sukimon

Adrian Wojnarowski was right-on in his article on Lindsey Davenport, arguably one of the most underrated tennis champions in women’s tennis. Wojnarowski makes the case that Davenport is great not just for her numerous achievements –4 Grand Slams, Olympic gold medal, world’s #1 in singles and doubles, etc.– but for her relatively balanced upbringing and down-to-Earth, almost zen-like approach to the sport. To quote:

"When people are young, they say, ‘They’re going to be great,’ Davenport once said. "No one ever said anything about me. I was never a prodigy. I was never going to be any good. … No one ever said when I was growing up I was ever going to be any good or get to a Grand Slam final. I wasn’t expected to do anything. I’m not the most unbelievable athlete.

"I’m not anything."

In particular, I was amused by the not-so-hidden dig at one particular tennis coach (*coughbollettieri*):

The Davenports never wanted their daughter raised by some whack-job tennis coach far from home. They instilled the values of confidence and belief in her, not leaving it to some raving lunatic with sun-dried skin and an oversized racket. And it shows.

As a sidenote, I saw Davenport play last summer in New Haven, Conn. Four things:

• She’s tall!
• She moves a lot faster than she looks on TV
• She’s very polite on camera
• She crrunks the ball, easily as hard as any guy on the tour.

The shanghaiist blog posts about internet monitor mascots, which are placed on webpages to remind people not to post about sensitive subjects like Tiananmen Square. Or Dongzhan riots. Or Falun Gong. Or Tibet. Or Zhao Ziyang. Or the fact that Taiwan is a country run and ruled independently of China.

Oops, let that one slip.

You can even click on the mascot to talk to a live police net monitor to “ask questions about information safety“. With services like this, who needs Friendster?

Via BoingBoing.

Russians love vodka. Is this a stereotype? Yes. But some of them are also giving their animals vodka in order to “keep them warm” during an exceptionally cold winter. Elephants, boars, and camels are tippin’ it back and even Rudolph has a reason to have a red nose now, though my favorite is giving the monkeys cheap table wine 3 times a day. Now that’s class.

I also just realized something magical: -40C is also -40F. In other words, when it’s fucking cold, it’s universal.

Just when you thought that Christmas songs in department stores were irritating, check out these Chinese New Year’s songs – all in perfect English, but extremely odd. I recorded from a hokey departmenty store near my apartment on my Zen Micro, so don’t complain about the quality.

The New Year’s Almost Here!
The meaning of Chinese New Year’s is to go shopping until you are physically in pain. Also, if you’re a guy, you have to go get a perm.

May All Your Businesses Prosper and Improve
My “favorite” of the bunch, this is a song about wishing good tidings for the new year. These tidings in question seem to be about keeping your cash flow open like a goatse.

Oh We’re Going to See Our Parents
My mom would love this song. Better give your parents some R.E.S.P.E.C.T., as this song reminds you some 4000492 times.

Live Each Day Like New Year’s Day
Not really brainwashy like the others, it’s just plain tacky, like a fuschia Ford Probe. I know what I’m talking about- one of my friends used to have one. It’s fucking tacky.

EDIT: Noticed from a Boing Boing post that the holiday should be Lunar New Year instead of Chinese New Year – sorry ’bout that. However, the songs seem refer to the Chinese way of celebrating it (well, we do the same stuff here in Taiwan too), with one of the songs I couldn’t record talking about playing Mahjong. Hence, the post title; please don’t take offense. If you still do take offense, shove off.

FYI, I think the songs came from Hong Kong due to the “Gong Xi Fa Choy” in “Oh We’re Going To See Our Parents” – sounds like Cantonese to me.