Olympics Wrap-Up

Well, the Vancouver Olympics are wrapping up tonight, the last event was the men's hockey, won by Canada, 3-2. The US got the silver.

I have to say that I really enjoyed the Olympics overall. I prefer the winter games to the summer, almost every event in the winter is cool, even the curling and the biathlon (x-country skiing and shooting). The venues were nice, and the scenery in and around Vancouver was tremendous. I suspect there will be a dramatic increase in the tourism to that area over the next couple of years.... I know I would like to visit there!

The medal count ended up with the US #1, with 37, followed by Germany with 30 and Canada with a respectable 26, after a slow start - and a lot of pressure! And the Canadians ended up with the most gold medal, with 14. So, good for them. They put on a great show and deserved all of the success that they had, especially since they didn't beat the US in medal count!

The first week, I watched almost everything, but by the time the second Tuesday rolled around, I have to say that my interest was waning a bit. Too much Bob Costas will do that to you, I guess. And the coverage was a bit irritating, too, as it was impossible to not see what happened suring the day before NBC showed it at night. If you spend any time on-line or watch any TV, it's hard not to see what's going on..... And of course, the sappy segments are a bit much. But the athletes are very impressive, many of them not just one-trick ponies but real people with real lives outside their sports and ready to make contributions to society once their competition days are over (Shaun White excepted - enough with him, already).

Don't know who will have the next winter Olympics (ok, I looked it up, Sochi in Russia. So we'll be ready for the Putin Games, I guess...) but they will have a hard time outdoing our friends to the north. Congrats, eh!

'70's Cultural Icons - Clothing Edition

For some reason, last night I started randomly searching in Google for various '70's clothing items, and came up with some great stuff....

Earth shoes - these are probably the reason that I have back issues today! If man was mean to walk with our heel lower than our toes, we would have been born with our heels in a hole....











Frye boots - oh yeah, these were the coolest things ever, and the switching back from these to Earth shoes probably contributed to my achy back!











A popular fabric back in the day, Qiana, was also an effective way of losing weight, as it would trap any and all sweat against your body....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiana

Nike Cortez - the first sneaker they made, I had a pair when they came out in the early '70's. Funny to see them back in stores now.....









And, of course, bell bottoms! I had a pair of hip-hugger, denim bell bottoms that were my favorite pants for decades... ummm, years......












Platform shoes, anyone? I had a pair of plain brown ones very similar to these. Worked perfectly with the bell bottom jeans!












Seems to me I wore a powder blue tux to my Senior HS Prom, probably not unlike this one...












Ahhh, good times for sure.....

Lost is Found!

Well, last night was the premiere for Season 6 of Lost - the final season. I had missed the last 2 episodes of last season so I watched them prior to the show on hulu.com (a great web site if you've missed episodes of your favorite TV shows!). So I was caught up when the show started, and didn't have to watch the 'clip show' that was on prior.

Knowing it's the last season brings mixed feelings. I've been pretty into the show over the years, after watching the first season in reruns over the summer after it debuted. I love the characters and there is certainly a lot of sci-fi feel to it, like The X-Files..... Some people see religious overtones (Kathleen is always looking for Bible references and has found a number of them in character names and places). Personally, I don't try to read too much into it, I prefer it simply as a human interest/action drama, with a lot of interesting characters and humorous situations. While there may be some 'good vs evil' aspect to it, especially now with the introduction of the cynical 'Man in Black' and Jacob, the more positive, 'free-will' guy generally being seen in a white shirt, I still think people read too much into it. Is the island purgatory? Is it a good vs evil clash? A morality play? Who knows. It's just fun and addictive.