Anyway, the race for TW PoY was awfully tight. Among the names that popped up with some frequency were those whom you might describe as "usual suspects", a group that includes Snoo Foo (for her general creativity and zaniness, but her broad knowledge of the game as well), Rosangel (the fact that she - like Andrew - is so closely identified with the site worked against her; it would be unseemly for the boys and girls in the boiler room to hand each other prizes), Temes (as poster Frenchie put it, he ought to get at least the "Lonesome Finn" award because "Just being Finnish should be celebrated--and Finns, who are by nature and culture shy, would never do it themselves.) and at least two of the tennis rocket scientists on board here, Robin Pratt and Skip 1515.
But in the end, the PoY is awarded to the man or woman who best represents the spirit of TennisWorld. As most of you know, last year's winner was MarieJ, who always brightened the site with her enthusiasm and congeniality. If you were new to the Internet and just dropped in and read one of her posts, you'd be likely to think: Hey, these Internet people aren't nearly as weird as all those old media commentators would have you believe. . .
And if you keep that in mind, you'll understand why the the TW Poster of the Year is Ptenisnet, aka Siva Shankarnarayan. Although Siva has been a little scarce lately (we've been in touch, and he's been busy as all hail at the day job), who can forget the way he joined with Lucy during last year's Australian Open to spread Anagram Influenza? You may also remember that I embarrassed Ptenisnet months before that, by calling attention to his largesse - he made a very charitable donation to an effort to revive and support tennis in Iraq.
Many of you know that Ptenisnet suffers from a rare disease called Echophobia (it is the fear of the sound of your own voice, and if such a condition doesn't really exist, it ought to!). Echophobia renders him capable of doing what so many of us do every day - bore others with tedious, grammatically inept, tick-laden, repetitive sentences that, combined, build a post or email that towers before a reader like a breathtakingly baroque cathedral made of tedious, grammatically inept, tick-laden,repetitive prose (see what I mean?).
Instead, because of his Echophobia, Ptenisnet says what he means in one or two sentences (I think he wrote three once: it was his shot at War and Peace). He is as adverb-intolerant as Graham Greene, as mortified by exclamation points as Saul Bellow, and utterly unlikely to indulge in the promiscuous use of words or phrases like Dude or In fact or Awesome! or As I mentioned in my post of blah-blah-blah . .
So you can see why posting nothing but anagrams consisting of only two words might be right up Siva's alley.
I had the pleasure of watching some tennis during the US Open qualifying with Ptenisnet, Ray Stonada, and Rolo Tomassi, and it such pleasant experience that I ended up writing about it. I also wrote about Anagram Influenza early last year, in a column for Tennis magazine. Here are the relevant bits from that piece:
Beyond that, Ptenisnet has been a model member of the TWibe - kind to lurkers and newcomers, always in control of his emotions (no flame wars or hissy fits for Siva!), open-minded (even during the darkest days experienced by his boy, Nikolay Davydenko - or, as Ptenisnet, dubbed him, Kolya the Obscure, which is not an anagram [at least not of Nikolay Davydenko] but as marvelous a nickname as I've ever heard applied).
Feel free to add your own thoughts on Ptenisnet in the Comments, or just to congratulate him.
Tomorrow, we'll pay homage to our Poet Laureate and, also, try to think of specific posts (meaning comments) or posters who you'd like to single out for praise. A few weeks ago, Andrew nominated Bob for the "Justine's Solid, But Nothing Really Special "Award, and CL suggested that Grant be given the "Baby-Punting" Award for his combination of hyperbole and hyperbolic curve (whatever that is; all I know is that Grant is awful popular around these parts these days, and it all has something to do with punting babies and him being male and all that).
