No posts this summer.

I am putting the blog on hiatus. Actually, I guess I did it after my last post a month ago. Summer is too short in these parts to spend extra time posting blogs. It may return in the Fall. But it may not. We'll see. Have a nice rest of the summer.

Almost made it a month without posting

I've been very busy with moving, traveling, and working. I do want to comment quickly about a recent retirement that I'm sure nobody who reads this heard about. It was Justine Henin-Hardeine. She retired about a month ago. After a tournament, out of nowhere she announced that she was tired of playing and retired that day. She is 25. And she was the number one ranked player in the world. I found this strange because just about a year ago, Kim Clijsters, was 24 years-old and ranked in the top 5 in tennis and retired. And just for good measure, Annika Sorenstam, who dominated women's golf a few years ago like Tiger dominates men's golf, announced she is retiring at the end of the season, but I think she made it into her 30s. So this raises a question for me, why are all of these women retiring in their primes? But what I really want to know is why are the top female women choosing to give up lucrative careers while men virtually never do? The only close comparison I can think of is Barry Sanders but he already played 10 years and probably only had a couple good years left. I can't think of any close comparison for a male in a non-contact sport. Maybe it is the same reason that causes women to be consistently more risk averse than men in research studies about investments. I don't believe it is biological so I have to assume it is cultural. A logical explanation is that the women want to have children but they could always take a year off and comeback. They don't have to retire completely. They frequently cite outside interests which I really respect being someone who gave up a relatively lucrative career for a lower paying passion. Are men just too programmed to keep doing it and making the money until they are spit out at the bottom of the heap? I don't have the answers but I find it all very interesting. Maybe Roger Federer will win the French Open this week and announce his retirement just short of Sampras' records. That would be refreshing. So would a good night's sleep. Goodnight now.