Roger Federer as Religious Experience

J. D. Salinger died this week. I don't know that I could be less affected by this non-event. I always thought Catcher in the Rye was a phony pile of horseshit, mostly because it's about a rich, prep-school, 'disaffected' teen and I grew up not-rich, not prep-school, and would have given a lot for either, never mind both. So reading 180 pages of someone complaining about how tough they have it (when they really didn't have it tough at all) never sat very well with me. Teenagers like it because it explains one of the harsh lessons you learn in adolescence; specifically: while you are the center of your own universe, you're not the center of THE universe. As my kind and generous father would have said: "Whatever. Go blend me a margarita."

In unrelated news, Roger Federer has romped to the final of another major tournament (2010 Australian Open), which gives us an opportunity to revisit one of my all-time favorite authors. This 2006 piece by D. F. Wallace doesn't finish as strongly as it starts, but it's still superb. An example:

Anyway, that’s one example of a Federer Moment, and that was merely on TV — and the truth is that TV tennis is to live tennis pretty much as video porn is to the felt reality of human love.

Thanks for reading.