Monthly Archives: September 2017

U10s

Lots of ten-and-under tennis happening today at Lafayette Tennis Club. Sir Rory played three matches and took one win.  We’re proud of his improvement!

Rory can be seen below (blue shirt) showing off his killer racket drop before a crushing forehand.  Just like that other guy!

tennagain-1forehand-hip-rotation

Herbert Kalmbach Dead

Dishonest piece of shit. Liar to himself.

From the New York Times

“Herbert W. Kalmbach, Richard M. Nixon’s personal lawyer and a conduit for hush money from the 1972 presidential campaign to the Watergate burglars, died on Sept. 15 in Newport Beach, Calif. He was 95.”

Read more.

Amazing Life

From New York Times (full article)

Gin Wong, a Chinese-born architect whose modernist designs helped define the postwar landscape of Los Angeles in structures as diverse as a gas station, CBS Television City and Los Angeles International Airport, died on Sept. 1 in Beverly Hills. He was 94.

Architects traditionally achieve renown with corporate headquarters, private residences, museums, concert halls and stadiums. And while Mr. Wong worked on many such projects, it was an unconventional one — his 1960 design of a Union 76 gas station in Beverly Hills — that remains one of his most beloved and enduring.

Among his many other works were commercial buildings in Singapore and Honolulu; a savings and loan branch in Rancho Mirage, Calif., with curved walls made of Mexican black lava rock; hotels, restaurants and houses; a library in South Korea; and, in downtown Los Angeles, the Midnight Mission, a facility for the homeless featuring landscaping with golden-leaved honey locust trees that shimmer in the breeze.

Fatberg of London

From the New York Times

Read full article here.

LONDON — There is a monster beneath the streets of London, menacing the East End underworld.

What has been named the Whitechapel fatberg is a rock-solid agglomeration of fat, disposable wipes, diapers, condoms and tampons. It was discovered to the east of the city’s financial district, occupying a sixth of a mile of sewer under Whitechapel Road, between one of London’s largest mosques and a pub called the Blind Beggar, where walking tours are taken to reminisce about a notorious gangland murder.

Thames Water, the capital’s utility, said the fatberg weighed as much as 11 of the city’s double-decker buses: more than 140 tons. That is 10 times the size of a similar mass that the company found beneath Kingston, in South London, in 2013, and declared the biggest example in British history.

To prevent the contents of the sewer from flooding streets and homes nearby, the utility is sending an eight-member team to break up the fatberg with high-powered jet hoses and hand tools. The task is expected to take them three weeks, working seven days a week.

And there is a chance that a slice of the fatberg will be preserved for generations to come. The Museum of London said on Wednesday that it hoped to acquire a cross-section of the blob for its collection.

Masterpiece Cakeshop

Here’s a good write-up of an important upcoming case to be heard by the US Supreme Court next term.  Thank you Amy Howe.

Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission

The only thing Robert wants to say at this point is the following:

Dear friends, similar to the Citizen’s United case, this is a First Amendment case. However you feel about gay marriage, please don’t get sucked down into the vortex of misinformation echo chambers. Consider the free speech and free exercise concerns before deciding.  Thank you.  That is all.

 

Victory!

Mira and Stacy just won the 3.5 level division of the 2017 Hal Wagner Memorial Doubles Tournament!  Great job!  Rather than winning prize money, they were awarded a lovely picnic blanket and a water bottle to commemorate their victory. Who needs a giant check, anyway?