Here, a list of fun and thoughtful amuse-bouches from a few days spent covering the Cincinnati ATP and WTA combined event. As I empty my notebook, this is what I heard, what I saw:
On Thursday: Li Na's husband, Jiang Shan, ordering takeaway food at Mason, Ohio's Waffle House restaurant. He's an affable chap, and he waited patiently (longer, it seemed, than a to-go order should take at the low-key eatery) for his order to be prepared. And apparently patience is truly a virtue for him, as he keeps flipping the switch between coach and husband in his wife's life.
On Saturday: Mary Carillo calling her brief dalliances with Twitter during the Olympics "brutal," in conversation with another media member after Roger Federer's press meeting. She and NBC's Tamron Hall engaged in late-night banter about social-media trends and the like during the London Games, and Carillo was almost visibly uncomfortable with the setup. Hall, to her credit, pledged time and again to work toward Carillo's arrival on Twitter, but this latest comment from the broadcasting veteran doesn't raise hopes now. Still, the Spin yearns for a Carillo Twitter account. If Martina Navratilova can take to it, says here that Mary would be mighty fine.
On Saturday night: Upon telling Chris Fowler in the photo pit during the Venus Williams-Li match that I write TENNIS.com's Daily Spin column, he noted, "Oh, so you get to write about Rory and Caroline," referring to McIlroy and Wozniacki. Indeed. It is my lot in life. Fowler was upbeat, gracious, and attentive to the match play as he watched Venus' back betray her against Li.
And speaking of McIlroy...