Misplaced priorities

For the last week or so, inordinate attention has been paid to Tiger Woods. What misplaced hero worship. This man's extramarital escapades are his own (and his wife's) problems - they are hardly worth the media frenzy so evident everywhere. The guy broke his wedding vows, no more, no less. Nothing heroic here; it's lamentable instead.

The people who are real heroes are the ones I alluded to in my previous post.
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=1195286216399793210

There is an interesting article by Shelley Fralic about this in today's Vancouver Sun, to which I can only say "amen".

Here's the link
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/movie-guide/trouble+with+hero+worship/2772229/story.html

Goodbye Olympics

Now that the Paralympics have run their course, too, my wife and I have some "withdrawal symptoms". All the Olympic athletes were just magnificent. We attended three Olympic events in person (thanks to our "kids"), and found the CTV coverage of the Olympic events very good, especially when one considers the immense communications infrastructure which was set up to make this possible.

A disappointment for us was CTV's skimpy coverage of the Paralympics - particularly since the infrastructure was already in place. I guess the beancounters won out over journalistic obligations. We subscribe to the Vancouver Sun, and those folks did a far better job; of course they can't do "real time".

Somewhat of a "withdrawal compensation" are the world curling championships, which are now being broadcast frequently. I suppose that could be called an "easy letdown".

All in all, it was a great time.

The candle

My wife and I usually enjoy our evenings with a glass of red wine. We often light some candles and relax on the sofa. Last night, while we were watching the Paralympic opening ceremonies, I noticed a "tail" on one of the burning candles.

This looks like an unusual wax bead. Perhaps it is wax which was closer to the wick and melted during the earlier part of the candle burning, and then flowed over the edge, down the side of the candle. Now that it is farther from the wick, it seems to sit just below its melting point. Any other ideas?

Some more Olympics

I'll make an apology here. At the beginning of the Olympics, after a number of disappointments in the lack of Canadian medals, I stated that we might be able to "rent" the podium next time. But many of the world's Winter Olympics' powerhouse nations also came up short - Canada was not alone at that time.

I still consider the Own The Podium theme over-hyped and presumptuous. But my comments were unfair to the athletes who still had their events coming up, and who generated so many great performances. Coming up with an all-time world record for gold medals by any country in any winter games deserves a gold medal in itself. So, congratulations to the athletes; fourteen gold medals represent a magnificent effort and reflect favourably on those athletes who earned silver and bronze medals and those who didn't make it to the podium.

We still have the Paralympics coming up. If anything, the athletes participating in them deserve an even greater hand; overcoming their limitations in addition to the dedication and sacrifices is nothing short of miraculous.

For the handling of the underlying logistics, VANOC, the Vancouver security forces, and especially the well-behaved crowds truly deserve a "high five".

More Olympic comments

Yesterday afternoon, we went to see the Ladies' curling at the Olympic Centre. We had tickets (again, courtesy of our son and daughter-in-law) to the 7pm section tournament. Our Canadians played against the Russian team, and won 7:3. Congratulations! Our ladies had already qualified for the semifinals, but the quality-of-play was not diminished.

To get to the venue (the Vancouver Olympic Centre), we took public transport - Sky train and Bus, and got there in less than thirty minutes. The way back was similarly efficient. We even found seats, both coming and going. Kudos to Translink!

The least pleasant part of the experience occurred at the venue itself. After passing through security (no particular hassles), we found ourselves in an uncovered holding area outside the Centre, and waited there for 45 minutes (along with several hundred others, all standing around in the rain), even though we had arrived at the recommended time of 5pm, at which time the doors were supposed to be open. No announcements regarding the delay were ever made. A little improvement in P.R. is indicated here.

None-the-less, we enjoyed the evening, and look forward to our next Olympic event on Sunday.

Olympics

We've been watching the Olympics almost continuously. We admire the efforts of the athletes, but I think that the over-hyped possibilities regarding Canadian medals are intimidating some of our athletes into taking too many chances. The disappointing results for Canadians in the "marquee" events should tell our sport committees that we have some way to go. I just hope that this situation does not cause a reduction in the funding for our athletes; on the contrary, this should be a reason to increase our financial support, especially at the local level.

Maybe, four years from now, we'll be able to "rent" the podium.

And here it is...

A light rain certainly didn't dampen the Olympic spirit - here it is: the torch a couple of blocks from our house.