Origins

I might as well get it out of the way… I go to bed with John McEnroe on a regular basis. Don’t judge. I have an extremely high stress job and sometimes just need a little help settling down at the end of the day. John is always there for me when I need him the most.

To understand how my life came to this, it first necessary to understand that my stressful job comes with a relatively long commute. My primary coping mechanism for that is to listen to a wide variety of podcasts. It makes the drive tolerable.

It was through an episode of 99% Invisible that I first learned about the British Shipping Forecast broadcast by the BBC. On a related note, I do in fact frequently worry about all the potentially useful knowledge that has been squeezed of of my brain to make room for random facts such as being aware that the British Shipping Forecast is even a thing. In this case, however, it was the British Shipping Forecast that ultimately brought John McEnroe into my life.

In a epilogue to the 99% Invisible episode on the British Shipping Forecast, it was mentioned that one of the former BBC Radio announcers had recorded a forecast as a Sleep Story published within the Calm app. As it turns out, my high stress job sometimes dominates my thoughts to the point where I have trouble sleeping. The concept of bedtime stories designed to unplug adult monkey brains and to lull the listener to sleep are tremendously appealing to me.

So that is how I found myself scrolling through the various Sleep Stories in the Calm app one evening. I was actually looking for the British Shipping Forecast when.. there he was. John McEnroe narrating “But Seriously. The Rules of Tennis.” Once I saw that, no other sleep story was going to do.

As a lifelong tennis player and fan, I was acutely aware that John McEnroe is potentially one of the last people on earth to be considered to narrate a Sleep Story, but my curiosity completely overrode my desire to sleep. On that night and on many subsequent occasions I can attest that this Sleep Story totally works and I think that I have yet to stay awake for the full duration. I love John McEnroe.

However, this newfound bliss came with a side effect. The first morning after I first tried “But Seriously. The Rules of Tennis” as I was jolted from sleep by my alarm, my brain was consumed with a rule that I was previously unaware of and had probably violated on multiple occasions. It made me wonder what other rules I was missing.

That is what initiated my deep dive into the rules of tennis and it is the inspiration for this blog.