八月卅一日晚上的亞瑟艾許球場，大坂直美對札哈羅娃的首輪比賽打到一半，主審突然暫停比賽，拿起麥克風要求包廂觀眾安靜。賽後有影片解釋了事情來由，原來是位穿著圓點洋裝的女子，在比賽進行中開著環形補光燈自拍；另外還可以看到豪華包廂裡整排網紅背對球場，正在錄製品牌宣傳影片，球賽只是用來打卡的背板。 大坂直美賽後說，「來到運動賽事就要尊重這項運動，先知道球場禮儀，是待人處事的常識」。她還特別提到，以微小差距輸球的對手札哈羅娃，真的有受到包廂喧鬧的干擾。 令人驚訝的是，這些不速之客，很多是主辦單位請來的。美國網球協會前年首度發給「內容創作者」五十四張採訪證，結果換來超過五百萬次社群互動。於是他們見獵心喜，今年邀請對象加碼到將近百人，此外不少豪華品牌另外招待自家網紅進場。病毒式行銷成效反映良好，去年進場人數突破一一四萬，紀念品銷售成長近三成。單杯要價廿三美元的招牌調酒是網紅拍片必備，竟然因此賣出七十三萬八千杯，光是這款酒的營收就超過一千七百萬美元，主辦單位今年還放話要賣九十萬杯。 成功行銷的代價，是看球體驗的改變，甚至連球場的氣味，也受到新觀眾的影響。法國老將馬納里諾說，「球場上聞得到大麻味，這裡愈來愈像動物園」，球員抱怨比賽進行中觀眾就能在看台隨意走動；白俄羅斯球后莎芭蓮卡也在比賽中向主審要求暫停，「天啊，到處都是，整個球場都是大麻味」。 不僅看台被網紅占據，賽程也是用網路流量做優先考量。菲律賓新星艾亞拉世界排名十八，社群追蹤者數以百萬計，因此連續兩輪被排進第二大的阿姆斯壯球場，可是二○二二年美網冠軍斯威雅蒂，生涯贏過六座大滿貫，卻被放到比較小的場地。 有球迷寫了公開信給主辦單位，她懷念的是全場同時屏息、同時歡呼、同時嘆息的年代，每個人都緊盯球場，經歷著相同的比賽體驗。現在看台充滿根本不看比賽的人，還有來自四面八方的噪音，昔日看球的魔幻感覺已經找不回來了。 曾經有很長一段時間，真正靠比賽維生的職業球員不能參加溫布頓、澳洲、法國，還有美國網球大賽，因為這些被稱作年度四大賽的賽事只對業餘選手開放。一直到一九六八年，網壇終於讓業餘與職業同場競技，從此稱作「公開賽」，名稱的本意，是讓網球最高殿堂，向所有真心打球的人敞開大門。 結果，再過了半個多世紀，美國公開賽把門更加敞開，走進來的是補光燈、環形腳架跟品牌業配。昔日被擋在門外的，是把網球當作生命的職業選手，現在被網紅擠出場外的，卻是把網球...
So I am sitting on the floor, on a slow train to New York.
An elder lady just lied to 5 people who asked for the seat next to her, “My husband is coming back”. She finally gave in, and put her feet on the floor instead of the other seat. It’s either that or the lady who sits next to her now is sitting on her imaginary husband’s lap.
Anyway, for anybody who has no issue sitting on the floor, the number of seating option became infinite.
This kind of reminds me when one of my high school buddies was depressed because he just realized he was bi-sexual. He had been teased by everybody for being too feminine for years. It was not a shock to any of us that he likes guys. However apparently he was surprised by it. To ease his pain, a wise friend congratulated him that he just doubled his options in life.
He later turned full-time gay, of course. I hope he wasn’t surprised again, because we weren’t.
Finally I got a seat. I like riding trains, especially instead of flying. Being a statistical person, I believe everything in life is statistics, including the risk of train riding. However I always feel that I am not an individual, but a percentage when I travel by air. I hope that I would always be the 99.999% that comes back to the ground in one piece, not the unfortunate 0.001%.
My company lost one of the founders at the Pan-Am incident in 1988.
Unfortunate Stanley was the childhood friend of The Other Stanley, who is the chairman of the company today. They were both extremely smart. Being the best friend of each other, they had worked on many different things together through their life. They founded the company, one of their joint ventures and adventures, 30 years ago.
When their business finally started to take off so they weren’t poor anymore, Unfortunate Stanley told The Other Stanley his secret plan: one day he would just take enough money and leave everybody behind. No family, no work, just himself.
So even as today, The Other Stanley is still not sure whether his buddy was on the plane. Maybe he was not the unfortunate one after all. Maybe he owns several islands in the Caribbean’s and has 5 wives.
Anyway people always have their own particular issues with one or two public transportation systems. Air travel has never been my favorite. A friend of mine talked about her fear of missing the train stop a lot. She would remind people that she took off the train too early when she first travelled by herself at the age of 12 or 13, almost every time the subject of train ride was brought up. It must have become a deep-tissue nightmare for her. If I have a time machine, to find that poor little girl and tell her to wait couple more stops would be one of the things on my to-do-list.
I don’t really have a long to-do-list for the time machine scenario. I certainly have a long list for invisible cloak or a device that can freeze other people. Not sure how many of the things on my list are legal though. Time machine is not that practical for me --- not because I do not have many regrets in life. I think I do. However, I am sure for most of things I regretted in life, I could not do any better even if I get a second chance. I am very confident of my inabilities and lack of intelligence. And I am not really interested in meeting dinosaurs.
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