text:
Pioneer Billie Jean King Moved The Baseline For Women's Tennis
A new PBS documentary looks at King's legacy both as a tennis champion -- she has a record 20 Wimbledon titles -- and the leader of a female player uprising that demanded fairer treatment and pay. She tells Fresh Air about the challenges of being a female player before there was a women's league.
Other segments from the episode on September 12, 2013
September 12, 2013
Guest: Billie Jean King
TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Women's tennis champion Billie Jean King is best remembered for her 1973 exhibition match with self-proclaimed male chauvinist Bobby Riggs. But King had a remarkable career both as a tennis player and a trailblazer for women. She won a record 20 Wimbledon titles, six of them for singles. She also led an uprising of underpaid women players to demand fairer treatment and compensation in professional tennis.
Those subjects, as well as Billie Jean King's painful outing as a lesbian in 1981, are subjects of an "Americans Masters" documentary that aired Tuesday night on many PBS stations. It will be shown tonight on some stations, and you can find it online at the "American Masters" website.
At the age of 69, Billie Jean King is still active in the game as a recreational player and an owner in World Team Tennis. She spoke with FRESH AIR contributor Dave Davies.
Well, Billie Jean King, welcome to FRESH AIR. It's great to have you.
BILLIE JEAN KING: Thanks, Dave.
DAVIES: You know, I remember when I was a kid, the girls on the block played baseball with us when we were in grade school, and then like when they hit junior high school, then they didn't anymore, and they went on to other things. And you know, I think you grew up at a time, obviously, when women and girls weren't exactly encouraged to compete in athletics. Talk a little bit about your interest in sports and what kind of encouragement you got from your family.
KING: Well, I got very, very lucky in the family I was born into because my dad was a total jock. He loved basketball. He was in track and field as a younger man. And my dad being a firefighter could play with my brother or me for hours. And I drove my poor dad crazy and wanted to play catch. Probably the third word we ever learned was ball, and we'd always say daddy, ball, mommy, ball. We always wanted to play catch.
So it makes sense, if you hear my mom's stories about us children, very young children, why we ended up one being a Major League Baseball player and of course one playing tennis, and both sports have a ball.
DAVIES: You know, when you look at your record in close matches, in deuce, you know, matches in Grand Slam events, it's remarkable how often you prevailed, which I think speaks to your mental toughness. How did you prepare mentally for a match when you were moving up, playing competitively?
KING: Visualization we really used a lot. I used - I used to think about everything that could go wrong and then try to picture myself how I would react to it or how I'd respond to it. For instance, with the wind blowing, like last week at the U.S. Open it was really windy, and it was so hard on the players. So I always thought about the wind. I thought about the sun. I thought about bad line calls. I thought about rain if we had to wait, things that were probably out of my control, and how would I respond to them.
And I would think about how I wanted to act. Like they teach in acting, act as if, it's the same thing in sports. Do you stand up straight? Do you have your body language speaking in a confident way? Physically do you - how do you think - because 75 percent of the time when you're on the court, you're actually not hitting a ball, and I think that's where the champions come through. So I would visualize all these different possibilities.
DAVIES: And that time that you're not hitting the ball, is it a matter of preparing yourself to hit it? Is it a matter of carrying yourself in a way that intimidates an opponent?
KING: It's not about - see, for me, I never thought about the other - I always thought about staying on my side of the net. If you start getting on the other side of the net and trying to get into the other guy's mind, I thought - I mean, if they wanted to perceive something on my side of the net a certain way, there was nothing I could do about it. But I really did never - I didn't think about intimidating the other player.
Everything was getting my own act together, taking - accepting the responsibility for it. And I would always visualize where I'm going - like if you're serving, if I were serving, I would visualize - you have to make decisions, Dave. For instance, am I going to hit a topspin serve, or am I going to hit a slice serve, am I going to hit a flat serve, inside-out? There's all these choices.
And of course you have to decide - you have to make a choice among all these various opportunities. So I would have to decide, and then I would picture where I wanted the ball to land on the other side, you know, a big target, not a target like a dime. And then I would have to make a total commitment.
And once I started to toss the ball up to, say, serve, then I had to be in the now. I had to be - I was totally present and just doing, not thinking ahead or behind. And that's really important. Also if you've played a bad point, it's important to shake it off, regroup, think about what you want to do and then go for it.
If you're returning the serve, you want to think about where you'd like the ball to go on the other side as well. And of course I have two sayings when I teach tennis, or - and that is pressure is a privilege, and champions adapt or adjust. And I try to tell people, particularly young people, that champions in life, all we're doing is adapting. We adapt as we go through each day.
DAVIES: Describe the state of tennis when you became a top competitive player in the '60s and what opportunities were open to women then.
KING: Well, there weren't very many opportunities for men or women. We basically were amateurs making about $14 a day. If we stayed in a hotel, they might give us $28.
DAVIES: Wow.
KING: And we had a good life because we played at clubs like the Marion Cricket Club, Philadelphia Germantown, and if you're in Philadelphia, people that live there, or South Orange, if you live in Northern New Jersey, this was kind of our circuit during the summer. But we weren't making much money, and so I started to complain.
And you know, I grew up around the big sports: basketball, football, baseball. And I'm thinking we should have a professional situation, and we didn't, and I thought how ridiculous is that.
DAVIES: So in 1968 I guess it was, is when they finally let professionals play in Wimbledon, and the prize money between men and women was massively disparate, right?
KING: Yes, when professional tennis came in, actually before, when we were amateurs, the top women and top men were getting very similar payments to go play. So when the prize money started, they gave us much less, as I mentioned with the Wimbledon example. And there was another challenge.
KING: First we had the challenge of professional tennis, and the next challenge is this disparity, but more importantly the men who owned the tournaments or ran the tournaments started to drop the women's events entirely, most of the places. When they had us, then - when they did have us play and included us, they gave us about a 12- or 11-to-one ratio of prize money. So this was not fun, you know, fighting for professional tennis, and then the guys decided - but my former husband, Larry King - no, not that Larry King - he...
KING: I always say that and people always laugh. Larry said when we go professional, the men will squeeze you out. And these guys were my friends, and so I said, oh no, they're my friends, they won't do that. He says oh yes they will. And Larry was right. That old-boy network became very, very strong and very, very closed.
DAVIES: So you in effect led a revolt. I mean you and a few other top women...
KING: We had to.
DAVIES: Yeah, explain what you did.
KING: We were getting desperate. Actually, Larry said to me, he said why don't you and Rosie Casals go and talk with Gladys Allman(ph). She's the one person who owned a magazine and published World Tennis magazine, and she knew all - he said she'll know all the advertisers, and she'll know probably a lot of CEOs, which we didn't know, and she's the kind of person that could get you a sponsorship because she'll have the right contacts.
And he was correct. And Gladys ended up saying let's - you know, I'm interested. So basically we decided we would join together, the nine of us were called the Original Nine, and that is the birth of women's professional tennis the way you know it today.
We signed a $1 contract with Gladys, and she started to try to get us tournaments.
DAVIES: So you and your fellow players formed the Virginia Slims Tour...
KING: Right, she went - right.
DAVIES: Women's tennis tournaments, and you advertised. You built it up from the bottom. And how did the tennis establishment react to this upstart venture?
KING: Not happily, and ironically what happened, a year later the USTA started a rival tour against us. So we had two tours going at once. And so all the top talent was divided. The other tour had Chris Evert, Margaret Court, Virginia Wade, Evan Goolagong, all these names that I hoped had gone with us. And so it was a tough time for all of us.
But 1973, and that's what we're celebrating this year, it's the 40-40-40, and one of those 40s is the establishment of the Women's Tennis Association, the WTA.
DAVIES: You know, you're of course organizing this little revolution at the ripe age of, what, probably 27, 28. I mean, this is kind of a remarkable story.
KING: In my - yeah, my mid-20s.
DAVIES: Right. There's a turning point here, an amazing meeting that occurred in - right before the 1973 Wimbledon tournament at the Gloucester Hotel in London. Do you want to describe what happened there?
KING: Well, we called a meeting. It was June 20th. It was four days before Wimbledon, just like you said. It was right before. And we somehow were able to get the top players in the same room on June 20th. I had Betty Stove(ph), who is a wonderful Dutch player, who came along with us on the Virginia Slims Tour.
I said Betty - she's big and strong and intimidating. So I said Betty, lock the doors. Don't let anybody out. We have to have this - we're either going to have an association by the time this is over, or we're not. And we kind of started laughing, and she looked at me and said don't worry, I'll lock the doors.
So she stood at the back, literally stood there like a security guard, and some of the women did want to leave, and she said no, you can't leave. And so we had our vote, and lo and behold everyone actually heard either because I got up there to speak as the leader and said we have to do this, we've got to be, you know, one voice. And we let them ask questions and just tried to answer and persuade them.
So all those things got going right off the bat.
DAVIES: But, you know, the other thing that when I think about, you know, these top athletes gathering in a hotel room and having this kind of heart-to-heart conversation and making a change, nobody was lawyered up, nobody brought agents. This just wouldn't happen today, would it?
KING: No, no, you'd have agents, coaches, mom, dads. You're right, it wouldn't happen today. And, you know, it's - it was just the players.
DAVIES: We're speaking with Billie Jean King. She is the subject of a new American Master documentary, which aired Tuesday on PBS stations. You can see it online at the "American Masters" website. And we'll continue our conversation after this quick break. This is FRESH AIR.
DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR, and if you're just joining us, our guest is Billie Jean King. She's the subject of a new "American Masters" documentary, which aired this week on PBS stations. It's available online at the "American Masters" website.
Well, this is the 40th anniversary of your match, the Battle of the Sexes, your match with Bobby Riggs. I can't imagine that you're not tired of talking about this, but let's talk about it. When Bobby Riggs initially asked you to play him, you declined.
KING: Yes.
DAVIES: Why?
KING: I declined for a couple years because we'd just started our professional tournaments, women's professional tennis, and I was getting no sleep. I was working so hard. Remember, you just have to visualize. You're going to start a tour. There's no infrastructure. Who's going to own tournaments? Who are we going to get to take the risk, the financial risk of owning a tournament?
So all my time was spent trying to get people to do a tournament in different cities with Gladys. Larry and I were very instrumental in helping. And...
DAVIES: So you had more than a full plate.
KING: I was learning marketing, entrepreneurship 101A, by the seat of the pants basically, and we're off and running. It was really hard. And also you have to remember the media that all of us were doing. It was nonstop, morning, noon and night because Virginia Slims had very - had a very good PR aspect and marketing aspect to get the word out.
So we were just hustling and just working very, very hard at the media aspect, as well.
DAVIES: Sure. So Bobby Riggs convinces Margaret Court to take him on, top-ranked player of the day.
KING: Yes, he did.
DAVIES: He beats her in straight sets. And then you had a - then you decided you had to do it?
KING: Oh, as soon as Margaret lost I said I knew I had to do it. I mean, it was a no-brainer. I mean, OK, remember Title IX had just been passed the year before, June 23rd, 1972, which was very important to me and many of us that that passed. And it ended up being one of the most important pieces of legislation of the 20th century, particularly for woman at the time.
Even though it talks about no sex discrimination, but we'd been discriminated against. So I had - I really didn't want that to be weakened. I thought with Margaret losing it would be a good chance for some of the people to start, you know, jumping on the bandwagon to weaken Title IX, to hurt our tour, to hurt women's sports, all the things that I wanted to - the women's movement. All these things were a part of it.
So it was very, very important that Margaret win, and when Margaret didn't win in May of 1973, on Mother's Day, it was called the Mother's Day Massacre, she lost six-two, six-one, as soon as I found out - we were on our way back from Japan. As soon as I found out in the Hawaii airport, I knew I was definitely going to play Bobby Riggs. I did not have a choice.
DAVIES: All right, so I want to listen to some of the pre-match buildup here. And what we're going to hear here is a slightly edited montage from the "American Masters" documentary, and we're going to hear you and Bobby Riggs talking to some reporters, and then at the end of it we'll hear Bobby Riggs with Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show." Let's listen.
KING: You know, I think that I can beat Bobby. I think I'm better.
BOBBY RIGGS: Well, what makes you think that I won't be able to psych you out...
KING: I'm not Margaret Court. I love pressure. You can try to psych me all you want.
I think a lot's at stake for women's lib. I like the idea that I'm playing for someone else besides myself.
RIGGS: I've got 120,000 letters from Bobby's mob. This is the mob of guys all over the world who wrote and told me they were rooting for me. I wouldn't let these guys down for the world.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: This has the atmosphere of a prize fight.
KING: It is. That's exactly what it is.
RIGGS: Never bet against Bobby Riggs, especially when there's big money involved.
KING: He hustles off the court, and I hustle on the court, and that's where it matters.
RIGGS: She's carrying a banner for the women's lib. I'm carrying male is supreme, the male is king, no matter what the difference in age.
KING: It's just a bunch of bologna. First of all, people are people, and some are more supreme than others in a different thing.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Bobby Riggs, rah, rah, rah.
JOHNNY CARSON: Do you like women?
RIGGS: I like 'em real good in the bedroom, the kitchen, and I really...
CARSON: You're a male chauvinist pig.
DAVIES: And that is our guest Billie Jean King 40 years ago with Bobby Riggs before the famed tennis Battle of the Sexes in 1973. You - that was from the "American Masters" documentary, by the way, which aired Tuesday. You can still get it online at the "American Masters" website.
You obviously had a lot of joint appearances together with Bobby Riggs, building up the attention for the - did you feel like you got to know him at all?
KING: Well actually, Bobby was one of my heroes. I love history. I knew all the champions in our sport preceding me, and I appreciated him. He had won the Triple Crown at Wimbledon. I knew that the Second World War had actually hurt his career, which I felt bad for him because it didn't allow him to get the recognition he deserved.
He was finally at least getting recognition. I don't know - everybody - I don't think most people realized what a great champion he had been, even though I would tell them. I don't think they were really tuned into that at the time because...
DAVIES: Well yeah, he was 55 when he was doing this thing.
KING: He was - he was as old as my father, and I told him - I mean for me to beat him meant absolutely nothing athletically, OK, nothing. But it's what it represented. And when Margaret lost, you know, I didn't know if I was going to beat him. I thought she would kill him, as far as winning, and she didn't. So I'm like oh boy.
And I - you never underestimate your opponent anyway. I mean, my parents, my dad, oh God that was like - he had two words: always respect your opponent, always, always, always respect them no matter what; and secondly never, ever underestimate them ever. So these things were just printed in my DNA almost.
So here's a hero of mine. He's going on and on about women in the bedroom, and keep them pregnant and barefooted and all these things, and I'm like oh my God. He was funny, but - you know, I like show time. I love entertainment. And I think being a tennis player you're a performer. So I got that part.
And I thought you know what, Bobby, just go for it. But I'm going to tell you, I'm not letting you get under my skin because I didn't want him to think he could like he did Margaret, because from what - I didn't get to see the match against Margaret. I must tell you through this "American Masters" series I got to see it once, and I didn't realize how badly Margaret played.
And I felt so sorry for her because we've all been there, every human being's been in these situations where you're not happy, and you don't do well, and you choke. I mean, athletes, we choke. I mean champions just choke less. She had a horrible day at the office. So I felt so bad. But so it did tee us up, though. I must say it teed us up, the women's movement, Title IX the year before, all the things that I've been fighting for forever, equal opportunities for boys and girls.
You know, it's funny because everybody talks about how this divided us. Actually it brought everybody together. It did exactly what I wanted. It had all these parties, all these bets from people. Everybody was crazy at this time about this match.
DAVIES: Well, what I wanted to ask you was do you think Bobby Riggs really held these strong beliefs about the role of women, or was this just basically shtick that he developed to get attention and money?
KING: Oh, I think he - no, I think he was chauvinistic. I think he probably went over the top for the match. But - he was a very kind person, but I think he's very - I think he was chauvinistic, but a great - but a really nice chauvinist. And he and I remained friends up until the day he died from prostate cancer.
GROSS: Billie Jean King will continue her conversation with FRESH AIR contributor Dave Davies in the second half of the show. King is the subject of an "American Masters" documentary that was shown on many PBS stations earlier this week and will be shown on some PBS stations this evening. I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Let's get back to the interview tennis champion Billie Jean King recorded with FRESH AIR contributor Dave Davis. King is the subject of an "American Masters" documentary that was shown earlier this week on many PBS stations and will be shown on some stations tonight. You can also watch it on the "American Masters" website.
King won a record 20 Wimbledon titles and led underpaid women players in demanding fairer treatment in professional tennis. Her lucrative endorsement deals were ended when a woman she was having an affair with outed her. When we left off, King was talking about her famous exhibition match with Bobby Riggs, which was named "The Battle of the Sexes."
DAVIES: So the day the match arrives, and Riggs enters accompanied by a bunch of young women. You enter like Cleopatra carried on a train of muscular guys. This is obviously part of the show.
KING: Loved it.
DAVIES: Yeah, you felt OK about that?
KING: Well, oh yeah, I felt great because it's show time. And Jerry Perenchio was quite sweet behind - you know, before I came out he said, I have this Egyptian litter, would, do you think you'd get in? I know you're a feminist, you probably won't. I said are you kidding? It's show time. This is perfect. Absolutely, I'll get up here. Let's have some fun. You know, the crowd deserves a good show. Obviously, I was about ready to die because I've got to win this match - I mean, you know, the reality of it. But I also, you know, your fans always come first. So I said no, I'll get on there. And he about fainted. He said you will? I said yes, of course, I will. It's show time.
Let's hear little show time here. I want to listen to a little bit of Howard Cosell...
Oh, it's pathetic.
DAVIES: ...describing your entrance. Let's listen to this.
HOWARD COSELL: It's like Monday night football. It's not the usual tennis atmosphere; it's a happening. And here comes Billie Jean King a very attractive young lady, and should she ever let your hair grow down to her shoulders, took her glasses off, you'd have somebody vying for a Hollywood screen test. There she is.
DAVIES: And that's how Cosell, reminding us it was 1973 when Billie Jean King played Bobby Riggs in "The Battle of the Sexes." This whole thing - if you took your glasses off, you know, it's just sort of remarkable to hear that forty years later.
KING: It still prevails out there. Not...
DAVIES: Still out there, huh?
KING: Not to the extent, but it does.
DAVIES: Well, I wanted to ask you this because, you know, as a professional and, you know, there's a business side of it, did you get people advising you to - I don't know - where your hair in a Farrah Fawcett do and all that stuff?
KING: No.
DAVIES: No.
KING: No. I did not get any advice. I think they know better with me. I'm very practical. I actually cut my hair shorter for that match because I didn't want any perspiration around my face. I was playing three out of five sets, I'd never done that. I didn't know what to expect, so I tried to actually have a little slightly shorter haircut for that and get it shaped the way I wanted. It was shaped the way I wanted. But I basically love my shag the most. But I felt I had to prepare for this match in a way that I had never prepared before. I never played three out five, and this was one-time only, you don't get another year, next year to come back if it's a Wimbledon and try to win again. This is a one-shot deal, heavyweight championship...
DAVIES: Right.
KING: ...match and this is it. And I told Bobby, I will never play you again. This is it for me - I could never go through this again. And this means so much to me historically. It represents social justice to me, Bobby. And I told him this before the match, and I will never play you again, this is it.
DAVIES: This is your shot. Well, were you...
KING: This is it.
DAVIES: Were you nervous when it was time to start?
KING: Actually, what happens to me is I get really nervous the farther out I am, I'm really nervous. And then I start getting into this place in my head which I do not know how I get there. You know, people say well, how do you get there? I start just trying to feel and visualize the moment, how it's going to be and how am I going to respond. But you don't really know how it's going to be, especially this one-shot deal. The one thing I did do to prepare is I went to the Astrodome and I looked at the top of the building. It's huge. I mean I don't know how many hundreds of feet up it is. I also wanted to make sure I knew the lay of the land, understand how to get around the arena, because nothing is worse than going to a new place and not finding your way and you have to keep trying to talk to the guards. I met all the guards. I knew where all the elevators were. I knew where my locker room was. I knew where the car would come and let us off and where it would pick us up at the end. I mean I go through all these logistics because they're just as important if you're not used to an arena, so you don't get lost or get out of sorts. You don't want to get out of sorts for those kinds of reasons. That's the last thing you want on your head. So I did spend a lot of time at the Astrodome the day before though, just to feel it.
DAVIES: Right.
KING: Because you have to remember the depth perception was going to be totally different than any tennis court I had played on. If you look at the backgrounds where people are sitting and then watch what a real tournament looks like, where they have this blue tarp up, where it's beautiful, you can see the ball and all that. We had none of that. Look how the lines people are dressed. They're just people that used to play, you know, they played at clubs and just asked them to be a lines person.
DAVIES: You took care of him in straight sets. But yet, as you know, there's been an, there was an ESPN story recently suggesting that based on the recollections of somebody who says he saw some - overheard some mob guys saying that Bobby Riggs may have thrown the match to retire gambling debts he had with the mob. Now there's been a lot written disputing that. People can read that...
KING: That's a joke.
DAVIES: People can read all that stuff. Yeah. Give me your reaction to that notion.
KING: Bobby just, he, first of all, he would never get involved with the mafia because I know Lorne Kuhl, who was his coach during the match, he was like his surrogate son, he was his sidekick. He knew Bobby as well as anybody ever in the history. He's got Bobby's museum. He is so upset. And I said - and I'm not upset. I said don't worry, you know, people always do things like this. It's just this, you know, 40 years later, whoopee, why didn't you do it, you know, a week later or why didn't you do it when it was happening? You know, and secondly Jerry Perenchio is just - who promoted the match - is furious because he goes, it's ridiculous, you know, they're just trying to take something away from you because you beat this - beat him. And I know when someone's tanking, believe me. As an athlete, you know when someone's not...
DAVIES: How do you know? How do you know?
KING: You just know. You can tell when they miss on purpose, you can tell, you just know. I mean I've seen it happen, I know it, OK? You know it when you see it as an athlete. And the one thing that everyone should know is that Perenchio had told Bobby you have to win this match because here's what we're going to do for your career because Perenchio was his agent as well. He said if you win this one - when you when it, he said to Bobby - we're going to do $1 million, winner take all. We just did - that's 100,000, the one that Bobby and I played. But what we're going to do next is $1 million, winner take all, and let's go after Chris Evert or somebody else like Chris. We can go after Evonne Goolagong or somebody else. So they had this all mapped out for Bobby. Bobby is going to beat Billie and then we're going to go to the next one and the next one and we're going to keep raising the ante. So they had this all planned, believe me.
And so Jerry Perenchio - who is still alive and who I visit with once in a while - he said to me that that ruined his career. So there's no way that he would've ever tried to lose that match.
DAVIES: Does it bother you that 40 years later when people hear Billie Jean King's name, they may not remember that you won 20 Wimbledon titles, but they remember the Bobby Riggs match?
KING: I knew that was going to happen actually at the time, because you could tell that I was going to get the most exposure I was ever going to get in my life. Everyday I leave the apartment in New York City, where I live, I know someone's probably going to bring up that match. And every day, if I'm out in public since that match in 1970, I at least get one or more people coming up to me talking to me about it. Most people, if they're old enough to have seen it, remember exactly where they were that day. And they tell me their story and it's very fascinating all the different stories.
DAVIES: I confess I did, I remember where I was.
KING: See. Where were you? Were you...
DAVIES: I was actually, I was in college and I missed the match because I was at a political meeting that night, believe it or not.
KING: Well, that's good, at least you're an activist.
KING: Well, what school were you at?
DAVIES: The University of Texas.
KING: Oh, UT? OK.
DAVIES: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
We're speaking with Billie Jean King. She's the subject of a new "American Masters" documentary, which aired this week on PBS. It's available at "American Masters" website.
We'll talk more after a quick break. This is FRESH AIR.
DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR and our guest is Billie Jean King. She's the subject of an "American Masters" documentary. It aired this week on PBS. It's still available online at the "American Masters" website.
You know, the other thing that happens in this period is, you know, your discovery of - well, you're dealing with your sexual orientation. You were married to Larry King very young - your then-husband. When did you realize you were gay?
KING: I was trying to figure out what I was. I didn't know if I was bisexual, gay, whatever, when I was going through this period. I had asked Larry for a divorce and he wouldn't give me a divorce. And we didn't talk - I didn't talk to him about my feelings, though. And I really - that's how fearful and homophobic I was. So it was just - I was paralyzed and I was just trying to figure things out. And I was starting to get worried about - I'd had this affair with Marilyn Barnett and I was starting to worry about it. She had been my assistant. So it was a difficult time for me and I didn't know what to do, really. I was lost. It was very different back in the '70s than it is now. It was different when I was outed in '81. It just wasn't the same as it is now.
DAVIES: You mentioned that you were outed in 1981, when the woman that you had had this relationship with, Marilyn Barnett, I guess...
KING: Mm-hmm.
DAVIES: ...sought.
KING: Money, honey.
DAVIES: Yeah. Right.
KING: It's about money.
KING: What else is new?
DAVIES: There was a dispute over property and money and...
KING: Oh, I mean it was just ridiculous.
DAVIES: Right. And this came out in a way that was not of your choosing. And you ended up holding a news conference to kind of air it out and answer questions. And I'm wondering what kind of advice you got and why you decided to do what you did.
KING: I got the opposite advice. My lawyer, Dennis Wasser and my publicist, Pat Kingsley, absolutely did not want me to do this. And I said I have to do it. And they said you can't do it, it's never been done. Dennis Wasser, my lawyer, just said no, no. We, just you don't do these - you just don't do this. You give them reasons to hurt you when it goes to, you know, it goes to court. And I said well, I don't really care. You know, I think the media is important to me, they've been good to me through the years and I am definitely going to tell the truth, so please, would you do this? And they said no. So we're up about 48 hours off and on arguing and discussing and finally I got them to understand that I had to do this no matter what the consequence, that I had to tell the truth. And therefore, they said OK, and we suffered through this. It was very difficult. Larry was there and then Larry and I started discussing life and Larry still didn't want to get a divorce. I had all these different things going on. Of course, my poor mom and dad didn't know what hit them. Pat Kingsley had to call them to get them there quickly.
DAVIES: Yeah. How did they react to the idea of appearing in public with you then? I mean they were at the news conference.
KING: Well, you know what? My parents, I, they showed up and I'll always appreciate the fact they showed up. They didn't - they were not happy. My mother was crying. My dad, we were all suffering. But my parents showed up. They didn't stay home and I'll always appreciate the fact they stood, they got there. And I knew how hard it was for them, being so homophobic. I knew that that was the worst thing - you know, my parents never would watch my brother and me play that much in sports, they never were in the limelight, they didn't live through us, they had their own lives, very much in love, and that was, I just remember looking at been feeling so bad for them. I felt so bad for Larry and just everybody in my life at the time. It was just a horrible, horrible feeling.
DAVIES: And you said, you know, you felt like you needed to do this for yourself - to kind of I guess, publicly...
KING: I needed to do - you know...
DAVIES: And were you right in the end when it happened?
KING: It really got down to what my parents had actually taught Randy and me about our values. You know, thinking back (unintelligible), why did I do - I had to do it, why? You know, why? And it's very simple, actually. My mom and dad always taught us: to thine own self be true, have peace of mind, you know, tell the, you know, just do the right thing even if it's not popular. And this is one of these times. This is not going to help me be popular. If anything, it could ruin my whole career in life because I was just getting ready to retire and I started to have long-term sponsorship deals for the first time, like lifetime deals. You know, in sports that's huge when you get older. And we didn't make the big bucks. So I finally - I was going to be able to cash in in a way for me, just for me to get - to finally make some really good money over the long-term.
DAVIES: Sports apparel, that kind of thing? Companies - Mm-hmm.
KING: Apparels, you know, the racket deal. I had some other things pending. I had socks. I had - what were some other things? I had some other things. I can't remember right now.
DAVIES: And then...
KING: And they, I lost them all overnight and I had to start over, basically. And...
DAVIES: It hurt you financially.
KING: Oh, yeah. I mean just basically start over. And then Larry and I finally got divorced so that's another, you know, 50 percent of your net worth goes bye-bye. But that's fine. You know, I just - you just have to keep, you have to keep going. It wasn't fine at the time but...
DAVIES: Yeah.
KING: You know, and my partner, Ilana Kloss, you know, she's been, we've been together for years and years. So it was hard, it was terrible for her. You know, I really felt the most sorry as time went on for Ilana because of what she had to deal with. And we've been together what, 34 years. So we've been together a long time. And Ilana has been through hell with all this.
DAVIES: Our time is short here. I wanted to talk a little bit more about tennis. I mean what do you think of the game today? About the way women are treated, about the way it's played?
KING: I wish I could hit like they do. That's for sure.
KING: I think it's fantastic what's available to the women and to the men. The men still have more opportunities but the majors are equal prize money, which I think is wonderful. That took - this is actually - Dave, this is actually the 40th year of equal prize money at the U.S. Open, and they were the first. It took us until - it took us 34 more years, until 2007, to have all four majors equal prize money.
But the tennis today - I'm a big believer in every generation gets better. I think Serena Williams is the greatest - will be if she continues on the road that she's on now, being the greatest player ever to have lived in women's tennis. Her serve is absolutely beautiful. I think women's tennis is truly global now.
It's getting better. We still have some cultural challenges in places and the men's tennis is doing better than ever because of the four guys - Federer, Nadal, Murray - just those three guys are amazing. Djokovic. Those four guys are just simply a cut above the rest.
DAVIES: For so long men have played, you know, best of five sets, women best of three. Does that make any sense?
KING: No, I think the men should play two out of three because we're wearing them out. The way the players play today compared to my generation is so much more strenuous, difficult, arduous on their bodies. And I think they should be playing two out of three. And they will last longer. Therefore they have more years, we get to watch them more, which is what I personally like because I get very hooked into these guys like Federer and Djokovic.
They're just - they're phenomenal players. Nadal this year is playing out of his mind. I think I would like them to play two out of three sets because, in fact, it's proven if you win the first set in men's tennis, you win about 88 percent of the matches. If you win the first set. I think it's important to - we, the women, are very happy to play three out of five.
We have more body fat than the guys so we're supposed to be better with endurance sports. OK? The more, longer you go, the better we're supposed to be. So the tournaments won't do it because it would crowd the programming too much. But I would have the men play two out of three.
DAVIES: Right.
KING: And save their bodies and let them make more money over more years.
DAVIES: Makes sense. Yeah. Frankly, three good sets is plenty entertaining.
KING: It's plenty.
DAVIES: You know, some ballplayers when they retire find it painful to go to the ballpark and not be down there and in uniform. Did you find it hard to give up competing?
KING: I'm just the opposite.
DAVIES: Or you never did - no?
KING: I was just the opposite. I retired at 40 from tennis and went to the World Team Tennis office the very next day. I had already planned what I was going to do in transition. I call it transition, not retiring. Tennis was not my primary. It was my secondary. It was my platform to try to help equality. So I just moved into World Team Tennis and if you watch a World Team Tennis match, you see my philosophy on life.
It's men and women on the same team, equal contributions by both gender. And when the children come out to watch, he or she sees the socialization among us. They see us working together and we're in this world together, men and women, and we need to champion each other as humans. And it's very, very important to do this.
DAVIES: You've had a lot of knee surgeries. You had double knee replacement, I think, a couple of years ago.
KING: I did.
DAVIES: Do you still play tennis?
KING: I played about five times this year, but I've been so busy with the 40/40/40. You know, the 40th anniversary...
DAVIES: Right.
KING: ...of TWA and equal prize money and the King Riggs and all the media. I've been so busy this year and with team tennis, you know, we have a lot of new sponsors and we're in much better shape now. And we have a strategic plan. We have Andy Roddick and Venus Williams have bought into the league. And we're rocking. So I've been busier than ever. But yes, I have played tennis five times.
I had eight knee operations altogether. The double knee replacement was the greatest thing I ever did. I wish I hadn't waited as long as I had. And it provides me to live a life of walking normal again and going up and down stairs. Nothing hurts. I can bend my knees and I can play tennis. I go to the gym and try to take care of myself. I eat too much. That's my big challenge. But I do work out.
DAVIES: Billie Jean King, it's been great. Thanks so much for speaking with us.
KING: Thank you so much. And I love NPR. I love FRESH AIR. Thank you for all you do to inform us and teach us so we can learn. Thank you so much.
GROSS: Billie Jean King spoke with FRESH AIR contributor Dave Davies. King is the subject of a new "American Masters" documentary. It will be shown on some PBS stations tonight. You can also watch the documentary on the "American Masters" website.
The word twerking got quite a workout recently, first with Miley Cyrus's performance at the Video Music Awards, then with Oxford's announcement that they'd be including the word in their online dictionary. According to our linguist, Geoff Nunberg, some people were as shocked by the second as the first. He's been thinking about how dictionaries add new words and wonders if these days, is it anything goes?
GEOFF NUNBERG, BYLINE: Evidently it was quite fortuitous. Just a couple of days after the Video Music Awards, Oxford Dictionaries Online released its quarterly list of the new words they were adding. To the delight of the media, there was twerk at the top, which gave them still another occasion to link a story to Miley Cyrus's energetic hijinks.
And why not add twerk? It's definitely a cool word, which worked its way from New Orleans bounce music into the linguistic mainstream on the strength of its expressive phonetics, among other things. It won't linger. The names of dance styles rarely do. But we'll have a historical record of it in the section reserved for forgotten, forbidden dances, along with lambada and turkey trot.
All the dictionaries periodically release a list of their new words, most of them provocatively cute and fleeting. Chambers Dictionary announces they've got mocktail. Merriam's counters with mancave. Collins includes squadoosh -Italian-American slang that means zilch. And Oxford's recent list included selfie, fauxhawk and the exclamations derp and squee. Not to mention the abbreviation SRSLY, as in seriously.
If you haven't picked up on any of these yet, I wouldn't worry. None of them are likely to outlive your hamster. True that dictionaries are also adding durable new items like cloud computing, systemic risk, and baseball's walk-off, but it's the ephemeral and faddish ones that generate the most arresting media headlines: It's Official, Oxford Declares Selfie a Real Word.
The dictionaries themselves disavow any official role in defining a real word; these are just items we've been noticing a lot, they say. But they know perfectly well that the only reason the announcements get picked up is that people still believe that dictionaries are gatekeepers whose inclusion of a word confers approval. There was a time when dictionaries were expected to restrict themselves to words that had reputable literary credentials.
Back in 1961, Merriam Webster set off a cultural firestorm for opening the columns of its new unabridged to parvenus like litterbug, wise up, and yacky. Critics accused Merriams of subversion and sabotage. And the New York Times charged that the dictionary was accelerating the deterioration of the language. But modern lexicographers don't need to provide a literary pedigree for new items like mwha-ha-ha-ha, which Oxford defines as the cackling laughter uttered by a villainous character in a cartoon.
And while those inclusions can still trigger a few indignant squeals, the media are rarely so uncool as to object. When the OED added some texting abbreviations a couple of years ago, the Times ran an editorial headed: OMG, OED, LOL, and applauded Oxford for what it called an affirmation of the plasticity of the English language. That shift in attitudes began in the '60s when dictionaries began to draw more of their words from the newly respectable genres of popular culture.
But it's the Internet that has really opened things up. For the word nerds who write dictionaries it's a new dawn and bliss to be online. The Internet seems to put the whole of the language at your fingertips, effacing all the old boundaries in the process. Public and private, formal and casual, highbrow and low, the Internet is like a storm surge that churns it all up and dumps it in everybody's front yard.
This is not your grandfather's English language, that stream of the great tradition with rows of folio dictionaries protecting its banks. As people are always saying, the language is a living, growing thing. But then so is Houston. It's all good. I agree. But looking over the new word lists, I can't help thinking, is that it? Seriously? A language is just the things we want to say and if you took those lists as representative, there's never been an age whose conversation was as crass and trifling as ours is.
But the problem isn't with the language itself but the window we're seeing it through. In its very abundance, the Internet turns out to be as selective a filter as the old dictionaries ever were. It foregrounds the stunt words cooked up by the media, the marketers and the techies, the portmanteau blends like jeggings, appletini and splog. It amplifies the language of the very young.
That's partly because they're more inventive but also because they dominate the online conversation and because everybody wants to know what they're saying at the cool kid's table. At the same time, the Internet gives short shrift to the language of whole populations who don't happen to transact their conversations on Reddit or Tumblr.
And the fascination with novel words tends to eclipse the subtle changes in the meanings of old ones, which are often more consequential. That's where you find the most striking omissions. The OED still doesn't have an entry for the modern meaning of demonize, as in they demonize the bankers. And it still defines a couple as a man and woman united by love or marriage.
And no dictionary I know of has an entry for slur, as in racial slur, to refer to a word that disparages somebody on the basis of race, ethnicity or gender. That use of slur goes back half a century. But it doesn't jump out at you the way novelties like squadoosh and twerk do. What we get from the Internet isn't a Google Earth view of the entire language - it's more like a screenshot of its Twitter feed.
GROSS: Geoff Nunberg is a linguist who teaches at the University of California Berkeley School of Information.
Transcripts are created on a rush deadline, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of Fresh Air interviews and reviews are the audio recordings of each segment.


text: 2nd eigenvalue of the covariance matrix weighted by mass of the molecule atomic coordinates, which account for the molecular size Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window) Related Share this postFacebookTwitterGoogle+PinterestLinkedIn About the author Young-Mook Kang, PhD I have great experience with multiple computer languages, including C++, Java, Python, etc. since I began to study on Assembly, Basic and C languages in 1988. Additionally, I have a Master degree of computational chemistry, a Ph.D. degree in computational biology and over 16 years of experience working as a scientific software programmer in Bioinformatics and Cheminformatics. Related postsCOMMA2_d_cc_cnJanuary 28, 2015COMMA2_d_cr_cnJanuary 28, 2015COMMA2_d_ch_cpJanuary 28, 2015COMMA2_d_ce_chJanuary 28, 2015COMMA2_d_ce_cpJanuary 28, 2015COMMA2_d_cc_chJanuary 28, 2015

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Chris King led the threadless headset revolution with their NoThreadSet. This iconic, incredibly durable piece of equipment embodies the limitless potential found in simple, high-quality design. Equally appropriate on your road or mountain bike, the NoThreadSet has been ridden to World Cup titles on the trail and to victory at the Tour de France. Featuring precision-machined aluminum cups, King's own in-house stainless steel bearings, a stainless steel base plate, and all ten Chris King colors, each headset is a statement piece that will likely outlast your bike! This model fits bikes with a non-tapered 1-inch headtube and threadless steerer tube.
Compatible with 1-inch headtubes and threadless steerers
Part Numbers
Option | UPC | MPN |
Black | 841529011432 | BGB1 |


text: NOTE: The Closing Price, Day's High, Day's Low, and Day's Volume have been adjusted to account for any stock splits and/or dividends which may have occurred for this security since the date shown above. The Actual Price is not adjusted for splits or dividends. The Split Adjustment Factor is a cumulative factor which encapsulates all splits since the date shown above. The closing price above is not necessarily indicative of future price performance.


text:
There were 227,000 net jobs added to private and public payrolls last month and the nation's unemployment rate remained unchanged, at 8.3 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics just reported.
We'll have more from the report shortly. And watch for the Planet Money blog to add its take later.
Update at 9:50 a.m. ET. White House Comment:
"Today's employment report provides further evidence that the economy is continuing to heal from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression," writes Alan Krueger, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, on the White House blog.
He also says that "there was an increase in the size of the labor force last month of 476,000. Importantly, the increase in the labor force last month was due in large part to a reduction in the number of workers who exited the labor force between January and February."
Update at 9:15 a.m. ET. Boehner Reacts.
In a statement, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, says in part that:
"Today's report provides some encouragement for millions of families and small businesses who continue to struggle in this economy, but unemployment remains far too high. It is a testament to the hard work and entrepreneurship of the American people that they are creating any jobs in the midst of the onslaught of anti-business policies coming from this administration."
Update at 8:55 a.m. ET. Other Notes:
-- The January increase in payrolls had originally been reported as 243,000. It was revised upward today, to 284,000.
-- The Wall Street Journal calls the jobs gain "solid."
-- Bloomberg News says the increase in payrolls indicates "companies are growing more optimistic about the expansion."
-- According to The Financial Times, today's news is "the latest indicator that the labor market recovery is strengthening."
Update at 8:50 a.m. ET. Some Comparisons:
-- Since February 2011, private employers have added about 2.2 million jobs to their payrolls.
-- In the first two months of 2012, private employers have added about 518,000 jobs to their payrolls.
-- The jobless rate in February 2011 was 9 percent.
-- At 8.3 percent, the unemployment rate remains the lowest it's been since February 2009. Its recent peak was 10 percent, in October 2009.
Update at 8:40 a.m. ET. More From The Report:
-- " Private-sector employmentgrew by 233,000, with job gains in professional and business services, health care and social assistance, leisure and hospitality, manufacturing, and mining."
-- "The number of unemployed persons, at 12.8 million, was essentially unchanged in February."
-- "There were 1.0 million discouraged workers in February, about the same as a year earlier. ... Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them."
-- There were " job gainsin professional and business services, health care and social assistance, leisure and hospitality, manufacturing, and mining. ... Professional and business services added 82,000 jobs in February. ... Manufacturing employment rose by 31,000 in February."
-- "The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 34.5 hours in February."
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on July 25, 2012.
Food, as we so often note on this blog, means a lot of different things to different people. To Olympic athletes, food is fuel for exceptional athletic performance. But there's a surprising amount of variety in just how much fuel elite athletes need.
Anyone who followed Michael Phelps' astonishing performance in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games surely will remember one of the secrets of his success: Consuming as many as 12,000 calories in a day.
Of course, unlike the rest of us average folk who spend most of our time sitting and need only 1,600 to 3,000 calories, Phelps burned his 12,000 calories easily while churning through the water at tremendous speed for hours on end.
Swimmers like Phelps aren't the only athletes who pound eggs, pancakes, and pasta before competition — cyclists, marathon runners and rowers are also known to do some serious carbohydrate loading to fuel their super intense, continuous activity.
But don't expect to see an Olympic wrestler or gymnast with a crowded tray in the Team USA cafeteria. They're more likely to be eating a peanut butter sandwich and some fruit.
That's because these athletes restrict what they eat right before go time to be light and lithe, says Nanna Meyer, senior sport dietitian for the U.S. Olympic Committee and a professor of sports nutrition at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. (Some of these athletes of restrict so much that they cross the line into eating disorders.)
They're at the other end of a pretty broad spectrum of what Olympians consume before competition. Meyer helped us put together the table below to show that the number of calories athletes need depends a lot on the sport. She cautions that many of these numbers are rough estimates, and even within sports, male and female athletes may eat very different amounts.
Endurance athletes need the most calories because they are competing for hours, while basketball players go hard for a shorter period of time. Gymnasts, meanwhile, are stopping and going. Weight-lifters and shot putters harness a lot of energy for a very short burst. How much muscle mass each athlete has and their weight also affects how much energy they use.
Meyer and her team are responsible for making sure the athletes have the food they need while they're in London. They've figured out what to put on the menu by talking to the athletes about what they want and need to eat.
But that doesn't mean they have all the data they'd like.
"We don't have great data on many sports on energy expenditure because we can't measure it," Meyer tells The Salt. She says that's because the methods available — indirect calorimetry and doubly labeled water — could interfere with training.
Instead, she asks athletes to share their journals where they record their training and what they eat. "If their weights are stable we can assume that what they're eating reflects their energy balance. We can learn a lot from talking to them," she says.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- James Bond's "Skyfall" has extended its worldwide box-office rule to North America, hauling in a franchise-record $87.8 million in its first weekend at U.S. theaters.
Adding in $2.2 million from Thursday night previews at IMAX and other large-format theaters, "Skyfall" has taken in $90 million domestically, according to studio estimates Sunday.
That lifts the worldwide total for "Skyfall" to $518.6 million since it began rolling out overseas in late October. Internationally, the 23rd Bond flick added $89 million this weekend to raise its overseas revenue to $428.6 million.
The third installment starring Daniel Craig as British super-spy Bond, "Skyfall" outdid the $67.5 million U.S. debut of 2008's "Quantum of Solace," the franchise's previous best opening. "Skyfall" more than doubled the $40.8 million debut of Craig's first Bond film, 2006's "Casino Royale."
"Skyfall" already has passed the $407.7 million overseas total for "Quantum of Solace" and by Monday, it will top the $432.2 million international haul for "Casino Royale."
The Craig era has reinvigorated one of Hollywood's most-enduring franchises, whose first big-screen Bond adventure, "Dr. No," debuted 50 years ago.
"It's quite a testament to Bond, considering it's the 50th anniversary. What a great anniversary present," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution at Sony, which produces the Bond films along with MGM.
"Skyfall" was the weekend's only new wide release, but Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" had a huge start in a handful of theaters. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the 16th president, "Lincoln" took in $900,000 in 11 theaters for a whopping average of $81,818 a cinema. By comparison, "Skyfall" averaged $25,050 in 3,505 theaters.
"Lincoln" centers on the months leading up to the president's assassination in April 1865, as he maneuvers to pass the 13th amendment abolishing slavery and end the Civil War. Distributor Disney will expand "Lincoln" into nationwide release of about 1,600 theaters Friday and may widen the film further over Thanksgiving week.
The film has strong Academy Awards prospects for two-time directing winner Spielberg, two-time acting recipient Day-Lewis and the rest of the cast, which includes Oscar winners Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones.
"The performances are some of the greatest of recent time," said Dave Hollis, head of distribution for Disney. "I don't know if you're ever going to think about it again without seeing our actor as Lincoln. Daniel is extraordinary in the role."
"Skyfall" took over the top spot at the weekend box office from Disney's animated comedy "Wreck-It Ralph," which fell to No. 2 with $33.1 million, raising its domestic total to $93.7 million.
While "Skyfall" marked a new high for Bond's opening-weekend revenue, the film has a long way to go to match the biggest audiences 007 has ever drawn. Adjusted for inflation, Sean Connery's 1965 Bond adventure "Thunderball" would have taken in an estimated $508 million domestically in today's dollars, with its 1964 predecessor "Goldfinger" not far behind at $444 million, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
The Bond films over the last two decades have come in around the $200 million range domestically in inflation-adjusted dollars.
Still, Craig's Bond is setting a new critical standard for the franchise. While "Quantum of Solace" had a so-so critical reception, "Skyfall" and "Casino Royale" are among the best-reviewed Bond films, with critics and fans enjoying the darker edge Craig has imprinted on 007.
"'Skyfall' is to the Bond franchise what 'The Dark Knight' was to the Batman franchise," said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian. "By taking it to a whole other level, this is a different kind of Bond that can be taken really seriously."
Directed by Sam Mendes, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker behind "American Beauty" and Craig's director on "Road to Perdition," "Skyfall" continues the current franchise's exploration into the emotional traumas that have shaped Bond's cool, aloof manner.
The film reveals secrets out of the past of Bond's boss, British spymaster M (Judi Dench), and pits 007 against a brilliant but unstable former agent (Javier Bardem) who's out for revenge.
Hollywood remains on a brisk pace this fall as the busy holiday season approaches. Overall domestic revenues totaled $172 million, up 26 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Immortals" led with $32.2 million.
For the year, domestic revenues are at $9.1 billion, up 4.3 percent from 2011's, according to Hollywood.com.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Skyfall," $87.8 million.
2. "Wreck-It Ralph," $33.1 million.
3. "Flight," $15.1 million.
4. "Argo," $6.7 million.
5. "Taken 2," $4 million.
6. "Here Comes the Boom," $2.6 million
7. "Cloud Atlas," $2.53 million.
8. "Pitch Perfect," $2.5 million.
9. "The Man with the Iron Fists," $2.49 million.
10. "Hotel Transylvania," $2.4 million.


text:
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Important Update for San Diego/La Jolla
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Due to a mix-up/communication snafoo (or "snafu" - but I like my spelling better), I have new location details for our La Jolla stop on the 27th. If you're planning on attending that show, please read the following carefully. There will be a quiz afterward. ;)
Instead of the Warwicks store as we originally planned, the La Jolla stop will now be located at the La Jolla Festival of the Arts, located about 4 miles from the store at the corner of Genesee Ave and Regents Rd. (Map here.)
Warwicks has an author pavilion there complete with seating, audio-visual equipment, etc., so the show and cupcake Wreckplica contest and free cake distribution will still all go on as planned at 2PM.
Warwicks will also have copies of CW available there for purchase. The proceeds will actually go to charity, so plan to buy your copy there.
Now, here's where things get tricky: there is a $10 admission fee - also being donated to charity - to get into the Art Festival. (Believe me, all of this has been as much of a surprise to us as it is to you.) Never fear, though, because we've found a solution. Ready? Here 'tis:
John and I are personally going to pay for each of you to get into the festival. Yep, all 163 of you.
Because it's not fair to charge you to see us, and because there's no other way, and because the proceeds go to charity anyway, so it's all for a good cause.
So, if you have already RSVP'd via the Evite for the La Jolla show, you will be getting an e-mail from us soon. Print out that e-mail. Bring it to the show, and you'll be allowed in for free. Your e-mail will be good for the amount of people you originally included in your RSVP.
Of course, if you'd like to pay your own admission - which, again, is for a good cause - then by all means do so. (Kids under 10 are free.) If, however, the admission charge would otherwise prevent you from coming to the show, then please use the e-mail voucher. John and I will gladly pay your way.
Parking is free, by the way.
And that's it! I'm very sorry for the mix-up, everyone, but on the bright side, now you get the CW show *and* an art festival all in the same afternoon! So please still plan on joining us, and we'll see you there!
34 comments | Post a Comment
- Meghan said...
That's wicked cool of you! :)
- June 19, 2010 at 5:07 PM
awww, you guys are amazing! I can't go (because I live in freaking Canada) but I love that you guys are willing to do this!
- June 19, 2010 at 5:17 PM
The term is S.N.A.F.U., not "snafoo". It stands for "Situation Normal All Fouled Up." I believe it's a military term, but I'm not sure on that one.
-Helen - June 19, 2010 at 5:24 PM
- Another Whiner said...
You guys are way too awesome. And this makes me even more sad that I will be missing you in Pasadena. Stupid friend had to go and have a birthday that day. :(
- June 19, 2010 at 5:24 PM
- web said...
I have no dog in this fight, but just have to say, you guys ROCK!
I hope your generosity will be rewarded by not actually having to pay for all 163 of them. - June 19, 2010 at 5:32 PM
*ahem* Snafoo - no.
Snafu - yes.
Translation: Situation Normal, All F*cked Up.
Which pretty much describes the situation with the new location. Hope you still get a great big crowd!
WV - bolus: A small English tot's way of saying something is pish-posh. - June 19, 2010 at 5:36 PM
- TiaLes said...
Just an FYI for anyone coming to this event -- the La Jolla Festival of the Arts is a great showcase for beautiful art (to admire and to purchase)!! I was very jazzed to find out that the Cake Wrecks signing would be at the Festival! (My sister and I are participating in the Calle Color streetpainting area at the Festival, and I was sorry I'd be so close and yet so far from the Cake Wrecks visit! Not anymore!) :)
Lesley Benzakein - June 19, 2010 at 5:37 PM
- Kay said...
Let me echo what the others have said - you guys are the best! I am in NC, so won't be at the show. I will, however, be watching for pictures and reports!
WV: monat - Artist Monet's lesser-known wrecky cousin. - June 19, 2010 at 5:39 PM
- Laura said...
Can we still RSVP for the event and get the voucher? I hadn't done it yet because we were going to move on the 23rd, but now we aren't so we're still in SD and ready to come!
- June 19, 2010 at 5:57 PM
Hey Laura,
Just go ahead and e-mail us and we'll forward you a voucher.
See you there!
john - June 19, 2010 at 5:59 PM
- Gale said...
This post was so coincidentally meaningfull. I grew up on a boat named SNAFU and get engaged in La Jolla. :-)
Unfortunately, no where near there now. - June 19, 2010 at 7:33 PM
Jen and John, That is so generous of you to pay the admission fee for all the attendees. Especially since you have just come out of a difficult year with John being admitted to hospital.
I hope everyone pays their own way to the festival and the CW book signing.
Andrea, from Australia - June 19, 2010 at 7:33 PM
If I were in the area, I would come and pay for extra people. Y'all are amazing.
And 10 lashings with a wet noodle for anyone else who tries to correct Jen on the snafoo. - June 19, 2010 at 7:51 PM
This is my first time commenting but a long-time reader...
I just wanted to say how supremely awesome you guys are! What an absolutely cool thing to do.
Huge kudos. :) - June 19, 2010 at 9:16 PM
- Stoich91 said...
What? Cake Wrecks rocks? They would be willing to dish $1,600 to a charity because of a mistake that wasn't even theirs? Tell me something I don't know! :) Really, what else is 'new'?
- June 19, 2010 at 9:53 PM
FluffyCow couldn't have said it any better!
- June 20, 2010 at 1:16 AM
Wow, how awesome of you both to do that!
P.S. I happen to like your spelling of "snafoo." Maybe it has to do with the fact that I like words like "squishy" and "spelunk." - June 20, 2010 at 2:09 AM
Dittos to FluffyCow!
Couldn't have said it better myself!
Grace - June 20, 2010 at 2:24 AM
I'm over the pond in merry ol' Britain but I just want to say that your offer to pay everyone's entrance fee is beyond amazing. You guys never ever fail to stun me. You truly are brilliant people.
- June 20, 2010 at 7:14 AM
- Jenniffer said...
Jen and John,
The unlimited coolness you two possess never ceases to amaze me. Paying for people's admission to see you - now THAT rocks!! - June 20, 2010 at 7:49 AM
If you use 'snafoo' it's in the true tradition of Cake Wrecks. Of course it does mean that the wreck is on you, so to speak.
As others have pointed out, it's SNAFU, an acronym for 'Situation Normal All F**ked Up' and is, IIRC, originally from the RAF, not the US military. - June 20, 2010 at 9:33 AM
Your generosity makes Cakewrecks all the more appealing to me. Makes me want to fly down to Pasadena just to meet you, get my newly acquired book signed, and of course, create a cupcake mini wreck. Thanks for adding laughter to the days of all us happy readers! Bowing down....
- June 20, 2010 at 1:06 PM
- homer mariner said...
I have been checking out this site for a long time (I even submitted my first wreck recently), and just wanted to say how excited I am that I can see the wreckiness in person! I live in La Jolla (at the university), and can't wait to be there! I'm debating trying to make my own wreck, but really, how badly can it go? And I'd be happy to pay my way in even on a student budget, for people like you. Anybody that makes me laugh on a daily basis is worth paying for!
- June 20, 2010 at 1:52 PM
- A Paperback Writer said...
I have no doubt that the event in Salt Lake City will be free, but there are only about 5 parking places for the whole bookstore. Personally, I plan to arrive waaaay early, park up the street, and walk. :)
- June 20, 2010 at 2:23 PM
I like the way you operate. I'm not going (live in Boise) but appreciate it all the same.
- June 20, 2010 at 4:18 PM
- RobsJ said...
Thank you for being so awesome and always here for me to read every day! You even partly inspired my new blog. You can read my first ever post if you like. "http://notarecipe.blogspot.com/" It's also about food. Thanks for the inspiration!
- June 20, 2010 at 4:26 PM
- KathyD said...
And that is why you two are so awesome!
- June 20, 2010 at 4:37 PM
Your Snafoo is a perfect wreck. Foo on everyone else!
It's amazingly cool of you to offer to pay the Art Festival admission fee for people who would be financially strapped to pay it themselves. That is real class. I wish I lived in the area and could attend! - June 20, 2010 at 10:25 PM
- Melody said...
I was just in Tempe for a week and I just missed you. I am so sad :(
- June 21, 2010 at 12:06 AM
- Amethyst said...
I'm nowhere near so I won't be going, but if I could afford it I'd send you extra to give to the charity in honor of your generosity. I've loved your site for some time! As for your snafoo, it works... call it the americanized version. I once named a cat K'nipshen figuring that was as close as I'd come to properly spelling what I thought was a yiddish word... It's not, it's just conniption, totally english. Keep up the gud werk! Tee hee!
- June 21, 2010 at 3:44 AM
Wow! Thank you so much for your awesome generosity. I do have one question though - if the book signing and cupcake contest are still at Warwick's at 2, then when and why are we supposed to go to the Arts Festival? Is that before or after Warwicks? I've never been to a book signing before, so I'm terribly confused. :(
- June 21, 2010 at 10:52 AM
Wow, you guys are awesome! I hope you come to Cleveland on your next tour.
- June 21, 2010 at 3:02 PM
Okay, so now I'm all confuzzled.
Are you still going to be at Warwicks at 2? Because I'm super excited about seeing everyone's cupcake wreck-plicas...and if you and John aren't there, who's going to determine which one is the wreckiest of them all? - June 21, 2010 at 6:25 PM
Had a great time at the Tempe signing last night. Even though I voted for the winning cupcake, I admit that the bacon flip flops were cool too. And thank you John for the "drooring" in my book!
-Vicki - June 22, 2010 at 2:13 PM
Search This Blog
Wreck the Halls
NEW! Pre-Order Today!
Barnes & Noble
Borders |
Buy the Book
Buy the NYT Bestseller
What's a Wreck?
What's a Wreck?
A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.
Now, don't you have a photo you want to send me? ;)
- Fan Faves
- The Classics
The Classics
Praise for the Book
- "Will have you laughing so hard you'll forget to eat!"— Washington Post
- "a hilarious winner" — The Oregonian
- "a fantastically gut-busting book"— NPR
- "It's all here, each wreck a disaster of hilarity." — BookPage.com
- "Hysterically funny!"— Epinions.com
- "laugh-out-loud funny"— The Times
- "Yates' sharp humor makes the funny even funnier." — The Dallas Morning News
- "an amazing laugh-out-loud book"— The Book Triblog
What the fans are saying
- "I was laughing so hard, I couldn't catch my breath."
- "As funny as the blog that started it."
- "WAY better than I expected!"
- "Cake Wreckery at its best!"
- "Wrecktastic!"
- American Mensa:Top 50 Websites of 2010
- Amazon: Top 10 gift books of 2009
- The Orlando Sentinal "Orbbies": Winner Humor
- 2009 BlogLuxe Awards: Funniest Blog
- 2009 Bloggies: Best Writing of a Weblog, Best New Weblog, Best Food Blog
- The 2008 Weblog Awards: Best Food Blog
- Blogger's Choice 2008 Awards: Best Humor Blog
Where's the book?
We don't have any copies of Cake Wrecks for sale here, autographed or otherwise. We decided the shipping and handling costs would be too high to make it worth your while. So instead, buy your copies locally or online and then order personalized bookplates: it's cheaper, easier, and I think even looks a bit nicer.
Ordering Info
Payments must be made through Paypal, which accepts all major credit cards. Sorry, but that means no checks or MOs or barter-based chickens.
We ship everything first class USPS, and will do our best to have your package in the mail within 2 days of your order.
Popular This Month
Popular This Month
- Tour Roundup: San Diego
- What's THAT Supposed to Mean?
- Tour Roundup: Pasadena, CA
- Royal Wrecks
- Operation Cake Evasion
- Sunday Sweets: Tour Edition
- Sweet N' Salty
- News Bites!
- Close Enough
- Tempe Treats
- Crazy Genes
- Father Figures?
- How We Made Dad Feel Special. Or Just Uncomfortable.
- Sweets For Dad
- Important Update for San Diego/La Jolla
- Wreckies Of The Month
- Let's Just Stick with "Happy Falker Satherhood"
- Flip Flops (Hey, Look, a Built-In Pun!)
- Our World Cup Overfloweth
- Audio Comprehension in Jeopardy
- Just Beachy
- Sunday Sweets: Inspiration
- We Learned Good!
- Rear View Wreckage
- Reminders, Updates, & FAQs
- Sullen Sully
- News Bites
- If the Shoe Fits...
- Sunday Sweets: Gamer Goodness
- My Thai Font
- Wreckage in its Proper Form
- Nothing To See Here
- We...... Need Your Help!
- Evolution of a Wreck


text:
Helping Families Connect, Honor & Remember
Find an Obituary
Most Popular Flowers & Gifts
Honoring Life
It's important to take the time to acknowledge the uniqueness of the deceased: the individuality of their personality, and the uniqueness of their life's path. Not just for them, but for you; it affirms the relationship, and leads to healing after loss. Honoring their life is truly an act of love - for the both of you.
Learn more -
Grief Support
Our Funeral Home is pleased to offer a monthly grief and loss support group for the community. Please click on the Community Events tab below to view a schedule of upcoming meetings. Wether it be our local grief and loss support group to our online grief support you're assured of our commitment to helping you through this difficult time. You can access online counseling services, join in group grief support, or watch our interactive videos, anytime: 24/7. No matter how you feel at this moment, you have our commitment - you're never alone.
Learn more -
Community Events
We give every family in our community unique opportunities to learn, share, and remember. Each of our educational, grief support or remembrance events is designed to appeal to a wide age range, including adults and children. It is our intention to enrich lives, educate minds, and ease sorrows.
Learn more -
Funeral Etiquette
The accepted customs of dress and behavior in a funeral have changed over time, but courtesy never goes out of style. Here's what we'd like you to know about funeral etiquette.
Learn more


text:
If your occupation, political position, forum and discussion contributions or browsing habits put you at risk of job termination, loss of reputation/embarassment or loss of life, then you need to browse anonymously. Many websites track visitor information and your data may be exposed. Instead of taking a risk, browse anonymously to secure yourself, and avoid exposure.
More specifically, if you engage in legal file sharing of music, videos and software, web browsing, use forums, advertise online, research online and more, you may want to consider browsing anonymously. Additionally, many people in business and marketing have found that anonymous VPN browsing is a very important tool in their research. After all, you absolutely do not want your competitors to be able to track your steps.
Private Internet Access offers anonymous VPN service IP addresses which effectively mask your IP address for all of your software applications, including but not limited to web browsing, instant messaging, and more. This anonymous IP address will allow you to enjoy the freedom of the internet and the freedom of anonymity. Use an anonymous VPN to browse today!
Visit the Buy VPN page to get started.
1 شهر
1 سنة


text:
Food delivered in following postcodes in or around Edinburgh:
Serving Dessert
Also known as:SugaRushSuga Rush
Been there? Share your experience. Rate Suga Rush
By clicking the Save button, I certify that this review is based on my own experience and is my genuine opinion of this takeaway or restaurant, and that I have no personal or business relationship with this establishment, and have not been offered any incentive or payment originating from the establishment to write this review. I understand that Menu.Reviews has a zero-tolerance policy on fake and abusive reviews.


text:
Babylon Fortress
The fort was first built by the Persians in about the sixth century B.C., but at that time it was on the cliffs near the river.
Salah Edden al-Ayobi's Castle
Built by Saladin El Ayouby, the famous king and army leader and the founder of the Ayyubid Dynasty, during the end of the 12th century, the Citadel has witnessed many important events in the Egyptian history.
The High Dam
Located near Aswan, the world famous High Dam was an engineering miracle when it was built in the 1960s.
The Hanging Church
The Hanging Church is one of the oldest churches in Egypt and the history of a church on this site dates to the 2nd century AD.


text:
Sharing a business space reduces costs, but there may be hidden financial risks. If you are planning to share a space with another professional or business, it's important that you are protected by the right type of insurance.
Your current policy may not adequately cover your business if you co-work with another professional in your industry or related enterprise. Sharing the costs of overhead can be a nice advantage with significant savings, but before you decide to share any business space, speak with us to make certain that your business insurance and casualty insurance protect you against the liabilities associated with a shared space.
Due Diligence Comes First
Prior to agreeing to share an office space, it is vital that you do the due diligence. Look into credentials, professional reputation, credit rating, references, and other information of the potential cohabitant prior to making any agreement. What you do prior to sharing a space has everything to do with protecting against any potential liability. Leasing agreements, leased or shared employees, and business liability insurance are exceptionally important.
Legal Issues: Sharing Office Space
Shared expenses for employees such as receptionists, assistants, bookkeepers, or other staff create a legal situation in which it may appear that the shared space is actually one legal entity, and that's when problems can arise. A full review of your current business insurance and casualty insurance policies should be undertaken once you have completed due diligence. Physicians, therapists, lawyers, and other professionals could be vulnerable to lawsuits for actions by a co-working professional due to what is termed "vicarious liability."
Protect your business, your professional practice, and your reputation. We have a breadth of knowledge about insurance protection for professionals who plan to share an office space. Your policies must match up with the current situation and protect against any liability created by a co-working professional or business. If you have concerns about your insurances and any needed changes for this situation, connect with us for immediate assistance. We can review your current policies and advise you of the various changes necessary to protect your business or practice when sharing office space.
Filed Under: Business Insurance | Tagged With: Commercial Property Insurance, General Liability Insurance