A Party In Canada

Okay, there are a lot of interesting stories at the Olympics. Lillian is an Olympic junkie (she's turning to the sports page first in the morning, if you, her friends, can imagine that), and has turned me into one as well. It was pretty easy. The Americans beat the Canadians in hockey for the first time in 50 years this week. If the fairy tale ending continues, they will play again Sunday for the gold. But I have this deep seated fear we have awakened a sleeping giant . . .

Lindsey Vonn turned out to be a prima donna. Julia Mancuso was my hero until she went into a giant pout after Vonn ruined her chances at another medal the other day. Apolo Ohno is just too cool, but I hate the way he hangs back in the crowd for the first few laps. Scares the crap out of me every time. Oh, ye of little faith. (By the way, everyone is asking about his mother, after the TV cameras repeatedly show only his father in the stands. The stories about her are mysterious--she apparently disappeared when he was just a young boy. I think I know. She dropped the "h" and ran off with John Lennon.) The red-headed snow boarder is unbelievable. Smart, composed, rich, unflappable. Who ever thought someone who dresses like that could be an American hero?

Then there's the Norwegian men's curling team. And their pants. Now, I'm going to admit a couple biases here. First, I like curling as an Olympic sport because it provides an opportunity for people shaped like me to be Olympic "athletes." Second, because of my Norwegian heritage, the Norwegians are the second team I root for in the Olympics. When there's no American in contention, I look for the Norwegians. I share in their joy that the Danes have not won a single medal so far in this Olympics, while as of today, the U.S. has 32 and Norway 19. Even Latvia has two, but none for the Danes. There is a God.

But for curling, the Norwegians showed up in these kind of argyle red, white and blue checked pants. Nobody's seen anything like that before. John Daly is calling for the name of their haberdasher. Click here for a look.

But the best story of all is the Canadian Women's Hockey Team. They earned capital letters because of what they did last night. No, it's not that they won the gold medal. It's for the party they had afterwards. Now, most teams would have gone to the shower, cleaned up, gotten dressed, and headed back to the hotel for a great celebration. Not the Canadians. They broke out the beer and the cigars right there on the ice. Got shit-faced and took the Zamboni for a little ride. Yeeeehaaawww. We won the gold. Let's party!



Now the IOC says they want to investigate and punish. C'mon, IOC, they were just acting like, well, like Canadians. And it IS THEIR COUNTRY, after all. They're throwing a party for the world. Leave them be. I mean, is there anyone among us who wouldn't like to take a Zamboni for a ride?

So let's move on. To Apolo finally getting a gold medal tonight, and Zach Parise and his teammates winning a gold medal on Sunday. The Olympics. God, they're great.