Maja Chwalinska has changed her life at this year’s Roland Garros.
Her total career earnings before Roland Garros:
$864,030.
What she’s earned at this tournament:
$1,624,000.
Because the players don’t get the money til after the tournament, she was worried she wouldn’t be able to cover her costs for a hotel as she went further and further in the draw.
Polish company OSHEE had to step in and pay for the rest of her hotel fees.
It’s nothing short of heartwarming to see this happening to such a humble person who has overcome her share of struggles.
She overcame a battle with depression and stopped playing tennis entirely for a period to take care of her mental health.
She wasn’t sure if she’d ever come back to this sport.
Absolutely unreal story. 🥹
🇵🇱❤️
USA. A diner. I ordered a cola, and they handed me a cup that was ninety percent ice.
I have learned how to measure an American's honor.
The drink came in a cup the size of my helmet. Inside: a mountain of ice, and somewhere beneath it, a rumor of cola. I tilted it. The ice did not move. It was load-bearing.
In Japan, a few cubes, politely. Here, an avalanche. And once I stopped being confused, I was moved.
Ice is not free. Someone must make it, store it, guard it through the heat. To bury a man's drink in it is not stinginess disguised. It is the opposite. It is a lord opening his treasury and saying: take all of it, take more than you need, I have so much that I do not even count.
The ice is the boast. The drink is just the excuse to deliver it.
So now I judge every establishment by the ice. A weak handful, and I know the house is humble, careful, perhaps struggling. A roaring glacier, and I know I am in the presence of abundance, and I bow before I drink.
The waiter came to refill me. He lifted the scoop, and he gave me more.
More. I had not finished. He gave me more anyway. I nearly stood and saluted.
"Most generous," I told him. "Your house is rich beyond measure."
He said, "...you want less ice next time, buddy?"
Less ice. As if I would insult him by refusing his treasure. I told him no. I told him to bury me.
I drank for forty minutes. The cola lasted four. The remaining thirty-six were spent honoring the ice directly, one melting cube at a time, until the cup held only cold water and my own deep respect.
I left the fullest I have ever been, having ordered almost nothing.
A man does not come to America for the drink.
He comes for the mountain it is hidden under.
I love the angle taken by @kenearlys on the Champions League final.
He’s absolutely right to dedicate so much time to how Arsenal waste time 🗑️
The drinking water and human life lines 🤣
It literally does.
Winning a Champions League stamps your club into footballing royalty. No one in the grand scheme of things will care about your league. We saw you win it, you're the worst team to win a league since Leicester.
Best hatewatch of my entire life.
This is a completely incorrect way of looking how currencies should be compared. Every Indian needs to know this.
Let me explain.
So yes, mathematically the rupee has weakened against all three. But Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka are NOT showing currency strength.
They’re showing currency death.
Their currencies stopped falling because there’s nothing left to fall.
Pakistan went from 105 to 280 over seven years. Sri Lanka went from 180 to 365 during their 2022 bankruptcy. Bangladesh has been on IMF watch.
When a currency hits rock bottom, it stops moving because the floor has been reached. The IMF steps in. Capital controls get imposed. Imports get restricted. The economy contracts to fit the currency.
That’s why their currencies look “stable” right now. Not because they’re strong. Because they’re frozen at distressed levels propped up by IMF bailouts and capital controls.
India still has a floating, market-determined currency in an actively trading economy of 1.4 billion people.
When the dollar strengthens globally, the INR moves. That’s how healthy currencies behave.
Imagine two patients. Patient A has fever moving from 99 to 101. Patient B is in a coma at body temperature 95. You don’t say “Patient B is healthier because their temperature isn’t rising.” Patient B is closer to dead.
The right comparison is with active, market-determined economies of similar scale.
INR has fallen 12% vs USD. Korean won fell 8%. Brazilian real fell 11%. Indonesian rupiah fell 6%. Japanese yen fell 9%.
We’re middle of the pack among countries that are actually functioning normally.
The Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka comparison is the equivalent of “I’m losing weight faster than the corpses in the morgue.”
Technically true. Completely meaningless.