The (IN) Complete Resource to Virtually Nothing (Blog)

This is a real headline from Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper, about the US Swim Team’s recent stunning victory over the French:

Two Jews and a Black Man Help Phelps Fulfill Olympic Dream

Talk about stunning…

I’ve been able to keep up with the Olympics for the most part, despite my work schedule. Now, I will admit to being caught up in the hype and hoopla about Michael Phelps, but how often do you get to see a dolphin compete at this level?

I’m waiting to see if he changes into Daryl Hannah at some point, actually.

One event that I did not see live was the 84-kilo Greco Roman Wrestling, which has received quite a bit of attention not for the event itself, but for what happened after the finals. Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian protested his loss to eventual Gold medal winner Andrea Minguzzi by dropping his medal to the podium and walking off. The IOC later stripped him of the medal.

I have a few comments about this story…

First, How exactly did Abrahamian become a Swedish wrestler? I realize that the region has a reputation for a rather dramatic surgery that can change one’s gender, but their Nationality? I doubt this is a very popular stance (or even defensible), but why can’t people born in a country simply compete for that country? It’s one thing if you are, say, a Middle Eastern woman who happens to be a fantastic athlete in some sport that your country doesn’t allow women to compete, but it’s another to hire oneself out to another country, which is apparently happening more and more as the years go by. (Bahrain, anyone?) Abrahamian may have a legitimate tie to Sweeden above and beyond simply residing there, but comments from friends and others I know (including a couple of Swedes) have commented that both Abrahamian and his actions were “not very Swedish.”

Unfortunately, my Swedish stock is overwhelmed by my Scottish heritage, so I can’t say if his actions were “Swedish” or just stupid and boorish.

Another comment I have on the Olympics is to wonder just how much the ratings for the games will drop after Phelps’ last race?

Finally, just a general comment: with the new outfits these athletes are wearing to help them be faster and more streamlined, yet leaving nothing to the imagination… Just have the athletes compete naked. It would certainly make “tackling” in Water Polo more interesting.

I won’t even go into how it would change the javelin or shot put…

Seen on the back of a C-Ville cab during my last trip to help my Mom:

Paddle faster, I hear banjoes.

Gotta love living in the South.

Longtime readers of the ICRVN will no doubt remember what I did to my daughter about four months into her life for Halloween. For those of you new to the blog, or if you don’t remember, perhaps this photo will help:

This is “Darth Sciatica,” so named because for much of the second half of my wife’s pregnancy, Squirmese was planted in such a way that she was pushing on my wife’s sciatic nerve. After making another obvious joke (”Sciatica! Sciatica! Sciatica!”) we dubbed the wee one “Darth Sciatica.” Well, for her first Halloween we decided to make it official.

Recently, after having fought a virus for a couple of weeks, I managed to get to the doctor’s office to have my leg checked out. For a couple of months it was giving me all manner of trouble, from tightness to shooting pains, and when you work retail on your feet quite a lot, the last thing you need is problems with your legs. Well, I was put through a few tests and answered some questions, and the doctor asked me one final question:

“Are you familiar with ’sciatica?’”

He didn’t get the reaction he was expecting: laughter from my wife and myself. My wife started chanting “Sciatica! Sciatica!” and I just thought of good old “Darth Sciatica.”

The doctor even seemed amused once we explained that we were not insane, just reliving moments from my wife’s pregnancy.

So, I have a nasty case of sciatica (is there such a thing as a “good” case of sciatica?), and need lots of rest and painkillers and yoga exercises over the next few weeks.

Always an easy thing when you work retail and have a rambunctious preschooler running around the house. Particularly when that preschooler is a dark toddler of the Sith.

I happened upon information on a documentary called Life and Migraine (2005) on IMDB, and I was a little confused by what I found in the “Recommendations” section. Apparently, one of two things happens in this section: there is an “anything goes” policy, wherein if you happened to see this particular film, and any other film, then it goes here, or drug use rules the roost. What films were recommended for those that have seen Life and Migraine?

The Bridge (a 2006 documentary about suicide and the Golden Gate Bridge), Under Our Skin (a 2008 documentary about Lyme disease), and - wait for it - Osmosis Jones (?!).

Osmosis Jones? Two documentaries about health and an animated film that could at it’s best cause a migraine?

Oy.

The Next Food Network Star picked a winner the other night.  After weeks of tortuous cutdowns, executives were (apparently) forced to weed down the candidates to three (not two, as they had in the past) to choose a winner.  The ultimate choice to host the new show was the young, relatively inexperienced but enthusiastic black guy, who beat out the more experienced yet frighteningly intense and highly driven white woman and the nice, affable but somewhat clueless white guy.

Now, where have I heard of that scenario before?

Okay - let me begin by noting that this has nothing to do with the recent debates over whether or not “Don’t Ask / Don’t Tell” should be repealed. Timing is entirely coincidental.

I stumbled over a statistic that I’m sure I knew already: homosexual youths attempt suicide more than four times as often as heterosexual youths.

The article, posted on about.com, actually had different phrasing that had me rethinking something that has bugged me for a very long time:

Would our society be more accepting of homosexual people if we used terms other than “gay” and “lesbian” to describe homosexuals and “straight” to describe heterosexuals? After all, by labeling homosexuals as “not straight” you automatically set them as outside the norm of societal mores.

Kind of puts these kids behind the starting line from the outset in the race of life, hunh? Doesn’t seem fair to me.

Jesse Jackson had to apologize to Obama and the Obama campaign for being caught on the air saying that he believed Obama was “talking down to black people.”

Jackson’s apology seemed a little like talking down to me: “It was very private” he said, adding later, if “any hurt or harm has been caused to his campaign, I apologize.”

So, Jesse… How should Obama talk to black people? Like a stereotypical rapper or pimp with the appropriate slang? Or more dignified, like yourself, in a Seussian lyrical pattern? Of course it’s just silly to think that the way in which he normally speaks is too much for some people to understand, standard English being so foreign to everyone these days.

In the meantime, please accept my apologies if my comments hurt you. If not… I’ll try harder next time. One word of advice though: if you are talking near a microphone - then your discussion is not private!

Geez…  Talk about “Politics 101!”

From The Digital Bits:

Film archivists at the Museo del Cine (Cinema Museum) in Buenos Aires have recently uncovered the lost footage from Fritz Lang’s original 1927 version of Metropolis in 16mm negatives! You can read more on this news here at ZEIT Online and here as well. Apparently a copy of the long version of the film was sent to Argentina in 1928 for a theatre screening. Shortly thereafter, a local film critic came into possession of the film reels and added them to his private collection. They were later sold to Argentina’s National Art Fund, and were eventually donated to the Museo del Cine, where they were eventually rediscovered by the museum’s new curator this past January. … The footage isn’t apparently in the greatest shape, but it CAN be restored to the point where Lang’s original vision can finally be appreciated by audiences in theatres and on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. As fans of the film are no doubt aware, some 20% of the footage from Lang’s original version was considered lost until this discovery.

Metropolis is one of the films I used for my senior thesis on German Film after World War I, and is a favorite of mine… I cannot wait to see the newly discovered footage!

Last night, after work, my wife and I took Squirmese to see her first fireworks display. There’s a place in town where you can watch three different displays at once, depending on where you face. For the first few minutes the wee one was fascinated. However, being quite tired still from a visit with her Grandmother the day before, she opted to go home to bed a few minutes into the proceedings.

On the way home, my wife and I hear the child utter something, and it took a couple of repeats to understand her. Now, I don’t know whether or not to blame the culture of rampant consumerism for this one, or just the bloody annoying advert, but…

Out of the back seat my daughter asked us if she could (and I swear this is really what she asked) go to “directly to the forehead… Directly to the forehead.” She even did the annoying repeat of the catchphrase.

I don’t even have a clue where she saw the advert in the first place… But there ya go. Mission accomplished, “Head On.” Now quit it.