Posts

Food Spending Survey Results

A couple of weeks ago, I asked my readers to share what percent of their disposable income they spent on food. My intent was to double-check the shocking government data on food costs that we recently wrote about here at CK. You'll recall that the data showed that food costs have fallen dramatically since the 1930s as a percent of disposable income. This data is compelling evidence that despite all the concerns bandied about in the media in recent years about rice shortages, corn shortages and other drivers of food price inflation, in reality our food has never been cheaper. But I wanted to see what the results were for regular people, and that's why I asked readers to weight in on their spending. So what were the results? How do CK's measure up compared to the overall US population? Well, we spend more on food. By at least five percentage points. You'll recall that the median spend on all food was 9.6% according to the government data. CK readers averaged 14.7% ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Poll: Tennis TV Viewing Habits for the 2009 Australian Open

The Australian Open is fast approaching and with it the beginning of the 2009 tennis season! poll by twiigs.com
Post a Comment
Read more

The Worst Call in This Year's US Open

Safin gets called for a center line foot fault by the line judge on the other side of the net. What was so embarrasing about the call that the line judge called the foot fault before Safin even hit the ball, and by then Safin had moved his back foot to miles away from the line. He was nowhere near foot-fault territory. Even McEnroe was getting hot under the collar and he was in the commentator's booth. Forget about Safin. He went ballistic. Supposedly, the rules say that if any part of your body is past the center hatch mark when you begin your service motion, that's a foot-fault. News to me. Safin loses the point, which gives Vince Spadea a set point--which Safin ends up losing to make it 2 sets all. Worst call I've seen in a long time. Ultimately Safin won in five though.
Post a Comment
Read more

Federer Loses to Blake? In the Olympics?

What is wrong with Fed? 56 unforced errors and 19 unforced errors on the forehand side --in a two set match? Fed isn't moving well, he looks listless and he looks like he needs to take a break from the game for a while .
Post a Comment
Read more

Roger Federer Does Not Want It Anymore

Here's one of the best "citizen journalist" pieces I've read on tennis in a long time. Thanks to Burton DeWitt at Bleacher Report for penning a provocative essay. Money quote: "Roger Federer does not want it anymore. Federer does not want to be out there playing; he does not want to win tournaments; he does not want to be the best player in the world. ...I will take that one step further: Roger Federer is going to retire, if not immediately after the Olympic Games, then by the end of the year." I hope Burton's wrong.
Post a Comment
Read more

The Obliteration of Roger Federer

How is it possible that a player with Roger Federer's sublime talent can look like such an amateur in the French Open Final? How can Rafael Nadal beat him so badly? There's some encouragement here for all of us club players out there. Roger is forcing it. He doesn't have a lot of chances in any given game to take control of a point. Rafa is such a quick player, such a natural retreiver, and he can go from defense to offense in a point so quickly that Roger knows that any potentially neutral ball Rafa hits to him might be the last he sees. That extra mental pressure is what causes Roger to force shots-- just as regular players like you and I force shots when we are playing an opponent with just a slightly better baseline game. And if you know you might only get one or two chances in a GAME to put away a point, you'll go for a little bit too much on any given shot. Some of those shots might go in, but on the margin most of those shots become unforced errors. T...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lindsay Davenport 2.0

Watching the French Open Women's final this morning and thinking that Anna Ivanovic and Dinara Safina are basically Lindsay Davenport 2.0. Big girls, 6' tall or more and not that quick around the court. But both just a notch quicker than Davenport, and just a notch stronger, and just a little bit better than she was in her prime.
Post a Comment
Read more