The week's event brought to mind a catchphrase applied liberally during summers at my father's stodgy old clay-court club in the Chicago area; Mad Dogs and Englishmen. The phrase originates in 1931. Noel Coward wrote a song of that title on a trip from Hanoi to Saigon. He was noting the tropical climate resident's tendency to avoid the midday heat. 

Mad Dogs and Englishmen, go out in the midday sun.
The smallest Malay rabbit deplores this stupid habit...

Jared Diamond, in "The Wealth and Poverty of Nations" notes, for a purpose geared less towards entertainment; more toward study, the impact geography and climate tend to have on things like daily habits. Noel Coward captures it for the popular culture. The physical truth of the matter is that higher ambient temperatures mean that the human body has less temperature differential to work with in transferring waste heat to the environment. The main mechanism of human waste heat exhaustion is evaporative cooling - and this works best with large temperature differentials. We didn't have those last week, since temperatures were into the 90's.

If you believe Noel Coward, and you accept the fact that "Englishmen", in this case, is really a generic reference to a transplanted northerner who hasn't yet adjusted lifestyle to climate and is just practicing a routine established elsewhere in the course of normal business, you can quickly arrive at the answer to the question, "which does that then make us?"  

A mad dog, of course, is a rabid dog - one that's taken leave of his senses and no longer practices in self-interest; the irrational actor, in dismal science parlance.

What's that all about? Who chooses to subject themselves to such effort and discomfort? What can motivate such conduct? 

Well, motives may differ. For my own part, let's just say that something I used to call a void turned out to be a wellspring. Those of you familiar with Hermann Hesse will recognize the voice of Magister Ludi in the choice of that word. It was Hesse who wrote about this wellspring of creative effort accessible within each of us. We may see it as something else - as I can retrospectively recognize today. That it's there, I don't doubt, after watching you all play this weekend. 

Creative? Tennis? Yes, of course. It's still about managing, with what skill we have, to make the other guy miss by some innovative design of position, shot sequence and selection, patience, execution, cunning, nerve, craft. Points are like snowflakes that way - and even in July. Hesse had something to say about that, too. See if this makes sense to you now: 

But, coming back down to Earth, and stopping short of elevating tennis to religion, VTC to a temple, let's just remember some concrete FACTS:

Don't forget, The Big Doubles Tournament and Town Tennis Event is coming up in short order. It's going to be hot, the competition will be intense and, just to stoke the fire further, the draws are likely to be BIG. Slip that leash and get down to VTC.

 

In Bangkok, at twelve o'clock, they foam at the mouth and run,
But mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun... 

Patrick J. Lee

AAACTA President