Blogging Advisory/Fed Cup CC

This also will be your Fed Cup HQ for the Italy at Russia final.

I also want to apprise y'all of a new feature starting Monday at TW, a post called The Watercooler.We are creating this in response to calls for a daily Crisis Center-type thread, enabling those of us lucky enough to be watching tennis on any given day, anywhere in the world, to engage in match-calling and general tennis discussion.

You can also go OT at The Watercooler (isn't that what we all do at the office?), to make up for the increasing lack of OT posts lately, but keep in mind that some folks will be engaged in serious match-calling, so pick your spots.  And remember, your main OT entry each week will be The Deuce Club; I suggest you bookmark DC so that if it does roll off the "recent posts" column, you'll still be able to easily find it.

My kingdom for a Search function! I have been informed that one is coming, soon, so hang tight.

For big events, including Grand Slams and Masters Series tournaments, we will revert to Crisis Center posts, and encourage you to stay On-Topic regarding the events of the day. I am going to try to post The Watercooler daily (except when we have CC threads), although I will be doing a fair amount of traveling in the fall, some of it to places were I'll be a two-day hike from asphalt, never mind an Internet cafe. Some of the Watercooler posts will be generic, following a template. At other times, they will be more like CC posts, with an observation or two to kick things off. Sometimes, guest contributors will provide the Watercooler posts and topics. We'll see how it works out and fine-tune as we go along.

Have a great weekend everyone. I'll be heading up to Andes with Lisa and the little cowpuncher to check on how much water the new pond has accumulated in the three weeks since I was last there, and I'm dying from the suspense. I've got a pretty good spring to feed the pond, and with the rain of recent days I expect it to be at least a third full. I was born to dig ponds, much like Roger Federer was born to win Grand Slams, Elena Dementieva was born to smack double faults, and Ptenisnet was born to write one-line comments.

Then, on Sunday, we're going to the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield Ct., for the opening of my huntin' and fishin' buddy James Prosek's new art show. James attained a measure of fame when he published a book of watercolor paintings, Trout, depicting the main North American sub-species of the  Salmo family. He was still a student at Yale at the time. He has been called the "new Audubon", but just as importantly he's got a great sense of humor and he's always up for screwing around and doing pretty much nothin' besides enjoying the outdoor life.