The dead hand of tradition

Luckily, I was in London the week before Wimbledon, and managed to come home before it started. Why is that a good thing? I love tennis - it's the only sport I like playing, and I love watching it too. (One of my sons asked me once why I was watching women's tennis: "I like watching tennis, I like watching women. It's perfect". Of course I like watching men's tennis too. Try not to read too much into that.)

So why the disdain for Wimbledon? It's all the horrid traditions associated with it. So it's Miss Sharapova vs Miss Williams. Or, when it was all a bit more fun, Miss Navratilova vs Mrs Lloyd. Grass courts. The royal box. Strawberries and cream. It's the Gentlemen's Singles and the Ladies' Singles. It's this bizarre cultural artefact.

There's a line in Richard Ford's "Independence Day" along the lines of "There's a word for people who make the same mistake over and over again: conservatives" (not an exact quote). It's a bit unfair and not entirely accurate. But there is a word for people who do the same thing over and over without wondering why, and that's "english". Every year, they all eat brussels sprouts with their christmas dinner. Noone likes sprouts, and they all joke about it. But they keep doing it. We've always done it this way, you hear them say. So stop!