Dish-Houston

This isn't a Houston story, but it's a human story and it will make you smile. We all need to smile and feel good every once in a while. Hope you enjoy this.

YEAH!! Tennis is sooooo happening in Houston RIGHT NOW!! Yesterday's results were strong and tonight will be DOMINATED by James Blake and Sam Querrey!

See you at the ROCC, DISHIES!

RESULTS - SUNDAY, APRIL 8, 2012
QUALIFYING SECOND ROUND
[1] Go Soeda (JPN) d Robby Ginepri (USA) 64 64
[2] Horacio Zeballos (ARG) d (WC) Nicholas Naumann (USA) 63 61
[3] Ricardo Mello (BRA) d Peter Polansky (CAN) 75 63
[4] Michael Russell (USA) d Denes Lukacs (HUN) 64 75
[5] Tommy Haas (GER) d Chris Wettengel (USA) 63 63
Catalin-Ionut Gard (ROU) d [6] Teymuraz Gabashvili (RUS) 75 46 62
Daniel Kosakowski (USA) d [7] Yuichi Sugita (JPN) 76(4) 64
Jan Hernych (CZE) d [8] Michael Yani (USA) 76(5) 10 ret.
 

ORDER OF PLAY - MONDAY, APRIL 9, 2012
Stadium Court start 12:00 pm
Qualifying - [4] Michael Russell (USA) vs Daniel Kosakowski (USA)
Qualifying - [1] Go Soeda (JPN) vs [5] Tommy Haas (GER)
Michael Kohlman (GER) & Alexander Waske (GER) vs (WC) Robert Kendrick (USA) & Ryan Sweeting (USA)
Not Before 6:00 pm
(6) Carlos Berlocq (ARG) vs James Blake (USA)
Eric Prodon (FRA) vs Sam Querrey (USA)

COURT 3 start 12:00 pm
Qualifying - [2] Horacio Zeballos (ARG) vs Jan Hernych (CZE)
Qualifying - [3] Ricardo Mello (BRA) vs Catalin-Ionut Gard (ROU)
Not Before 4 p.m.
Bjorn Phau (GER) vs Diego Junqueira (ARG)

NOTES
- Monday nights' schedule includes a pair of former finalists in Americans James Blake (2008) and Sam Querrey (2010).
- A preliminary schedule for the week has been set. This schedule is subject to change.
TUESDAY: Night session will feature defending champion Ryan Sweeting against a qualifier.
WEDNESDAY: Afternoon session will feature American rising star Ryan Harrison against No. 7 Alex Bogomolov, Jr. The night session will feature No. 3 Feliciano Lopez in his first match of the tournament.
THURSDAY: The first matches for No. 1 Mardy Fish, No. 2 John Isner and No. 4 Juan Monaco will all be held, but the sessions are still to be determined.
- This marks the second year in a row a former champion has played in qualifying at the US Men's Clay Court Championship. Tommy Haas, who has a bye in the 2012 qualifying draw, won the event in 2004. The 2007 champion Ivo Karlovic successfully qualified last year.
- Qualifying is a rare event for Tommy Haas. This is just the seventh time since he began playing on the ATP World Tour in 1996 that he has played qualifying. He has successfully reached the main draw just twice in his previous six attempts, including last fall in Vienna where he reached the quarterfinals.
- Five participants in the US Men's Clay Court Championship are playing Davis Cup this weekend. Ryan Harrison and John Isner represented the U.S. in a win over France, Ivo Karlovic  played for Croatia at Argentina where Juan Monaco was on the team, and Joao Souza represented Brazil in a home zonal tie against Colombia.

ONLY LIMITED TICKETS REMAIN for the 2012 US Men’s Clay Court Championship. Information on tickets can be found at www.mensclaycourt.com or by calling 713-527-0345. Once again, the US Men’s Clay Court Championship will provide the Texas Children’s Ticket Turnback program. Any fans holding tickets for a session that they cannot use are invited to return those tickets to the box office where they will be sold for face value and the entire resale price will be donated to Texas Children’s Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Institute.

DISHIES,

As you may know, I have been nominated as a candidate for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Man & Woman of the Year campaign.  We are two weeks into this ten week journey to help find a cure.  One dollar equals one vote in my run for Woman of the Year.  It is my goal to raise a minimum of $10,000 between now and May 31, 2012.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and to improve the quality of life of patients and their families.  Leukemia causes more deaths than any other cancer among children under the age of 20.  Of 39 new drugs approved by the FDA in the last decade, almost half (19) were approved as treatments for blood cancer and all 19 are currently being tested for other forms of cancer and diseases, such as arthritis.  LLS played a vital role in the research and development of these drugs.  We all know someone who has been affected by some form of cancer. 

I am a firm believer that we can make a difference in someone’s life!  You can help me reach my fundraising goal and make a difference in the life of a cancer patient by making a donation directly to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Noah and Chloe, the boy and girl of the year. These are the reasons I agreed to launch this campaign. Noah is 6 and will finish his treatment in November of this year. Chloe is 13 and was diagnosed in 2007, went into remission and relapsed in 2010. Because of remarkable drugs and new technologies funded by organizations like LLS, Chloe received a bone barrow transplant from her brother, Cole, and is now healthy and back in remission. This is why we give of ourselves.

With your help, we are making a difference in someone’s life.  Join me in my mission in honor of patients with blood cancer everywhere!  With everyone’s help, we can end this once and for all.  Every penny counts!

There are two simple ways to donate. Please visit my page at http://txg.mwoy.llsevent.org/LoriFreese to donate online, or fill out the enclosed donation form and send a check to:

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society c/o Helen Oettinger

5005 Mitchelldale, Ste 115

Houston, Texas 77092

Blessings and Love,

Lori Freese

Publisher

Dish-Houston.com  

Never lose hope. Never give up. Never quit.

BY DISH CONTRIBUTOR MARK YZAGUIRRE

Last weekend was the big opening weekend for the film version of The Hunger Games, as anyone who follows popular culture at an even cursory level has noticed.  The original book trilogy was written by Suzanne Collins and has already become a classic addition to the genre of dystopian fiction.

I haven't read any of The Hunger Games books and I currently don't plan on seeing the film (though that might change if I have a little more free time during the next few weeks), but I have noticed a particular trend with regard to commentary about The Hunger Games.  As night follows day, if one reads commentary about The Hunger Games online, whether in articles or Facebook postings, one can practically guarantee that someone will chime in saying that The Hunger Games is just a retelling of a Japanese novel, film and manga series called Battle Royale.  Invariably the person stating this will say that The Hunger Games isn't as good as Battle Royale and everyone who is interested in The Hunger Games is just a lame American who should instead watch or read Battle Royale. 

To such people I say, get over yourselves.  First of all, the writer of The Hunger Games claims to have not been influenced by Battle Royale.  Even if that isn't the case (though I have no reason to disbelieve her, it's not like Battle Royale was well-known in the United States), whether or not The Hunger Games is a worthwhile work of film or literature is a question that stands on its own.  It isn't exactly uncommon for works of art in one culture to borrow from and reinterpret artworks from another culture and that doesn't make such works failures in their own right. 

For example, The Magnificent Seven was a reworking of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, but that doesn't mean that The Magnificent Seven wasn't a great film in itself.  (And before someone says that I am claiming that The Hunger Games is as good as The Magnificent Seven, no, I'm not claiming that, this is what writers sometimes refer to as a comparison.)  It is a fallacy to claim that the existence of Battle Royale somehow makes a difference as to whether The Hunger Games is worth reading or watching.  These things are independent of one another.  Frankly, when one reads such commentary, one is reminded of the sort of annoying person who will talk about how they were into a band before anyone else knew them and now that band isn't good anymore because they've become a bunch of sellouts. 

So there are people out there who were really into Battle Royale and they are critical of the success of The Hunger Games, and they absolutely must point out at every opportunity that Battle Royale came first.  That's great.  Congratulations.  Thanks for that fascinating bit of information.  Now get lost before I give you a wedgie.

Editor's Note:  This article was originally posted at The Huffington Post on March 26, 2012.