Tag: ABC Wednesday

T is for Tennis Hall of Fame

“Without the guidance of Dr. Robert Johnson, Althea Gibson, Arthur Ashe, and countless others might not have succeeded so mightily.”

When we were in Newport, RI five years ago, we found ourselves at a sandwich shop. I happened to walk around the corner, and there was the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum. I swore that next time we were in town we’d go, and in April, the Wife and I did.

From Wikipedia: “While the modern game of tennis originated in late 19th century England, most historians believe that the game’s ancient origin is from 12th century France, but the ball was then struck with the palm of the hand. It was not until the 16th century that rackets came into use, and the game began to be called “tennis”, from the Old French term Tenez, which can be translated as ‘hold!’, ‘receive!’ or ‘take!'” One can play “real” tennis at the Hall, though we did not.

There were plenty of artifacts: old racquets of players, videos, newspaper articles (e.g., about the scandalous apparel of women players in the 1920s that showed the knee!), info about the infamous “battle of the sexes” between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs (Hall of Famers both), histories of the Grand Slam and other significant tournaments, and lots of trophies.

But the key is the display of all the players and contributors. Each of them is represented on a kiosk that allows you to see a video of the players, a quote, and their major accomplishments; you can see the info here. Interesting that I recognize some old timers’ names such as Bill Tilden and Helen Wills Moody. Then there were the Aussies I remember growing up, such as Rod Laver, Toy Emerson, Tony Roche, and Fred Stolle, onto the players from the Open Era, which began in 1968, “when the Grand Slam tournaments agreed to allow professional players to compete with amateurs…This has allowed tennis players the opportunity to make a good living playing tennis.”

There was a video of the Hall speech by Andre Agassi, a 2011 inductee. A great player early on, he seemed to waste his talent and sank to a ranking of #141, but found his focus again and became a #1 player. This year’s inductees include Jennifer Capriati and Guga Kuerten, who will join the ranks on July 14, 2012.

At least a couple of players who are in the Hall I got to see play personally: Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, doubles specialists, who played singles and doubles, I believe, at the OTB Open tournament in Schenectady, NY in the early 1990s.

One person in the Hall who I was totally unfamiliar with was Dr. Robert Johnson, indicted in 2009 as a contributor. “Without the guidance of Dr. Johnson, however, [Althea] Gibson, [Arthur] Ashe, and countless others might not have succeeded so mightily. Dr. Johnson trained, coached, and mentored African Americans from his home in Lynchburg, Virginia for more than two decades.” Dr. Johnson died in 1971.

I’ve been to several Halls of Fame: baseball (Cooperstown, NY), basketball (Springfield, MA), the surprisingly interesting horse racing (Saratoga Springs, NY), the disappointing and now-defunct soccer (Oneonta, NY). The International Tennis HoF is a good one.

ABC Wednesday – Round 10

S is for Sunburn and Skin Cancer

While my face has darkened somewhat from its vitiligo lightest, my hands and other parts of my body will still burn as though I were a red-haired Irish schoolgirl.

One of the things I have NEVER understood is the appeal of lying in the sun for the sole purpose of lying in the sun; seemed like a waste of time. Going swimming or playing a sport or working on a sunny day, that was OK.

As it turns out, while there is some benefits from the sun in terms of absorption of Vitamin D, the downside of too much sun is quite great.

* “Exposure to sun causes most of the wrinkles and age spots on our faces.” Years ago, visiting my sister in Southern California, I vividly remember seeing this woman at her church. Deep tan, presumably attractive, but her skin looked like shoe leather.

* “Skin cancer is the most prevalent form of all cancers in the U.S. and the number of cases continues to rise. It is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal skin cells. This rapid growth results in tumors, which are either benign (noncancerous) or malignant (cancerous).”

Think those tanning beds are safer? Not according to the US Federal Trade Commission, which notes that claims such as “Get a beautiful tan indoors without increasing your risk of skin cancer” or “Indoor tanning is safer than the sun because the environment is controlled” are myths. In fact, “compared with nonusers, the risk for basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma increased by 15 percent for every four visits made to a tanning booth per year; the risk for melanoma increased by 11 percent.” High school and college-aged folks are more vulnerable than those 25-34.

Personally, I always wear hats, even on overcast days. The trick with this winter that wasn’t in the continental US – March was more than 8 degrees F, about 3 degrees C, warmer than normal, more like April – so while it cut down on our heating bills, it also had me needing to get out the sunscreen much earlier. While my face has darkened somewhat from its vitiligo lightest, my hands and other parts of my body will still burn as though I were a red-haired Irish schoolgirl.

So what song should I finish with? Beatles? Sheryl Crow? Bill Withers? Nah, someone I actually saw perform at my college, Jonathan Edwards singing Sunshine.

ABC Wednesday – Round 10

R for A Raisin in the Sun

I sensed that my father really related to Walter Lee, frustrated by living in a house owned by his mother-in-law for the first two decades of his marriage to my mother, always looking for the big score.

 

A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959, which portrays a few weeks in the life of the Youngers, an African-American family living in Chicago’s Southside sometime between World War II and the 1950s…the Youngers are about to receive…$10,000 from the deceased Mr. Younger’s life insurance policy… The matriarch of the family, Lena, wants to buy a house to fulfill a dream she shared with her husband. Her son, Walter Lee, would rather use the money to invest in a liquor store with his friends. He believes that the investment will solve the family’s financial problems forever. Walter’s wife Ruth agrees with Mama, however, and hopes that she and Walter can provide more space and opportunity for their son, Travis…”

The play was nominated for four Tony awards in 1960, though winning none: Sidney Poitier (as Walter Lee), Claudia McNeil (as his mother), plus Lloyd Richards (for director), and for best play.

“In 1961, a film version of A Raisin in the Sun was released featuring its original Broadway cast of Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Ivan Dixon, Louis Gossett, Jr., and John Fiedler. Hansberry wrote the screenplay, and the film was directed by Daniel Petrie.” I saw this film more than once on TV.

Later that decade, there was a civic theater group that did at least one production of the play in Binghamton, NY. My father was very involved in this. Not as a performer, for he never wanted to act in another person’s role. But he did set design and a lot of technical stuff.

Considering my distance from New York City, I have seen relatively few Broadway musicals. One I DID see in 1973 or 1974, though, was Raisin, “based on the play, and starring Joe Morton (Walter Lee), Virginia Capers (Lena), Ernestine Jackson (Ruth), Debbie Allen (Beneatha), and Ralph Carter (Travis). The show won the Tony Award for Best Musical.”

I have only a vague recollection of the 1989 TV film with Danny Glover (Walter Lee), Starletta DuPois (Ruth), Esther Rolle (Lena), and Kim Yancey (Beneatha).

Never saw the 2004 Tony-nominated play revival with Sean Combs as Walter Lee, Audra McDonald as Ruth (Tony winner for best actress in a featured role), Phylicia Rashad as Lena (won a Tony as best actress), and Sanaa Lathan as sister Beneatha (nominated in McDonald’s category). I did see the 2008 TV movie based on it, however, with the same core cast.

I wonder why I’ve been always drawn to the story. Maybe it’s idle speculation, but I sensed that my father really related to Walter Lee, frustrated by living in a house owned by his mother-in-law for the first two decades of his marriage to my mother, always looking for the big score.

The title of the play came from a poem, A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore–
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over–
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

ABC Wednesday – Round 10

Q is for Queen Elizabeth II on stamps and coins

No living person can appear on US postage or money.

Because it’s been 60 years since she ascended to the throne in the United Kingdom, there have been a number of commemorative coins and stamps issued with the image of Queen Elizabeth II in 2012. But long before that, QEII’s image has been showing up around the world.

I came across The Portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, as they appear on World Banknotes, which is an interesting evolution of the Queen, now in her ninth decade.

Her portrait was first featured on coins in 1953 issued in Great Britain, Australia, Canada, Fiji, Jamaica, Malaya & British Borneo, Mauritius, New Zealand, South Africa and Southern Rhodesia. Whether or not she is wearing her crown depended on the monarchy’s relationship with the country.

Someone asked: How many countries coins has Queen Elizabeth II been on? The best answer seems to be from Sap, posted 1/27/2010, from which I will note here (since the permalink doesn’t work):

* circulation coins used to have Queen’s portrait but no longer do so today
# only commemoratives have featured the Queen’s portrait

Australia, Bahamas*, Belize, Canada, Cyprus*, Dominica#, Gambia*, Great Britain, Grenada#, Jamaica*, Kiribati#, Mauritius*, New Zealand, Nigeria*, Papua New Guinea#, Saint Kitts & Nevis#, Saint Lucia#, Saint Vincent & Grenadines#, Seychelles*, Tuvalu, Uganda*, Zambia*, plus Fiji (“a Republic and expelled from the Commonwealth but still has the Queen on all its coinage”). This doesn’t even count the various former colonies in Africa, the Caribbean (including current Guyana), Hong Kong, and what is now Malaysia and Singapore, all of which had had QEII on the money in the day.

Check out a timeline of the Queen’s appearance on Australian coins.

As for postage, you find useful Queen Elizabeth II: A Portrait in Stamps (Paperback) By Fay Sweet. The description of the book: “Since her accession to the throne in 1952, the Queen’s image on UK stamps has become one of the most familiar and reproduced icons of all time. This book illustrates the reign of Her Majesty as celebrated on Britain’s stamps.” Here’s a List of British postage stamps. This commercial vendor has a detailed QEII section.

In Canada, there is have been annual definitive stamps bearing the Queen’s likeness. I couldn’t find as definite a piece about QEII on stamps as I did for coins, but I expect a large overlap.

All of this is very, well, foreign, to me, since no living person can appear on US postage or money. There will postage stamps commemorating former Presidents a year after they die. The FDR dime and the JFK half-dollar were both issued in the year following their respective deaths (1946, 1964, respectively).

ABC Wednesday – Round 10

P is for Portmanteau

One of the more unfortunate trends in portmanteau is called name-meshing.


A portmanteau word is a word that’s made up of 2 other words; for instance, motel from motor hotel, smog from smoke and fog, brunch between breakfast and lunch, chortle from chuckle and snort, malware from malicious software, or the previously mentioned gerrymander. Here are more portmanteau words.

From JEOPARDY! in 2001: “Lewis Carroll coined the term ‘portmanteau word’, explaining how “slithy” combines these 2 words.”

The question was slimy and lithe, which I didn’t get, and neither did any of the show’s contestants. Here are some easier ones from November 2011; questions at the end:

This 9-letter word for a procession of cars is often used to refer to that of the U.S. president
It’s the trademark name for the device used by police to measure a driver’s alcohol intake
It’s the code of online social behavior
It’s the smallest element of an image on a computer monitor
*This word refers to the visible path in the wake of an aircraft

As Wikipedia notes, “A portmanteau word typically combines both sounds and meanings.” It defines the word Wikipedia as a portmanteau, since “it combines the word ‘wiki’ with the word ‘encyclopedia’.”

Lots of place names are portmanteau words: Texarkana on the Texas-Arkansas border; Tanzania is the joining of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, e.g.

It seems that portmanteaux are becoming more popular:
Chief ACTA Eurocrat quits in disgust at lack of democratic fundamentals in global copyright treaty – Eurocrat from European bureaucrat
Fracktivists from hydrofracking (itself a portmanteau) and activists.
Mutterance – from muttering utterance

There are even portmanteau generators out there. The roots of a good portmanteau should be clear, even if it’s newly minted.

One of the more unfortunate trends in portmanteau is called name-meshing, which comes when two famous people’s names get merged, such as Billary (Bill and Hillary Clinton), Brangelina (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) or TomKat (Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes). As often as not, the newer combos are lost on me.

The questions to those JEOPARDY! answers. What are: motorcade, Breathalyzer, netiquette, pixel, contrail.

ABC Wednesday – Round 10

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