Olympic openings on TV are like listening to parade commentators. If you have to explain what the little farts with the long tails in a cirle with torches coming out of their armpits symbolize...then they've lost me. I truly don't care to hear about strength, endurnace, power, courage, lalalalalalala...

Bring on the sports! It's the only and ever time I get moderately to somewhat heavily addicted to the TV.

I was in the opening ceremonies of the Canada Games in '84. We wore cheap leotards and waved cloth-covered hula-hoops. I don't know that I'll actually watch the ceremony tonight, but chances are pretty good I'll put it on around 8 and leave the sound off.

Gretzky is toast.

My wife and I had a hoot watching the opening to the Albertville games in 1992. People on stilts and weird bungee things? It looked like the Cirque du Soleil on crack.

Norway was the best but that is true of most things. Elves doing bum-slides down the ski jump.

The opening ceremonies are the only bit of the Olympics I like.

it makes sad to think of my pals all going slack jawed and googly eyed watching a bunch of europeans and european wannabes in tight shiny suits sliding down steep hills on skis, bobsleds, and the equivalent of dinner plates. and don't even get me started on the snowboarders (hey kids, be surly and smoke dope like that ross guy who won gold for canada last time) or the idiot guys who do the dopey "look at me i can open my legs and close them" trick while going over a snow jump. why do you care? why does the world stop every four years for stuff that the great majority of us would not cross the road to see the other three?

"well ,as a matter of fact i would cross that road" you say to portland, " i love this stuff." yeah, sure, that's why everybody tunes into rowing night in canada every saturday at 8. you all care deeply about the olympic equestrain events because it's point of deep national pride as to whether our horses are better than thier horses. i'll bet we have the best beavers and marmots in the world too. c'mon, just admit you've been brainwashed. that little creep who used to work for franco is to blame.

but then, to be fair (and i'm nothing if not fair), i guess maybe, it might be because it is unusual. i guess maybe it might be because it is every four years. i haven't got a huge problem with that......i guess. i even admit that i peek at the olympics every now and then.

can we make marnie mcbean shut up though? can we make these people get real jobs and actually contribute to society when they're not sliding down a hill and shooting at things in the woods? does apollo uno whatever-the-hell-his-name-is have to do this for 8,12,16 years? can we funnel some of the money that society spends on this stuff into real problems, or even, at the very least, building more local hockey rinks, more local swimming pools? and if we can't do these things, can we at least stop throwing the the world's biggest frigging party and fuckfest for a bunch of people who aspire to do nothing more with thier lives than be television commentators and dancing smurfs in the ice capades. fucking olympic ideals my ass.

i'm going on record as saying that i like the opening ceremonies though. i don;t usually watch it but i like it. it's always the only time the olympics have the guts to say......this is ridiculous, we can prove it, look at this.

and coco crisp

DANCING SMURFS ON ICE! Portland speaks for me. The only Olympics I have ever seen was the 1980 men's ice hockey finals. I may watch some of the hockey, because I love it, but it feels strange that they let pros play. I have never seen opening ceremonies, but if somebody made me put on red, white and blue spandex and a dorky cowboy hat, I would tell them I would rather be a blue Smurf. During recent rehearsals for Gen X at 40 Glee Club tryouts, I have gotten to know CM well, and I am unsurprised to hear about the cheap leotards and hula hoops. CM is destined for show business greatness!

Very well said, portland. Interesting to note that the Whistler Olympics, still four years down the road, is already $100 million over budget. Sheesh. There are so many better things we can spend a pot of money on than building facilities so that a private corporation can have a big multi-sport competition. Double sheesh.

I do watch in part for the carnival freak show aspect.

Why thank you, GR. I just hope said greatness will allow me to keep my apartment. Did you ask the cat about the bongos? As for Smurfs, my first experience with bed spins involved Smurf wallpaper and I've been terrified of them ever since.

I don't watch the Olympics, but I think they're important. I also have this idea that this importance (for lack of a better word) is more than my opinion about something and probably more than the sum total of all of our opinions about something. I say this because I think our generation would do away with everything if we could. We don't like the CBC and we don't like the Senate and we don't like newspapers or the Olympics and we don't like the Governor General or TV and we don't like authority figures and we don't like formality or ritual etc. etc.. Maybe there's nothing that would stand in our way unless it is this idea of something having some kind of worth whether or not we like it in this other totally opinionated sort of way. Maybe some of these things actually perform some kind of function. I know, I'm a dullard.

I'm spouting some kind of heresy aren't I? I have a gift for that kind of thing. Or is it the ponderous tone?

i hear what youre saying marion. i actually worked for canadian senate for six years. i remember wondering when i got the job what it was i was going to do. now though, years later, i'd defend the senate to anybody. is it perfect - no. hugely useful though. it's easy to say rip it down because there's another idea on the board. i'm actually for all the stuff you listed. i'm even for amateur athletics and the core idea of the olympics. if you've got a kid that likes to ski and shoot things in the woods and is good at, i say give little miriam bedard a gun, warn the neighbors,and let her go at it. let' be enormously proud of her when she wins three gold medals. let's not all pretend she's madam curie when she gets back to canada though. let's not tell any kid that that plugging holes in bunch of targets in the snow filled woods is enough, that you should build on that. last i checked roger bannister was a doctor. i'm for guys like roger bannister. him, i'll throw the party for.

and coco crisp

Coyne had it right on his blog -- I hope that Gretzky is clean not especially for his sake, but for ours...

Reagrding the WWE Raw Polar Bear/Mom Cage Match:

<BLOCKQUOTE>"Angiyou was with her seven-year-old son and two other young boys when they came across the bear. She says all she could think of was stopping the animal...

The bear clawed at Angiyou and climbed on top of her, but retreated after gun shots were fired. The bear was eventually tracked down and killed."
</BLOCKQUOTE>

Who fired the gunshots? The kids? Other civic-minded, law-abiding, long-gun-registering citizens? Other civic-minded, law-abiding, long-gun-registering bears?

[insert optional, tired-old "Moms. With Guns. In the sub-arctic tundra. Canadian sub-arctic tundra." gag here]

Our sake? That is the problem with "nationally important people" like Coyne or anyone who sat on a Peter Gzowsky panel who write on blogs. It is still a stiff writing stiffly. If Pete Rose can go down for life, if Shoeless Joe Jackson goes down for like, well, then so can Wayne. It is called a morality play. Our times need more of them.<p>"Our sake" my arse. I never liked the Oilers anyway.

I also thought that about Mom v. bear. I don't see anyone else in the story pulling the trigger. She's almost up there with my favorite guy.

Marian, you're right: the calling card of Gen X is that you find it hard to believe in anything (except maybe the Talking Heads and Foosball). We grew up with Nixon lies, baby boomer older brothers and sisters having all the fun, and we were left with the crumbs? Anybody here actually read 'Generation x' or 'Microsurfs'? Both are very good and describe us fairly well. Can we describe ourselves as cynical? Sorry to sound cheesy and sentimental here Valentine's week, but I know I believe in my wife and us together, which may put us way ahead of the game.

it turns out the bear had a gun and it went off in his pocket as he was rassling with the mother. them polar bears is mega dangerous.

now there's a report on the line that says gretzky was the guy with the gun. he was going to just stay out of it but he had bet on the mother so.........

coco crisp

It's <i>Saint</i> Velentines Day around here (we do not want to offend the religious sensibilities of our readers)... and it's only a day. Everything does not get a week. Unless it is coco crisp.

Ooowee, Alan, what does your wife think of your cynical attitude? Baseball over romance?

My wife gets a lifetime of me. I am giving coco a season to settle in at CF. I can live with that.

Q: how are you going to handle being a Red Sox fan in Ithaca. I got a hand shake in the summer of '04 there from someone just for wearing the hat. Those were heady days.

I thought I was your favourite guy.

No. Unless you were the 1989 Beijing version of Dilbert standing in front of a row of tanks with only your coat and brief case, no you are not, Don. You are, however, my favorite blogger who grew up with meat based cookies, though.

Portland for Reader Profile.

portland? I would maybe take a fictionalized one from portland.

"my favorite blogger who grew up with meat based cookies"

YES!

In the interests of full disclosure, I ate, eat and fully support the making of pie pastry from lard which is of course pork fat.

Any other pastry is just dough

Butter pastry like in croissants is pretty snazzy as well.

GR I've read the Genx books, but I can't really say I identify. I had a fairly formal education in an international school and by the time I was re-united with my Canadian peers, I was out of the generational loop in a lot of important ways. I think my experience was less one of anomie than of cultural estrangement. But one thing I did experience that I think many people our age experienced (and which was probably generational) was this sense that the world would end soon. I made a lot of my early life decisions with this in mind.

Red Sox fans abound in upstate NY, the heart of accursed Yankee country.

I grew up a Red Sox fan in Central NY, due to my annual summer visits to Cape Cod & my grandparents. I say that I understand oppression and discrimination because of my fandom here.

Coco Crisp!

Whoa, Marian, DEEP. But that's what we expect from you. As Alan has pointed out, I live in a tree house, and eat anomie for breakfast. Cultural estrangement for lunch.
Alan, my not-so-secret secret is that as a former Chicago resident, I am mostly a Cubs fan, who know a lot more about losing than the Red Sox. I plan to spend my days in NY state going to minor league games frequently--the real deal, as you yourself have noted.
And since I may move out of the trees and into a real house, I may even get a foosball table.

I foresee a meeting at the Blue Tusk one day, Phil.

...and GR and portland. Who else is in.

PS: Blue Tusk facts here.

I'm in, and hope Marian and all the others will join us.
And Alan, didn't mean to give the wrong impression, I love the Red Sox too, but recent trades hurt. Will Coco Crisp be half as filling as the characters of recent years?

Younger and stronger. Things I will never be. I like the look of the 2006 Sox way better than 2005.

But Gretzky's the Great One, THe Golden Boy, the Guy who made hockey in the US cool again. Want to see the NHL fold? Have Gretzky be guilty. If a poly-Lady Bing trophy winner goes down for this it won't bode well for hockey's popularity in the lower 48 and that's disasterous for the league.
And Coco Crisp

NHL fold, NHL fold...I think I was close to rooting for that.

I'm in, though I may just lurk in the corner and not actually announce my presence. Lord knows I could do with a road trip right about now. Supper, too.

I read Coupland's books and couldn't relate. I'm at the tail-end of Gen X and my subdivision consisted of one 'main' street and three side streets (Copper Lane's new since I lived there). A grand total of 50 houses, if that. I found it hard to feel sorry for kids who had pools.

I'm thinking, just thinking mind you, that say thirty hungry polar bears at the opening of the Whistler Olympics might add the edge which is so often lacking at these sorts of ceremonies. That and ski jumping into trees as a demonstration sport (see here http://www.mirabilis.ca/archives/002721.html) and we will have ourselves an easy $100,000,000 overrun of fun.

i found it hard to feel sorry for kids who had pools. - beautiful, just beautiful cm. that sums it up. cubbie fans are the real deal gr. i get sick sometimes of listening to sox fans moan about how they lost this or that series in the seventh game. try finishing last for 100 years........and still love it. i know heartbreak. i was......gulp.....a hardcore expos fan. i was o the church of warren cromartie. there's a profile for you marion. all you need to know really. and i like the sox this year too allan. if they didnt score 7 or more runs last year (which they did a lot)they lost. it drove me nuts. they can catch this year. they can still hit. they can pitch (i can't wait to see papelbaum and lester (sp on both i think)), they've even got the deep infield that they can pinch hit for all over the place. national league ball baby. i'm loving it. and would i rather have j. damon. i sure loved the big stupid hairy hunk of meat. i think he'll do well over the next two years, better than coco maybe next year, but three years from now it'll be all be fading tail lights way in the distance. it was a good move. no worries for us. i'm still gonna boo my ass off when damon comes to the plate though. look for a national holiday here in new england - we're gonna call it HYPOCRISY DAY! coco crisp. coco crisp. coco crisp.

this just in. gretzkty is wathcing this blog and betting on how many times people say coco crisp. i love that wacky side of wayne.

gretzky. man, am i only canadian who can't spell that? probably. and coco crisp. hey al, can you tell i'm sick today?

portland just quoted me on GenX40. I can die a happy woman.

Surrounded by used kleenex, laptop on the bed.<p>I would love to see a Red Sox and White Sox game: We will get the Friday and Saturday games July 7 (UPN 38) and July 8 (Fox National). Remind me to stay home those nights, OK?

oh, i can make you happy baby.

Errr...how?

Yes, do tell.

uhmmmmmm, chocolate? i got some.

jesus i hate getting called on my bluffs. i know that was lame.

You're in luck - chocolate would indeed make me happy.

hello

More detail on the new Canadian hero.