(Bulletin: many apologies to those of you who tried to contact me through the Contact tab above and received no acknowledgment. It has just come to my attention that the mail has been stored on our server for a few months no, instead of being forwarded to me. So please - if your question/comment is still relevant, please re-send it. I will also try to wade through some of them and respond as appropriate. The tab is fixed now, and you can always click on my "Pete" at any comment I post and I will get the email- PB)
Before I get down to answering the rest of the questions posted at the Any Questions? entry (I was going to do it today,but the above paragraph should tell you what I've been dealing with), I have one housekeeping note on Off-Topic posting.
We want to remain freewheeling and fun, but we want to avoid seeming impenetrable, confusing, or scaring off lurkers or even regular readers by appearing overly clique-ish, even though being part of the core group at TW is a reward unto itself. I feel somewhat responsible for encouraging OT entries, because I enjoy bringing up issues and making references to seemingly extra-tennis issues when I write, which can be construed as an invitation to OT. Just think of it this way: a comment on any reference in a given post is most definitely On Topic. But just throwing out an observation utterly unrelated to the post is OT.
Steggy and I have settled on a provisional strategy for dealing with OT issues. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday (and at some other random times, like the upcoming Super Bowl Sunday), we'll provide an OT blog/thread. The Monday Net Post will welcome OT discussion. On Wednesday, we'll have a Wednesday Racket feature; I'll probably just throw out some OT pet peeve (backpacks? generic, free, follow-the-sheep newspapers?) or observation, and you can take it where you will. And on Friday, we'll have a brief post on the upcoming weekend, and invite all OT discussions to take place there. Again, we don't want to be too right, but we also want to satisfy all readers.
We're not fielding comments on this below, but if you feel strongly about the issue please email Steggy or me via the Contact tab - which should be working properly now.