Just a quick note to tell y'all that I may not be able to post my thoughts on Ion Tiriac as I had hoped to do today; I have a few editing chores at the mother ship that I can't put off any longer. Meanwhile, here's are a few things to think about. I like the "Tribe Notes" section Steggy has created at the Monday Morning Net Post, so if any of you have any information you want to share (perhaps you're selling that 1981 Yugo, and hoping to get more than Blue Book value. . .), let her know.
Along those lines, the Hillbilly Princess and I are planning to roll out, sometime in the next month, a special Tribe site where you can all post pictures of your pets, yourselves, your third-cousins or anyone - or anything - else (watch it, Temes) of more personal nature than you want to post in Comments. We will also have a "Virtual Museum" of pictures of items like the Adidas sandal of shoe-throwing, Michigan-hating AmyLu, TW's resident Elder Sociologist. Stay tuned.
Another thing: Tennis magazine has a stake in the Indian Wells tournament, and if enough of you are interested in attending, I'd look into getting some kind of special Tribe rate on whatever I can negotiate - tickets, hotel rooms, maybe a drinks party. . . the desert is fun in February.
Now let's talk a little tennis. Here's some great news from the Sydney International, regarding Rafael Nadal's intent to compete in the Australian Open warm-up event. I find this especially welcome, because I'm counting on Jet Boy to bust up the "clay-court specialist paradigm in a way that none of the clay dogs has really done (although Carlos Moya and even Alex Corretja made game efforts) since Bjorn Borg. If you remember the article I linked to during the Australian Open earlier this year, you may remember Brad Gilbert suggesting that player whose game is most suited to the Rebound Ace is Nadal. A win in Melbourne by Jet Boy would certainly set the stage for the maturation of his rivalry with Roger Federer. You simply couldn't ask for a better scene setter.
I noticed the other day that there was a lively discussion of Nadal's latest Nike kit. It sure looks Swedish blue-and-yellow to me, which got me thinking - isn't it a nice touch for a player to defer to the nation hosting the event in which he or she is competing by wearing that country's colors? We're accustomed to players parading their native colors, but this takes the gesture to the next level. And clothing sellers can't be too resistant to this idea - not when they start counting up the nations that host tournaments, and the potential for sales of, say, The Mighty Fed or Jet Boy's outfits to the respective national, worldwide. Cha-ching, Cha-ching. . .
On that note, the paycheck calls. Talk amongst yourselves!