BSR

I remember something like this when figure skater Brian Boitano came out. Can you actually "come out" if the whole world already knows you're gay?

I don't know what to believe any more, but according to ESPN, Novak is still in limbo. That is, he has not been deported yet. He will be allowed to stay in Australia until Monday. Who da heck knows what if anything will be resolved by then. While Novak can afford the best lawyers money can buy and all of Serbia up to the President is fighting for him, the Australian federal government seems awfully entrenched in their position. The drama continues ...

If the money were going to the Cuban people, then I would agree with you. But all profits would just go to the regime.

True enough, and as a die-hard Novak fan, his refusal to vaxx drives me crazy. I heard that Roland Garros and the French government will impose mandates on player vaccination comparable to Australia's. Always a chance London & New York will too. Novak could avoid all this drama if he just got the jab, as hundreds of millions around the world have, without any adverse health consequences whatsoever. But like I've mentioned previously, Novak can be weird about some things, and one weirdness is "artificial" medicine. He believes in natural, holistic healing and health. He follows a super-strict, all-organic vegan diet. He won't take anti-inflammatories, he avoids needles of any kind. When he had that elbow injury from 2015 through 2017, he refused to get surgery, instead tried to heal it naturally. When he finally exhausted all options, he submitted to the surgery. Although the procedure was simple and recovery very quick, he was mentally anguished over resorting to "artificial" medicine like surgery. Even though he bounced back to win Wimbledon and the US Open in 2018, he felt like a failure for getting surgery. Yeah, like I said, the guy can be kinda weird. But hopefully that background information helps people understand why Novak is anti-vaxx. His natural holistic philosophy is the root of his AO drama, but it's also why at 34 he has the body of a 27yo.

I heard from tennis journalist Amy Lundy that the hitch was the deadline for players to apply for an entry visa was back in early November, but Novak got his medical exemption just a couple of days ago. Unfortunately for Novak, the type of visa he applied for in November is not the visa a player with a medical exemption needs. Novak and his team must have assumed the visa he got back in November was all he needed, without reading the fine print. I was hoping that there was still time for Novak to sort it out and fly back to Australia, but Serbian sports writer Sasa Ozmo, perhaps the best source for all things Novak, said that it's looking unlikely.

I'm guessing that he will go back home, try to get the proper visa (rush order!), and then return to Australia. With even the president of Serbia fighting for him, I have to think he has a decent chance of pulling it off. If he does play, this will make him more sympathetic to the crowd because everybody's had to deal with the nightmare of red tape and government bureaucracy at some point. Once people learn that 4 other players also got medical exemptions, they should see that Novak didn't get special treatment. I also found out that the exemptions were granted by blind review, that is, the authorities reviewed the applications without knowing the identity of the applicant. I was certain Novak's medical exemption was a crock, but hey, maybe not.

My outrage over preferential treatment has calmed down now that I learned that 4 other players also received medical exemptions. To protect their privacy, neither the government nor the AO disclosed their identities. We know Novak got one only because he announced it publicly. Sandgren didn't bother to apply for a medical exemption because he knew he wouldn't qualify. Not sure about Herbert, but I'm guessing his case is the same as Sandgren's.

This latest development is just crazy. Pundits are saying that Novak will not play the AO, but this issue has inflamed all of Serbia to the point where the Serbian president is getting directly involved. Let's see if resolution is still possible that will allow Novak entry. Since the AO doesn't start until the 17th, Novak still has time. Apparently Novak is locked up in a hotel room, which is understandable given that he has no visa for entry. What I don't get is why they took away his phone. Yikes! The guy's not a criminal. Obviously he can use the phone in the hotel room, but still, confiscating his cell seems a bit extreme.

If the fans turn against Novak because he got special treatment, it'll be water off a duck's back. Novak is so used to being the villain when playing against Rafa and especially Roger that he's mastered tuning out crowd hostility. What might bother Novak far more is if his fellow players turn against him. Herbert is well-liked, dunno about Sandgren, but the rank & file will sympathize with both journeymen who got shut out while his tennis royal highness was ushered in. In the end, you can't really blame Novak. While it was wrong of him to seek special dispensation, responsibility ultimately lies with the Victorian government+Craig Tiley (AO Tournament Director) because they could have said no.

Hmm, this is starting to smell very fishy. The AO confirmed that Novak did get a medical exemption (see tweet below). I thought the only cases that qualify for a medical exemption are cancer patients or people (like those with rheumatoid) on immuno-suppressing drugs. If someone knows of other conditions, please post them here. In any case, I am baffled by what condition a world #1 tennis player could possibly have that would qualify for a medical exemption. Only 4 active players have double-digit Slams, the equivalent of tennis royalty. Roger & Serena were definitely out. Rafa is supposed to play, but who knows the state of his foot injury. That left only Novak as the only tennis royal who was definitely fit to play. Had all four tennis royals been absent from the 2022 AO, that would have been a serious blemish on the tournament, already considered the least prestigious of the 4 Slams. Please note that Pierre-Hugues Herbert (#111 in singles but #8 in doubles) and Tennys Sandgren (#96 in singles) had to sit out because they refuse to get vaxxed. You can argue that they made their choice & have to live with the consequences. True, but so did Novak. Either grant all 3 an exemption or none of them. But it's wrong to give an exemption only to the tennis royal just because your tournament needs the star power.

Miguel Herrán had an interesting start to his acting career. He was hanging out with a couple of friends & chugging a liter of beer on a Madrid sidewalk 2am on a school night when director Daniel Guzmán walked by. Guzmán called his attention and asked him if he would audition for him. Herrán auditioned the next day, got the part, and ended up winning the Goya (Spain's Oscar) for Best New Talent. The rest is history.

Please don't misunderstand ... nothing funny about happened to this soldier, but I have to crack up at the description of "wounded." Make sure to click on the video to get the full picture.

Thanks for the heads-up that Season 4 is now available. I subscribe to Netflix only sporadically because I end up watching it way too much. A continuous subscription is like keeping too much junk food in the house. But Élite Season 4 is definitely worth watching, plus I think Money Heist posted its final season. An anecdote about Money Heist's popularity: cast member Enrique Arce said that when he was in Buenos Aires, the president of Argentina asked him to come to the presidential residence because he was such a fan of the show. When heads of state are summoning you to meet with them, you know your show has hit the big time.

Don't ask me how he pulled it off, but Novak will play the 2022 Australian Open with an "exemption permission." If you're wondering what's an "exemption permission," you have plenty of company. Nobody seems to know, and Novak will never say. Given how super-strict Australia is with their Covid policies, he must have done some serious tough negotiating to get this mysterious exemption permission. A medical exemption is impossible; in any case, note that Novak did not say he got one. Some exceptions are made for the unvaccinated, for example, a person with "critical skills" or "in the national interest." I know the Australian Open is important to Australia, but "in the national interest" is a stretch. Does winning the AO nine times qualify as a "critical skill"? Some Australians were shut out of their country for months. When Ash Barty left Australia after the AO to compete on the tour, she knew she would not be able to return for 9 months. Now they allow Novak this "exemption permission" just because he won it 9 times and the tournament is starved for star power?? Some Aussies are already spouting off on Twitter. We'll see over the next few days what the general consensus is on this odd little exemption. Speaking selfishly as a die-hard Novak fan, I'm tickled pink that he's playing. On the other hand, if the country imposes a vaccine mandate, then everyone should have to follow it -- even the world #1 and 9-time champion. I'm pretty sure that if #97 ranked Pablo Cuevas had asked for an exemption permission, the government of Victoria would have laughed in his face.

I was going to comment on the controversy, but unfortunately, once I see Antonio Brown shirtless, I struggle ... thoughts ... sentences ...

Tennis player (or at least he used to be) Milos Raonic sets the thermostat at 67° for sleeping because he heard it was the optimal temperature for physical recovery. Whether he heard it from Milos (they are friends) or someone else, I think world #1 Novak Djokovic started doing it too. I'll bet plenty of other tennis pros jumped on the bandwagon.

I suspect that some clients think that if they get nasty and attack escorts who have raised their rates, they can intimidate escorts in general into lowering their rates. Of course, that's ridiculous, but that won't stop these clients. They're on a mission!

German Cornejo's dance company does some of the best tango I've ever seen. I love this number ...

Happy New Year!

Here is a clip of world champion swing dancer and "So You Think You Can Dance" winner Benji Schwimmer with a male partner. Benji has some great moves!

In contrast to all the uncertainty about Novak & the Australian Open, he is certainly carrying on like someone who has every intention of playing. He has moved from Belgrade to Marbella and is practicing with intensity on the Plexicushion (same surface as the AO) courts at the Puente Romano Tennis Club, even using the official AO tennis balls. So, either Novak persists in the deluded belief that the Victoria government will ease up on its Covid restrictions (ha!), or he's actually vaccinated and just being really weird about refusing to disclose it.

None, really. If Novak isn't already vaccinated, then he will have to skip this year's AO. Novak's only chance of playing is if he is already vaxxed and is just being super-secretive about it (remember how weird he is about privacy). What's odd is that all 3 Serbian sports papers report that he is in Belgrade and is practicing hard -- something they've seen for themselves, not just some crazy rumor they heard. If he knew he was skipping Australia, then he'd be on the ski slopes, not the practice court.

I'm reading conflicting reports from Serbian news sources. Because the Serbian press has whipped itself into a frenzy over this issue, they're reporting every single rumor they come across. One of the Serbian sports papers even cited Emilio Sanchez as a "source." WTF?! Since when is Emilio Sanchez the definitive authority on Novak Djokovic?? According to the guys over on Men's Tennis Forum, of the 3 big Serbian sports newspapers, 2 are saying Novak is skipping the 2022 AO, 1 says he is playing. None of the 3 is getting their news from the horse's mouth. I'll wait to hear what Novak has to say. Apparently he has no chance of getting a medical exemption. If he has not gotten the jab yet, it's already too late because a player needs to get the 2nd shot at least 2 weeks before arriving in Australia.

Since the university paper was 19 pages, I admit that I only skimmed it, but the writer made a distinction between mainstream news orgs and sensationalist tabloids, not between mainstream and alternative journalism, like Tim Pool or Substack.

I tried a search in Spanish but got the same result: Romanian 39yo w/9 priors & Moroccan 29yo w/17 priors, but no information beyond that. I read 3 news reports, none gave names or photographs. Plenty of other links, but I stopped after 3 because I assumed they all withheld further info. I also found a paper written by a university student (I can't figure out how to link the PDF) where he states that the ethical standard for Spanish mainstream news orgs is to not identify suspects by their name or image in order to maintain presumption of innocence and to avoid trial by public opinion. However, it does not look like there are any laws prohibiting the publication of names & photos.