As Far As You Know

Rafael Nadal won his third straight major title tonight, battling through heat, wind, rain, delays, and a game Novak Djokovic over the course of the past fortnight, slashing his way to the title with the loss of only one set. As a result, he now has assembled a career Grand Slam, just over a year after his rival Roger Federer accomplished the same thing. Particularly impressive about the Spaniard in this event were the new dimensions in his game that didn't exist a year ago: a much more formidable serve, greater comfort attacking the net and finishing points with both touch and firm volleys, and the versatility of his underspin backhand.

The slower surface in Melbourne is even better for Nadal's game--he won there in 2009--which means he might be able to hold all four Slam crowns at once (though technically would not constitute the traditional "Grand Slam," since the titles would be spread over two calendar years).

A very strong first outing for the boys of Choate Cross Country in the New Haven Road Race this morning. This event has marked the traditional start to our season since 1997. We brought nearly 30 harriers to the starting line this morning and the collective effort was promising indeed.

I ordered a new 27" iMac with all the bells and whistles tonight. It's been three years since I last bought a desktop and that machine is getting pretty tired.

Today was my first day in FR100, the beginning French language class here at school. I am sharing a classroom with a room full of Choate students, mostly ninth-graders. Since the languages department here believes in the immersive experience, most of the instruction was conducted in French, so I felt pretty blown away for the first ten minutes or so. But this is going to be fun!

Unpacking the new iMac right now and it is a beauty! This should be a much faster machine than what I am used to, as it runs on Quad-Core 2.93GHz Intel i7 chips. It also boasts a 2TB hard drive. I will have to get used to the new "flat" Magic Mouse.

I gave up drinking all soda--I pretty much only drank the diet varieties--on September 1, and am getting used to the new routine. Although there are times when I am sure I would enjoy a nice cold effervescent drink, consuming water as my beverage of choice is a much healthier alternative. I am seeing how long I can go without any soda, though I imagine I will indulge once in a while once I establish a clean break from a bad habit.

I saw Ella: The Musical at the Long Wharf Theater tonight. Pretty strong presentation on the music front, though the show was a bit uneven as a piece of theater. Seeing it certainly makes me want to listen to my (pretty extensive) collection of Ella Fitzgerald records now.

I like the cover of this month's copy of The Atlantic Monthly, which arrived in the mail today. I am a long-time fan of "Doonesbury" but have lost touch with the strip in recent years. The magazine has a nice feature on the 40th anniversary of Garry Trudeau's landmark creation.

Fringe is back for a third season, one which will explore "the other side"--the alternate reality with a parallel earth and doppelgangers for most of the show's lead characters. In other words, the next few episodes will be mythology-heavy installments. Good stuff!

(And I loved seeing The Wire's Andre Royo with a meaty role in this episode!)

The catalogue from Chicago's Lyric Opera was in today's post with a surprise star on its cover. The T-shirt design has the look of the tour shirts from U2's 360° Tour. Nice crossover!

When I started coaching cross country at Choate, we ran a time trial on the first full weekend of the school year, in part to measure how fast (or not-yet-fast) our kids were on our home course and in part as a recruiting exercise (we billed it as the "All-School Fun Run"). A few years back, we decided to scrap that and instead stage an informal scrimmage with a bunch of schools we wouldn't normally see in the course of our dual meet schedule. Although one or two traditional opponents have participated in the event in recent years, this is more or less the format we used today: no team scoring, uniforms are optional, and runners competing in Veteran or Novice divisions. It seems to be a good approach (a couple of our rival schools more or less pirated our idea and run now run similar invitationals early in the season).

The Choate boys ran especially well this afternoon: in addition to the many newcomers who established their first time on the home course, more than a dozen of our returners broke PR marks in their first outing of the young season, including a new school record!

I love The New Yorker. And I love my iPad. And I love that The New Yorker is now releasing an iPad-friendly edition. (And I really love this introductory video featuring Jason Schwartzman.) But what I don't like is the expectation that I, a long-term subscriber to the magazine, must fork over $5 each week to read the digital edition on my iPad. Publishers have got to figure out a way to offer paying print subscribers access to the digital editions at no additional cost.

Check out this U.S.S. Enterprise pizza cutter. For the Star Trek fan in your life who has everything, available from ThinkGeek.

Choate Cross Country opened its dual meet season at home with varsity and JV wins and a host of personal record times on our 5-kilometer course. Off we go!