Rumblings

He looks like a sensible chap.

Hope you are still enjoying a relaxing summer. You probably are, after all, you can't possibly know that the German Ambassador in Vienna, Count Heinrich Leonhard von Tschirschky, just told the Austrian government that Germany would support Austria "through thick and thin", and that the "earlier Austria attacks the better. It would have been better to attack yesterday than today; and better to attack today than tomorrow."
Good job of throwing oil on the fire.
Maybe Kaiser Wilhelm will have something sensible to say tomorrow.
Anyway, on to more important things, Norman Brookes of Australia beat Anthony Wilding of New Zealand in the Gentleman's Singles Final at Wimbledon a hundred years ago today. Brookes was Wilding's doubles partner (they won that) and considered Wilding one of the great tennis players of the age—he won 11 major titles, including 4 at Wimbledon.
Of course, from the Olympian perspective of a century later, we know that, on May 9, 1915, at 4.45 in the afternoon, a German shell landed on Captain Tony Wilding's dugout during the battle of Aubers Ridge at Neuve-Chapelle, killing him instantly.