Well, it's been 5 years since September 11. I don't think it's hyperbole to say that this was the biggest event in our lifetime. Yesterday, I saw the DVD called United 93 and I found it to be profoundly moving and fascinating. It's not an entertainment, really, more like a fairly realistic recreation of the events as they occurred, without any significant commentary, explanation or sentiment. As such, I highly recommend this movie to those who can watch it. The last several minutes are gut-wrenching.
1 thing that struck me was the portrayal of the hijackers. There is no debate that what they did was horrible. But were they evil people? I would say not really. I suppose it is a matter of definition, but in my view, an evil person is someone who does something wrong and knows it (and I mean something horribly wrong which I realize is somewhat vague). It seems to me that these men believed that what they were doing was right, and they probably believed it more than almost anyone believes in anything. After all, how many people out there believe in anything enough to die for it?? Therefore, I would call them 'misguided', instead...
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
tennis
I think tennis is a terrific sport to play and watch. Andre Agassi was a great player. Here are the greatest players of all time (in approximate order)
Rod Laver
Pete Sampras
Bjorn Borg
John McEnroe
Ivan Lendl
Jimmy Connors
Andre Agassi
Stefan Edberg
Boris Becker
Roger Federer
I have to admit that I don't really know much about tennis players before the 70s, but I put Laver up there since he won 2 grand slams. Federer may well advance up this list quite a bit before the end of his career. The 80s were truly a golden age of tennis with McEnroe, Connors, Lendl, Wilander, Edberg and Becker regularly matching up. Back then serve and volley tennis was actually viable, and yet a guy like Wilander could still win 3 majors in 1 year mostly by being consistent and outmaneuvering and outlasting opponents from the baseline! 1 thing I like about tennis is that it truly rewards endurance. I never liked the fact that Sampras was able to overpower his opponents with his serve so easily that he often didn't try very hard to break when he didn't have to. Clearly, that helped his longevity but not his popularity (at least with me :)
Rod Laver
Pete Sampras
Bjorn Borg
John McEnroe
Ivan Lendl
Jimmy Connors
Andre Agassi
Stefan Edberg
Boris Becker
Roger Federer
I have to admit that I don't really know much about tennis players before the 70s, but I put Laver up there since he won 2 grand slams. Federer may well advance up this list quite a bit before the end of his career. The 80s were truly a golden age of tennis with McEnroe, Connors, Lendl, Wilander, Edberg and Becker regularly matching up. Back then serve and volley tennis was actually viable, and yet a guy like Wilander could still win 3 majors in 1 year mostly by being consistent and outmaneuvering and outlasting opponents from the baseline! 1 thing I like about tennis is that it truly rewards endurance. I never liked the fact that Sampras was able to overpower his opponents with his serve so easily that he often didn't try very hard to break when he didn't have to. Clearly, that helped his longevity but not his popularity (at least with me :)
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