From: nebusj-@-rpi-.edu   
      
   James Blake:   
   	- In 2004 he was practicing tennis and broke his neck; Conan didn't know that   
   was possible.  Clay courts get sticky in the rain; he tried to slide and get a   
   drop shot, and he Supermanned into the net post, made of steel.  Harder than   
   bone, typically.   
   	   
   	- He was hit in his neck, not his head; he tried wiggling his toes and   
   fingers and those were fine, but he also knew he was in a lot of pain.  Had he   
   not turned his head at the last moment he'd have been paralyzed.  So it's easy   
   to find a silver lining.   
   	   
   	- Then he lost his father, so he concludes breaking his neck was a gift -- he   
   spent the last weeks with his father and was able to spend time with him.   
   	   
   	- And *then* he got shingles, in the facial nerve.  Conan had the same thing   
   around -- here my Tivo froze up -- and it was the most painful thing until he   
   started interviewing celebrities.  It paralyzed the left side of his face.   
   	   
   	+ I've never heard this about Conan before; was anyone else aware of it?   
   	   
   	- He wanted to find a way to be happy whether tennis was in his life or not,   
   and his friends did much to that.   
   	   
   	- Before the accident he played with dreadlocks.  Afterwards he decided to   
   shave his head completely.  Blake was concerned about people who see hair as a   
   gimmick.  He wanted to show he was about more than just being the kid with the   
   crazy hair, he could    
   play tennis too.   
   	   
   	- He's ranked #2 in United States players.  Andy Roddick is #1, and they play   
   very competitively, but they're friends off-court.  It's actually the media;   
   they hate each other.  ``I think it's easy playing against him'' -- not that   
   way, just that they    
   know they'll be friends.  And they can go to Taco Bell afterward and get some   
   Gorditas.  And free Chalupas.   
   	   
   	+ Breaking Back: How I lost everything and got back my life.   
      
      
   Marc Broussard:   
   	- From SOS Save Our Soul: 'Love and Happiness', I figure.  This sounds like   
   something I'd have grown up hearing on the FM radio in the 70s, and that's a   
   good thing, as I'm sure I'd remember it fondly.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)