Sochi: Skiing, Skating, Skeletons and Scandal

We’re in the middle of that quadrennial snow festival known as the Olympic Winter Games; this time in Sochi, Russia.  Concerns aplenty as the games began.  Concerns about security, treatment of LBGT athletes and visitors, and facilities that are still in various stages of completion (a local columnist described some areas as looking like a big construction site).  And then there’s Mother Nature.  She’s apparently irritated at Vladimir Putin.  Mountaintop views reveal a shortage of snow and according to the "expert analyst" talking heads what snow there is, is of poor quality.  At the half pipe the snow was too bumpy; at the skiing venues it was too slushy and at skeleton the ice was too warm.  The folks at the Sochi Chamber of Commerce (if such a body exists) must be taking good long pulls from the vodka bottle every time the camera pulls to show vast brown hills. For his part Putin has poo-pooed the criticism.  Calls it cold war propaganda.  Vlad should know cold war.  The man who once called the Soviet collapse the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the (20th) century" sometimes seems to have aspirations of resurrecting it.  Sort of brings a nostalgic tug to my heart strings; the good old days of fallout shelters, those brilliantly colored mushroom clouds, ducking under a desk when the alarm goes off with all those jolly jokes about kissing your ass goodbye and watching the occasional B-52 cruising overhead. My apologies comrade, I digressed. 

Sochi 2014.  Got snow?

Snow quality?  I live in the San Francisco Bay Area.  What in the hell do I know about snow except that it's wet, we yearn for it in vain every Christmas Eve and actually getting it would cause an untold number of traffic accidents once the local amateurs got in their cars.

A Five Ring Sunday Circus

Alright, so I got sucked in.  I’ve taken to watching the games and in large measure it took track and field to hook me.  Well, it took track.  My cynical side, which as anyone who reads this regularly would know is dominant, tells me that the strength events are PED tainted.  I still feel burned over those two USA Track and Field Championships at Stanford a few years back.  A few years back can be translated to mean “the Balco years.”   I spent top dollar for good seats, hyped the events to Cora and then we found out after the Balco bubble burst that many of the results from both meets were frauds. 

It's The "O" Games - Oh My!

“The Olympic Games are the quadrennial celebration of the springtime of humanity.”
Pierre de Coubertin

“Every party needs a pooper, that’s why we invited you.”

From a little ditty.

Being the curmudgeonly party pooper is a tough job but someone has to take it on.  The “O” Games have begun and the world and NBC are all atwitter.  You’ll notice that I’m not using the proper word to describe these quadrennial events that are equal part sport, nationalism and soap opera (Currently two years separates the winter and summer games.  In years past the winter and summer games occurred in the same year).  I’m staying away from the actual word itself because it has an armor plated copyright, defended with badger-like tenacity and I don’t have a lawyer with the horsepower of the “O” Organizing Committee’s lawyers to fight off any suits over my use of the “O” word (In fact I don’t have a lawyer of any horsepower). 

I’m being extra cautious because according to a story on NPR the “O”, organizers in London are being O-verly zealous this year about protecting the copyright.  The “O” games lawyers (If the games were being held in nearby Dublin, could we call them O’Lawyers?) are working O-vertime making sure that nobody sells fake merchandise, hijacks the rings to promote their laundry business or dog sitting service or misuses the “O” word.  We have an “O” Boulevard here in nearby Walnut Creek; I’m wondering if the town fathers are consulting the city attorneys.