Almost everyone in the world of tennis has lined up to kick poor David Nalbandian, suddenly the most infamous poor sport in recent memory. I for one feel some sympathy for him. Most people have a wee temper - not that they usually kick bits of wood perilously close to people's shins - and we can all imagine being a player, stressed, frustrated, tired, momentarily seeing red, and booting some wood. It was Nalbandian's bad luck that the wood broke off, and badly cut an official's leg - a most unfortunate accident. But accident it was. Yet the look of pompous incredulity on the official's face suggests a certain noblesse oblige at work. One does not do such things here. Anyway, Nalbandian was immediately declared the loser, fined a great deal of money, and is even now being investigated by the police, who presumably have no murders or rapes to look into. What a lot of nonsense. The match was spoiled, the crowd and players denied a proper final, and a good player has been unduly tarnished over a split-second misjudgement that was hardly malicious. There is an old-fashioned concept: charity. It was not shown by anyone with any duty of care, or concern, at this event.
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
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I couldn't agree with you more. What Nalbandian did was positively tame compared with what McEnroe and Connors used to get up to.
Best wishes from Simon