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Duped by the Duopoly

Are you looking forward to the 50 days between now and Election Day? How about the 111 until the new Congress convenes on January 3, 2021 or the 128 until the new President is inaugurated? These dates and the time periods they bound will resonate differently for domestic and overseas readers. Here in the United […]

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by Haven Pell
Haven Pell

When does a challenge become an adventure? Seems like it relates, at least in part, to timing. Challenges feel forward looking, but so can adventures. The two begin to differ after the fact when challenges are no longer challenging but adventures are still adventures.

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Duped by the Duopoly

Are you looking forward to the 50 days between now and Election Day? How about the 111 until the new Congress convenes on January 3, 2021 or the 128 until the new President is inaugurated? These dates and the time periods they bound will resonate differently for domestic and overseas readers. Here in the United […]

The Mosby Test

There is a lovely area in Virginia to the west of Washington, DC, where I have bicycled for many years. It is bounded by the Bull Run Mountains that run more or less north south about 50 miles to the west of the city. It extends to the Blue Ridge Mountains that run parallel another […]

Around the World in 50 Courts – The Eclipse Tour

The decade of working to bring court tennis to Washington was behind us, but we had no idea how much lay ahead. The game does not sell itself, and the ongoing effort to recruit players gave rise to a new name for Temple Grassi – the Ambassador. He has continued to lead that effort for […]

You Have Nothing Nice to Say About Coronavirus

There are some who grasp the importance of situations early and others who take more time to absorb new developments. One challenge for the early adopters is that others might find them tiresome or even a bit nuts. One such person was having a conversation about the coronavirus with his wife back in January or […]

What’s Wrong with this Picture?

If this chart accurately depicts the makeup of American voters, why are we yet again faced with such deeply disappointing choices as we contemplate the coming elections? The sharp increase in polarization in recent years is well known, but is it naturally occurring or intentionally created? There is a political observer called Hal Gershowitz who […]

2020 or Sixes and Sevens

It seems unusually churlish to have named this year after the definition of perfect vision, as it is hard to think of a time when there has been less clarity. In general, people are not very good at uncertainty. They seem to like knowing their children will return to school in September and, after the […]

Around the World in Fifty Courts The Wilderness Years

The spring and summer of 1974 we’re not very good for my court tennis, but they were excellent for other aspects of my life. I put check marks next to law school and the bar exam, ended my Upper West Side apartment lease and began the next adventure by getting married, moving to Omaha, Nebraska […]

Unpleasant Intrusions Loom but Not Just Yet

The late 1960s are better remembered than the middle of that decade because turmoil resonates more than simmering transition, albeit a transition that was fast coming to a boil. Before the mid 1960s, boys who were viewed to be well educated, thanks to time spent at a handful of New England boarding schools and four […]

It’s Tough to Be Funny on Zoom or Is it More?

I was on a Zoom call the other day with PJ O’Rourke, a political satirist who was a leader of the National Lampoon and is the author of 20 books. “O’Rourke’s original reporting, irreverent humor, and crackerjack writing makes for delectable reading” describes his oeuvre. He has addressed this audience many times before and it […]

Turkey Industry Magazine Calls for an End to Thanksgiving

I bet you would be surprised to read that headline. Most businesses seem to have trade journals that address the interests of industry participants, host conferences and facilitate the exchange of news and ideas. Generally, they attract little notice outside of their niches. How often, for example, do you find yourself wondering about what The […]

Around the World in 50 Courts: Greentree

If you’d like to get an argument going, put the very few people who have tried to play every court tennis court in the world into the same room and set them to matching their achievements. We all have our own ways of counting and these are invariably the ones most favorable to ourselves. As […]

Lockdown Blues if it Really is a Lockdown

Today is the 75th day of lockdown. I have been keeping track in the journal I write every day. The District of Columbia, where I live, will gently reopen tomorrow, which makes me wonder how I will end the daily count. Is a gentle reopening the measure or is there a starker divide between locked […]