Wednesday Racket (OT)

Okay, everyone, consider this the match-calling and general early-bird OT thread from the time I post it. I'm rushing around trying to get organized before my early AM flight tomorrow.

First order of business: Ray Stonada and I have been batting around the idea of having a gathering of the Tribe in New York, ostensibly to celebrate the  recent spring solstice (;-). That way, those of who are into enacting the traditional fertility rites involving corn (see The Golden Bough, a fun if not entirely easy read) or who might want to string up a net to catch the sun, or merely sacrifice a baby goat, can bring all your gear and heavy equipment (spears, clubs, etc.).

We're thinking of reserving a room in a bar/restaurant on Second Avenue and 10th St., where up to 25 of us can eat (off their standard menu, which is pretty basic and low-to-medium priced by NY standards) and drink without having to worry about bothering any of the other patrons. We may even have a plasma TV at our disposal, so we could run a tennis DVD or something. . .Ray has suggested he might perform a little interpretive dance to the score of McEnroe Agonistes. It will be low-key thing, so please weigh-in below on what you think of this idea, and if we proceed we'll ask you to email RSVPs, just so we have a rough head count.

Also, feel free to email me any suggestions for people/stories you'd like me to cover. Some news about the make-up of the revised tour calendars is already being disseminated, although my gut feeling is to stick to tennis issues. For those of you who will be in Miami, you can contact either me or Steggy, via the contact tab at TW (for me), or Steggy's email, which is available via any of her comments (just click on her name).

I won't be posting until mid-to-late afternoon tomorrow, so stand by and enjoy the tennis. This is probably my last and somewhat concentrated on-site blogging until the French Open (in a way, I'm no longer conflicted about not being able to attend Davis Cup, now that Rafael Nadal has pretty much shot the whole danged thing to hail), and I'm going to throw a leg over and ride the fur off it!