Starting Five
1. Roger, over and out at the U.S. Open. Roger Federer falls to Tomas Berdych, his first loss before the semis at the U.S. Open since 2003. The good news is, Fashion Week begins today and now Anna Wintour can have Roger all to herself.
2. Fashion Week?!? Today? We don’t have a thing to ready-to-wear.
Fashion Week runways are actually longer than those at LaGuardia
3. The NFL season opened with the Dallas Cowboys beating Big Blue. Which reminds us, at least two present or former co-hosts on Live! With have either been or been married to New York Giants.
4. R.A. Dickey becomes the majors’ first 18-game winner as the Mess shut down the Cardinals, 6-2. Dickey, believe it or not, is the first Mess pitcher to win 18 games since 1990. If you are looking for a terrific read, try Wherever I Wind Up.
5. Art Modell dies at 87. He purchased the Cleveland Browns in 1961 for $4 million.
Reserves
Bill Clinton speaks at the Democratic convention, reluctantly decides not to seek nomination.
The countdown to Andy Roddick’s unretirement begins as he loses in four sets, in the fourth round to Juan Martin del Potro (“You killed my father; prepare to die!”). Oh, that’s not him? Our bad.
We normally prefer face-to-face interviews, or even phoners, to emailing questions to a subject. However, if that subject is Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz and the answers are this funny, we are on board. Great job by New York Magazine (we’re ready for Jar Jar Bluth).
There’s money in that banana stand. No, really.
Has anyone referred to Dallas’ 24-17 win last night, in which Jason Witten played, as a “splenetic victory?”
CRIMSON TIRADE!!!! Okay, not really, but Nick Saban intimidated reporters as well as a five-foot-six man can do yesterday when he admonished them for not properly respecting Alabama’s upcoming opponent, Western Kentucky. Only three reporters asked questions. The rest hid under their desks.
Is it too much to ask Hollywood to make a movie called The Replacement Refs starring Keanu Reeves as a former scab player, Shane Falco, who remembers just enough about the game to pick up a whistle, don the black-and-white, and become the next Ed Hochuli… while also getting the girl?
Quotable
“The original Segway is out of production so we had to put some old pieces on a new one. But I’ve always been known for my awkward segues. If you get a chance I’d love to get a picture of you as a baby.” —Mitch Hurwitz of Arrested Development, when asked by New York mag if it was difficult to find a Segway when reviving the series after a six-year dormant period.
Five deaths from a hot air balloon ride in Slovenia.
More New York Mag: Apparently joking about the death of the Bigfoot impersonator is Highbrow Despicable. Don’t be messin’ with Sasquatch.
Bizarre, horrific and surreal murders in the French Alps.
Not one but TWO books about football at West Point hit the racks (or Amazon.com) this month. Joe Drape of the New York Times spent a season with the Black Knights for his tome, Soldiers First, which is out now. Mark Beech, a senior editor of Sports Illustrated and a West Point graduate (as is his father), is out with When Saturday Mattered Most, a chronicle of Army’s unbeaten 1958 season. That book comes out on Sept. 18.
A book on a team that hasn’t won a national championship in decades — and it isn’t Notre Dame!
Krysten Ritter is featured in the current issue of Rolling Stone, but sadly no mention of her work on The Gilmore Girls is made. Cancel my subscription!
The funniest Ritter with whom to share a sitcom apartment since Jack Tripper
Or should we have gone with, for the above caption, “Where the kisses are hers and hers and…hers/B’s company, too?”