Crazed Teacups

Calling Out Fed

I love Roger Federer, but SI's Jon Wertheim, who may be my favorite sports columnist, calls Roger out on a trend that I also find troubling, but haven't been able to articulate, in this week's Tennis Mailbag:

Fed's great. We get it. But come on -- sporting a new jacket with "15" on it minutes after surviving a match he probably should not have won? Why won't the media call him on this?
-- Stephen Thomas, Greensboro, N.C.

• I'll call him on that. Anyone who breaks the all-time record for majors, winning the Wimbledon final 16-14 in the fifth set, deserves a day of unconditional love. But now that it's Wednesday -- and 72 hours have elapsed -- I'll join the many of you who wrote in critiquing Federer's ridiculous attire.

As we said a few weeks back, the guy's tennis might be incomparable but his accessorizing leaves a lot to be desired. First, there was the gold man purse, the kind of accoutrement that begs for ridicule. Next, there was the Sergeant Pepper jacket. A friend asked me if it were "an inside joke kind of thing," and sadly I had to report that it wasn't. The jacket was, of course, covering a gold-striped shirt and shorts. Plus, there were the gold shoes, embroidered with Federer's initials. For a sport that still needs to shed its country club perception, it doesn't help when the top player looks like he was dressed by Bruno.

The piece de resistance, however, was that "15" jacket Federer donned immediately after winning Sunday's final, an article of clothing that simultaneously managed to be presumptuous, self-aggrandizing and sensationally tacky. A penny for Andy Roddick's thoughts, knowing that someone considered him such an unworthy opponent that the celebratory outfit had already been embroidered and carried onto the court. That it was followed, at least on American television, by a Federer NetJets ad was somehow fitting. (Good thing we're not in a recession and concerned about, you know, environmental impact.)

Beyond the fashion police ridicule, I think there's a bigger issue here. Who exactly is tasked with Federer's image these days? Why does this person have a job? And why is Federer allowing Nike's agenda to undercut an image that, much like his old attire, needed no further ornamentation? Here was a guy once lauded -- very rightfully -- as a populist champ, an unparalleled player who still projected modesty and quintessentially Swiss stoicism. This Rick Reilly column (which compares Federer's plain folk appeal to the gaudy opulence and crass consumption of Tiger Woods) nails it. That column was from 2007, and reading it now, it seems mighty dated.

Whose bright idea was it to transform that thoroughly likable guy into King Bling? Did the Nike marketing data really indicate that kids would warm to all those elitist touches? Is the gold man purse making a surprise comeback? This is the personification of "gilding the lilly." It does not say "elegance" any more than a fleur-de-lis back tattoo says "French." Here's hoping it's a phase and Federer takes back some ownership of his portrayal. I've gotten a ton of mail on this and I know I'm not alone when I say this: Roger, we'd rather look at your titles.

Quote of the Day

We used to get a visit every year from the Oscar Meyer wiener mobile, which was an enormous vehicle shaped like a hot dog. The driver was a Dwarf, and the wiener mobile would broadcast music while he sang the song "I wish I was an Oscar Meyer wiener." He drew quite a crowd. Pretty exciting for a shopping center.

- Tom Waits in an interview with Beck, who has started a new interview series "without promotional pretext or editorial direction" (thank you, Beck!) called Irrelevant Topics.  (Thanks to NME for the link.)

If Only I Had Mudflaps... and Drove!

An idea whose time has come... smart girl mudflap decals!

Title Cards

These are just some of the images that come up when you do a search on flickr for title cards.

Fourth Plinth

Sculptor Antony Gormley's new project, One and Other, aims to create a "living monument" in Trafalgar Square.  Every hour - 24 hours a day, for 100 days, without a break - a different person will stand on an empty plinth (a plinth is the base of a column) in this very public space.  That person will be able to do anything they like during their hour, just so long as it's legal.  As the official site describes it, this space, "normally reserved for statues of Kings and Generals... will become an image of themselves, and a representation of the whole of humanity."

There were almost 15,000 applicants for the 2400 positions.  The first person to participate will be Rachel Wardell, a stay-at-home mom who will take the stage on July 6 at 9am.  In an article on BBC News, Wardell said, "I wanted to be able to represent normal, everyday stay-at-home mums who aren't normally a feature of major artworks - to show my kids now, and when they're older, that you can do, and be part of anything, no matter how ordinary you are or feel."

First, There Was Keyser Soze. Now, There's Virgilio Anderson.

A movement is afoot!  A British comedian named Richard Herring tried to register his Facebook username, only to find that a Macedonian named Virgilio Anderson had taken Herring's name.  As Herring writes on his site, "Though why choose my name? Surely there would many better and more popular figures out there whose identity was up for grabs. I suspect he has some completely different and unconnected reason for choosing that name. But I would love to know what it is."  He tried sending a message to Virgilio, but never heard back. 

Then Paul Sheppard got into the act.  Sheppard was trying to register his own name but it was taken, so, having heard Herring's story, decided to take Virgilio Anderson's name, which weirdly was still available.  Since then, the two men, otherwise unknown to each other, have decided to get to the bottom of the Virgilio Anderson mystery.

"Perhaps I should start selling T shirts saying "I'm Virgilio Anderson," wrote Herring.  "It would be good if we could turn Virgilio Anderson into a kind of massive cult public figure."

Sheppard put together a website that compiles all the info available on the Facebook site, including Virgilio's interests and photo.

All these efforts finally culminated in Stephen Fry tweeting this today: "Goodness! Just spotted #virgilioanderson on a boat bound for Lucerne. Either that or his exact double."  With this one tweet, Fry, who has 617,000 followers, made Virgilio Anderson the #1 trending topic on Twitter.

Does Virgilio Anderson google himself, asks Herring?  Doesn't he know that a search on his name now turns up almost 7,000 hits?  Don't any of his friends use Twitter? 

But more importantly, WHO IS VIRGILIO ANDERSON?

The G.O. Team

I just saw this great take on the Shepard Fairey 'Obey' graphic while walking home the other day.

Did It Have a Foundation?

I've never seen anything like this.  An entire 13-story building in Shanghai that was under construction just... toppled over.  And no one seems to know why.  Sadly, there was one fatality, but it's amazing there weren't more.

More photos here.  (Thanks, once again, to David for the link.)

Haul of Fame

This is pure genius: the Johnson County Library in Overland Park, Kansas, has tricked out their trucks to "remind us of the iconic nature" of some of these great books. Read more about their efforts here.  (Thanks to David for the link.)

Update on Wimbledon Chauvinism

Yesterday, I posted an egregious quote from a Wimbledon spokesman, stating that how a woman looked helped define whether or not she was scheduled to play on Centre Court.  It's nice to see some backlash from this, as compiled by Sports Business Daily:

"That is an extraordinary thing to do. ... It is absolutely and totally inappropriate. We are talking about Wimbledon, the holiest place there is in tennis. It is absolutely absurd and I cannot believe it is the case.  I can absolutely swear that at the Australian Open, it has only ever been done on the quality of the tennis."

- John Alexander, former Australian Federation Cup captain

"Are the 'Page Three' editors now making the decisions for the Wimbledon play committee?"

- ESPN's Michael Wilbon

And I admit I loved this one, too:

"This is outrageous. Since when is Serena not hot?"

- Bob Ryan, Boston Globe columnist