Federer’s first seven major victories were against: Philippoussis; Safin; Roddick; Hewitt; Roddick; Agassi; Nalbandian.

I agree with all of this, but there is an interesting argument to be made about who Fed had to beat when he started dominating (Roddick? Hewitt? Safin’s occasional brilliance? Fat Nalbandian? JC Ferrero? Ancient Agassi?) versus who Nadal and Djokovic had to go through: Federer (and Djokovic and Nadal).

People in this thread have it partly right, but as I’ve understood this story, there’s more nuance.

weed busts, technical fouls, confrontations with referees, an exquisitely fraught relationship with the predominantly white Portland Metro, crab rangoon

I can see him signing: “Fuck you! --Nick Kyrgios.”

lol. true

Not the towel! That and the sweatbands has always really grossed me out. I’ll take a signed ball, a racquet, whatever, but I have no desire for somebody’s sweaty sports accoutrements.

Don’t forget the “quick I have to grab this tennis player’s sweaty towel!” man

Facewarmer aside, I’m torn between “Harden gets gassed” and “Harden is unable to play at NBA intensity for all the minutes he’s on the floor, period.”

I get that you’re not sure-- read it again, slowly, and in time you might get it, although I’m not hopeful.

Sickle cell is an adaptive mutation; in some cases, when that adaptation is present in both parents, sickle cell expresses in some offspring as a disease (although it may not express absent certain environmental triggers). The way we engage in discourse around sickle cell, the assumption that it’s always and only a…

No, sickle cell is a useful adaptation by populations living with high malarial rates; pathologizing it as something characteristic only of black populations and intrinsically a weakness is the racist part. 

Benoit Paire pops his collar like a boss.

okay family man

Hey, let’s not blame Nels Cline

I was really happy to see Stan’s statement.

In which case only a fleeting concern.

When my barber shaves me I generally hope for no blood let out.

Okay so, for inclusion in the files of just random weird oddities: the Mighty 690, a long-standing AM broadcast from Tijuana, famously transitioned formats from an all-music to all-news station back in 1961 by playing The (original) Bosstones song “Mope Itty Mope” over and over and over again for three straight days…

Fortunately The Mighty 690, which we all grew up with on AM, is still going strong. Of course it’s now an all-Cantonese broadcast, which puts me a little out of its intended demographic, but still.