Good News Friday: Billy Joel makes a college kid’s dream come true. A Corgi who’s an awesome goalie. And the best video Bar Mitzvah invite ever

**Was all set to write about my excitement that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal played Thursday night in California, their first match in a year. But Fed’s injured back barely let him move, and Nadal, not really healthy himself, drubbed him. Made me sad to see Fed so not like himself. Get better soon, Fed.

Meanwhile, watching 5 minutes of Jerry Seinfeld doing stand-up from Wednesday night cheered me up a little. The man’s still got it.

Billy Joel may not be what he used to be; his voice isn’t the same, his reputation has been ruptured by his several drunk driving incidents (hey, when “Saturday Night Live” parodies you multiple times, that’s not good), and he hasn’t made any new music in quite a while.

But for people like me who great up in the 1980s with his music, he’ll always be a legend. So it was nice to see a kid who was born WAY after “Piano Man” and “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” came out feel the same way about Billy as millions of us do.

At a college student lecture/concert recently at Vanderbilt University, Billy was asked a question by 20-year-old Michael Pollack, a Vandy student and aspiring songwriter who asked if he could come up and play “New York State of Mind” with Joel.

Billy said “Sure,” and the above video ensued. Just beautiful. I’ve talked about this with my friend Pearlman a bunch, as both of us have been around celebrities a lot and have seen how big of a jerk they can be to fans.

It takes so little for a superstar to make the day of a fan, so little to give someone a lasting memory. I don’t know why more celebrities don’t just take the five seconds to be nice.

Anyway, the Vandy kid does a hell of a job here, don’t you think? Here’s a little background on how he got to play with Billy.

**And now, the most excited Corgi in the world, playing goalie with a ball tossed by his owner.

The anticipation of the dog is my favorite part; he just cannot wait for that ball to be thrown.

**Finally today, saying something is “the coolest Bar Mitzvah invitation ever” isn’t exactly clearing a high bar, I know. But this kid Jorel totally nailed this video invite, with an assist from the music of Queen;

I wish I could go, I bet it’ll be a killer party.

Djokovic powers through to another Aussie Open title. Harry Reid disgusts me yet again. And an awesome NHL goal celebration.

One of the many, many awesome things about being a tennis fan in 2013 is that the Golden Age we’ve been since about 2008 or so shows no signs of slowing down.
The storyline just changes a little. Where once it was Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal towering above all, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray creeped into the picture, and the four of them have raised the sport I love most to an un-Godly level.
And as the Federer-Nadal rivalry has dissipated, because of injuries and age, we’re so lucky to have two guy born within days of each other to carry us throug, and be the new pre-eminent rivalry.

Djokovic and Murray have already played some classics in the last two years, and it looked like Sunday’s Aussie Open final would be another. They traded tiebreak wins for the first two sets, but Djokovic (my 2nd favorite player behind Fed) ran away with the match in four sets.

He’s just so hard to beat when he’s defending like he did Sunday; Djokovic is truly the best defender I’ve ever seen, retrieving balls he has no business getting to. I thought Murray played pretty well, but couldn’t hit enough winners, or enough first serves, to hang in there.

As for my man Federer, no shame for him this tournament, going out in 5 sets to Murray in the semis. Roger is far from done.
It was really a great Aussie Open; I should’ve blogged about it more. We got a new American star on the women’s side (Sloane Stephens is fantastic), some great matches on the men’s side throughout the two weeks, and ESPN even gave us some good announcing with Chris Fowler and Patty McEnroe actually shutting up once in a while and letting the match breathe (Pam Shriver, Cliff Drysdale and Mary Joe Fernandez would not shut the hell up for even a second during the Serena-Stephens match, and it was highly annoying)

Love that the tennis year is underway. Can’t wait till the French Open in May, when Rafa will be back and healthy and ready to defend his crown.

For a really good column on Sunday’s match, check out Jason Gay’s Wall Street Journal piece here.

**Nail Yakupov of the Edmonton Oilers is 19 years old, and has major, major potential. In his third NHL game Thursday night, he scored a game-tying goal, batting the puck out of mid-air, with only five seconds left.

He then enjoyed one of the best NHL goal celebrations in years. I loved it; I wish more players would react like this when they score.

**And finally, a few words of disgust for the Senate Majority Leader, Mr. Harry Reid, who is a Democrat that consistently continues to let down those in his party, but being a spineless, compromising, collapsing jellyfish of a man.

Late last week, without much fanfare in the press, Reid completely folded in negotiations about ending or reforming the filibuster. The filibuster, if you are not aware, is the process by which the minority party in the Senate can block legislation from coming to a vote. In the old days, Senators had to actually stand on the floor of the Senate and talk and talk and talk for as long as they wanted to filibuster (like Jimmy Stewart in the classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

Now, a filibuster is incredibly simple; a minority party Senator simply and often anonymously says he wants to filibuster something, and poof! there goes the legislation.
It’s why a majority seemingly must have 60 votes now to do anything, and it’s yet another sign of dysfunction in Washington.

So last year, at the urging of some real Dems in the Senate, Reid decided that filibuster reform would be a big deal in 2013. He was in a strong negotiating position, his party just won the White House again, and the GOP was wounded.

And yet, Harry Do-Nothing Reid got just about ZERO reform done. He caved like he always does; he’s an awful, ineffective leader, and I wish he had lost re-election in 2010 so the Democrats could get a real leader at the top of the Senate.

Sigh. Harry Reid, what a disgrace.

The spider who caused a Swiss panic. “Hard Knocks” starts with a bang. And beach volleyball and bickering Brazilians are must-see TV

So I found myself riveted by the U.S.-Brazil women’s beach volleyball match Tuesday, and no, not because there were beautiful women in bikinis (they weren’t even wearing bikinis, it was cold and raining in London during the match).
The U.S. team of Jen Kessy and April Ross were entertaining, and the match itself was exciting, with the American team rallying to win in three games.
But no, what I couldn’t stop watching was the intense arguing between the two Brazilian players, Juliana Silva and Larissa Franca (here’s a clip of them from a previous tournament, yelling at each other).

They were a hoot. They yelled at each other in Portugese the whole match, during timeouts, during points, everything. It seemed like Larissa was doing most of the yelling, even when it was her fault that Brazil lost the point. Apparently, I looked up after the match, this is common, that they yell all the time.

Sounds like a reality TV show waiting to happen if you ask me.

**So after a one-year absence, “Hard Knocks” is back on HBO. Which delights me. If you don’t know it, “Hard Knocks” is the show which goes behind the scenes in one team’s NFL training camp, showing us everything that goes on over five weeks.
This year the Miami Dolphins are in the spotlight, and even though the Dolphins are my 2nd-most hated NFL team (behind the Patriots, of course), I had to tune in and watch.
Couple initial thoughts on a really good first episode:
– I could’ve lived without seeing 300-pound lineman Mike Pouncey getting his nose hair trimmed. Just saying.
– Loved seeing Braylon Edwards, the former diva receiver, act so humble. Everyone comes back to Earth eventually, maybe you shouldn’t be such a jerk during your time at the top.
– Chad Ochocinco Johnson or whatever the hell he’s called: When you were a star, people laughed at your act and praised you. Now that you stink, not so much.
– I think it’s clear that rookie QB Ryan Tannehill’s wife Lauren will become the star of the show, don’t you think?

**Finally, an office in Switzerland had a little panic last week. Employees got really scared and called the police when they spotted a spider on a table.
When the police arrived, they made the shocking discovery that it was a PLASTIC spider.
Seriously, Swiss people? You’re calling the police over a spider? Even if it were real, there’s not one brave fellow who could’ve just stepped on it, or smacked it with a magazine (If national hero Roger Federer had been there, he would’ve smashed the critter with a racket).

I love what the police did, though. After pointing out it was plastic, they made the workers listen to an instructional lecture called “how to tell the difference between real spiders and plastic toys.”

Next week’s lecture at the firm: Superman: Can he really fly or is that just some fancy special effects?

My Grandma turns 94, and a family comes together. An Onion story that rings bitterly true. And a bizarrely awesome Wimbledon bet that paid off for a dead guy.

Last Saturday we held a 94th birthday party for my grandma, who now lives in a nursing home on Long Island, near my mother’s home.
I have written emotionally before about how difficult it is for the family to see her like this, as Alzheimer’s ravages the mind of the greatest person I’ve ever known.

But  it’s been at least six years since she’s really been herself, and a year and a half since she’s been at this facility, so we’ve all learned to adjust. Take our good moments where we can get them.
We don’t focus on the fact that she falls asleep during conversations with us, or that she doesn’t speak in understandable words anymore, save for a rare “Yes, yes!” when answering a question.

With Alzheimer’s patients, it’s so easy to focus on the negative, and all that they can’t do anymore. I know it’s a fight for my mother, for me, for anyone who sees her regularly to not remember how vibrant, smart and funny Grandma used to be, and just feel tremendous sadness that she’s not that way anymore.

But sometimes, you enjoy the good moments. Like Saturday.

The whole family came to her nursing home to celebrate; about 20 of us were there, including four of Grandma’s great-grandchildren (the other two are away at sleepaway camp). We had a Carvel cake, we hugged and kissed her, and fussed over her like crazy.
Sure, she didn’t remember any of our names.

But she kept smiling and hugging and kissing right back, as she always has done for all nine decades of her life, and I have to believe that somewhere inside, she knew we were all there to celebrate with her.

We didn’t talk about the fact that it likely will be the last big birthday party we have for Grandma; we all just kinda knew. And when we left her, when my mom and aunt wheeled their mother back to Room 110, I couldn’t help but notice that every single one of us looked back at her just a little bit longer than usual.

For a few hours, she was the Grandma we’d always known and loved. And for a few hours, she made us all feel so much better.

As she has done all our lives.

**Sometimes the brilliant satirical website “The Onion” hits so close to home, that you’re cringing while you’re laughing.

The great journalist Tommy Tomlinson Tweeted this Onion story on Monday, and it cracked me up.
Headline:  ”Economically Healthy ‘Daily Planet’ Now Most Unrealistic Part of Superman Universe.”

It continues:  NEW YORK—”Frustrated fans of the Superman comic book said Monday the continued financial stability and cultural relevance of the series’ Daily Planet newspaper is now the most unrealistic part of its universe and an annoying distraction that has ruined their reading experience.”

Read the rest here, and if you’re a current or former newspaper scribe like me, read it and weep.

**Finally, as Roger Federer fans the world over continue to celebrate his Wimbledon championship Sunday, one of the most bizarre betting stories ever was still being talked about.
A man named Nick Newlife (above) placed a wager of 1,520 pounds on Federer in 2003,  betting that Federer would win Wimbledon seven times by the year 2019.
It was a hell of a risky bet at that time, as Federer had just won his first Wimbledon that year.
But Sunday it came true, only Newlife wasn’t around to collect the 100,000 pounds he was owed. He died in 2009.
Instead, the international charity Oxfam,  a poverty-fighting group whom Newlife had left his worldly possessions and money to, received all the money as a donation.

Even in death, Nick Newlife was a generous soul. And even in victory, Roger Federer turns out to be a hell of a charitable fellow.

The incredible Roger Federer wins another Wimbledon. “Brave” a Pixar mess. And San Diego’s fireworks, all at once

It is a pleasure beyond words watching Roger Federer at his best.

If you’re a tennis fan, can there be anything better than what we saw for three and a half hours Sunday morning, on the most beautiful court in the sport?
Roger Federer playing his sport better than anyone else ever has, at the top of his game, winning Wimbledon for the seventh time after so many wrote off his chances of ever winning again.

It was the kind of tennis we hadn’t seen from Federer, in a final, in 2 1/2 years. And for once, he didn’t have the crowd on his side. A very tough and (suddenly) fearless Andy Murray was the UK’s favorite son Sunday, as he tried to end a 76-year drought of Brits not winning Wimbledon.
Murray played his guts out, and matched the Greatest of All Time shot for shot for the first two sets.
Then, as he’s done so many times, Federer went to 11. He played a magnificent game at 3-2 in the third, a 20-minute game that went on forever.
Murray fought his best, and played as well as he ever has. If he plays like he did Sunday, he’ll win Slams, something I never thought he’d do.

But at the end, it was about Federer’s greatness, and huge fans of him like me were just so thrilled he gets (at least) one more brilliant moment in the sun.

And by the way, how cute were Federer’s twin 2-year-old daughters?

**Like most Americans, I’m a big fan of Pixar’s movies. From “Finding Nemo” to “Up” to “Despicable Me,” they’ve turned out plenty of gems.

But I saw the company’s newest flick, “Brave,” Saturday night, and man, What. A. Mess.  Just so all over the place and weird, I don’t even know where to start.
OK, so the basic story is this: Set in ancient Scotland, the movie’s about a little red-haired teenager named Merida who doesn’t like that her mom the Queen is arranging her marriage to one of three village royals, and makes a wish that her Mom “be changed, so her fate will be changed, too.

Well, that sets off a bizarre series of events that make little sense, often confuses the viewer, and the whole thing is resolved very weirdly. I like the Scottish accents, and there were a few funny lines (mostly from Billy Connolly), but this was not a good movie.

Hopefully it’s just a rare Pixar miss.

**Finally, you may have heard about a little screw-up with the City of San Diego’s fireworks display on July 4th last week. Seems that by accident, the entire 20-minute show arsenal of fireworks was set off at once, resulting in an incredible display of pyrotechnics that lasted 19 seconds … and then nothing else.
Because I aim to please, the video of the “show” is above.

Personally I think it’s hilarious. Can you imagine the folks watching those first few seconds thinking “Holy cow, these are amazing, and it’s just the first minute of the show!”

“Rock of Ages” wildly entertaining and ridiculous. A rap song about sippy cups. And Wimbledon, my favorite event, begins

After enjoying the hell out of “Rock of Ages” on Broadway a couple years ago, there was no way I wasn’t going to see the movie.
And after seeing it on Friday night, I can happily report this: It’s thoroughly, awesomely entertaining, and also completely, utterly ridiculous. So, about what I expected.
If you saw the play, you know the story: Bright-eyed starlet comes to Hollywood in the late 1980s, takes a job at a famous dive bar, meets up and coming singer/bartender, and hilarity and heartache ensue.

Julianne Hough is no Meryl Streep here, but she does a good job in the Sherrie role. Diego Beneta gets the “Drew” role, and he’s OK.
And Tom Cruise, who I mocked and cringed about after he was cast? He was terrific as insane rock star Stacee Jaxx.
But the real revelations are Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand, who steal the show with a brilliant man/love relationship, culminating in a wonderful dance to REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling.”
There were way too many people in the movie (Bryan Cranston and Mary J. Blige were basically wasted in their roles), and of course the story was ludicrous, but man did my fiance and I have fun at the movie. We sang, out loud and in our seats, many of the great songs (there were only about 10 other people in the theater, FYI) that were the soundtrack of our Gen X childhoods.

No, it won’t win any Oscars. But I doubt I’ll have a better time at any movie this year.

**And now, something I feel certain you’ve never seen before: A 2-minute rap song about a kid having milk in his sippy cup.
You’re welcome.

**Ah, Wimbledon. When tennis nuts like me wax poetic about the splendor of grass, the strawberries and cream, the majesty of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club… God I love it. It begins today, and I actually tried to go in person this year for the first time ever (I toured the grounds on a trip to England in 2007, but it was in March, so, you know, not the same), but tickets were impossible to get. Still, I will get there one day.

As for this year’s tournament, I’m amazed at how many people in the tennis media are picking Roger Federer to win it. Don’t get me wrong, Fed is a God to me and I’d be as happy as any Fed-phile if he did win it again. But I feel like Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are just pretty far ahead of everyone else right now, and I can’t see anyone but the two of them raising the trophy two weeks from now.

But hey, it’d be a fantastic story to see Federer win it. But the pick here in Djokovic on the men’s side, and, what the hell, Serena Williams on the ladies side.

The very strange experience of being wooed by wedding venues. R.I.P., Richard Dawson. And thoughts on a crazy French Open day

After three weeks of driving around most of Long Island looking for a place, and a date, to hold our upcoming wedding, my fiance and I have finally figured out where we’ll be saying our “I do’s” in front of people we know and love.

It was a strange, strange process, finding a wedding venue, filled with questions you never thought you’d ask (“how many kinds of pasta would that cocktail hour station serve?” ) and encounters that you just don’t deal with every day.
Couple things I discovered/learned during the process…

1. Every single thing you ask for when you meet the catering director of a venue,   you will get. It’s better than shopping for a car. Can we have (fill in the blank) food? Sure!  Can this place accomodate X number of people? Of course! Can we ride into the reception on three unicorns, two goats, and a donkey? Why not!

Seriously, the competition for weddings is pretty intense in New York, with each couple having 8,000 possibilities, it seems. So it was nice hearing “yes” to everything we asked for.

2. One place was so interested in us signing a contract with them that they offered to do a tasting for us and our parents, before even agreeing to a deal. So last Sunday we got a two-hour feast filled with appetizers, main courses and desserts, for free. Food was great, and the chef even came out to check on us.
I felt bad when we didn’t pick them; they cooked all that food for us! But picking a wedding venue is a cold-hearted business…

3. The only hard and fast rule of this process so far: “No new friends!” Our guest list is already too big for several of the places we looked at, so we have told parents (and ourselves) that they’re not allowed to make any new friends for a while.
4. Finally, a word to the wise about places with “great views.” We got all excited about several places and how beautiful they looked for pictures, and for guests to look at. But then we realized: We’re getting hitched at night. Nobody will be able to see the views, it’s too dark. 

Kinda ruins the vista when all you see is black sky, huh?

**If it seems I feel the need to always write blog posts about celebrities from the 1980s when they die, well, that’s because I do. So today I want to spend a few words on Richard Dawson, the legendary game show host and star of “Family Feud.” and “The Match Game.” who died over the weekend.
Couple things I wanna say: First, Richard Dawson must hold the record for most women ever kissed on television. For nine years the dude kissed, on the lips, every single female who appeared on The Feud.

Besides it being pretty sexist, can you imagine the outcry if he did that today? Blogs would rip him apart, women’s groups would call him a pig, and all that stuff. Even as a kid I thought it was weird how he kissed all of ‘em, old and young alike.
Second, I think he got away with it because he was British. British men are automatically 25 percent more charming than American men, a female friend of mine once told me.
And third, Richard Dawson was a wonderful reminder of when game show hosts had distinct personalities and styles. Him, Wink Martindale, the sartorially splendid Gene Rayburn, all of them were great colorful characters who were more than hosts, they were entertainers (Yes, I’m a game show nerd, sue me).

So long Richard, and may there be lots of women in heaven who will kiss you right before you scream “Survey SAYS!”

**Haven’t written about the French Open yet this year, but Sunday’s action demanded a few words from me. In the span of like an hour, the No. 1 player in the world Novak Djokovic was down two sets, the great Roger Federer had dropped a set, and No.1 on the women’s side, Vera Zvonareva, had been drummed out of the tournament.

But thankfully for tennis fans like me, Nova and Roger recovered against the lesser lights they were losing to.  The incredible consistency of the men’s top three (some guy named Nadal has a chance to win this tournament, too) means I look forward to the semis of Grand Slams so much, because they always involve two of those three playing each other, and then facing the other in the final.

Can’t see it happening any another way this week. Hoping Federer can find a way to win one more Slam.

A few 9/11 pieces worth your time. Federer loses another classic. And football football football! is back

I won’t hit you with a lot of words about 9/11 today. If you’re like me, you’ve seen and read plenty about the 10th anniversary in the last few days.
Instead, I want to point you toward some of the great stuff I’ve come across. If you don’t want to see any of it, I understand. But some of this is truly extraordinary.
– I’ve written about this before; it’s a slideshow video put together a few weeks after 9/11 by a graphic artist named Jason Powers. It’s beautiful.

– An extremely moving piece in the New York Times “Reckoning” series, this one about the artifacts people saved from 9/11, and how much they mean.
– And finally, a photo collage of iconic images from that day 10 years ago when our world changed forever.

**These crushing losses by my man-crush Roger Federer are getting old.
The greatest tennis player of all-time doesn’t just lose matches anymore; he loses epic, Greek tragedy-type matches. For the second year in a row, Fed lost to Novak Djokovic in a scintillating five-set U.S. Open semifinal.
It was almost an exact replica of last year, with Djokovic rallying, Federer having two match points and blowing them, and then Djokovic winning 7-5 in the fifth.
It was splendid, remarkable stuff, everything that could make a person love tennis even more.
But this is now three horrendous five-set losses for Fed in the last year. His year will be Grand Slam-less for the first time since 2002 (which is freaking amazing).
The decline has been slow for Federer, but clearly it’s happening. Two years ago he’d never fail to close. Now, he just can’t seem to finish.
All props, too, to Djokovic, who continues to grow up so much this year. What a fantastic player he is, and his match with Rafael Nadal Monday will be all kinds of fascinating. Can Djokovic beat Rafa for the sixth time this year? Can Nadal strike back?
Also, one more reason why I love Rafael Nadal: The kid oozes class. Skip to 1:20 of this video and watch him, unprompted, pay tribute to 9/11 just a few moments after finishing his match.

**Football’s back! My absolute favorite way to spend a Sunday in the fall is at a sports bar watching six of seven NFL games at once. I eat fried food that’s bad for me, I nurse one drink (bars don’t love me, but hey, I’m not a drinker), and I revel in the joy (and agony, if I’m watching the Jets) of NFL football.
This year is weird for me because I won’t be going to my favorite bar in Daytona Beach where I used to live, Houligans. I’m quite certain at some point Sunday afternoon at Houligan’s Sean the firefighter will turn to Bennett the construction worker (in five years I never learned their last names; they’re not necessary at bars) and say “Hey, where the hell is Mike the crazy Jets fan?”

We were a small but devoted band of fans who saw each other for a few hours every Sunday, and then went our separate ways. But I loved those guys because they were always there and they shared my passion.
Anyway, after intensive Internet research I found a new sports bar near my new home in Queens. It looked OK when I scouted it out last week, but until you’re actually there for games, you never know.
Good news is, my Jets don’t play until 8:20. So my day won’t be ruined until at least, oh, 8:45.
Happy first Sunday of the NFL, everyone.

Steve Jobs finally walks into the sunset after changing the world. A school district uses sheep as lawnmowers. And a fun day at U.S. Open qualifying

Usually, when a CEO leaves a company, the tributes to him or her are overblown.
No one person is that much bigger than the product or business, 99 times out of 100. Most anyone else below the big chief can do that job.
And yet, with the news that Steve Jobs is stepping down, it definitely seems like the hype is about accurate.
This guy changed the world. His brilliant innovations with Apple are too numerous to be named here; there’s probably no area of technology that Jobs and Apple haven’t had a hand in. (if you’re reading this on an iPhone, I rest my case).
Jobs has been sick for a while, so Wednesday’s news isn’t a huge surprise, I guess.
But it still feels like the end of an era. What a remarkable career he’s had; people forget that he was thought to be all washed up when he left Apple. Check out this interview from 1994, and see how prescient this man was.

**You think your school district has funding problems? Please. You haven’t seen the trouble facing Carlisle, Pa. How desperate are these folks? They’re not using lawnmowers anymore to cut the grass at two local schools. They’re using sheep.
That’s right, sheep. Seven of ‘em, on loan from the principal of the middle school. (Why does the principal own seven sheep? I’m guessing that’s a whole ‘nother story).
Embarrassing that a school district would have to do this. But hey, also educational for the kids? Who needs a field trip to the animal farm when you’ve got Dolly and Co. right outside the classroom window?

**How often in life do you get to stand five feet away from professional athletes, as they play some of the biggest matches of their career?
Not often. Which is why I did something I’ve always wanted to do this week: Go to the qualifying tournament at the U.S. Open.
For those not familiar with the “qualies” it works like this: If you’re a pro tennis player ranked in the top 100 or so, you automatically get into the U.S. Open. If you’re not, you have to play your way in through what’s called a qualifying tournament. For several days you try to beat other men and women desperate to make it into the main draw.
Every year before the Open they open the National Tennis Center in Queens, N.Y. and let fans watch the qualies for free. I went this year and it was fantastic. You can literally get five feet from these men and women while they’re playing; you can’t do that with any other sport.
Sure, there were no huge famous names like Roger Federer or Serena Williams playing, but these were true pros fighting their guts out, and in many cases the money they were trying to win would determine whether they could keep playing as a pro next year.
It was great fun. And yeah, there may be some more U.S. Open posts from me next week; I’m going at least twice, and hoping for more. In the immortal words of Bart Scott, I can’t wait.

A joyful new king at Wimbledon. The Casey Anthony trial is inescapable. And a pretty awesome male try at a pole dance

Since 2004, there have been two men, and two men only, in the conversation for the title of best men’s pro tennis player in the world.
One was Roger Federer. The other was Rafael Nadal. For seven years they towered over everyone else in the sport, leaving precious little crumbs for others to snack on.
As of 12:30 Eastern time Sunday afternoon, there officially is a third member of the exclusive club.
Novak Djokovic, in a blistering and breathtaking takedown of Nadal, won his first Wimbledon title Sunday, and becomes the new No. 1 player in the world.
I’ve written about Djokovic a few times this year already, because the dude has been playing out of his mind for six months now. He’s lost one match this year, and he’s beaten Nadal, unquestionably the best player in the world coming into 2011, five times in a row this calendar year.

Sunday, Djokovic stuck to his script against Nadal: Pin him against the baseline, force him to constantly scramble to get balls back, and play fantastic defense against him, keeping his winner total low and making Rafa earn every point.
It was stunning to see it in Miami and Madrid this year, but to see it on Centre Court was more astonishing.
And if you’re just learning about Djokovic today, a couple quick points: He grew up in war-torn Serbia, he’s got a fabulous personality, and his parents were so financially desperate to help him achieve success as a kid that his father Sirjan went to loan sharks for money to help pay for Novak’s training.

It’s a wonderful story, this Djokovic rise, and I hope it continues, because as Federer fades a bit, a Djokovic-Nadal rivalry could be awesome.
Click here for S.L. Price’s terrific profile of Djokovic from a few months ago.

**Silly me. I thought by leaving Florida a few days ago I might get away from the Casey Anthony trial.
Ha. It’s everywhere, on every station, still. I’ve tried my best not to follow it, but living near Orlando the last three years so much of it has seeped into my brain.
Sunday were closing arguments in the case, and as usual, Casey cried when prosecutors accused her of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.
Here’s what I think: She’s guilty. Guilty as all can be. But the defense has thrown so much mud at the wall, hoping something will stick (how bizarre is George Anthony, Casey’s father, by the way? Am I the only one who sees a reality TV show in his future?) that I’m not sure she’ll be convicted.
If she gets off, every good mother in America ought to riot. Because Casey might not have been the worst Mom ever, but she’s in the photo.

**Focus on the effort here, not the actual dancing. Here’s a guy who wanted to get his girlfriend something different for her birthday. So he choreographed a pole dance to music, and, well, he learned how hard and exhausting pole dancing is.
I loved it, though.