Washington Crisis Center (7.30)

Greetings, everyone. Just dropping by on a catch-up day at the office to say "hi" and give you this post as a place to discuss the action in Washington D.C., Sopot, San Diego and Stockholm. I had a great trip to Newfoundland, with a group of outdoorsy friends, including James Prosek. We were guests of the Humber Valley Resort, right on the banks of the muscular, grand Humber River.

We went heli-fishing on Friday and Saturday. From a chopper, enormous reaches of Newfoundland looked startlingly like Centre Court at Wimbledon at the end of the tournament -  sort of threadbare, with brown  earth (in Newfoundland's case, gray granite) showing through everywhere beneath the dense, short, pale green fibers. It was easy to spot moose (dark chocolate) and caribou (milk chocolate) on the landscape. It was a little odd to be at a luxurious resort in a place as remote as Newfoundland, but the airport at Deer Lake is just five hours flying time from Gatwick, outside London. And the resort is targeting the Brits and other north Europeans who are hungry for at taste of wilderness but interested in all the amenities of civilization (in other words, hot tubs, tasteful chalets, fine food and golf).

Earlier today, I filed a new post for ESPN on Sam Querrey, but it may not be up until tomorrow. I did find that 10- consecutive ace performance remarkable - and potentially a sign of things to come. If you remember, I went out to see Sam in Los Angeles about 6 weeks ago, and was duly impressed. The kid is 19 and skinny as a beanpole; just imagine what kind of power he'll be able to generate when he fills out - especially if he makes a serious effort to find a workout regimen that enhances his power without curbing his flexibility and explosiveness. My buddy Tom Perrotta wrote a terrific piece on Querrey for The Sun; check out the first-serve percentage numbers he crunched to get a better idea of Querrey's potential. And if you think Querrey is nothing more than a big (6-6) dude with a lot of power, I think you underestimate him.

Anyway, I'll be back with some red meat tomorrow. Regular comment poster Codepoke recently sent me an extremely provocative theory positing some link between gender and choking, and it's sure to touch off a lively debate. I'm saying no more - for now.

It's good to be home - hope y'all had a great weekend, too!