Friends of the Norwegian curling pants ( pic & youtube song)

I'm Back in Seattle, watching CNBC, which is showing the men's Gold Medal Curling match between Canada and Norway. Norway is the team of the famous red, blue and white harlequin patterned pants that have taken the Curling world by storm. Seriously, one commentator said that this would change curling forever.
These pants are so famous in fact, that there are now 41 Facebook pages you could friend. The most active one was Norwegian Pants with  513,000 friends which may have been taken down.

If you google "Norwegian pants" you get articles that read

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The Norwegians' pants were pulled down. Briefly.

Not to worry, curling fans — they were back up after a 2½-hour scare.

How hilarious is that.

Here's a song inspired by those outfits.   (BTW, Canada is currently winning 3 to 0 in the 6th End out of 10 Ends)  ( A bit later-Canada wins!)

Publish Post

Go Curlers Go (pic)

Its almost Purim, the Jewish holiday of celebration, frivolity and costumes. Even though I'm going to miss hearing the Megillah on Saturday night, I certainly have had my fill of jubilation and wacky costumes.

As we speak, the Canadians and Swedes are battling for the Gold and Silver medal in Curling. I was lucky enough to see them play in the early rounds, when Canada won. I'm just not sure who to root for. Canada has taken my heart, but I have a connection to Sweden with my dear friend and 'sister' Ingrid.
Either way, then. I win.

Miga and Quatchi Olympic Mascots (pic)

Sitting in the cold Cypress Mountain air (okay, cold is an understatement. It was freezing), there was a lot of time to kibbutz, especially when one skier wiped out and had to be carried off on a stretcher, postponing the next run for 10 minutes.

At that point, I learned about the Olympic mascots. All the adults agreed that we were not initially impressed with them, but that they had grown on us over time. Part of that is seeing how much the children LOVE them, just love them to pieces. Any time there was a mascot at the event, there were also long lines to take pictures.
So, I succombed!
Quatchi is a Sasquatch, and Miga is a whale (huh?). There is another mascot Sumi, a mythical spirit bear, and a sidekick MukMuk, a muscrat. All very Canadian, eh?

Who in the world is YuNa Kim? (video)

If you were watching ANY of the ladies' skating, you should know who Yu Na Kim is by now: t:he extraordinary Gold medal winner (no, I 'm not giving away any information writing this after the fact).
Even though I  was sitting in the stratosphere for the short program, her magnetism reached us in the top rows. A standing ovation well deserved.
My knowledge of her came by chance before I arrived in Vancouver. To be honest, I didn't know much about the skaters this Olympic cycle, not even the US team. Even though I had been avidly watching Universal Sports for the past few months as they tracked the pre Olympic tournaments like the Ice Dancing and Pairs Grand Prix, I must have missed the Nationals in Spokane, because I only vaguely knew about Rachel Flatt, the US champion, while the others were a blur.
By chance, though, as I was searching for footage of Michelle Kwan to post, I happened onto some past video of Yu Na Kiim. I haven't been this mesmerized since I saw Michelle Kwan skate at the US Nationals in 1998. Then I forgot about her, not realizing that there were high  Olympics expectations for her from both the Korean and world community

For the short program, she skated to a medley of James Bond music. Sounded risky, perhaps a bit too kitchy, so what I loved, absolutely loved was how she pulled it off with just the right touch of sass and bravado without letting the music dominate. That had been the problem earlier in the night, when some of the weaker skaters used symphonic music that overpowered their skating, or conversely, lightweight music that didn't drive the skating with any energy. Neither of these can be said of Yu Na Kim. She is totally in the driver's seat in both performance, technique, and choreography.

Too much of the commentary is focused on the jumping, and not enough on the way she uses her whole body in the spins and the footwork.  If you have a chance to find footage of her Olympic programs, look at the spin sequences for some of the most original combinations I have ever seen.

 From 2009-----------
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Ladie's figure skating

When this journey began, I had envisioned seeing only ice skating, but my first round of tickets only included 1 event. It seemed so certain that there wouldn't be any more tickets available, but I learned a lesson from the minute I arrived: this was a scalpers paradise. They were allowed to buy 48 tickets and could stand out and sell them for whatever the market would bear. For buzz events like the Canada US hockey games, tickets went for as much as 1000$ ( I hear that tickets for the men's gold medal hockey games could fetch as much as 5000$) So, even a few weeks before I left Philadelphia I bought another ticket.  I paid some premium for that ticket, but not as much as for the next one. I made a mistake to think I needed to buy it online instead of waiting until I arrived because I saw tickets being sold for less than the face value the night of the performance. oh well


More about skating later. right now I'm back in Seattle waiting, waiting for NBC to show the finals. yawn..

Pictures from Cypress Mountain Ski Cross

This was my most adventurous day with 2 events back to back. Cypress mountain was a taxi ride and charter bus ride away. Even leaving the apt. I could tell that the air was getting colder and more humid. As we approached the mountain, a spectacular view of Vancouver appeared to the right, the only time that it would be clear all day.  After reaching the parking area, we had to walk, of course, to the bottom of the viewing area, but that wasn't the end of it.
In spite of the cold, in spite of the 200 steps to go up and down and up and down again, I had a  blast. The seating areas were situated so that we could see the last turn and jump as the skiers came down the hill.

 The toilets and food are at the bottom of the stairs and the viewing area at the top.  There are always outrageous fans, this one an Aussie. We had some New Zealanders behind us too.                  

Ladies or womens

What's up?

Ladies figure skating
women's speed skating
Ladies ski cross
Women's hockey
Women's alpine skiing

At least they don't call them girls

Speed skating (pics)

Getting greedy, I just needed to see some speed skating, but needed to come up with a plan to stay an extra day. The main dilemma-where to stay?

On Monday, I went to Granville Island, an area with arts shops, an indoor food market and outdoor music. On the way there, I struck up one of the many,  many conversations on the skytrain, in line, and on the streets.with a couple, and talked about wanting to stay another day.  After walking around the Island, I ran into them again and offered me a place to stay. My mouth dropped open in amazement.  We exchanged numbers and I walked away very happy.

What this allowed me to do was see one last event-5000 m women's speed skating at the Richmond Oval.  This venue was the farthest Vancouver site away and involved an hour long train ride and a very fast walking 1.6 miles!  I mean fast. The event started at 1:00 and the lines were longer than for any other event I had been to.


Mind you, the events were scheduled to the minute, so it didn't matter whether you were in or not.
Fortunately, I only missed the first round of 8.
There are no bad seats in this venue, so even in the last row, we could see the rink clearly. I was sitting behind an artist who was drawing and painting the scene (I think I ended up in it). In front of us were 5 people with maple leaf posters spelling C-A-R-L-A for Carla Hughes. She is the only athelete who has won medals in both the summer (bicycling) and winter olympics. don't ya just hate her!  She won the gold 4 years ago

Ladie's figure skating short program

What a privledge and a unique experience we all had last night. I don' t know how much has been playing in the US, but the Canadian skater's mother died suddenly on Sunday night and it was never certain she would choose to skate last night.

So, you can only imagine, or maybe it was shown on TV, the reception that she received when she entered the rink for the warmup, then for her skate, again once her skate was over, and after the score was announced. What was stunning is that she skated a beautiful clean routine, only breaking down in tears after the last note of music was completed.

We were all Canadian's last night and I was proud to be one of the many who stood up and cheered for a great athlete and competitor.

Curling is a blast (pic)

Once again, I was able to move forward to see the curling 'sheets' up close. Four matches are in progress at a time. and this was a women's round robin event.  I saw, Russia/China, Denmark/Great Britain, Canada/Sweden, Japan/?? ( I wasn't paying too much attention to that game because it was on the other side of the rink)

Great to be in the arena when Canada played so I could whoop and cheer for great shots and a winning match.
In the row behind me was a family of curling fans, decked out in Canada colors and clown wigs. They gave me lots of pointers, but the basics of the game are simple enough to enjoy from the start. Each 'end' is hard fought because with every stone fortunes can change. You see, it is only the team that has the stone closest to the 'button' (see the side bar for a pic of the court) that gets any points, so it is possible even in the last throw to change the course of the game.

There was an exciting moment, when both the Canadian and Swedish stones looked to be equal distance from the center 'button'. What to do?  The refs have this elaborate metal contraption that looks like a giant protractor (remember those from geometry?). They use it to measure the distance from the center of the stone to the edge of the 'button'.  This time it was in Canada's favor -cue: cheering crowd.

The other exciting game was between GB and Denmark as the lead changed several times. As I mentioned, it can come down to the last stone-GBs stone was closest, but was knocked out by the Danes at the last throw. THe final score was Denmark 9, GB 8.

What I really loved was seeing the variety of body types in this sport. THe Danish captain is broad and heavy set, the Canadian, tall and lean. The Chinese team is taut and small, the Brits tall. The women wear polo shirts and pants, but some even wore big earrings and nobody, but nobody cared about what their hair looked like.

Go, ladies of curling.

There were several burly Russian men sitting in front of me, wildly supporting their team. Oh my gosh, how could I have forgotten who was playing against the Japanese. It was the Swiss, who had brought a contingent of at least 25 people with large Swish flags and a 10 foot banner with a picture of the whole team on it.

And that is how enthusiastic curling  fans are.Who knew??

The venues-getting around Vancouver

The venues are spread out all over town and though the transportation is good and well organized, it does take time to get from one place to another. I've been fortunate because the Pacific Coliseum where the figure skating takes place is a one stop/shuttle ride away. To get to the UBC Center, One of the two hockey venues (and that shows you how popular hockey is) I took two trains and a long bus ride. Getting to Cypress, I needed to take a train to the bus and a 45 minute bus ride to the mountain.
Curling is in a smaller venue in a residential neighborhood accessible by train and a shuttle (or 1.1 km walk, that's 1/2 mile)

Oh, and that doesn't include the walking once you get to the venue. For example, for hockey and the curling we walked another 15 minutes. And to skiing-10 minutes to the base of the spectator area and then-gulp-205 steps up to the bleachers. Mind you, the viewing area was great, but in order to get any food or use the port o pottys, we had to walk back down those steps, and of course back up again.

In some ways this has prevented me from going to any of the 'cultural' events, but frankly, the whole Olympics is one huge cultural party. Walking through town, chatting on the Skytrain, meeting people from all over the world is a treat.

The speed skating venue is far south near the airport, a new venture today. After that, I'm moving locales and taking a train to a nearby suburb for the evening. What has been enjoyable is getting to know the city through public transportation.

Ladie's ski cross description of event

This was the only event I got to see from the qualifications to the medal round.  Each of 35 skiers winds her way down a long  course with bumps and turns to qualify for the heats. Only 32 make it to the first heat which consists of 8 groups of 4 racing down a hill on skis, jockeying for position. 2 from each of these pairs moves on the the next round and so on until there are only 4 left to ski. It gets more dangerous with each round, and there are always crashes. One skier crashed so badly that they had to take her out on a stretcher. Another crashed about 10 feet before the finish line and as she  slid to a stop, she raised her arms and legs in a bowed position and smiled broadly in good humor. After the initial , 'oh no', from the crowd, a unison laugh erupted when  realized she was all right and smiling, That one will probably make the papers.

Since there were no USA skiers (no one around me could explain that ) it was easy to cheer on the leading Canadian skier Ashleigh McIvor. She made it through all the rounds to the medal run. What a thrill to see a skiier go through the whole day without a mistake and come out a gold medal winner, bringing us all to our feet in jubilant applause.

It is fun to win!!!

All events are about women!

I don't know how this happened, but all the events that I chose, or that chose me, were women's sporting events. Women's hockey, women's curling, women's skating, women's speed skating, women's ski cross.
And all of them were packed with cheering fans.  I noticed this as I sat behind 3 very exhuberant Russian male fans cheering on their curling team. There is something significant to me that the womens' teams were as highly regarded, followed,  and is as cheered as the men's teams.

Go, ladies, go.

I also realized for the first time, that I like to watch live sports. I wrote in a previous post about being delighted to see 'highly trained bodies in motion". Add screaming and yelling, cheering, stomping, waving hands, singing dumb songs with 1000s of others for the best trained bodies in the world. What could be bad.

Sated, wet and almost ready to come home

The last two days I've seen 3 separate events in three very different venues. The first, yesterday, was curling. Yes, ladies and gentleman, I made it to a curling match which I found to be totally fun, engaging to the very last stone throw. The second was today as I rose early to go to Cypress mountain for the ladies ski cross. The third was the ladies figure skating short program which just ended.

Up until today, the weather was gorgeous. Then it shifted back to normal Vancouver winter rainy weather which produced SNOW in the mountain. I guess I did bring the Philly snow with me after all.

So that is the wet part!  I sat in the snow all day, and didn't have time to dry off before going to the skating event.
Sated. I've seen three skating events, and realized after this one that it was enough figure skating (if I get a chance and the energy, I'll write about where I saw the finals of the ice dancing)
But I did have one more event that I wanted to see-speed skating. Unbelievably, they still had some available at the box office, so I've decided to stay another day and see that tomorrow.

Ready to come home? Almost.

The Olympic Flame (pic)

Like all of downtown, the area around the flame is very crowded. There is this obnoxious fence around it, so you can't actually get close. All the more reason to hang out with folks and have them take pictures with me. Here is the Canada/US spirit.

more crowd pictures

Every country has a different jacket. You can see the Dutch a mile a way in orangeAnd then there are the Americans

 

But Canada has them beat

The crowds (Pics)

What can I say?  The downtown streets are closed off to traffic to accomodate the thousands and thousands of people making our way around the Waterfront, Granville, Vancouver City Center. Volunteers guide us well to popular areas near the Olympic Flame, Yaletown, and Robson Street. There are street events all over town for free, pavillions from many countries,  the Canada Roots store for all things Canadian, or you can just wander up and down the street people watching. Its rather exhausting actually, especially on the weekend, so I hope that during the week it will be less so.

Bravo to Canadian Ice Dancers - #1 (pic)

The buzz around town was the US vs Canada hockey game, but I was glad to be sitting in the 7th row next to the judging area to watch a brilliant Original Ice Dance performance. Again there were 23 pairs, each doing an original 'folk dance' routine. There are several required elements including two lifts, simultaneous spins and foot work that shows off their ability to use the inside and outside edges, and some dance work.  The couples could choose any country, so it was quite funny that there were two cowboy and cowgirl routines, one from the US and one from Great Britain.
The Japanese couple did an elegant routine that was well received by the audience, so when the scores were relatively low, the audience booed for the first time since I've been here. THat is the magic of this 'sport'. Here we are watching beauty and art, AND we get to boo and eat French fries.

Russia vs. Slovakia women's hockey

 In the first period of the game, the Russian women dominated the play with a 3 to 1 ratio of shots and 2 goals.
But something happened in the second period to fire up the Slovakians. Maybe it was the contingent sitting to my right that held up Slovakian flags and posters like
Slovensko- Do Toho which I assume means something good (not 'the refs suck') in Slovakian


Maybe it was the crowd cheering on the underdog. Maybe they just got their wind. Whatever the reason, they made a hook shot goal that brought us all to our feet. Such a different atmosphere than figure skating. The jumbo screens show the Olympic mascots exhorting us to make noise, clap our hands. At one point they played a song that went like this "Put your hands up in the air, put your hands up in the air, put your hands up in the air" Hilarious and totally fun.
The game became more fierce each period. The Slovakians made one more goal before finally losing 4-2.
But our hearts were with them.


The buzz-watch the Canadian-US game today at 4:30. I'll be watching my rarified ice dancing, but may go downtown to take in the action afterwards.

More travel stories

The Skytrains are bright, clean, modern and CROWDED. On Friday night I hadn't yet experienced the crowds because the venue was nearer to where I am staying and easy to get to by bus. Just stepped off the skytrain, followed the directions of the friendly volunteers and that was it.
But on Saturday, I ventured downtown to pick up the rest of my tickets and found out where all the people are. Thousands of them, streaming on the streets, eating in outdoor cafes, watching street theater. I got a bit turned around and found myself walking to a different station than I had anticipated, thinking it was a few blocks away.
Wrong. The walk was about a mile, but this was a fortunate detour because I would otherwise never have found the Expo Center and the rock sculpture area by the water. THe path wound its way to the Science Center station, which actually was a good place to be because the wait was only 30 minutes on the Expo line not 1 hour like the Canada Line. The line snaked around the park and folks from the Salvation Army handed out hot chocolate. WE moved rather quickly, and of course we all chatted about the games we had seen, we were from.
That wasn't it though. After the Skytrain ride, we all piled out to wait again for the bus that would take us to the UBC Arena for the hockey game. Stuffed into buses, I finally found out who was playing in the game:Russia and Slovakia. A woman shared how to say, "You skate like a girl" in Russian. we all laughed.
Very ironic, since we were about to see a Women's hockey game!

The view from where I am staying (pics)

Nice, eh?

Women's Hockey-the prologue (pics)

Let's get it straight from the start: The Olympics are in Canada! If you had ANY doubt, you only have to look at 95% of the people on the streets, on the SkyTrain (Vancouver's elevated and subway system), the buses, the arenas, the streets, and cafes to see every variation  of Canadian clothing, paraphernalia, backpacks, pins, facepaint. If I were to take a picture of each of these, my camera would be full 10 times over. I will include just a few in the next few days.

I will need to work backwards, inside out and upside down to write about this day, one full of spirit (I went to the Jewish Renewal synagogue in Vancouver),  exercise (I walked and walked, sometimes farther than I needed to), wonder (I saw an amazing stone beach filled with hundreds of hand made sculptures), long yet enjoyable travels (lines to get on the Skytrain, lines to get on the bus, a 45 minute bus ride to the stadium), a fast paced game (when do we ever get to see Women's hockey in the US) and finally meetings and greetings as everyone is happy to talk about what they have seen and done here at the olympics.

 

In plane view (pics)

 some pics from this leg of the trip

The de-icing station. Oh-I feel much better now

 

A view from the plane on the way to Atlanta

Lessons learned

When I went to the US Nationals in 1998, my mother and I had tickets way up in the stratosphere. We could look down and see that there were empty seats below, so each day we found our way down to a better seat.
The same thing happened on Friday night-I was up higher than I wanted to be, though it wasn't terrible. Clearly though, down below the seats were not filled.
After the second break, I and many other people made our way down to the lowest section, so that I ended up in row 7 again.  Next to me on either side were  Canadian couples who knew less than I did, so I gave them tips on what I knew about the event. We whooped and cheered together for the Canadians, and commented about costumes.

What you don't see on tv is the entrance to the arena. After an easy train and bus ride, I arrived at the entrance to the walkway  to the arena. Along the way were dozens of volunteers, a marimba band, some funny blue haired 'judges' some other street theater, an a capella group and a guitar player all to greet us. 

I'm also learning about tickets. There are dozens of people outside the arenas-what I'm hearing is that just before the event, tickets are actually cheaper as the sellers try to unload. I'll see if there are any tickets to speed skating -it would be great to see Apollo Ono.- or possibly the Canada/US hockey game.

Ice dancing Tango Romantico

the edge of a blade, the arch of a back, the turn of a head, and the precision of line. 24  couples each  intricately and intimately connected, dancing the same routine virtually to the same music twice around the rink, with a creative flourish at the beginning and the end.  3 short minutes of grace and discipline.
There are 6 groups, starting with the pairs that generally get 25-30 out of 50 points, half for technical merit, half for artistic. Of course, even the first groups are lovely, and watching them gives me a chance to learn the routine.
There are half circle glides, tango inspired footwork and head snaps, unison leg lifts, and dramatic placing of skates on the ice. One step is very telling. The man places his right foot slightly out to the side and the woman places it on the inside of his foot. How close the feet are, how seamless the move, seemed to this judge to be  one distinguishing factor.
On figure skates there are two edges which provide the ability to turn and lean. The first French team leans deeply into the edges to produce a gorgeous line on the ice. The take an early lead with 43 points. The next French team invokes that tango with sharp snaps of the head and decisive placement of the feet with the music. They soon become the leaders.
It is the last 4 pairs, however, who put all of this together. Look for the statuesque Russian team, who are currently in first place.
But of course, we are all Canadians for the night. Every time a Canadian pair comes on the ice, the arena is festooned with Red and White and maple leaf flags. In the final grouping, the Canadian pair is greeted with wild applause.You might not see this on tv, but the man skates onto the ice, hands spread wide, head arched back reveling in the applause. I think it is one of the most thrilling moments of the evening.
They  have a different softer style than the Russian team, and even the costume amplifies that. She  wears a plum colored dress that drapes softly down her legs. Their turns and glides are like butter on the ice.
 The final standing in the compulsory-Russian, Canada, US. The original dance is tomorrow night.

The men of skating ROCK

A late night and well worth staying up to see the men rise to their best.
 My friends don't have a television, so I walked down a few blocks to the local brewery/pub where they have a large screen tv. I had to convince the manager to turn on the sound after the women's snowboarding. I stayed there until 10:30 when they closed up shop.
Across the street was a real bar with pool tables and video games and lots of tvs showing everything from basketball to Sex in the City to the Olympics. I asked the bartender to turn up the volume , but since the whole place was filled with loud music that seeped into the bar area, that wasn't going to work. I plunked myself down at a table in front of the largest darn screen in the quieter room and watched with great joy the last 6 men skate their hearts out to hard  rock music! It wasn't bad, actually. Produced an edgy feeling that was Much better than  the sappy music some of them choose for the short program.
The captioning was on, so I did get some of the insipid commentary
The bartender kept tabs on me, high fiving after Evan Lysacek skated a great program. " I don't want that Russian to win" he said.Another women said, " I don't want that blonde guy to win"  Frankly, neither did I.I was rooting for Daisake who eventually won the bronze I think he had the most exhuberant short program and all his motions flowed directly from his center and radiated out with flair and grace

But it was true. Evan made it happen. Skill artistry, difficulty, no mistakes.

When Pleshenko's scores came up and it was certain that Evan Lysacek had won gold, I cheered and clapped, the bartender high fived me again, and a big tip went into his tip bowl.
I left the bar smiling It was well worth having to walk back at midnight in the cool air, even knowing that I get up at 5:30 am tomorrow to catch my 7:40 train to Vancouver.
Yes finally, I will be in Vancouver tomorrow for the  Ice Dancing compulsory skate, so stay tuned.

A few activities in Seattle

The mountain has been in full view which is

 an unusual sight in February and reminds everyone why it is so glorious to live here.

At Drexel, I've been enjoying yoga classes, which my friend Anette also does at this studio called YogaTree. We went together for a class. The instructor gave a teaching on the Buddhist notion of suffering: When our expectations collide with reality we often blame 'reality' or the situation rather than our false expectations. We focused in the class on being present to the reality of the aches,the pleasures, our image of what we should be doing and what we could be doing.  This is a good send off for me as I go tomorrow into a situation with many expectations and I'm sure lots of surprises

Bikes Bikes everywhere in Seattle. Check out the Fremont Solstice parade on Youtube for more fun on bikes.

The Men of skating

Watch tonight for the finals



Like a schoolgirl, a smitten teenager, I love to watch these men in black.

Shaun White and Shani Davis

If you missed last night's events, check out Shaun White's Gold medal snowboard run and  Shani Davis' speed skating gold run. Shaun's sense of total fun and dedication is an inspiration, even to  those of us who will never get on a snowboard. I am disappointed that I won't see the speed skating live, especially after seeing Shani Davis,  the epitome of grace.

If you go to this website, you can see lots of great stuff, including Shaun White, Lindsey Von and Shani Davis

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/assetid=d924411a-bea6-4fd8-b485-f58dc5238dfe.html#mens+halfpipe+white+wins+gold

Won't see skiing

I was supposed to see Ski cross on Feb 23, but a last look at email for the night shows this in my box:

Important: Standing Room Tickets for Cypress
We are disappointed to inform you that heavy warm rains have made the general admission standing room area at the Cypress Mountain snowboard stadium unsafe for spectators. As a result, account holders who purchased general admission standing room tickets for the sessions below will have their event tickets and Olympic bus network tickets cancelled and their money refunded.

So, I rushed online to see that there were still some tickets to see the women's (I just can't write ladies') short program on Tuesday. The seats are somewhere up in the stratosphere, but hey that's what binoculars are for.

(pic) More on the prosaics of travel On the plane in Philadelphia and a race to the next gate

Only 1 1/2 hours late in Philly, the plane finally gets on its way. But wait, now we have to go through a de-icing station. A man sits in a box atop a crane and gives the airplane wings a shower of chemicals. I feel somewhat safer.

A beautiful view from the plane of snow and hills.We arrive in Atlanta at 3:10 and my connecting flight is at 3:35. I'm standing in the back of the plane and want to shout, "If you don't have to catch another plane right now SIT DOWN"
Or wishing the flight attendants would do that.
Instead, I watch the snow motion ballet of bags tumbling down from the overhead compartment (how often do you get to write the words overhead compartment)
AS soon as the path is cleared, I run through an obstacle course of crowds, carts, baggage, literally pushing people out of the way on escalators (doesn't anyone know that you should stand on the right side if you are not walking down the escalator).
Out of breath, but on time, a good sign. At the gate everyone is still waiting at the gate. Wouldn't you know it, the plane was delayed and left 45 minutes later!

In that 45 minutes I talked with a high school student who had just competed in the Junior Fencing Olympics in Memphis, a women whose daughter is thinking about becoming an ESL teacher, and a lovely Atlanta native.
Arrived in Seattle safe and sound only 6 hours later than originally planned, but just in time to go to my friends home to watch the snow cross wipeouts and the men's short program.

The prosaics of travel

Today is the day I leave for Seattle, the first leg of my trip. Or rather, try to leave. I can now be counted among the living dead that haunt the airports in search of a rescheduled flight. Somewhere along my flight path, the weather interfered, my first flight was cancelled, and so I have to wait for a later flight not through Minneapolis, but through Atlanta. Usually you can count on that city to be relatively weather proof, but I think today even Atlanta is part of this winter's cauldron that is brewing storms all over the USA. There is no snow there, but it is cold.
Across from me is a mother and daughter enjoying a retelling of a funny story about when her daughter was lost as a child, so they seem to be making the most of the 'lost' time waiting. Others calculate the extra distances they may need to drive if rerouted to a different airport. A businessman, immaculately dressed, has an uplifting conversation, ending it with a huge smile. A marine waits to go home perhaps, or off to his next assignment. Boarding announcements for the lucky ones. Reading, iphoning, ipodding,blogging, daydreaming, sipping coffee, for the rest of us.
An airport worker walks out of the elevator "...We're going to get more snow next week, a big one this time..."
Enough snow!

So nu, what is a mogul?

Mo·gul (mgl, m-gl)
n.
Mo·ghul (m-gl, m-) or Mu·ghal (m-gl)

check out #2, Who knew?

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Mogul [ˈməʊgʌl məʊˈgʌl] n
1. (Historical Terms) a member of the Muslim dynasty of Indian emperors established by Baber in 1526 See Great Mogul
2. (Non-Christian Religions / Islam) (Social Science / Peoples) a Muslim Indian, Mongol, or Mongolian
adj
(Historical Terms) of or relating to the Moguls or their empire
[from Persian mughul Mongol]
mogul1
n
1. an important or powerful person
2. (Transport / Railways) a type of steam locomotive with a wheel arrangement of two leading wheels, six driving wheels, and no trailing wheels
[from Mogul]
mogul2
n
(Individual Sports & Recreations / Skiing) a mound of hard snow on a ski slope
[perhaps from South German dialect Mugl]

Philadelphia wins big in snow removal moguls

The snow and weather cooperated to set up perfect conditions for the newest Olympic sport, city street moguls cross. This sport is a cross between the well known bumps and grinds of downhill moguls and the chaotic intensity of ski cross racing with such moves as busted double axles, tire spins, and fender benders.

Athletes who attempt this dangerous sport must be prepared to traverse a grueling course which includes unplowed narrow streets, out of order traffic lights and surprise Competitors like city buses, UPS trucks, disabled cars,SVUs and the ever ubiquitous oblivious cell phone toting pedestrian.

How is the course set up? First, there must be at least 18 inches of snow, and better yet, two sets in one week, too much for the sponsors of the event to clean up completely. Streets must not be plowed sufficiently and the weather is best when below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. This makes for perfect conditions. In this scenario, cars and SVUs alike must dodge pothole like terrain of packed snow and ice. For the more advance competitions, two way streets are piled on either side with snow so that only one lane is available.

This weeks competition between Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington DC saw one of the most fierce battles since the blizzard of 1996.
Kudos to Philadelphia for taking all the gold, silver and bronze.

Olympic opening ceremony (video)

Didja watch the opening ceremony?
Loved some of the country outfits-I think I'd like to find the jackets from Turkey (very formfitting and slimming, but what do Olympic athletes need with slimming jackets), the wool hats from the US, and the Canadian scarves.
Loved seeing the Cayman Islands in the winter Olympics.
Loved having friends around to enjoy, kibbutz, comment, Ooo and awe.
Loved having my brother and mother call in from Maryland to add to the fun.
Loved the way they created the wheat fields, and the whales, the fish, and other amazing effects. How did they do that?

Loved how they kept zooming in on Shaun White, the redheaded Snowboard phenom. His authentic gee whiz excitement made me smile.
But under all the pomp and ceremony and joy, there was such grief over the loss of the Georgian athlete, Nodar Kumaritashvili, who died on a practice Luge run. I've never seen a stadium of over 60,000 people hold such a thundering silence as they did in his honor.

The little girl who could Version 1

See the alternative version in the next posting. Both inspired by Peter, who passed on this inspired idea:

Once there was a little girl who was on her way to the winter Olympics in Vancouver Canada. She was very excited to get to watch fantastic skaters and curling teams and hockey teams and skiers. But then she heard the sad news that there wasn't enough snow for all the snowboarders, and ski jumpers, and skiers. They were going to cancel all those events unless someone had a plan to help Vancouver and Cypress Mountain get more snow!

This little girl had an amazing idea. It was the day after the Big Storm. The Big, Big, Big Storm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania She was standing in 3 feet of snow, wondering, "Why not ship the snow to Cypress mountain? We don't need all that snow here, and they need it so, so much more for the Olympics."

So, she put out a call to all of her friends, and all of their friends, and all of their friends, and the mayor, and the people her parents worked with, and all the kids at her school, and their friends, and their doctors and all their patients, and the mail carrier (for there was actually mail the day of the big storm) and all her neighbors, and their families, and the people who came around to shovel snow, and the drivers of the big plow trucks. She asked them to shovel their snow into big refrigerated trucks that would take the snow to the airport. At the airport would be waiting big refrigerated airplanes ready to take the snow all the way to British Columbia.

And so it happened that on the day after the record was set for the most snowfall in a single winter on the east coast of the United States, all of those people told all of their friends, who told all of their friends to shovel the snow into trucks stationed all over the city. The trucks rumbled down to the airport, where there were airplanes waiting to pick up the snow to make the trip all the way to the west coast of Canada.

Across the skies they flew on Thursday afternoon. People along the way looked up in awe at the formation of airplanes that was bringing new hope to the people of Vancouver. When the planes landed in Vancouver, the citizens cheered as the trucks that were waiting for the airplanes were piled higher and higher with the vast snow. AS the amazing caravan sped up the road to Cypress Mountain,Canadians stood and cheered the amazing caravan of snow that would save their Olympics.

And so it was that on the night of the Opening Ceremony, all people sang and cheered and smiled, knowing that the spirit of Olympic inspiration had made it possible for the games to go on.

Let the games begin!

Original 'treatment' of The Little Girl Who Could

About the author of this story

The evil Pete has evil schemes under his prayer shawl. His experience as a futures trader and experience with derivatives form the riveting drama that unfolds. He attempts to corner the market on snow futures while betting that the snow will never make it to Vancouver (rather that the water will be used for his bottled water business) The planes will be stuck in Philadelphia due to another snow storm, making it impossible to reach the Olympics in time.

I'm working on the movie rights already- we'll start filming upon your return with my super 8 mm camera.

Have a great time!!!!!!!!
Peter

TOBIE SAVES THE WINTER OLympics
A sweet Jewish girl from Philadelphia saves the winter Olympics.

Tobie leaves Phila. the city. Phila. is hit by snow storms totaling in excess of 6 feet.
The excess snow paralyzes the city Mayor freaks because he can’t figure out where to put all the snow.He refuses to dump the snow into the 2 rivers which cross the city, because it would “pollute the waters with “toxic” chemicals” (environmentally/politically incorrect). The environmentalists (politically correctnicks) constitute a major part of his political base. The mayor is paralyzed, by what to do with this situation.

Tobie (remember the sweet Jewish girl form Phila.- our heroine) arrives at the winter Olympics, in Vancouver, Canada. The Olympic snow committee (a sub group of the Olympic winter games committee- a corrupt group of self serving, nationalistic pols) are paralyzed with fear by the lack of snow at the Olympic games. Tobie (our heroine from Phila./ mind you she is Jewish too!!!) hears about the committee’s dilemma, almost as soon as she lands in Vancouver.

Tobie is sad (boo-hoo…….) I’ve come all this distance and no snow. I’ll probably have to watch lawn bowling, and down hill free form tumbling. “I can’t have this happen, I’ve got to think of something (she say’s to herself, because at this point she hasn’t met up with her friends/ good thing, because the story would turn out very different if we were to complicate it with 2 other characters!!!!)

Tobie thinks long and hard (6.25 seconds/ she’s very bright) and the light bulb on top of her Phillies hat lights up with energy generated by her thinking. She’ll contact her friend, Peter the ganiff ( I wanted to use Moishe but I thought I should have an important role, even if it were the villan / good guy) sometimes known as sneaky Pete (you’ll see why).

As luck would have it Pete calls Tobie, to talk about the snow situation in Philadelphia, just as Tobie was starting to call Pete. (He’s politically connected and is trying to score points with the mayor so he could get all of Milton Streets no show contracts)

Tobie and Pete start talking at the same time saying the same thing, THE SNOW!!!!!!!!! Get it shipped to Vancouver. If it’s toxic those Canadians would never know it, they’d be so grateful for the snow any way.

Pete’s idea is to get Tobie’s American Express number (oops, they only take VISA)to steal her identity and most of all to be able to send Tobie, (our heroine) post cards from as many Caribbean islands as he can before he, well that’s another whole book!!!!!!!) They compromise (Tobie’s no dumbie, and she read the book Special Schemes for Dumbies). They decide to ship airfreight (collect) To lessen the impact of the financial burden they contact Birdseye foods, they pick up a portion of the shipping costs- they don’t need to ship by refrigerated truck- any way the would be able to recoup the money from ARA by charging them the same foe the food.

More to come..................

Never made it to a curling match

Last night,Tuesday February 9, 2010 was not a night to go anywhere, especially as far away from home as Paoli to see a curling match.
The snow started at 8:00 and now, at 1:00 the next day, it is supposed to continue through the evening. Whether the predicted 12-18" really happens, this second major winter storm in a week has brought our total for the season past the record from 1996.
With no days remaining, I'll have to go 'blind' to the Curling match next week (next week!!!!!!). Hopefully, I'll sit next to diehard fans who will show me the way.

It's winter in Philadelphia

The 10 day forecast is on my side. The prediction is for a cloudy day with no precipitation for Philadelphia AND my stopover in Minneapolis for
Feb 16 when I leave for Seattle. Yesterday was a totally different story. The official airport reading was 28 inches, rivaling the storm of 1996. I measured 17 inches on my car.
We're all dug out now, and life goes on, but for 24 hours we played, and walked and visited with neighbors, which is why I love to live in West Mt. Airy.
And another storm is set to come on Tuesday night!

Another side of the Olympics Fun video),

Some people are thrilled that the Olympics have come to their city. Others are downright outraged. Its good that the outraged folks also have a sense of humor. Thanks to my friend, Karen, I've been getting some announcements about alternative events that make fun of the corporate underbelly of the Olympics.
I am well aware that the image projected to me and the world of the Olympic venture may mask some of the serious problems facing people in Vancouver and British Columbia. Here is an announcement about a very creative alternative Olympics to spotlight poverty. (and read about the group Home for the Games in the Jan 24 postings )
I particularly like the mascots that make fun of the 'official' Olympic mascots.

Daily posts from Vancouver

As part of the ticket buying experience, I registered on both the Canadian and US Olympic websites. Now I get almost daily emails about cultural events, buying bus tickets to the skiing venues, surveys, and most delighfully, videos and slides that Canadians are posting about Canada and Vancouver. I know the emails are not being sent to me, personally, but somehow I feel more excited by the advance welcome