so is federer more like Hal Incandenza or John Wayne? I would say john wayne at first, from his court dominance. but DFW's point about federer having the speed & power, mixed with touch & intelligence to drag his opponents around, makes me think, in the end, that hal and rog are of the same mold.

i don't remember hal's actual tennis style being discussed much...i think pemulis was probably dfw's interpretation of himself, not necessarily that talented, but able to compensate with math (not sure if pemulis is as explicitly described as such, but he's known to be good at math and i just sorta figured), and IIRC wayne was very powered, and a disliked character, and i wondered if maybe DFW was trying to channel sampras (i think it was sampras, i may be thinking of aggasi) who was sort of one note, and who dfw disliked

he may be a great athlete, but he's still a fucking euro. that sort of limits his usefulness to the human race.

ummm.... what?

Yes...I would just like to echo and endorse my fellow liam's preceding comment: "ummm....what?" --with perhaps just the slightest added tinge of hostility and scorn.

I think jbg is referring to the little known fact that while roger federer is a great tennis player, he is, in fact, a euro. As in a coin valid in a bunch of European countries and worth $1.29. He's not human, but metal, and fits in your pocket, and amazingly never goes off in a metal detector (which i find incredibly cool). Say what you will about humans and coins, but I think it's undebatable that the first is infinitely more useful than the other, if only because of the opposable thumbs of humans. that federer can be such a great player without opposable thumbs (or arms or hands or legs or eyes, etc) only makes him that much more amazing to watch. he's more useful than most euros (most euros can't play tennis) but less useful than any person that can be exchanged for 3 croissants in any boulangerie in paris and can play two or more sports.

wow, taipei must be boring.

crazymonk++

that was a great article. the only thing I took issue with was the statement that "no one" talks about male athletes in terms of beauty.

the problem is i get tired early but don't want to go to sleep so i do things like this to keep me up until at least 10 or so.

that was inspirational tennis. beautiful. almost as virtuoso as when crazymonk and I used to play.

you should also link to one of yutube's shot of Zidane's greatest goal. it is pure poetry.

I like the idea of incrementing CrazyMonk by one... so, like, he'd be two crazy monks...

I'm envisioning Steve Martin as one of the two monks.