Your Call, 2.12

First, an apology is in order. I never did get the first installment of what has now become The Coaching Series (more on that tomorrow) finished yesterday. It wasn't because I was screwing around, either. I was almost done with the post when a 3:30 conference call with SixApart (publishers of this Typepad software) ended up taking up my time and attention until I had to run out to go pick up cowboy Luke at school. You go beyond a certain point of lateness at pick-up time and school officials at PS 87 take your child to the police station. Could scare the hail out of the little guy, right?

Thanks to Rosangel and Andrew Burton for taking part in that call. I always feel like my back is covered with those two. . .

Anyway, I will finish up the first coaching post today, after an AM meeting with US Davis Cup captain Pat McEnroe. It looks like I may be going to Birmingham for the USA vs. Switzerland Davis Cup tie in a few weeks time. Frankly, I think it's a great opportunity for various reasons, including the Mr. Federer Goes to Birmingham theme. While there,  I plan to invite Mirka and Roger to accompany me to the local Cabela's or Bass Pro Shops outlet, where Mirka could probably find a good price on a nice pair of camo duck-hunting coveralls , and Roger could pick up a new turkey gun (although it's not like the turkeys he usually faces demand an upgrade in ordnance). Then we'll go catfish ticklin', get some 'Bama barbecue, maybe pick up a few Roll Tide t-shirts or a nice houndstooth-check hat for Rog (Just like the Bear used to wear).

Seriously, though, I do think this tie has a lot of potential, and were it not for Davis Cup, how would the good folks in a town like Birmingham ever get to see the likes of Federer? I'll keep you updated on this. It's occurred to me that Roger might pull the plug on DC, given recent events, but I would be surprised if he did. It really would send the wrong signal to his rivals, and provide those who are disappointed with his degree of commitment to Davis Cup with further talking points.

On the Typepad front, I have this to report: SixApart has been very apologetic about how suddenly the recent changes were instituted. The outfit hosts a dizzying number of blogs, and I'm not sure they'd anticipated the reaction to the seemingly benign changes from the group they like to call "power users" - which includes us (due to the high volume of traffic and comments). By the time you read this, a new pagination format may be in place, with the pages numbered at the foot of the comments, and a one-click jump to first or last page. We're working with Typepad on the number-of-comments-per-page issue, and also doing our best to restore the old system, under which clicking on a screen-name that appears in blue automatically enables you to send an email to that user/poster.

The details of what Typepad is doing and why are both complicated and not especially important for most of you; a lot of it has to do with their mandate to create a system that can't be crashed due to a huge surge in demand/traffic. I'm very optimistic that in the long term this will work out well for TW, and some of the "community" features SixApart will be introducing may prove valuable to us. And I'm pretty sure that we will have an adequate heads up on further tweaks to their system, so that we can at least inform you of changes that may be in the pipeline.

Well, I've been so busy that I've barely kept up with the scores today, but I trust scrolling through the comments at yesterday's YC, or a visit to our home page will get me up to speed and quick. Enjoy the tennis today, everyone, and feel free to rage and rant on it below.

BTW, I am off on family vacation next week (we're going to Panama), but I'll write more about that on Friday. Rest assured, Rosangel and the crew will be giving you plenty of Your Calls, Easy Ed McGrogan will do a Monday Net Post, and there's rumor of a guest appearance by Asad Raza. Hey, maybe Andrew Friedman could be persuaded to do a quick post, too. He just spent a few weeks in France, researching a (cooking) book. . . Oh, and why the picture of Tommy Haas? Well, this much I do know: he's on the comeback trail, and is now in the quarters at San Jose. And you ladies don't seem to mind looking at pictures of Tommy. . .

-- Pete