Bill Simons on Serena

[bottle]

I have to disagree. This Guardian article is a great one and suitable companion to the Simons piece. And at least when I saw your link to it I wanted to click on it immediately and did. Unlike the article on Margaret Court. Isn't she always consulted when sensationalist journalists are seeking a comment from the bottom tier of distorted Christianity? Well, I didn't click on it. Hope it was a good article for those of you who did. Me, my mind was made up from things Margaret has said before. Just the way it is. I say, bring back Bobby Riggs from the dead and let him beat Margaret Court over and over again.

Hey, I don't know about the sport psychologist you spoke with. Are the black persons she is familiar with black persons in the UK? Very different, I dare say. One really needs to steep oneself in black American culture, I submit, before one can navigate there enough to earn an opinion about anything. I'm not kidding. If you are a white teacher of black kids for the first time, e.g., there will be a big learning curve before you even can discern names much less begin to learn them. It's a good way to go; unfortunately, however, recent studies show that black kids do much better, statistically speaking, from studying with black teachers.

On another subject, has anyone interviewed Carlos Ramos on how he now feels about this serenity incident? Does he say he would make the same initial call on coaching from the stands or would he reconsider? I should think he would reconsider if he has any common sense, just as he should have reconsidered before he did it.

If there are people out there who want to blame Serena for poor tennis etiquette, and there sure are, and they want to say she should have shifted gears from tennis to the subtleties of verbal expression to an international referee REAL FAST, yeah, Serena should have thought faster and quicker and more and faster, how about Ramos?

Ramos should have thought faster and faster and faster and realized the flap in its grotesque totality, immediately projecting his bionic intelligence to have read every article even before it was written.

[stotty]

Great post.

I have no experience whatsoever with the black community. There are no blacks where I live. When I was a child I lived for six years in the north of England, in Burnley, where there was/still is a vast Pakistani community. Racial tensions were high and the school developed its own default segregation. The whites and Pakistanis didn't get on.

Where I live now, in the south, there are many western Europeans, who are similar to us Brits in many ways. You hardly notice a difference. We've also had over the last ten years an influx of eastern Europeans who seem to have contracted every phobia going. They are quite a bit different from western Europeans in attitude and outlook. The nice one's are exceptionally nice, the bad one's you wouldn't want to cross.

It would be interesting to hear Ramos's view of things now the event has receded a little into the past. I suspect we will get that opinion somewhere along the line.

[stotty]

An article about school teachers in America. Sounds like they have the same lot as most teachers here:

http://time.com/longform/teaching-in-america/

[johnyandell]

DB, Stroke, Nothing personal but we don't use the "n" word here as in that clip.

[don_budge]

Stefan Molyneux...another perspective

http://www.insidetennis.com/2018/09/the-serena-fallout/

Bill Simons is a friend and one of the most astute tennis writers there is. Here is his take on the Serena controversy. I happen to agree. But gentlemen this is a test. Those of you who agree or disagree will refrain from name calling accusations and the rest.

DB, Stroke, Nothing personal but we don't use the "n" word here as in that clip.

On another note, it appears db has checked out, probably because of the Serena stuff. I hope he comes back at some point. He could really set the table for tournament threads.

Ahem...interesting. After over 5,000 posts I was censored. Unless you consider the "Donald Trump for President" thread of which I was a very strong participant on. That too was deleted. John...you once made a comment about being an advocate of free speech. I guess you meant you had your limits. But in your comment you suggested that you didn't have any limits. I don't disagree with either decision on your part and I don't necessarily agree either. But what I will do is continue to express myself to the best of my ability and let the chips fall where they may. The idea of thought police is disturbing but let's face it...that time has been here for a very long time. So remember...Big Brother is always watching.

But no stroke my checking out had nothing to do with the censorship of MY post. Somehow you got dragged into it with your reply but the responsibility of the censorship was all mine. I own it. I posted a video of a black man answering calls about the Serena Williams match. I purposely posted it because he was using the word ****** or ***** (I have used *'s to eliminate any censorship because I would like for my post to be heard) or some other variation of the word. My response was not to illustrate the word itself...that was only a consequence of the overall nature of the video where there were black people calling in that were not supportive of Serena Williams. You see...black people have a diversity among themselves too. A lot of them use "that" word among themselves without any acrimony. I happen to think it's ok.

But my point was in response to Stotty's post where he said he had no experience with the black community and I was sharing an idea...a thought with him regarding the black community of which I have participated in on many different levels. Many levels. Given the chameleon like nature of don_budge...the ability to adapt. But never mind...John says it was nothing personal and I will take him at his word. Be that as it may it wouldn't have made any difference to me if it was personal. It isn't my imagination when I sense a sense of "personal" in comments. It's all in the game...as Big Bill Tilden wrote in a book by that name in the 1920's.

I think that Serena Williams is a great big character on the stage of not only tennis but she has interjected "herself" on social causes as well. She is huge. She is fair game for response. She wants to play the game...she is fair game.

I have some real questions about this person Serena Williams...given what I see and what I have witnessed plus what I have read. Other sources. She is a celebrity and therefore subject to scrutiny. She just so happens to be a tennis player so she shows up on my radar screen only because of my interest in tennis. None of the rest of it matters to me.

Notice this article about a recent cover of Serena Williams on GQ magazine:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/business/media/serena-williams-gq.html

It doesn't matter how you slice this, it appears that woman is parenthesis for a reason and I am going to surmise it is because of the question of her "sexuality". The question has been raised regarding if she is a woman or a man for a number of reasons. Interesting reasons that have nothing to do with anything than the question. The fact of the matter is she is an anomaly. By definition..."something that deviates from what is standard, normal, or expected". This much is clear. So naturally for normal people there are questions...that is if they are conscious and the least bit of curiosity. About reality.

So on the same note here is Stefan Molyneux who has expressed his opinion and expressed himself quite well in my estimation. He has some very interesting observations with regard to the Serena Williams. Fascinating about the obvious. Some might find it offensive...which I have a hard time understanding. Listen closely. No bad words. Just thought.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBexG_DxD-s

don_budge did check out for the second time in a year...for an extended period of time. It sure is great to be back though. It was tough watching from the outside but it was good for him too. There is a sense of "degree of separation" and detachment. Sometimes you have to disengage...in order to fully engage at a later date. The forum is a beautiful thing. It deserves a lot of respect and also it deserves a certain amount of latitude when it comes to people expressing themselves. After all we don't want to end up in a gulag or some other situation we aren't happy with.

Unthought Known...Pearl Jam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-Db7U0sicA

[bottle]

Stefan Molyneux...another perspective

Stay out of it, Bottle. Nah, I'm in this thread already. This is not a time to back out.

You see...black people have a diversity among themselves too. A lot of them use "that" word among themselves without any acrimony. I happen to think it's ok. Me too, so long as the person himself or herself is black. If the person is white, however, it is not Richard Pryor and has just cast itself back onto the plantation with Simon Legree.

It doesn't matter how you slice this, it appears that woman is parenthesis for a reason and I am going to surmise it is because of the question of her "sexuality". All persons are a mix. But she has had a baby. Have you?

So on the same note here is Stefan Molyneux who has expressed his opinion and expressed himself quite well in my estimation. He has some very interesting observations with regard to the Serena Williams. Fascinating about the obvious. Some might find it offensive...which I have a hard time understanding. Listen closely. No bad words. Just thought.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBexG_DxD-s

He talks for too long. And has fabricated sadness for Naomi Osaka. She got more attention than she otherwise would have. And overcame the big obstacle, Serena, and distraction. And won the U.S. Open. So why are we supposed to feel sorry for her? The "sympathy" here is bogus.

But Molyneux does show some talent for Spalding Gray type monologue art. And does engage his audience. It's just that he has two different speeds, first, the conservative's signature "delightful irreverence" with inner voice-- look, ma, I can say anything. Look how free I am compared to all the dull scum.

Second, great reflective soberness-- look ma, see how serious I can be.

My cynicism causes me to think that at least one of these two acts is bogus. The tip-off is the huge self-indulgence and delight that characterizes the whole monologue. Just look at Molyneux's face: it beams! And he thinks tennis isn't fun any more. Well, what is he having if not fun?

All in all a very engaging masculine-feminine fellow who qualifies for faculty appointment in the First International Etiquette School for the Re-education and Acceptance of Black and Brown Persons into Best Society. . So I shift now to the also substantial question of coaching from the stands. It came up at the annual steak roast of the Grosse Pointe Senior Men's Tennis Association.

I was just sitting there at a table of eight, minding my business. Hadn't emitted a peep. "So what do you think about the Serena thing, John?"

I said the tennis establishment should have resolved the coaching issue before the U.S. Open. And a woman on the opposite side of the table agreed. Which totally infuriated her husband!

The rules are the rules, he said. Right. And a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. And I had been trying to show one of the other wives, without success, a video I made of boys and girls, all black, threatening to eat each other. This particular wife was cashier for the event and was overly busy since the steak was cheap and very good. In the chaos of the cashier's table I wasn't able to get the movie to start.

But it did start now, in my pocket, and former teacher and my friend Roy Vorhees was addressing the whole audience. And the outraged fellow roundly chewed me out for being disrespectful to Roy with the voices coming from my pocket. So I went to apologize to Roy but he said I needn't because he didn't hear a thing.

Who really are the Puritans in this debate, a debate characteristic of so many others?