in 2015, the U.S. had long ago strayed from the original purpose and ideals of the the world wide web, which I can sort of agree with...to a certain extent. By the early-mid '00s, I could see definite changes (e.g. large telecom companies were beginning to swallow up smaller independent ISPs, which led to a lack of competitive pricing). The disappearance or diminishing of those smaller ISPs was definitely to the detriment of the consumer. Here is the article by Farhad Manjoo How Net Neutrality Actually Ended Long Before This Week

They seemed pretty close when Kim was being stalked and then went on trial for Doug Cummings' murder. They also seemed close throughout Kim's pregnancy with Chris. In fact, didn't Lisa know before Bob?

Just like the G-7 summit, Mango Mussolini plans to leave Singapore earlier than planned. The man definitely doesn't want to do the hard work of diplomacy or negotiating. Donald (if he insists on calling PM Trudeau, Justin then I'm calling him Donald) wants as few people in the room as possible so that he can give his version of events and when challenged, he'll just say Kim is lying.

More from Errani. Just do the time, Sara.

Sharapova couldn't be bothered with the paperwork and extensive doctor's exams to go for the TUE. Also, she never declared that she had a physical ailment that needed treatment, let alone a disclosure of her use of meldonium, which still strikes me as weird. I mean, we all know that Petra has asthma and uses an inhaler. We knew when Heather Watson and Christina McHale were suffering from glandular fever and Venus' struggles with Sjgrogren's are well documented, as well as Serena's history with bloodclots. Why no papertrail for Maria? Strange. Sorry but Errani's excuse of her mom's meds falling into the pasta doesn't pass muster for me. I had a relative who took cancer meds and kept them in her bedroom, NEVER in the kitchen. There is a strong warning against anyone except the patient even handling the medicine because it is so strong.

Well, Sharapova and Errani wave hello, LOL. Doping doesn't always yield record-breaking success, especially in a sport like tennis that demands skills other than speed and force.