Random thoughts about the Winter Olympics

Impressions gained while watching the Winter Olympics on the boob tube over the last two weeks...

Good show! The opening and closing ceremonies are supposed to be about spectacle, and I'd say the Russians delivered spectacle in spades. The closing ceremonies were a little subdued compared with the opening, but that's to be expected... kind of a post-coitus let-down, I suppose. And yes, there was a glitch in the special effects at the opening. When did such a big show ever come off without one? Congratulations to the Russians.

Speaking of which, it looked to me as if all those dire predictions about facilities and infrastructure being unready or inadequate were much ado about nothing. So the hotels weren't ***** (5-star), the ice was a bit snowy and one American locked himself in his bathroom. Everything... everything... was up and running on the day, and it was all right. America isn't the only country with the technical knowhow to get things done.

What did you think of all the "new" sports? "Half-pipe"...isn't that what used to be called "hotdogging"? And the moguls and the "cross" [??? Ed.], all new to me. [Where have you been? Ed.] They were all great to watch, but I'm not in favour of adding too many judged competitions, for the simple reason that the judges' decisions are always open to question and criticism, as in the case of the ice dancing. It's hard to fix a timed race, but where points are given for "style" or "technical difficulty", it's all subjective, right?

Some sports weren't so exciting. Speed skating bores the hell out of me. [Agent 9 would say that's a good thing. Ed.] Even if someone falls, they don't exactly crash and burn. All they do is slide into the boards and get a nasty bruise. What fun is that? I think the only reason there are so many speed skating events still on the cards is so the Dutch will have something they can win. Well c'mon, they don't do anything else!

Then there's curling. OK, I see the skill involved in "the roaring game", but still, the rock is moving down the ice so slowly that two people wearing toe rubbers can actually stay ahead of it while sliding sideways. Looks to me like the Canadian equivalent of lawn bowling, which I guess is about all you can do when your country is covered in ice 363 days per year. Congratulations anyway to the Canadians who won both the men's and women's competitions.

Which reminds me... There was a time when curling was played -- at championship level, mind you -- by old guys like Hector Gervais who couldn't even see his toes, and managed to smoke and drink while playing. Times have changed. Did you see the biceps on those Canadian guys? Seriously fit lads! And the Canadian women...seriously hot!

Figure skating... I like watching figure skating, and I'm not gay! Can't say the same about some of the skaters, but that's their business, and you'll notice no-one tried to keep them from competing in spite of all the LGBT propaganda about the Russians being homophobic and hateful. I repeat my comment about judged events but acknowledge that just because your favourite didn't win gold doesn't necessarily mean the result was rigged.

Maybe there shouldn't even be medals, but how can you have a competition with no rankings or prizes? On that point, could the IOC please rationalize the methods of tallying up the medal count? It would seem the top four countries were Russia, the USA, Norway and Canada, but in what order? Do you count the total number of medals, or the number of golds (then silver, then bronze to break ties), or do you assign a certain number of points for the gold, silver and bronze? Which method you use seems to depend on who you want to win -- just like real life.

I think we must be up to at least 1000 words now, so will close with just one picture, for which thanks to Agent 9.

Best Team Canada ever!

Walt has been absent for the last few days, having been in Sochi -- in spirit if not in the putrifying flesh. I'll post some thoughts on the Winter Olympiad later today, but first CONGRATULATIONS to the best men's hockey team ever to play in the modern games!

That would be Team Canada, seen above posing with the gold medals they won by beating Team Sweden 3-0 in a game which was well worth getting up in the wee hours to watch on the idiot's lantern. The result was expected, though. The real championship game was on Friday, when the NHL all-stars who are American citizens succumbed to the Canucks 1-0 in a thoroughly thrilling nail-biter.

The Team Canada selectors were faced this year with un embarras de richesse -- a surfeit of talent -- so much so that they could easily have picked two teams which would have been serious contenders for a medal -- the hockey equivalent of an entry in the sport of kings. Walt has comments on just three of the players chosen to wear the red and white.

Sidney Crosby -- Captain and superstar! In the five games played by Team Canada before yesterday's final, Sid the Kid managed only two assists. Typically, Canuck sports hacks started carping about Sid never being the same since his concussion, having lost his touch, being hard to play with, yada yada yada. Yesterday his insurance goal for Canada showed him at his magnificent best. It was picture perfect, and the video clip will be watched again and again, as was his winning goal four years ago, and as will be another in four years time.

P.K. Subban -- Selected for reasons of political correctness -- Canadian media are big on "celebrating diversity -- Pernell Karl was not trusted by super-savvy coach Mike Babcock to refrain from showboating. Result, he played just 11 minutes in the second preliminary game against Austria. He did no harm. See "P.K. can't be trusted on the P.K.!" and "It's time to trade Subban!"

Carey Price -- Do you believe now? When the Montréal Canadiens starting goalie was chosen along with Vancouver's Roberto Luongo, there were plenty of "experts" (Hello Donless Cherry!) who said Babcock with have to go with Luongo because Price was just a kid, never played in the Olympics before, more yada yada yada. Walt, on the other hand, thought that Price is the best Canadian goalie in the business. So who was right...eh? EH?

I take nothing away from Luongo, who shut out the Austrians in his only game. But Carey played all the other games, all five, and allowed just three (count `em! 3!) goals. That's an average of 0.60 goals per game. No wonder he has such a big smile as he stacks the pads in the foreground of the picture. Way to go, Carey!

Now Walt must go and nurse his hangover. Back later...

Bizarre Olympic sport intrigues Americans

Poor Len here. Walt was too busy to write this morning. He was watching Team USA play Team Canada in one of the preliminary games of the Olympic women's hockey tournament.

The Canuck ladies [Eh? Ed.] squeaked by the Americans 3-2 on the strength of a disputed goal. The Americans claimed the referee had blown her whistle before the puck entered their net, but the referee ruled the play hadn't yet Finnished.

Regular readers of WWW will know that Walt and yr. obdt. svt. are huge hockey fans. [As opposed to minute hockey fans? Ed.] We have to remind ourselves that many of our readers may not see the attraction of a game that seemingly revolves around whacking the opposition with sticks or crunchng them into the boards.

A dim view of the game is taken in Americans states like Arizona, where insane people like NHL Commissioner Bitchman seems to think interest is keen. We see this reflected in "Nation Intrigued By Bizarre Olympic Sport Of Hockey", seen today in "America's finest news source", The Onion. We cannot but chuckle and trust that hockey fans everywhere will do the same.

P.K. can't be trusted on the P.K.!

The first "P.K." stands for Pernell Karl Subban, Norris Trophy-winning defenceman (?) and resident hotdog with the Montréal Canadiens. The second "P.K." stands for "Penalty Kill", which is what you have to do when a member of your team is sitting in the sin bin. That's when you want a defenceman who can actually play defence. Which (as we pointed out last week) is what the first P.K. can't do.

Sadly, P.K. can't be trusted on the Power Play [Just skip the initials. Ed.] either. We learned that this afternoon, when the Canadiens (a.k.a. the Kids from Montréal, pictured) hosted the Tampa Bay Lightning (a.k.a. the Bolts -- much better name for a hockey team) au Centre Bell in Canada's most exciting city.

It wasn't much of a game for the first period. Both teams seemed intent on a bit of a siesta. With no score several minutes into the second stanza [Sounding like a sports writer, Len! Ed.] it seemed as if the first goal would be the winner. Then TB took a penalty and the Habs went on the (occasionally) deadly power play. What happened then was terrible to behold.

On the power play, Subban and whoever's stuck with him on defence are supposed to play on the points, meaning just inside either end of the opposition's blue line. Even with the man advantage, the two defencemen may still have to make a defensive play -- for instance, stopping the opposition from clearing the puck over the blue line and out of their zone. P.K. does that about, errr, half the time.

On this occasion, as a result of being in deep rather than close to the blue line, Subban saw the puck go by him, with two TB players chasing it, and only his defence partner skating furiously backward. The defensive play, one on two, is for the defenceman to take the opposition player closest to him and let the goalie -- the estimable Carey Price -- face the other one. It would have worked this time too had P.K. not decided to stick his stick in between the TB player and Price, to stop the shot (see?) as if Price couldn't do so on his own.

Sadly, the shot hit P.K.'s stick right on the tape and caromed past Price's outstretched hand. Advantage Tampa Bay! Goat horns to Subban!

Today's question: Why is P.K. Subban immune from criticism when, as happens too often, he makes a mistake and then compounds it trying to recover? Could it be because he's, errr, black -- one of the few black players in the NHL and the only one ever to play for Montréal.

Yeah, could be. Whatever the reason, only the play-by-play commentators on RDS (the French-language channel) mentioned Subban's habit of making decisions that cause coaches to tear their hair out. That he scored an own goal was not talked about at all on the CBC telecast. The sportscast during the CTV evening news showed the Montréal goal which tied the game, and Tampa Bay's overtime game-winner. But the first goal, deflected by P.K. into his own net? Not shown. Nothing. Rien.

In fact, Subban's sub-par performances have been quietly overlooked ever since he was named to Canada's Olympic hockey team in spite of his reputation for being defensively "risky". If anyone has noticed that Habs coach Michel Therrien never plays P.K. on the P.K. -- and how could his absence not have been noticed -- they keep silent about it.

Eight defencemen have been chosen for the Canadian Olympic team. But coach Mike Babcock doesn't have to play or even dress all eight. Canadians who want their team to win should hope that political correctness doesn't force Babcock to trust P.K. to defend against some of the best players in the rest of the world.

Well done, eh

Walt took the weekend off to watch the last three days of the Olympics. First, congratulations to all who won medals, and more congratulations to those who tried, even though they hadn't a snowball's chance of winning.

Congratulations as well to the host country for organizing a first-rate games. Sure, there were a couple of hitches and glitches, but all the competitions were held, no security breaches occurred, and it looked like a good time was had by all.

It was nice, too, to see Canadians not taking themselves too seriously. Leaving aside the "own the podium" campaign and the whining of a few professional malcontents, there was a lot of "hoser humour" and general goodwill on display. And that's as it should be. Well done, Canada!

How much Americans know about Canada, Part 72

Fox... You know, the one who had that awful disease and was so courageous. And funny too, especially in that Back to Future movie! Yeah, he's the one who should have lit the Olympic flame. No doubt about it, at least in the mind (if you'll forgive the overstatement) of NBC.

"O Canada" to be sung in Hindi at 2010 Olympics?

Under the title "We SHOULD be concerned", Agent 89 has forwarded "We Are Proud Canadians", a.k.a. "We'll reap what we've sown if we don't nip this in the bud." It purports to be a rant by Bruce Allen, a prominent BC radio personality and a director of the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC), decrying a proposal that "O Canada" be sung in Hind (!) at next year's Winter Olympics. Here's the text...

Bruce Allen is on the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Committee and new Canadians (specifically Hindis/Indians) want him fired for his recent comments outlined below:

I am sorry, but after hearing they want to sing the National Anthem in Hindi at the 2010 Olympics -- enough is enough. Nowhere or at no other time in our Nation's history, did they sing it in Italian, Japanese, Polish, Irish (Celtic), German, Portuguese, Greek, or any other language because of immigration. It was written in English, adapted into French, and should be sung word for word the way it was written.

The news broadcasts even gave the Hindi version translation, which was not even close to our National Anthem. I am not the least bit sorry if this offends ANYONE, this is MY COUNTRY!

My Grand Dad served in the military, other family members also served, as well as my wife & I served a combined total of 56 years between us. We made many sacrifices for our country and do not feel we should feel obligated to allow invited people we've welcomed with open arms to influence & change our society to better resemble the one they chose to leave to come here!

IF YOU AGREE ABOUT THIS GREAT COUNTRY, SPEAK UP BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE -- please pass this along.

I am not against immigration. In fact I believe we need more, my ancestors were immigrants -- just come through like everyone else. Get a sponsor; a place to lay your head; have a job; pay your taxes, live by the Rules AND LEARN THE LANGUAGE as all other immigrants have in the past -- and LONG LIVE CANADA!

It's time we all get behind Bruce Allen, and scrap this Political Correctness. His comments were anything but racist, however, there are far too many overly sensitive 'New Canadians' that are attempting to change everything we hold dear.

Are YOU part of the problem? Think about this: If you don't want to forward this for fear of offending someone, will we still be the Country of Choice and still be CANADA if we continue to make the changes forced on us by the people from other countries who have come to live in CANADA because it is the Country of Choice? Think about it!

IMMIGRANTS, NOT CANADIANS, MUST ADAPT.It's time for CANADIANS to speak up.
If you agree, pass this along. If you don't agree?Delete it and reap what you sow because of your complacency!

Now here's the interesting thing... Not long ago Walt received a similar FWD from Agent 17, who lives about 1200 miles away from Agent 89. Having dutifully passed it along, I was taken to task by an old friend for perpetuating a "hoax"!

Dear readers, it's not a hoax. But what you've read is not what Bruce Allen said. This rant has been around before. According to snopes.com, the latest version has been circulating since 2007, and is an adaptation of an earlier rant condemning a proposal that the U.S. anthem be sung in Spanish.

It should be noted too that whoever wrote the Canadianized version is either ignorant or a typical tête carrée (perhaps an Albertan?) who doesn't know or doesn't want to know that O Canada was originally written in French. The English lyrics, which are not a translation of the French (because the French version is soooo Catholic!) were written almost 30 years later. Details are in the Snopes article.

Also worth reading are Bruce Allen's comments in his own defence, published in September 2007.

Now let us ask ourselves why this "racist, anti-immigrant rant" is being so widely circulated on the Internet. (You mean it's gone viral? ed.) I believe it's because it strikes a chord with the majority of Canadians and Americans, including millions of immigrants from Europe who tried to adapt to our culture, rather than forcing us to adapt to theirs.

Only a few years after WWII, our community opened its gates and its arms to a wave of immigrants from countries which had been overrun by the Germans (or, in the aftermath of the war, the Communists). They were called "displaced persons", not "refugees".

Walt's mother (RIP) was a high school English teacher. The local school board, in a fit of enlightenment remarkable for the time, set up ESL classes for the "DPs", who came in astonishing numbers to avail themselves of the opportunity to learn the language and culture of their host country. My mother, who had the typical Anglo mistrust of foreigners, was impressed forever after by the positive attitude of these (literally) poor people.

One of the first things they wanted to learn was the words to the national anthem. They did not demand that it be translated into their languages. They wanted to learn not just how things should be said, in Canada, but how they should be done. But that was over 50 years ago...

Will we still be the Country of Choice and still be CANADA if we continue to make the changes forced on us by the people from other countries who have come to live in CANADA because it is the Country of Choice?

Walt agrees. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!