Longtime readers remember that crabwalk.com’s favorite tennis player is Chanda Rubin, primarily because I went to high school with her. Well, Chanda‘s rocking again, this time at the Australian Open. (The Aussie is where Chanda’s had her top grand slam performances — winning the whole thing in doubles in 1996, the same year she got to the semifinals in singles.)
This year, she’s made it to the fourth round in singles, disposing of Barbara Schwartz, Mary Pierce, and Melinda Czink. Up next: Anastasia Myskina, the eighth seed. In doubles, she’s paired again with Anna Kournikova and is in the third round. And unlike the U.S. Open, she and Anna are on the opposite side of the draw from the Williams sisters, so a spot in the finals is entirely possible.
Everyone say it with me: Go Chanda!
Author: jbenton
bush quotes me
Another unexplained week-long absence — could Josh have been kidnapped by aliens?
No such luck — just a combination of slacktitude and a work trip to Austin and San Antonio.
As an aside, I just realized that President Bush quoted one of my stories in a speech a couple weeks ago. On December 2, I wrote a piece on Del Valle High School in El Paso. In it was this quote from the principal, J.R. Guinn:
“You have to make the expectation of success part of your belief system,” Mr. Guinn said. “Whether it’s athletics, academic competitions, band
de la soul
Sign No. 34,683 that I’m getting old: Coming home from the CD store with a new disc — then discovering that I already own it.
pat conroy, wuss
On NPR the other day, I heard an interview with Pat Conroy, a novelist whose entire career has essentially been spent repeating one theme over and over again: “My dad was an asshole.” The interview seemed a little too pat. As he told stories about how mean his dad was, he seemed a little too pleased with himself. Really, he didn’t seem very likeable.
Now he’s written a non-fiction memoir about (surprise!) how mean his dad was. A central scene involves his dad beating him up during the annual athletic banquet at his D.C. high school, Gonzaga. In the book, Dad punches his son on the jaw; when his classmates see him get socked, “a free-for-all began” as all the other fathers come to his defense.
“They had no idea who my father was and did not care,” Conroy writes. “They saw a stranger knock a Gonzaga boy to his knees and came roaring to my defense.”
(As one Gonzaga official said about the book: “Everything he writes, his dad beats him up
tuition dereg story
Here’s my story from today’s front page, on Texas universities’ push to raise tuition.
quality counts story
Oops, forgot to link to my story in yesterday’s paper. Perhaps because it wasn’t all that interesting.
nytimes photo shoot
You know, there are worse ways to kill an hour than being the subject of a New York Times photo shoot. Then again, when the photo actually runs in the Old Gray Lady, all of you will know what I look like. That could send hit counts plummeting.
dmn blog
Interesting: my employer‘s started a business news page that’s awfully blog like, in format if not in tone.
hugo chavez and fidel castro
Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, phone pals.
It was a practical joke that may have worked too well: Two Miami radio-show hosts known for playing outrageous pranks on the air got Venezuelan President Hugo Ch
stup mcnup is back
I am pleased to announce the return of Stupid McNupid, my pal Kelly’s blog, now safely hosted on my server, far away from the Blogger ills du jour.
Also, Texans can see me on rotation on TXCN for the next few hours, talking about federal education policy.