Novak Djokovic has lost to Sam Querrey, who’s having a helluva Wimbledon. So no Grand Slam, and I can’t pretend that I’m not disappointed even though I’m not entirely surprised. Nole had won 30 Slam matches in a row. Though there’s no Law of Averages, the longer you win the closer you are to losing.
No one wins forever, but the good news is that no one loses forever. “Anyone can be beaten on any given day,” former New York Football Giants’ coach Tom Coughlin said after his “mediocre” Giants beat the “perfect” New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. “It’s not important to be the best, it’s only important to beat the best,” John McEnroe said in his pursuit of Björn Borg. Querrey must’ve been repeating these as mantras – or words to these effects. Whatever he did, he’s come through on a big stage, so congrats to him. ...
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Read MoreI boldly predicted to a publicist-friend the other day that Theresa May would be the last man standing, so to speak, in the Brexit scandal and become the new PM. I also believe Hillary Clinton will be the next president and Elizabeth Warren, her secretary of state.
You never want to make bold predictions, because they have a way of not coming true. But what is clear is that we’ve been moving toward an era of greater female political power and why not? As Brexit continues to demonstrate, there’s nothing quite like a man when it comes to mucking things up. And women – bless their little detail-loving hearts – would seem better-suited to the day-to-day nitty-gritty of governance.
Perhaps more important, they’re less likely to let their egos get in the way of doing a job. ...
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Read MoreAnother day, another Brexit drama, another example – or two or three – of political cupidity and stupidity.
By now, Brexit buffs know that BoJo – alias Boris Johnson, the Brit Donald Trump, how I love how Maureen Dowd describes them maliciously as “prolific authors” – is out, having been stabbed in the back by erstwhile supporter Michael Gove, who decided he wanted to be a king rather than a kingmaker and thus run for prime minister himself.
Personally, I think Gove is barking up the wrong bamboo and that Home Secretary Theresa May is going to be the next PM. ...
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Read More“It’s a great race, it’s a great race, it’s a great race” I kept screaming at the TV as Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte went 1-2 in the 200 IM finals in the Olympic Trials in Omaha.
“Win or lose, we have a good friendship and that’s why it’s a great rivalry,” Lochte said afterward.
Frankly, I thought Lochte, swimming with a groin injury, had Phelps in the final leg, the free, but hand it to Phelps – he has the longer reach and the champion’s ability to close. That takes nothing away from Lochte, who has never been intimidated, never backed down. That’s what makes it a great rivalry. ...
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Read MoreIt’s a story worthy of the Bard and, like all great narratives, it has many juicy plotlines to unravel.
Shall we begin with the rudderless winners or the heartsick losers, the aggrieved Continent looking for payback or the partner nations forced into a choice not of their making?
Or should we consider how the land of Shakespeare and Shelley, Charles Dickens and Winston Churchill could be so shortsighted?
Why not begin with England’s leaders – Labour and Conservative Party members alike – who showed an appalling lack of Alexandrian leadership, by which I mean leadership from the frigging front, including a definite plan B (the need for which Alexander the Great learned from his teacher Aristotle). The Brexit brigade not only didn’t have plan B. It didn’t have plan A.1. It’s like the hapless title characters in “The Producers,” who never actually anticipated the outcome they strove for. Indeed, neither the Leave nor the Remain leaders thought a leave-taking was really in the offing. Each side was just hoping to use the referendum on whether or not the United Kingdom should exit the European Union to its political advantage. And that never works. ...
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Read MoreEngland, Great Britain, the United Kingdom, whatever:
Norway without the fjords.
Switzerland without the Alps and the chocolate.
And, let’s be brutally honest, on its way to being Venezuela without the warm climate and the pitching prospects.
The U.K. has said p.u. to the E. U. and the results have been disastrous:
More than $2 trillion down the drain worldwide.
More than $830 billion lost in the United States.
A British economy shrunk from the fifth largest to the sixth. ...
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Read MoreA few days ago, the most pressing question in the United Kingdom may have been would Andy Murray – recently reunited with coach Ivan Lendl – mount a successful campaign at Wimbledon next week to stop Novak Djokovic’s bid for the calendar Grand Slam.
“It’s the eye of the tiger. It’s the thrill of the fight, risin’ up to the challenge of our rival,” you know.
That was, as I said, a few days ago. And then came Brexit – the British exit from the European Union. ...
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