Tennis

[Ginger]

As a Swiss and a Roger Federer superfan, yesterday was a bleak day for my mother. Her arch-nemesis beat a Swiss.

I like that Nadal is/was a good rival for Federer that kept Federer from being totally dominant, but I don't like watching him play. His game is boring to me.

[laurenj]

Jun 12, 2017 9:11:51 GMT -4 Ginger said:

As a Swiss and a Roger Federer superfan, yesterday was a bleak day for my mother. Her arch-nemesis beat a Swiss.

I like that Nadal is/was a good rival for Federer that kept Federer from being totally dominant, but I don't like watching him play. His game is boring to me.

I can't quite get into Nadal's game either and I'm not sure why. He just seems like a grinder to me.

As for Wawrinka, I love watching his backhand, but my (probably petty) issue with him is how mean he is to the ball kids. He's always gesturing angrily if it takes them 2 seconds instead of 1 to get the towel to him. It really gets under my skin for some reason, so I can't fully root for him.

With Federer taking a pass on the French Open, I didn't have a horse in the race, but I always secretly love seeing the big dogs taken out early. Djokovic getting bageled in that 3rd set was unbelievable.

[laurenj]

Did anyone catch the Bethanie Mattek-Sands match at Wimbledon yesterday? Horrifying injury and an alarming lack of immediate reaction by staff and medical personnel. She was lying on the ground screaming for help and it seemed like everyone just stood around staring for several minutes.

[mrspickles]

I would have puked right there in the stands. That sounds horrific. I hope she has a speedy and full recovery, and I also hope that the All England does some work on their emergency medical response and their court maintenance!

Has anyone been following the story of Venus Williams car crash? The first article I saw said that she had been declared 'at fault' in the police report, and that she was being sued by the survivor from the other car, due to the wrongful death of her passenger. Today's installment, courtesy of the DM. I'm sure her legal/ pr team pushed this out there, but it plays into my question.

It's been a good long while since I took drivers' ed, but I seem to recall that a green light does not give you the legal right to barrel into an intersection when there are other cars or pedestrians already in it. In other words, if a vehicle is t-boned, it's usually a pretty safe bet that the vehicle with the front end damage is more likely at fault than the car with the broadside damage because the broadsided vehicle had an already established presence in the intersection. In which case right of way falls to them in order to clear the intersection safely. Am I misremembering?

[Karrit]

Jul 7, 2017 23:50:56 GMT -4 mrspickles said:

I would have puked right there in the stands. That sounds horrific. I hope she has a speedy and full recovery, and I also hope that the All England does some work on their emergency medical response and their court maintenance!

Has anyone been following the story of Venus Williams car crash? The first article I saw said that she had been declared 'at fault' in the police report, and that she was being sued by the survivor from the other car, due to the wrongful death of her passenger. Today's installment, courtesy of the DM. I'm sure her legal/ pr team pushed this out there, but it plays into my question.

It's been a good long while since I took drivers' ed, but I seem to recall that a green light does not give you the legal right to barrel into an intersection when there are other cars or pedestrians already in it. In other words, if a vehicle is t-boned, it's usually a pretty safe bet that the vehicle with the front end damage is more likely at fault than the car with the broadside damage because the broadsided vehicle had an already established presence in the intersection. In which case right of way falls to them in order to clear the intersection safely. Am I misremembering?

That is also what I remember. It is usually the person who does the hitting who is in fault. When I first heard of the accident, my first thought was that it didn't sound like Venus was to blame.

[Ginger]

Florida has a "don't block the box" rule. They even did a whole public education campaign about it a few years ago. Don't Block the Box. If you enter an intersection without clearance to make it all the way through, you are the one in violation. So technically, Venus is at fault.

But I think all Venus needs to do is show a jury that video. She wasn't driving recklessly, she wasn't forcing her way into a blocked up intersection. The person in front of her stopped unexpectedly and therefore she stopped as well.

Also, was that green light unbelievably short, or what? It seemed like it was just two seconds. If a green light isn't long enough for two cars to make it through the intersection, that's kind of ridiculous.

[mrspickles]

Jul 8, 2017 11:51:59 GMT -4 Ginger said:

Florida has a "don't block the box" rule. They even did a whole public education campaign about it a few years ago. Don't Block the Box. If you enter an intersection without clearance to make it all the way through, you are the one in violation. So technically, Venus is at fault.

But I think all Venus needs to do is show a jury that video. She wasn't driving recklessly, she wasn't forcing her way into a blocked up intersection. The person in front of her stopped unexpectedly and therefore she stopped as well.

Also, was that green light unbelievably short, or what? It seemed like it was just two seconds. If a green light isn't long enough for two cars to make it through the intersection, that's kind of ridiculous.

Ahhhh. Thank you for explaining. So my memory is dated but not faulty and I shouldn't drive in other states because they have strange laws! And yes, the green light seems impossibly short.

On a side note, I would like to see some statistics on box block accidents in Tucson. Ninety most percent of intersections have a green left turn arrow at the end of the light cycle, but there are a couple of big intersections that have the left arrow at the beginning of the cycle. Then, just to make it super duper confusing there are a few that have the left arrow at the beginning and the end. So most drivers are used to creeping into the intersection on the green to wait for either an opening or the arrow. The arrow that sometimes doesn't come and oncoming traffic doesn't much care if you're stranded in the middle, either. The key to driving in Tucson is to stay out of the intersection for a solid 3 count after the light turns green unless you're looking to hit a straggler - either vehicular or pedestrian.

[Ginger]

The rule here in Crashachusetts is to barrel right into the intersection and if it's taking too long to take a left, you should just go right ahead and cut off oncoming traffic. It's not until 2-3 seconds after the light has turned red that you even need to start making an effort to clear the intersection.

[mrspickles]

Jul 8, 2017 13:03:50 GMT -4 Ginger said:

The rule here in Crashachusetts is to barrel right into the intersection and if it's taking too long to take a left, you should just go right ahead and cut off oncoming traffic. It's not until 2-3 seconds after the light has turned red that you even need to start making an effort to clear the intersection.

There are days when I consider not driving at all because it's so scary out there! Then there are days when I take a perverse delight out of driving the speed limit up a notoriously busy 2 lane road, counting the number of frustrated people behind me because I'm not going 10 mph faster. I don't know if I could handle MA. Sounds intense!

[Deleted]

Jul 8, 2017 13:03:50 GMT -4 Ginger said:

The rule here in Crashachusetts is to barrel right into the intersection and if it's taking too long to take a left, you should just go right ahead and cut off oncoming traffic. It's not until 2-3 seconds after the light has turned red that you even need to start making an effort to clear the intersection.

I would simplify it even further: the rule here in Crashachusetts (I'm totally stealing that by the way) is to do whatever the hell you want and everyone else can suck it. I once had a guy in an SUV flip me off when I was crossing the street. In the cross walk. When I had the right of way.

It is intense, mrspickles. Especially if, like me, you move to Boston from a small town in Western Mass where they're slightly more reasonable about driving. People generally stop at red lights and stop signs where I'm from. Here? You're lucky if they do.