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Around the World in 50 Courts – A Brief Detour

Followers of this series should properly expect that this chapter will take them to Australia as the 6 courts (at the time) are the next in chronological order. They will have to wait a month, but that story will better coincide with the 15thanniversary of the 2005-2006 year-end journey. This month’s detour will bring us […]

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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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Around the World in 50 Courts – A Brief Detour

Followers of this series should properly expect that this chapter will take them to Australia as the 6 courts (at the time) are the next in chronological order. They will have to wait a month, but that story will better coincide with the 15thanniversary of the 2005-2006 year-end journey. This month’s detour will bring us […]

Around the World in 50 Courts An Obstacle Emerges

By September 2003, the quest to play all the courts in the world had passed the halfway mark in only six years. Many of the easiest ones had been checked off the list, especially those in London and the nearby Thames Valley. They are close together and sometimes it is possible to play on two […]

Around the World in 50 Courts; The Halfway Mark

In July 2002, my daughter, soon to be a college junior, decided she needed to tune up her French so off she went for six weeks in Paris with a roommate. My wife and I followed at mid-month for a few days of parental reconnaissance, a couple of business meetings and the continuing quest to […]

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 […]