Boris Becker won $25 million during his career as a professional tennis player.
Stephen Hawking, mathemetician
I'm going to make a suggestion, he said, tell me what you think of it. Yes? You could lower the net in women's tennis to 616 mm. That is what it used to be. Sounds a bit low to me, I said. Lo lo, he said. And that would make the game more exciting for you? It would make it easier, he said. I'll have to think about it I said.
This may sound a little inppropriate, he said, after our talking about bananas and strawberries and pineapples, he said. Who said anything about pineapples, I asked? Or dates, he suggested? Whatever. I don't see the relevance, I retorted. Only that pineapples, bananas and strawberries are luxuries, and if the price dictates that the demand exceeds the supply, who cares, he said? I don't understand, I retorted. Name a fruit which you only reserve for special occasions, he asked. To be honest, fruit is fruit, I replied, none of it is particularly special to me, the shops are always full of fruit.
My mum
particularly special to me, the shops are always full of fruit. OK then, he shrugged. We'll leave it like that if you like.
Then he began again. Did you ever read that book by Nabokov? Which one? I wondered if he picked I was acting dumb. The Russian one I think, he said. Do you real Italian? There was that famous photo of you sitting in an airport in Italy playing snap with Jesus, remember? No, I only read romance novels, I've never met Jesus. Oh? He didn't turn himself into a puff of smoke and disappear into your heart then? I'm not sure how to answer that, I was becoming totally confused. I'm sure somebody remembers, he said, was your mother there, maybe she will remember. Do you know the ironic thing about that book. Lolita? What? Well I haven't read the Rusian or Itallian translations, which are supposed to be a lot better, but he isn't really a paedophile at all. He isn't? No, I've spoken to the author, and it was supposed to be a fantasy. It certainly was that , I said. He went on, about the fact that he had this step daughter, and found it difficult to be her father. Can't have been easy for him, I said. You know how tiresome and boring young girls can be to adults. They need children their own age to stimulate them. Not older men, I asked? Certainly not, he said. Read it again and
Isaac Israels: Woman in front of Van Gogh's Sunflowers, 1917. A close friend of Vincent Willem van Gogh, the artist's nephew, Israels had a version of the Sunflowers on loan for a while.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir's painting Onions , at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, was painted in Naples in 1881.
see for yourself if I'm not right. I'm probably a bit too busy to do that right now, I said, we have the Fed Cup coming up soon. He seemed to be obsessed with Lolita. That story has been made into two films, numerous stage plays, two operas, two ballets, and a broadway Musical. And you have seen them all, I asked as innocently as I could, but it was hard not to laugh at the man. No, but maybe we could see the film together sometime, he asked. Maybe, I said. i'm really enjoying our conversation, he told me, especially as right now I have no internet connection at home. What happened, I asked, did you forget to pay the account? No, some sort of technical difficulty I believe, they are working on it though.
Do you get a lot of jealousy on tour, he asked? In what way, I replied? Well that whole engagement thing, what was all that about? Sasha? I love him. And you are going to be Mrs Sasha Vujacic? One day I hope to. That's not what I heard he said. What could you possibly know about it, I asked him. He was starting to irritate me more than just a little by now. Well, he went on, it is no secret that a lot of the girls, I should say women playing tennis on the tour are gay.more
