Non-tennis forum

A page on which to interact with and get to know fellow “Grandstand” users.

49 Comments on Non-tennis forum

  1. The Trump administration’s attempt to muzzle environmental messages on social media WILL FAIL!

    “In the wake of the Badlands National Park Service’s Twitter account having its pro-science tweets deleted (after the Department of the Interior had ordered all Park Service social media accounts to go quiet), “rogue” Twitter accounts have begun to sprout up for the NPS, and now for EPA, USDA and NASA. It’s unclear who’s behind these accounts, but their strong defense of established climate science quickly won them a big following.

    The AltUSNatParkService Twitter account (@AltNatParkSer) was launched on Tuesday, announcing that it has been “activated in time of war and censorship to ensure fact-based education.” As of Thursday morning, they have 980,000 followers — more than double the number of followers on the main National Park Service account (381,000).

    The account introduced itself with defiant messages: “Mr Trump, you may have taken us down officially. But with scientific evidence & the Internet our message will get out,” and “Respect goes out to our brothers and sisters at the @BadlandsNPS. When they silence you, we will speak for you.”

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/government-science-goes-rogue-on-twitter-resist/

    • rc,

      That is encouraging. It is turning out to be as bad as I thought it would be with Trump. Each day brings a new horror.

      This insane nonsense about that stupid wall! The Mexican president has canceled his planned visit. Way to go, Trump!

      Then the lunacy about millions of illegal votes and voter fraud in the election! He’s making this up as he goes along. The man is certifiable!

    • That is frightening. I don’t know what is going to happen to this country. With a fascist, narcissistic, lying President in charge, God only knows how bad it will get,

      Trump wants to use torture again. He is such a monster, vile, inhumane abd a total disgrace.

  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7APmRkatEU

    Johnny’s in America
    Johnny looks up at the stars
    Johnny combs his hair down
    And Johnny wants pussy in cars
    Johnny’s in America,
    uh-uh-uh uh, uh, uh-uh uh-uh-uh
    Johnny’s in America

    I’m afraid of Americans
    I’m afraid of the world
    I’m afraid I can’t help it
    I’m afraid I can’t
    I’m afraid of Americans
    I’m afraid of the world
    I’m afraid I can’t help it
    I’m afraid I can’t
    I’m afraid of Americans

    Yeah, I’m afraid of Americans
    I’m afraid of the words
    I’m afraid I can’t help it
    I’m afraid I can’t
    I’m afraid of Americans

    God is an American
    God is an American
    God is an American
    God is an American
    God is an American
    God is an American
    God is an American
    God is an American

  3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lstDdzedgcE

    I’ll lay down the tracks
    Sandbag and hide
    January has April’s showers
    And two and two always makes five

    It’s the devil’s way now
    There is no way out
    You can scream and you can shout
    It is too late now

    Because!

    You have not been
    Payin’ attention
    Payin’ attention
    Payin’ attention
    Payin’ attention (x4)

    I try to sing along
    But the music’s all wrong
    ‘Cause I’m not
    ‘Cause I’m not
    I swat ’em like flies but like flies the buggers keep coming back and NOT
    But I’m not
    All hail to the thief
    All hail to the thief

      • Thanks Hawkie…I’ve needed a morning with Peter Gabriel!

        Peter Gabriel – Wallflower Lyrics

        Six by six, from wall to wall
        Shutters on the windows, no light at all
        Damp on the floor you got damp in the bed
        They’re trying to get you crazy get you out of your head
        They feed you scraps and they feed you lies
        To lower your defenses, no compromise
        There’s nothing you can do, the day can be long
        You mind is working overtime, your body’s not too strong

        Hold on, hold on, hold on,
        Hold on, hold on, hold on

        They put you in a box so you can’t get heard
        Let your spirit stay unbroken, may you not be deterred
        Hold on, you have gambled with your own life
        You faced the night alone
        While the builders of the cages
        Sleep with bullets, bars and stone
        They do not see the road to freedom
        That you build with flesh and bone

        They take you out the light burns your eyes
        To the talking room it’s not surprise
        Loaded questions from clean white coats
        Their eyes are all as hidden as their Hippocratic Oath
        They tell you how to behave, behave as their guest
        You want to resist them, you do your best
        They take you to your limits, they take you beyond
        For all that they are doing there’s no way to respond

        Hold on, hold on
        They put you in a box so you can’t get heard
        Let your spirit stay unbroken, may you not be deterred
        Hold on, you have gambled with your own life
        You face the night alone
        While the builders of the cages
        Sleep with bullets, bars and stone
        They do not see the road to freedom
        That you build with flesh and bone

        Though you may disappear, you’re not forgotten here
        And I will say to you, I will do what I can do

        You may disappear, you’re not forgotten here
        And I will say you you, I will do what I can do
        And I will do what I can do
        I will do what I can do

        Songwriters: GABRIEL, PETER

        Wallflower lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOHBjpjDsio

    • Thank you for posting this! I saw it on SNL and have been watching it over and over when I need a good laugh!

      It is much needed right now, given what is going on in this country!

      Melissa was simply brilliant!

  4. Another day I wake up afraid…not too afraid to keep on keepin on, however, because there are good people fighting for the Native Americans protecting their right to clean water and in general their oppression for centuries. Seattle Council agreed to divest 3 Billion $$ from Wells Fargo Bank because Wells Fargo is financing the unlawful Dakota Pipeline. #NODAPL!
    http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/02/07/24855420/seattle-votes-to-divest-3-billion-from-wells-fargo-because-of-the-banks-dakota-access-pipeline-financing

    yet I’m still afraid this morning…but thanks to Hawks for posting the lyrics to this David Bowie song because now I know he’s singing about johnny’s in America and not Germans in America….lol

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7APmRkatEU

      • Hawkeye,

        I just wanted to say that my comment the other day was too harsh. You and I do share common ground with our political views and that is more important than tenns.

        I think that I just should have laughed it off and taken it all in fun. You were right this time and I have been right in the past and it’s all okay!

        So I wanted you to know that I appreciate what you do in confronting those who support neo-fascism and Trump. It is important to speak out.

        I regret that comment and think it was ill advised. So it’s my turn to apologize.
        ?❤️?

        • Hey NNY, good on you. No worries. 🙂

          It was all meant in fun. Me and my buddies do that sort of thing especially when picking sporting results in jest kind of like bragging rights.

          I didn’t mean to offend anyone.

          My favourite was rc mocking me saying she couldn’t wait to make fun of me if/when I followed through on picking Fed.

          Cheers and thanks for that!

          • Hawkeye,

            You are more than welcome! What you described is exactly how I realized it was meant – bragging rights! I did get it and realized that I just overreacted and took it completely wrong! It’s like when rc tells me not to freak out if I do poorly in the bracket challenges! She’s got her priorities straight!

            I felt that I needed to make it right. It was bothering me.

            Thanks for responding so graciously!
            ?

          • Hawkie and Nny — we are solid ✊

            Have to admit I dropped the ball during AO Bracket time. I’m very distracted compared to other tennis seasons. Very sorry. Hawkstradamus that was nothing short of incredible — you picking Federer to win – freaking unbelievable. What a schmuck is me for razzing you. 😀

            And Nny, I hope you will continue in the bracket games…I never did check who won. But there’s always a next time 🙂

            I realize Fed Cup is this coming weekend but my time isn’t focused on tennis right now. USA plays Germany in Maui…that could be interesting.

    • rc,

      You are right! We are solid!

      I don’t even want to know about the bracket challenge results! Too many upsets!

      I understand that you have other things to do than update us, especially with all those upsets!

      Tennis is just a game! The things happening in our country have more far reaching consequences.

  5. One more from Hail to the Thief
    Lyrics for: I Will
    I will
    Lay me down
    In a bunker
    Underground

    I won’t let this happen
    To my children
    Meet the real-world coming
    Out of your shell

    With white elephants
    Sitting ducks
    I will
    Rise up

    Little baby’s eyes
    Eyes, eyes, eyes
    Little baby’s eyes
    Eyes, eyes, eyes

    Little baby’s eyes
    Eyes
    Eyes

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWZmzdpyUTY

  6. Hi RC hope your well ,Jenna Coleman has certainly come a long way since her days in our British soap opera Emmerdale, never saw Victoria and Albert dont think we had it over here, thanks for the link though ….

    • Hi Ali

      The chemistry between Jenna and Tom is good. Whoever cast them together certainly nailed it! And I love Rufus Sewell as Lord Melbourne. But I’ve only seen the first 3 episodes which are probably the best. Soon she’ll have 9 babies, they’ll be terrible parents and the gorgeous Albert will die young…uhg. My favorite queen of course is QE the first 😉
      I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t broadcast in GB! those Youtube clips don’t do it justice. The series link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/shows/victoria/

      And I love the old guy playing a Lord that says, he even walks like a papist.. lol

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFG6K2wnqq4

      • I have always been fascinated with Queen Victoria. I remember a movie called “Mrs. Brown” with Judi Dench. It showed the aftermath of the death of Prince Albert and the Queen’s struggle to move on. In that movie, this man is hired to be her helper and companion, but the people around the Queen dislike him. I don’t know how historically accurate that movie was.

        • Nny,

          I’m not familiar with that movie but by the accounts I’ve read her life after Albert’s death was difficult. The British Royals I’ve studied most are Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I. And I like Anne Boleyn.

          Apparently Queen Victoria and Albert were truly in love with each other and possibly it was an obsession …or more specifically Victoria put Albert first over her children and everything else in the extreme. She spent her best years balancing being Queen and the wife of a high maintenance, flashy German Prince. She also was pregnant practically the entire time while Albert was alive. And it’s written that Victoria didn’t like babies — literally thought of them as frog-like. Also the word is that Victoria and Albert were both conscious of the need to improve on their own lonely childhoods but fought too much and in general were too preoccupied to make the best parents. Perhaps if they would have stopped at 2 or 3 children that would have helped but they went on to have 9. Of course there was no contraception around or used in the day. At least one or more of their children had a blood disorder: porphyria or hemophilia, because people were still marrying a first cousins at the time. Albert died at age 42… a loss from which Victoria never recovered. In general I get the idea that Albert was the better parent…so big loss for the kids too.

          Overall, from what I’ve read, Albert accomplished much while alive and credit to Victoria for all her efforts in supporting him. Sounds like it was an exhaustive effort she put into fighting to gain Albert what she felt he deserved, as in title and respect, from the realm (because the German thing) and thus she had a very difficult time adjusting to the complete emptiness in life without him. I feel bad for her — too much of her life feels like tragedy and sadness. Maybe there’s a better book on the topic!?

          • rc,

            I don’t know if that movie was based on fact or fiction. Was there really a Mr. Brown who came into Victoria’s life to help her with the grief after Prince Albert’s death? I don’t know, but it made for a very interesting story.

            I did read that Victoria and Albert were a true love match. Not one of those arranged marriages that were so commonplace. I remember reading about her having nine children! And being Queen, too! She was devastated by Albert’s death at such a young age. I also read about how Victoria wanted to have Albert named as King. But Parliament wouldn’t go it. Because he was German.

            The current royal family are direct descendants of Victoria.

            I am also fascinated by Queen Elizabeth I. I have read a great deal about her and watched any number of movies about her. The daughter of Anne Boleyn becoming Queen of England. It was miraculous that she survived at all. I have also been interested in Anne Boleyn.

          • Nny,

            After reading this and giving Victoria some more thought, for what it’s worth….

            https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/01/opinion/a-queens-forbidden-love.html?_r=0

            …I’m inclined to believe she did have an intimate relationship with the handsome servant. She was likely much too sexual in her early forties to not find comfort in that Scottish guy. And they had plenty of time at Balmoral together; plus. there was those Doctor’s notes 🙂

            Anyway I feel happier about her story believing that at least as long as Brown lived, (she outlived him too), she had some relief from missing Albert. It doesn’t seem to me that she took much happiness in her children and being a mother. She liked having a man.

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