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Hauke's avatar

Entschuldigung. NIEMAND, und ich meine NIEMAND sieht in einer Umkleidekabine gut aus, während er oder sie sich bückt um in die Hose (selbst wenn es die richtige Größe ist) zu kommen. Vom Licht wollen wir gar nicht reden.

Es kann also nur von Vorteil sein, nur außerhalb der Kabine Kabinen zu haben - selbst wenn das Kleid doch nicht so süß aussieht wie man dachte. Immerhin ist man aufrecht. Man sollte aber in jedem Fall die Sportsocken ausziehen, von denen man dachte, dass sie in den schwarzen Boots eh niemand sehen wird.

Und während ich das schreibe hat Jannik Sinner mit einem SEHR offensichtlichen Problem am rechten Oberschenkel doch noch das Match gegen Tommy Paul gewonnen.

Hat Frau Petkovic mal wieder recht gehabt.

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Andrea Petkovic's avatar

😂

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Hank Moravec's avatar

Well, each week there are some great nuggets, placed in the piece like a fine gem, waiting to be noticed. But this week, it must be a clue to a secret desire to be hired as a comedy writer - “…… a middle aged woman …….”. It’s a good thing I was not eating when I read that part! It would have been one of those laugh so hard moments the person next to you gets sprayed. Andrea, that line might work in the diary for some Friday in, say 2045 or so. But not this week! Nope. And those of us testing the upper limits of that age bracket do indeed know where it starts. :)

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Heide Roth's avatar

…ich wollte mal Danke sagen, ich lese ihren Podcast regelmäßig und er berührt mich jedesmal. Da steckt soviel Wahrheit drin. Es läst mich oft für einen Moment innehalten und mal über meinen Tellerrand sehen…herzlichen Dank dafür 😎

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Mark H's avatar

The tennis subplot is genuinely fascinating, but it reads like part of a fictional world, slightly unreal, distant, shaped by rules I don’t quite understand. I barely even know who Jannik Sinner is. Mostly I’m just here because I like the writing and your Indiana Jones moments.

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Tennis Sweet Spot's avatar

I had this rant about mirrors in stores not that long ago... Can't we keep nothing nice these days or what?!

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Rick Stratton's avatar

Voltaire said, “Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.”

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Sung J. Woo's avatar

Favorite pronto: Lila in My Brilliant Friend (both Gaia Girace and Irene Maiorino, I can't choose)!

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Adrian Brune's avatar

Hi Andrea, not to be pedantic, but swag is stuff that one carries, their goods, their gift bags at the end of the Oscars. Swagger is the word I believe you mean: a very confident — or arrogant — manner. Straight from OED.

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Weston Parker's avatar

I agree, also swag can also mean silly wild assed guess which many of us do much of the time.

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Adrian Brune's avatar

Very true. If I didn’t care about the work or appreciate the author, I would have said nothing at all. DM better, idk? I hardly have time to read mine. And I have to go back and edit my substacks constantly.

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K. Lakeman's avatar

Actually, Andrea was right in her usage. 'Swag' is in the popular lingo lexicon in this way. It can be used in the same sense/context as 'swagger' but as so often happens, the diminutive form is the one the younger crowds use. There's also the earlier use of swag, meaning stolen items. Someone who was adept at such thievery was could be described as having swagger due to an arrogant/outlandish attitude.

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Adrian Brune's avatar

And Andrea is a popular and very good commentator, so why listen to this stupid journalist in London. She’s got the star power — I’m behind the scenes, working off my ass.

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Adrian Brune's avatar

Okay, I’ll just take my Columbia Journalism School degree, trash it and start selling used cars. Trying to help. Like I said, I have to go back and edit my substacks for typos and run-on sentences and whatever all the time. Have you written for the New Yorker? I have.

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Adrian Brune's avatar

Sorry, Butt-head.

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K. Lakeman's avatar

Settle down, Beavis. Why so sensitive? Her use of swag in that sense is not wrong. Hell, if you're going to use your claim that you went to CJS and wrote for the New Yorker as some sort of credibility bias for why you couldn't possibly be mistaken, then I'll throw in some credibility myself for that use of the word. It's by Jay Z. He's a massively successful musician/producer and billionaire, are you? "My self-esteem went through the roof, man, I got my swag." "Check out my swag, yo, I walk like a ballplayer."

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Adrian Brune's avatar

No, I’m not as successful as Jay-Z. Got me there. But, as stated before, professional writers (and journalists) and sports commentators often do each other a “solid” by pointing out mistakes in punctuation, lingo, vernacular, whatever. I have no more vested interest in this as I have three articles for several magazines to finish and my own book to continue writing, Butt-Head.

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Ageing Brit's avatar

Sinner definitely has that inner confidence now. Zero self-doubt. Since you are a sit-com buff - check out 'It's that Man Again' - in which depressed charlady Mona Lott, played by Joan Harben, would drone the latest awful thing that had happened to her and then hit you with the devastatingly deadpan punchline: “It’s being so cheerful that keeps me going.”

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Tiooj's avatar

Jannik actually gave a nice answer specifically about "doubts" in one of his latest press conferences in Rome, after R2 I think (starts at 6:17 in the video https://youtu.be/R92PMV6cVts?t=377)! But yeah I do think he has a pretty clear idea of who he is as a pro.

Although, the last months might have brought some heavier-than-usual doubts about his identity, from what I heard in his interviews.

What differentiates him is that he has never any doubt about *what he wants*, that's one area where I think he's always 100% sure, and he has an inextinguishable hunger for it.

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Robert Kane's avatar

If I can ask, why is La Grande Belleza your favorite? I saw it when it came out and it made a major impression on me. So thoughtful. Be well. Fridays are the best in part because of your essays.

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Roger's avatar

Andrea,

There's a bit different way of looking at your dilemma. It sounds like you're genetically a multi-aptitude person. We're all born with strong aptitudes of different kinds, and what becomes of them largely depends on opportunity (not the least of which is good parenting). Think, for example, of what distinguished Horowitz from most of the rest of us who will never be a great pianists no matter how much we practice (obviously there's a continuum).

Research nearly 80-100 years ago by the grandfather of aptitude testing in the U.S., Johnson O'Connor, found that most people have 1 to 3 aptitudes in which they are particularly strong, i.e., in the upper 30% of the population. However, some people have more, sometimes many more (myself), and that presents the problem of feeling pulled in different directions. It's the existence of being more or less a jack of lots of trades, but master of none. The Johnson O'Connor Foundation in its early decades (1920s to 1940s) supplemented testing with occupational counseling. Those were the days before the idea that one could be anything they want to be took hold (Pepsi Generation). One example O'Connor gave was of the midwestern bank president who tested strong in five aptitudes and often found himself bored. Based on his specific aptitude profile, O'Connor suggested he set up a wood working shop in the bank basement and spend afternoons down there. It worked out well (not something that could be done easily today).

O'Connor passed away in the 1970s, but the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation is still going strong and doing testing. To be clear, it's objective testing, not subjective, such as Meyers-Briggs. Not cheap, but I found it invaluable, if for nothing more than to understand why I often felt pulled in different directions. The Foundation can be found online. If it's still the same, there are roughly 18 aptitude tests and a couple of others, one of which looks at personality style (individual vs. people person). In addition, looking either in good university libraries or on used book sites O'Connor's monographs from 1930's and 1940's can be found. I found them a helpful a prelude to the testing, and better understanding myself and others.

From this perspective, your comments about swag vs. your dilemma make a lot of sense. With an optimal configuration of a few strong aptitudes and the opportunity to develop them, which then helps build focus and confidence as well, a path to potential greatness is opened. On the other end, given a number of strong aptitudes, it's a lot harder to pull that off.

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Rick Shrewsbury's avatar

I look forward to your contribution every week !! 👍👍👍👍

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Paul's avatar

I love 'pronto'? too. I read the Neopolitan novels, and I watched the "Brilliant Friend" HBO series based on the trilogy, and I always loved the phone scenes. Just so Italian!

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T A's avatar

Agree fully that champions in any realm are single minded, and focused, sometimes to a flaw (they have no alternatives when their expected Plan A doesn't work), but single focus is the price they pay for greatness. Being pulled in different directions by many different Sirens gives breadth to life and opportunities for many adventures, but likely won't lead to athletic world class dominance. Who cares? To your list of single minded tennis players, I would add Sophia Kenin. If not for some injuries and personal issues, she'd have won a handful of Majors by now. Coaches have referred to her head-down determination as "a scary little demon." Iga has lost her dominance not because she lost her mental focus but because she has the worst forehand grip and form of any major player, limiting her ability to hit running or awkward forehands with consistency. Every top player now knows this, and runs her to her forehand until she misses in frustration. People talk about Coco's wacky forehand, but her preparation is tidy and efficient while Iga's is a stew of time-consuming quirksl and hitches.

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Martin Swann's avatar

Superb writing as always unfortunately when buying clothes is involved I most certainly don’t look cute lol more like court appearance 😂

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