And no, in spite of my name, I am not Swiss, though I was indeed named after the little girl who ran around with goats in the Alps.
To kick off the Deuce Club, we have this gorgeous picture of Ed McGrogan of Monday Net Post fame (he reported most recently on Fed Cup from Stowe, VT). Ed ran a 9.3-mile race on the same day as the Wimbledon final, and chose to show the world who he was cheering on in London. No prize for guessing this one!
We'd also like to wish longtime poster Rolo Tomassi a belated but very happy 40th birthday - especially happy because Rolo, aka Andrew Friedman, just celebrated the release of Breaking Back, the book he wrote with James Blake (it is Blake's autobiography). We've just learned that Breaking Back will debut at No. 22 on the expanded New York Times hardcover non-fiction best seller list - so congratulations to James and Andrew. In fact, those guys wrote an entire post especially for TW, which Pete will post tomorrow (Friday). We'll have a picture of James and Andrew at that post as well.
So how about following in the footsteps of Ed, James, and Andrew and sending me news and photos you'd like to share with the Tribe? Too shy? Send photos of your pets! Or your kids. Or family vacation. Tell us what books you're reading, or - and Pete is demanding that I include this - if you've figured out a barbecue marinade that won't burn off 15 seconds after you throw the "hunk of meat" in question on the grill.
If you don't contribute, you may be forced to endure a seemingly endless barrage of photos of my foster bunnies, as well as my new bright blue betta fish (named Maurice). And if you have sent photos in the past, rest assured we have them. We've had some trouble getting them into the right format, but it will all work out.
Since the Greatest Road Trip in Tennis will be kicking off soon, we'd like to know what tournaments you will be attending. You can always post your plans in the Comments, here or in subsequent DC posts. But you can also email them to Pete and me, at this address, and that may make it easier to co-ordinate a potential gathering - or get you all in touch with each other. We know that some of you are leery of revealing too much personal data (including your preferred email address) in Comments; emailing us via the link will solve that concern. Even if there aren't any big gatherings planned, we'd like to hear how your trip went and perhaps publish some of your comments, war stories, and/or photos.
On that note, GV Girl has asked us to announce that Talk About Tennis will be having a US Open tailgate
before the day session on Saturday, September 1, starting at 10 am. More details to follow as the date draws near, but for those attending the US Open for the first time (like me), GV Girl also has an "Official US Open Tailgate" thread on the TAT website where she gives her thirty years' worth of tips about attending the Open.
Personally, I am already so excited about going to the Open that I'm going to become downright unbearable soon, though I'm also absolutely certain that I'm going to get heatstroke. You will know me by the giant bottle of Gatorade in my bag. Looking forward to your emails and to seeing some of
you down the road!
--- Heidi
