Mockingbird

It is approaching late autumn, the liquid amber & Chinese pistache start dropping their leaves and the yards & streets are turning to gold & red in color. It is the time of year again people prepare for Thanksgiving holidays & find time for meditation. I found one thing unusual this year. Several mockingbirds are still around & sing various calls in the early morning. They sound like a bunch of mischievous & naughty boys who chatter & make fun. They are especially vocal in the early morning & late afternoon. In the neighborhood, other notable birds are robins, ravens & blue jays. The robins always feed on the yard in pair. They have orange chest & are easily identified. Sometime you pass by them, they sort of freeze & pretend they are not birds at all. The ravens basically are crows, noisy & aggressive. They are big birds & are not welcomed most of the time. Blue jays are vivid blue in color & can be very noisy. They sound like calling 賊 in the daytime. Perhaps this is the reason why they are called Jay (jay & 賊 同音, just for fun). When the autumn is fast passing by, most birds sort of fade away by migration. Except those mockingbirds, they seem still happy to hang around here. One morning I found young one tangled with the golf net & couldn’t get out of it. Its mother & father hovered around to call each other for help. After a few minutes, they were not successful freeing it. I tried to be helpful. I untangled the little bird & found that this little bird had a hard time to fly. So I put it in an open box with some water. There was nothing I can do except sitting nearby to see what is going on. This was the day I heard more mockingbird calls than any other days in my life. Lunchtime was coming & I had to leave. I let the evolution ran its course. Miraculously, they all disappeared after I finished the lunch. For some reason, I felt very happy for the rest of the day. I even tried to whistle like a mockingbird. Perhaps this is the adage: 日行一善 or 助人(鳥)為快樂之本.

When it comes to 助人為快樂之本, it reminds me of 青年守則. We all remember that we had to recite or sing the song 青年守則 every morning while we were in elementary school. I didn’t like to memorize it & was not particularily impressed by it. However, when I get older, I really appreciate #10, 助人為快樂之本 & #12, 有恒為成功之本. In the past few years, I especially valued #4, 信義為立業之本 & #5, 和平為處世之本. If most countries in the world follow #5, there will be few wars on earth. If most people in Wall Street (including CEOs & MBAs) follow #4, there will be no Charles Ponzi, Enron, Bernard Madoff & all the financial mess in this country. The next two items I like are #11, 學問為濟世之本 & #9, 整潔為強身之本.

While we are talking about birds, do you still remember a good old radio program in 1960's, 早晨的公園? This program was anchored by 潘啟元. If you tuned to this program, you would hear all sort of birds singing different tunes. When you had to get up early & head to school, you wouldn’t appreciate it. I visited Taipei once in 1975. I got wakened up by this program & I didn’t have to go to school. I felt so relaxed & really appreciated those birds that make the world a nice place to live.

The last thing about mockingbird is that famous book “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Most of us have watched this movie in Taiwan with title "梅崗城的故事" as the story occurred in a town called Maycomb. It is story about a lawyer Atticus Finch (finch is also a bird) defended a black man in the case of raping a white woman. Why is the book called “To Kill a Mockingbird”? Here is the quote from some source: 'when Atticus, having given his children air-rifles for Christmas, allows their Uncle Jack to teach them to shoot. Atticus warns them that, although they can "shoot all the bluejays they want", they must remember that "it's a sin to kill a mockingbird”. Confused, Scout (the girl who narrated the story) approaches her neighbor Miss Maudie, who explains that mockingbirds never harm other living creatures. She points out that mockingbirds simply provide pleasure with their songs, saying, "They don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. "To kill a mockingbird" is to kill that which is innocent and harmless—like Tom Robinson (the black man).'

秋之旅

Autumn is here again, the season of harvesting, of thanksgiving, of bird’s migration, of preparation for bear’s hibernation, of meditation for some people. But is it real the season for a journey? I was in one Chinese bookstore last week. I encountered a book 秋之頌, by 余光中. I thought the poet had the mood to say something about autumn. It turns out to be a book in praise of 梁實秋. I have a lot of respect to Mr. 梁, but this is not the one I am interested at the moment. I did find a book by Hermann Hesse (赫塞), a Nobel Laureate of Literature, 1946. The title of the short novel is 秋之旅 (1907). 赫塞的短篇小說 有一種獨特的風格, 意境深遠, 今人回味無窮. 這小說並沒有特別指出發生在秋天. 但重頭到尾給你一種秋氣肅穆的感覺. 秋之旅 描寫一位青年在流浪和懷鄉之間徘徊的心靈. 重遊舊地的落寞和昔日情人相遇的感傷, 給人有一種人生虛幻無常又孤獨哀傷的感受. 原文是德文, 看翻譯文學最重要的是翻譯者的功力. 中譯本衹有四十頁, 分成下面幾章: 渡湖, 投宿, 風暴, 往事, 靜寂的村落, 清晨動身, 伊爾根貝克, 尤琍, 霧. 比起 Muller/Schubert 的冬之旅, 赫塞的這篇小說比較輕鬆, 並沒有給你一種失意, 失戀, 落魄而近乎絕望的感受. 秋之旅給你一種孤獨,流浪,虛幻無常的感覺, 但不是痛苦到一种近乎絕望的悲情. 也許這就是秋天和冬天的不同吧!

寫到這裹, 想起赫塞的另一篇小說 “青春,美麗的青春" (1916). 我在1965年看到沉櫻(本名陳瑛)女士翻譯的. 譯文流暢, 非常傳神,令人回味不已. 這篇小說大約也是四十來頁. 描寫一個青年冀圖開拓命運而又懷念家鄉,憧憬浪漫的愛情而又希求安定歸宿的故事. 在一個暑假裡,他回到家鄉和親人相敘,其間發生了一些親情,友情,愛情的故事. 這小說我看過三次 (age 20’s, 40’a & 60’s), 每次感受都不一樣. 想起我們剛大學畢業,申請到國外大學的 admission or scholarship. 負笈彼邦以前,每一個都是青年冀圖開拓命運而又懷念家鄉. 在暑假時回家一趟,看到親人故舊,無不感到溫馨,同時憧憬浪漫自由而又希求安定歸宿. 所以讀起這篇小說更是容易感到共嗚. 同時這也是感嘆夏日之逝去,迎來绮麗的秋之旅.

Nobel Prizes

All Nobel Laureates were announced. They are all American except two, one Romanian German, one Israeli. This is the age of American as far as the Nobel Prize is concerned. Half of the American winners are immigrants, naturalized citizens. Obama is a black horse to win the Peace Prize, a surprise to most people in the world. Even he himself doesn't think he deserves it. Peace Prize is very subjective & political. Some people even interpret this as an award to the American People who after all elected him as the president & so have a foresight & promise to the peace in the future.

Now move to the other front. One resident of Mountain View in California won the Physics Prize. Charles Kao is an Electrical Engineer. He is awarded for his work on Fiber Optics. The other two persons share the prize are also Electrical Engineers who worked on Charge Coupled Devices (CCD)that makes modern digital camera possible. The only bad thing is that Kao worked on fiber optics in 1965 & he got the award a little bit late (44 years later) since he already develops some kind of Alzheimer's disease. It is pretty hard for engineers to get Nobel Prize mainly because they usually focus on the application side of the scientific discovery or invention. OSI is the open model used in the communication & network industry. It consists of seven layers: physical, link, network, transport, session, presentation & application. Only the physical layer relates to the device physics and can be a potential candidate of Nobel Prize. In this Internet age, the influence of the Ethernet protocol (link layer) is immense. But it is not in the radar scope of the Nobel Prize. I spent almost two years working on Fibre Channel Storage Network. My works were in the link, network & transport layers & had very little to do with the physical layer. Charles Kao got the prize mainly due to his research on the physical layer. Depending on your career goal, you have to focus on something, after all you only got 24 hours a day. My engineering work on fibre channel has a lot to do with the communication protocols & software. Anyway, I got four patents out of my work.

It is not uncommon for a person to wait 30 years to get the Nobel Prize. For patent, it is not that bad, but still takes time. You may have to wait three years or more to get patent granted. In our Taida days, we used to hear some brilliant classmates set the goal to get Nobel Prize in some distant future. Time flies, the distant future is now. The first one I know is 許貞雄. He was my good old classmate in high school & major in physics. He got his Ph.D from University of Wisconsin & went to Stony Brook to follow 楊振寧 for post-doctoral research. He didn’t stay long before he went back to Taiwan. I asked him about the whole thing several years later. Here is what he said: “Dr. Young is so deep (in thinking or something else) that I lost all my confidence as a research fellow of physics.” He opted to teach in 清華大學 for the rest of his life. In our EE Dept, the most notable candidates are 李純儀 & Amo, both of them are visible & vocal. Lately we haven’t heard anything from 李純儀 about his ambition. However, Amo is still pursuing. We should proudly cheer: “Carry on, Dr. Amo.”

Moon & Rusalka

中秋節 of 2009 falls on October 3. The temperature hovered around 60 degree on the day & I haven’t seen the moon so bright, so round & so shining for some time. I checked the luner calendar, it said 已丑中秋節. I don’t know how many people still use or follow 天干地支 counting in China. It takes 60 years to reach a cycle & restart. So when someone says 一甲子, he means 60 years. I have no idea why our ancesters used this system. Perhaps people at that time in average only lived to 60 years of age. Otherwise it will be confusing when some one say 甲午年. It may be 1894 or 1834. Think about it, we are all over 60 years old. How about 壬午年, it may be 1942 or 2002. As a matter of fact, our history book lists all these terms: 戊戌政變, 甲午战争, 辛亥革命, 庚子賠款 etc. It is nice to know that the events occur in that year. But the problem is that you really don’t know how it relates to 公元 or how many years between those events. You have to do some conversion or cross reference. I do have an algorithm that converts BC or AD to 天干地支. It is as follows:

十 天干：甲乙丙丁戊已庚辛壬癸 (index 0-9)
十二 地支: 子丑寅卯辰巳午未申酉戌亥 (index 0-11)

For AD, use (Year –4) & the following calculation:
(1972 - 4) mod (10) ≡ 8，所以天干是“壬”；
(1972 - 4) mod (12) ≡ 0，所以地支是“子”。
So 1972 is (8,0) 壬子
Same conversion leads 1942: 壬午

For year from 1 to 4, it is:
4: 甲子
3: 癸亥
2: 壬戌
1: 辛酉

For BC, it is more complicate & I will reserve this for some other time. Let’s get back to a soft side of our life. Moon to most of us is romantic. It shines on us, no talking, no complain, no excuse. No wonder some poet like 李白 & others ran the imagination to the wild. Here are some examples:

暮從碧山下, 山月隨人歸.
举杯邀明月, 对影成三人.
我歌月俳佪, 我舞影零乱.
暫伴月將影, 行樂須及春.
星隨平野闊, 月湧大江流.
霧溼樓台, 月迷津渡.
明月如霜, 好風如水.
明月幾時有, 把酒问青天.
沙上珏禽池上暝, 雲破月來花弄影.
海上生明月, 天涯共此時.
露從今月白,月是故鄉明.
明月松間照,清泉石上流.
深林人不知,明月來相照.
月落烏啼箱霜滿天

But the most famous & appropriate to 中秋節 is:
人有悲欢離合, 月有陰晴圓缺, 此事古難全.
但願人長久, 千里共嬋娟.

梁弘志 wrote a song “但願人長久”using 苏東坡 的水調歌頭 as the lyrics. It becomes very popular since 1980’s. On the western front, Dvorak composed “Song to the Moon” in opera Rusalka. It is one of the most well-known song dedicated to the moon. 歌 詞 傷 感, 期 待 而 無 耐, 冷 艶 而 淒 婉. 最 後 一 句 是 近 乎 绝 望 的 呼 喊. Rusalka is a water sprite, who seeks love with human beings that proves to be tragic. Here is the lyric in Czech & its verbatim translation: (* is repeated verse)

Mesiku na nebi hlubokem--------------O moon up in the deep sky
Svetlo tvé daleko vidi,------------------Your light sees distant places
Po svete bloudis sirokém, --------------You travel round the wide world
Divas se v pribytky lidi. ----------------You look into people’s houses
--------------------------------------*You travel round the wide world
--------------------------------------*You look into people’s houses

Mesicku, postuj chvili------------------ O, moon, stay for a moment
Reckni mi, kde je muj mily------------- Tell me where is my love!
----------------------------------------*O, moon, stay for a moment
-------------------------------------*Tell me, oh, tell me where is my love!

Rekni mu, stribmy mesicku, --Tell him please, silver moon in the sky,
Me ze jej objima rame, -----------------That I embrace him,
Aby si alespon chvilicku----------That he should for at least a while …
Vzpomenul ve sneni na mne ------------… remember his dreams!
-----------------------------------*That he should for at least a while …
--------------------------------------*… remember his dreams!

Zasvet mu do daleka -------------------Light up his distant place,
Rekni mu, rekni m kdo tu nan ceka!---Tell him, who waits here!
----------------------------------------*Light up his distant place,
------------------------------------*Tell him, oh, tell him who waits here!

mneli duse lidska sni -------------------If he dreams of me, …
At'se tou vzpominkou vzbudi! ----------… may this memory waken him!
Mesicku, nezhasni, nezhasni!---O, moon, don’t disappear, don’t go!

Here we found some striking similarity between eastern & western version that shows human feeling is universal. If we look at the first stanza of the song, it is 轉 朱 閣, 低 綺 户, 照 無 眠. The second & third stanzas are sort of like 不 應 有 恨, 何 事 偏 向 別 時 圓.. The fourth stanza is 人 有 悲 欢 離 合, 月 有 陰 晴 圓 缺, 此 事 古 難 全. The last stanza is equivalent to 但 願 人 長 久, 千 里 共 嬋 娟..

The following video clip is Rusalka performed by Lucia Popp, a Slovak soprano. She is ideal for singing Czech opera.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qxi-sYUT9s

PS:
Dvorak (1841-1904) is a Czech composer. His most famous works are Symphony from the New World, Cello Concerto, “American” String Quartet & Slavonic Dances.

Music Potpourri

MTT’s Miscue
Michael Tilson Thomas is the famous conductor of San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, one of the top 15 symphony orchestras in the world. MTT got several Grammy awards for his recording of Mahler’s symphonies. MTT is a good communicator & interpreter of the classical music, well respected in the music circle. To be a good conductor, you need to be charismatic & persuasive. You need to build a lot of contacts to raise fund for the orchestra. Meanwhile, you have to be dynamic & energetic on the podium, not an easy job. MTT is great. But once in a while he encountered something unusual. It may not be his fault. But if you are a CEO, you have to take the brunt anytime something go astray in the company. Here is one good example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgzsPoTp2iA

This is the famous 7th symphony of Mahler. Listen to the music:
0-0:05---everything goes nicely
0:05-0.09---hello, trumpet, come in please
0:09-0.11---come on, trumpet, where are you? MTT is not sure anymore, he has to glance the score. Amazingly the strings keep playing (softly) & waiting. This is really a team work to cover the ass.
0.11-0.14---gush, here you are. I told you several times, don't drink too much XO! MTT has to chuckle to compose himself.
0.18:0.19---this player (perhaps clarinet) tries very hard to act like nothing happened.
0:23-0.28---MTT has to read the score between lines to regain his confidence.

My opinion: In this case, it is the fault of trumpeter. Conductor interprets the music. Even if he is off a little bit on timing, you have to follow him, no other excuse.
Lesson: Don't drink too much before the performance.

Misplace of Romance
Andre Rieu is the king of romance. He makes the classical music accessible to millions of people. But occasionally he was in a limbo that he is not aware of it due to some cultural idiosyncrasy. Here is one example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzDlLtgt1BI&feature=related

Due to copyright issue, the above link is not available on YouTube now.  So the the following timeline information is no longer meaningful.

Edelweiss (雪絨花) is one of the best-known European mountain flowers, belonging to the sunflower family. The name comes from German edel (noble) and weiss (white). It is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. The song is sung by Captain von Trapp as he rediscovers music and a love for his children. Later on in the show it is sung as a defiant statement of Austrian patriotism by the von Trapp family in the face of the pressure put upon Captain von Trapp to join the navy of Nazi Germany. Eventually they fled Austria & entered Switzerland & so the setting is the Swiss Alpine Mountain. Now listen to the music:
0:0:11---the cloudy mountain setting with train passing by, typical Swiss scene.
0:11-0:35---the mountain looks brown, not very typical in Switzerland. Compare to Julie Andrew's green Alpine meadow, this just looks pathetic. The costume of the players is too stylish and lack of country flair.
0:35-0:59---the whole setting gives you some cold feeling. This must be a very high altitude location, perhaps only cable car can get you there.
0:59-1:38---I don't see majestic Matterhorn, so it must not be near Zermatt, a famous ski retreat.
1:38-1:50---this wooden house is spartan, no paint or color painting & geranium flowers & the old man is very rustic.
1:50-2:03---the whole thing looks like a superimposition of van Gogh's painting with a snow mountain background.
2:03-2:37---boy, these glaciers and snow mountains really give you a freezing cold feeling. So far we haven't seen a single edelwiss, ie nowhere to be seen.
2:37-2.51---now we see the lady's costume is really out of place. Julie Andrew did a much better job in her Song of the Music.
2:51-3:17---now this is the bomber. You see Andre Rieu is playing violin so romantically to a lot of cows. You know what? They just turned & walked away, some of them actually run away. Chinese idiom "對牛彈琴" means you waste your time if you play piano to all bunch of cows. I didn't know "對牛拉琴" 也有異曲同工之妙 until now. If you think positively, you may interpret that 牛哥們聆聽,大為感動,掉頭忙著找牛小妹去.

Now try a real one, really romantic one from Andre Rieu.
Plaisir d’Amore (the pleasure of love)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y0_z_LntVo&feature=related

Due to copyright issue, the above link is not available on YouTube now.  So the timeline information below is no longer meaningful.

This is a classical French love song written in 1780 by Giovanni Martini (1741-1816). Hector Berlioz arranged it for orchestra. This may be one of the most popular love song in the world. The setting of this play probably is somewhere in Tuscany of Italy. Listen to the music:
0-0:06---the white flower signifies the purity of the love, looks elegant and noble.
0:06-0:25---the first theme serves as an introduction played by flute and clarinet with strings, very warm and lovely.
0:25-0:49---here comes the second main theme played by Andre Rieu, truly romantic style.
0:49-1:07---the introduction repeat to usher in the third theme.
1:07-1:30---the third theme signifies the enhanced & deep feeling of love when time goes by.
1:30-1:47---the love mood is augmented by the whole orchestra.
1:47-2:12---return to the second main theme, this time played by Andre and the whole orchestra.
2:12-2:31---the first main theme comes back to conclude the music with rich tone of clarinet, flute, bassoon and oboe.
2:31-2:36---the white flower shows up again to remind us the meaning of the true love.

Since the above link is no longer valid, please try the next one if you are still interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h1u8ICcxBk

ps: Berlioz 乃幻想交響曲之作者, 此君浪漫史不少. 有一次觀莎翁名劇 Hamlet, 驚艷女主角 Harriet Smithson, 窮追不捨. 居然頃全力創作 Symphonie Fantastique. 史女士到場聆聽,大為感動,終於成婚. 可是Berlioz 創業有餘,守成不足,最後離婚收場. Berlioz also arranged Weber’s Invitation to the Dance (邀舞) (piano composition) to play with orchestra, a true masterpiece.

Golf & Life

Tom Watson is 59 & he competed in the British Golf Open Tournament. He played brilliantly until the last hole & last stroke when he missed a 8-feet putt. Instead, Stewart Cink played obscurely for three days. But he made a 12-foot birdie at the last 18th hole. In other words, the final putt or the last stroke defines & creates a champion. This is not the first time we have seen the top players succumb to the pressure or can’t finish the job in a graceful manner. Watson was able to hole a 60-feet putt but couldn’t do the same for a 8-feet one. It was almost painful to watch the finish & really felt sorry for Watson. He is a great champion. One or two more wins will not change his life much. However, if you want to fulfill your life & make something memorable, you have to play with seriousness & perseverance in a crucial moment. This needs physical & mental toughness. But the difference of outcome can be huge. If Watson made the last putt, he won the tournament & became the oldest champion in the golf history. If you look at the replay, he seemed not ready mentally & delivered a shoddy putt hastily. Perhaps it was too much emotion drainage (not lacking mental toughness) that betrayed him at the final moment.

I have watched golf tournament many times. I always got frustrated to see those professionals missed a short putt. I know I miss those putts often. But you don’t expect the professionals do the same thing. When you got a tennis ball in the right position, you are almost sure you can deliver a good forehand to score. But on the golf green, you are nervous even the ball is very close to the cup. I figure that the confidence level (probability to get thing done) of delivering a good shot/putt for tennis & golf is around 90% and 60%. Golf is a nice sport, a frustrating sport. When you lose, nobody but you yourself to blame since the ball is stationary & starring at you. If you win, you might think it is just lucky since the winning very often is from those lucky putts that you don’t expect to drop in the hole. It is not uncommon for a player to become a champion just because he got one or two lucky eagles by pitching or long putt.

PS: Tiger Wood played badly & missed the cut. He seemed losing ungraciously, slammed his club head & muttered some bad words. We saw this often in tennis. Remember the antics of Jimmy Connor & John McEnroe on courts? But golf is supposed to be a gentleman’s sport. Under no circumstances, should a player become angry or behave eccentrically. Long time ago, tennis used to be a gentleman’s sport too. But since when it becomes a yelling & shouting match between umpires & players. This is the reason people appreciate Rod Laver, Pete Sampras & Roger Federer since they were well behaved on the courts & still kept winning.

Tennis & Grand Slams

I just watched the men’s final of Wimbledom Tournament between Roger Federer & Andy Roddick. It is one of the best matches I have ever seen. The Wimbledon has a rule that the final 5th set has no tiebreak. It continues to play until a player wins two consecutive games. The final score is 5-7 7-6(8-6) 7-6(7-5) 3-6 16-14. In other words, the 5th set lasted 30 games, equivalent to three sets of play & the match lasted more than four hours. In the end, Federer prevailed. In the last few games, you can tell Federer played a little bit better & had better serves. He broke the record set by Pete Sampras (14 slam titles) by winning 15 slam titles. It was very enjoyable when you watched the match on high definition TV & you hate to go back to the old TV. Most modern players glue to the baseline & hit the ball hard to find the court opening for a winning shot. The speed of the serve also makes the serve crucial to the game. If you have a fast (> 140 mph) & consistent first serve, you make your serve difficult to return & win an easy point. It is like 12-yard penalty kick in the soccer game. The kicker has much better chance to beat the goalkeeper. When time goes by, the physical condition of the human being is getting stronger, but the responding time can’t catch up. This is the problem of the modern tennis. It becomes very boring when the server keeps scoring the point without any other shots, no forehand, backhand, lob or volley. This is especially true when you watch men’s double match. The court is the same size, but the men’s strength, speed & height keep improving. This makes the server’s side having a distinctive advantage. It gets very boring when you see them serve & volley, just two strokes to end the point.

In 1968, I bought a b/w TV. I watched Joe Payne Show for relax & then I found the tennis programs on TV. It was a time when Australians ruled the tennis world. I watched the matches among Rod Laver, John Newcombe, Tony Roche, Ken Rosewell, Roy Emerson & Fred Stoley. These Australians were great & the style was elegant & versatile. They played all around court, used various shot & stroke with a lot of variations. Nowadays players stick to the baseline & rarely advance to volley. I think the shorter mean-free-path of the volley & the speed of balls make the reaction not fast enough to do volley effectively & consistently. So when time goes by, the tennis has to change. Otherwise, it will get boring to watch & lose the viewers. We all know most American don’t like to watch soccer. The reason is that it gets very boring to see 0-0 score at the end of the game & has to be decided by 12-yard kick. Nobody likes this since it is not fair or convincing to decide which team is better by this kind of kick---goalkeeper has little chance but resolve to luck. If the tennis match has to be decided by the serve & the hitting speed from the baseline, it loses much of its luster.

The Grand Slam of tennis is confusing because people use it without precise definition. The Slam Tournaments of Tennis are the following tournaments: Australian, French, Wimbledon & US, all open tournaments. The most prestige achievement is the Grand Slam---winner of all four Slam tournaments in a same calendar year. This is the Great Grand Slam, because later people coin some other terms like Consecutive Grand Slam (winning all 4 slams not in the same year but in consecutive year) & Career Grand Slam (winning all 4 slams not in the fashion of previous two Grand Slams). There are only two men achieved Grand Slams: Don Budge (1938) & Rod Laver (1962 & 1969).

In this Wimbledon final, it is interesting to see Bjorn Borg, Rod Laver, & Pete Sampras sat in the royal box. They were also interviewed with McEnroe after the match. Someone said Federer might be the best & greatest player in history. Sampras voiced that two Grand Slams may be the most difficult to achieve. He implied that Rod Laver should be the greatest tennis player in history so far. I tend to agree with Pete. It is extremely hard to play consistently well on various courts (grass, clay, asphalt or hard(acrylic or synthetic)) & maintain top physical condition. There are so many good players in the field & some of them sooner or later will play their best match in their top physical condition. Can we guarantee that we don't get sick or contract some flu in a year? Wait, what happen to Raphael Nadal? He was absent in the Wimbledon tournament. Since he beat Federer last year, Federer may be just lucky to win his 15 slams (career grand slams). I think the way Nadal plays make it easier to injure himself. He can beat Federer when he is in top condition. However, sooner or later, he will get injured and prevent him from playing. This is exactly the reason why Federer won French & Wimbledon this year when Nadal injured his knee. The true champion is the one who plays with style consistently with smooth strokes, without being push around most of the time & so he has less chance to get injured & be able to maintain top condition physically all year round. From the above view points, grand slam no wonder must be the most prestige achievement a tennis player can accomplish. Rod Laver achieved it & achieved it twice.

I found some video clips that you can see the play style of Rod Laver & Roger Federer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR7do5BFgzA
This is Federer & Nadal. No 1 & 2 players in 2009.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHaN2h21ANs
This is Rod Laver & Tony Roche, No 1 & 3 players in 1969.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePo6KcGQd4M&feature=related
This is Rod Laver & John Newcombe, No 1 & 2 players in 1969.