For years before I began raising funds recently for my work through a “Buy Me a Coffee” campaign and Gun Culture 2.0 merchandise, I subsidized my research expenses by stringing tennis rackets. I still do.
As I generally keep this work separate from my academic work (other than the flow of dollars), many who follow me here are not aware of this. But by way of explaining my absence/silence on this blog, I thought I would tear down the wall of separation and say excuse my absence, I am working in Paris right now at the French Open.
It is especially exciting that my son is here stringing at the tournament also.
We are in a stringing bubble within the tournament bubble, so I am not seeing any of Paris, but I did get the opportunity to check out the famous Court Philippe Chatrier at Stade Roland Garros.
Wilson Tennis has the contract to be the Official Stringing Service of the tournament for the next five years, so I am hopeful that I will be able to return here several more times, in the tournament’s regular May time slot, and without pandemic restrictions.
The ability to have this experience and to further my research on gun culture at the same time is a small blessing in a tough year.
This is wonderful! A bit of a bummer you can’t be much of a tourist right now, but hopefully that will change in the future. Neat stuff!
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Are you aware of the key connection of Roland Garros’s name to firearms?
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OMG no!
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I take it you do now? 😉 I know because I have been a military aviation enthusiast for decades.
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I will research later
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[…] am back from the French Open and excited to continue on with my Sociology of Guns seminar. Last module, we discussed the […]
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C’est Magnifique!
David, you are a man after my own heart. After God and family my passions are guns and tennis. I hope you are not confined in a little stringers room the whole day because there were some magnificent matches today. Thiem and Schwartzman was five hours of the most grueling, high level tennis you could imagine and Thiem looked barely alive at the end. Collins and Jabeur was exciting with the momentum shifts leaving you in suspense the whole match. Podoroska and Swiatek were both feel good stories. Nadal was just Nadal — absolutely relentless and a true artist with the tennis ball. It was a riveting day.
I have a couple of demo racquets arriving tomorrow and I can’t wait to try them. Enjoy.
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