Tennis, Anyone?

Cincinnati becomes a nest of raving tennis aficionados when the nationally recognized tournaments are held here this time of year. There was even a somewhat misguided tennis match played on top of that strange new skyscraper downtown, with tennis balls bouncing down to Fourth Street. So I’ve been thinking about tennis.
Tennis is a complicated game. Did you know that there are two forms of tennis? Yep, court tennis and lawn tennis.
Court tennis, also known as “real” tennis dates back to the Middle Ages, and that great athlete King Henry VIII was a devotee of the game. It is an indoor game played on an asymmetrical rectangular cement court with a sloping roof, a hard ball, a lopsided racket, and windows on the walls that came into play. Only a handful of courts still exist in the United States.
Lawn tennis, which is tennis as we know it today, is barely a hundred years old. A Welshman, Major Walter Clopton Wingfield, devised the game as a diversion for his guests to play on his lawn. The members of the Wimbledon Cricket Club adopted Wingfield’s game for use on their own underutilized lawns, which had stood empty since croquet had waned in popularity in the late eighteenth century.
Lawn tennis became the more popular of the two kinds of tennis, but it continued to use the arcane scoring system that came from court tennis, probably because they thought it would confuse the most people.
In court tennis, each score in a game was worth fifteen points: 15-30-45-Game. Lawn tennis kept the same scoring system but changed it to 15-30-40-Game. Why? Apparently, the 45 was changed to 40 to make the scores easier to announce. (Seems to me that everything would have been easier if they just scored it like Ping-Pong.) In court tennis, there were six sets of four games. The match concluded when a player had completed a circle of 360 degrees (24 × 15).
Lawn tennis changed from six sets to three or five. So the scoring system now makes no sense at all. When the game is tied after six points, it is called “deuce.” That comes from the Italian a due, meaning two points needed to win and leads me to wonder how in the “deuce” did I ever get started writing this thing?

Let the Sun Shine on Price Hill

I've been learning about solar energy, solar panels, all that good green stuff. We're looking into putting solar panels on the roof of the Price Hill Historical Society, with the help of Price Hill Will and maybe a little assistance from the state, courtesy of our own Price Hill representative, Denise Driehaus. There's a lot of technical stuff, of course, but we could serve as an example for alternative energy projects, and if what the contractors say is true, the electric company could end up owing us money at the end of the year. Now, that's an idea even a curmudgeon can get behind. So far I've been to a couple of meetings, so we'll have to see how this works out, but it's just another reason why I'll be looking forward to sunny days if we get those solar panels installed.

New Year's Resolutions

What have I been up to, you've probably been thinking, if you read my blog regularly. (Does anyone read my blog regularly?) Well, I haven't been writing it regularly for the past month or so, that's for sure. The holidays are a busy time, I guess (that picture is me waking up from my short winter's nap, so you can see I've been so busy I plumb wore myself out). But now it's the new year, and I've resolved to post things more often on my blog. We'll see how that works out. I've been thinking about New Year's resolutions because we recently put in a display at the Covedale Branch Library about just that topic. Apparently, the tradition of making New Year’s resolutions began with the Babylonians, who resolved to start the New Year with a clean state by returning borrowed farm equipment. There’s a resolution everyone can make and keep—return all borrowed farm equipment by the end of January. As for me, I've resolved to keep up with my Curmudgeon column as well as my blog (I've written a couple of new Curmudgeons in the past couple of days) and I will resolve to finish the model of the Price Hill Incline I've been working on for awhile. It's looking pretty good, and I'm hoping to get it installed upstairs at the Price Hill Historical Society Museum before the year is over. Mark Twain once said that New Year’s Day is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions, then a week later, you can begin paving hell with them as usual. He may be right.

A Visit from St. Nicholas

Sunday was St. Nicholas Day, which is still celebrated in places with strong German heritage, including Price Hill. I celebrated by appearing at the Price Hill Historical Society in a dual role—as the Old Curmudgeon to sign books, and wearing a St. Nicholas costume my daughter made for me years ago to entertain the kids who stopped by during “Holiday on the Hill.” We had a few young visitors, and they seemed to like the cookies and candy canes we had, even if they were a bit suspicious of a non-traditional Santa Claus type. Did you know that the historical St. Nicholas was born in Greece during the third century? His feast day on December 6 was celebrated by the Germans and Dutch for centuries before immigrants brought the celebration to the New World. After arriving in America, St. Nicholas was the subject of stories by Washington Irving, who wrote not about the Greek bishop, but about a version of St. Nick as an elfin Dutchman with a clay pipe. In 1823, Clement Moore wrote the immortal poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” and the middle eastern saint was completely Americanized as Santa Claus.
When I was a boy, we always hung up our stockings on the evening of December 5, and the next morning they would be filled with fruit, nuts, and candy. My daughters always hung up their stockings, too, and my grandchildren continue the tradition—Saint Nicholas finds them no matter where they roam. And I stepped right out of history (and out of my curmudgeonly ways) to celebrate the tradition of St. Nicholas Day.

Holidays on the Hill

It's not easy being a curmudgeon during the holidays. Fortunately, I have another alter ego, and I'll be making appearances in that guise this weekend. Look for St. Nicholas himself to stop by the Price Hill Historical Society Museum on Saturday and Sunday, December 5 and 6. He will be there from noon to 2:00 pm both days as part of Price Hill Will's "Holiday on the Hill" days. I had the St. Nicholas costume, my daughter made it for me back when her kids were in preschool so that I'd stop by there to make an appearance each December (it was a Montessori school, so St. Nicholas fit into the curriculum of studying other cultures better than Santa Claus, from what I gather). Anyway, the suit still fits, so I'll break it out again this weekend. Stop by to visit the museum, and if you want to buy some copies of The Collected Old Curmudgeon (they make great holiday gifts) while you are there, I'd be happy to step out of my St. Nick persona briefly to become the Old Curmudgeon again and sign books.

It’s Not Easy Being a Curmudgeon

Being a curmudgeon carries a lot of responsibility. One is expected to be a grouch and a complainer. I do my best, but it seems like an unending job. Restaurants are a perfect example. A curmudgeon is obligated to complain if the service is poor or if the food is not prepared properly. Actually, everyone should complain about bad service or food. I have done work for most of the restaurants in town and I know that the management appreciates your comments—they want to know about problems so they can improve things. By the same token, good service and especially tasty dishes should be complimented. Even curmudgeons do that. I’ve learned, however, that it’s not a good idea to recommend a restaurant to anyone. The best place you have ever eaten will invariably screw up when someone you recommended it to eats there. But remember, if something in a restaurant is particularly good, compliment it, and if something displeases you, complain. We curmudgeons can’t do all the work.

Another Book Signing, This Time at Dunham

Just a quick note to mention that I'll be signing books (The Collected Old Curmudgeon, of course) at Dunham Recreation Center on the Price Hill/Westwood border tomorrow, November 8, from 1 pm to 3 pm. I could write a lot about Dunham--it was once the city's tuberculosis sanitorium, but it's been a local rec center since the 1970s. I was on the committee that steered it from its old life to new use, and some kids I knew started putting plays on there around the same time. Some of them are still at it--if you've ever seen a Sunset Players production, you've been to one of the old hospital buildings. Dunham's various groups have a Christmas craft show every year, and the Price Hill Historical Society is always there with their books and some crafts made by members. We raise a little more money to keep the museum going that way. Stop by to say hello or buy a book.