Mornin' everyone. Sorry about the typos that appeared in yesterdays Your Call post; I had trouble getting on-line here at the farm in game-rich Andes to do a final copy edit before the item auto-posted. Typos are a drag; so are factual errors that somehow slip under the radar whenever you take anything for granted - like when I wrote the other day that Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten nailed down the year-end no. 1 ranking in 2000 in Madrid, when the year-end championships that year were held in Lisbon.
What can I say: typos happen. The maddening thing is that these mistake are automatics; somehow, the little red question mark never pops up in your mind, even if it's an error that, when pointed out, makes you want to smack your forehead: Of course! Typos happen: usually from trying to do something more quickly than you ought, or staring so long at a post, or rewriting a sentence so many times, that you simply can't see the obvious error. Anyway, I think every writer who ever make a factual error or prints a typo vows to never, ever let it happen again (and it invariably happens again).
Okay, enough self-bashing. The Catskills are ablaze with foliage. Crazy Cowboy Luke and I had a good day, consumed mostly by errands around town. At County Tire, Luke examined a poster featuring some 50 NASCAR drivers in their official, flame-retardant coveralls. He managed to find the guy who was sponsored by M&Ms (the candy maker's logo was plastered on his chest) and thought that was about the coolest thing he'd ever seen.
My buddy Steve, who runs the place, gave Luke a copy of the poster. We already have the inflatable Goodyear blimp (also courtesy of Steve) hanging in the living room (to my wife LIsa's unending mortification) and now we've got the Top 50 NASCAR drivers, helmets nicely tucked under their arms and logos blazoned across their chests (Red Bull,UPS, FedEx, Tide, TennisWorld - okay, I'm kidding about that last one) tacked up on the wall in Luke's room. These days, Luke is torn about the future; he wants to be a truck driver and a cowboy, and has some kind of byzantine, alternating-days scheme to that effect worked out to his satisfaction in his own little brain. I hope he doesn't get some crazy idea about becoming the the guy in the M&Ms jumpsuit, You need to have realistic goals in life, right?
Anyway, I noticed that Gilles Simon lost at Metz (to countryman Nicolas Mahut). Whether or not he succumbed to pressure because he's in a position to qualify for the Tennis Masters Cup and/or had to play in front of a home crowd (in a field laden with Frenchmen), as I suggested he might, is something I can't determine. But Simon missed a good opportunity, going down in the first round.
As always, discuss tennis, typos, or most anything else here at Your Call. I'm back in New York on Thursday, and will have a red meat post for you then.
- Pete