The Cutting Edge
I can't help noting that, in the wake of the Steelers' victory over the (10-point favorite) Colts, much of the media coverage focused on the losers: the "failure" of a great team to meet its goal, Peyton Manning's inexplicably poor record in the post-season, the poor play of the line, to missed field goal, and so on. But I saw a Steelers team that looked more confident, more relaxed, and more prepared than the team it beat on Sunday. This was a Steeler win, not a Colt loss.
But I only saw the first quarter of the game. I had to leave early because the wife and I took in the US National Figure Skating Championships this weekend. We attended the Women's Free Skate on Saturday night and the Champions' Exhibition on Sunday afternoon. And it was very, very good.
Figure skating, like room sprays and thank-you cards, is something I never gave much thought to before I got married. But I like it. I like the men's less, though their power and skill is undeniable. The women's competition features the perfect balance of athleticism and grace. (I wondered at one point if my preference for the women's side represents a male insecurity--a latent feeling that figure skating isn't "manly"--but I don't know.) Sasha Cohen won, in case you didn't know. We were sorry to miss Michelle Kwan.
And can you think of a more made-up sounding name than Dick Button?
My weekend at the rink started me thinking about the Winter Olympics. I like the Winter Olympics, in some ways better than the summer games, even though many of the sports are kind of stupid: freestyle ski-jumping, snowboarding (like having skateboarding in the summer games), curling, and a whole bunch of sports that are essentially sled riding (skeleton, luge). Could there be a dumber sport than two-man luge? Only skeleton, in which riders lead with their heads.
But I love the attitude of the winter games. After all, any competition that involves a sport in which a broom plays a major role must have its priorities in the right place. (And could curling have come from anywhere but Canada?) I feel much closer to these games: I couldn't do much with the shot put or the clean and jerk, but I sure as hell could lie on my belly on a sled. In fact, I have.
Cheers
But I only saw the first quarter of the game. I had to leave early because the wife and I took in the US National Figure Skating Championships this weekend. We attended the Women's Free Skate on Saturday night and the Champions' Exhibition on Sunday afternoon. And it was very, very good.
Figure skating, like room sprays and thank-you cards, is something I never gave much thought to before I got married. But I like it. I like the men's less, though their power and skill is undeniable. The women's competition features the perfect balance of athleticism and grace. (I wondered at one point if my preference for the women's side represents a male insecurity--a latent feeling that figure skating isn't "manly"--but I don't know.) Sasha Cohen won, in case you didn't know. We were sorry to miss Michelle Kwan.
And can you think of a more made-up sounding name than Dick Button?
My weekend at the rink started me thinking about the Winter Olympics. I like the Winter Olympics, in some ways better than the summer games, even though many of the sports are kind of stupid: freestyle ski-jumping, snowboarding (like having skateboarding in the summer games), curling, and a whole bunch of sports that are essentially sled riding (skeleton, luge). Could there be a dumber sport than two-man luge? Only skeleton, in which riders lead with their heads.
But I love the attitude of the winter games. After all, any competition that involves a sport in which a broom plays a major role must have its priorities in the right place. (And could curling have come from anywhere but Canada?) I feel much closer to these games: I couldn't do much with the shot put or the clean and jerk, but I sure as hell could lie on my belly on a sled. In fact, I have.
Cheers
posted by Shane @ 5:56 PM
1 Comments:
At 12:32 AM,
Anonymous said…
I think luge should adopt a high jump-style attitude, whereby the bodies keep stacking up and making runs until no one can do it anymore. For example, if everyone can complete the two-man luge run, then all teams stack a third body on top. Six teams, let's say, are knocked out, so the rest stack a fourth body on. Only the Swiss, Norwegians, Czechs and Swedes can complete this task. A fifth body joins the fray. Everyone wrecks except the Swedes. We've got gold, people.
Ice skating, huh? I've actually gotten into ice skating a lot more lately - mostly because I've done a fair amount of it over the past two years. As I've gasped and flopped across frozen patches of water, it has occurred to me - between flashes of impotent skating rage - that the people who can leap, twist and land on ice are pretty damned athletic. I sort of hate to think that enlightenment has to club me on the head like a caveman, but there it is. All the same, BG, I applaud your applause. And I especially applaud your ability to ditch a Steelers playoff game for an ice rink. That should answer any questions you have about male insecurity right there.
Dick Button. Hm. Nope. Ain't many names better than that.
Speaking of stupidity, I spent last weekend snowboarding. I'm trying to learn how to do this because I think it would be a cool thing to do, not because I particularly enjoy it. Last year, I - as the kids say - caught an edge and smashed my cranium into the icy slope. A mild concussion followed. This year, armed with a sweet golden helmet (on which I have every intention of slapping the Grateful Dead sticker that I got when I saw them play the Riverside Amphitheater in St. Louis in 1995), I headed back to the Alps and tried again. Slightly better. On my last day, though, I caught an edge (same one as last time) and blazed noggin-first into the snowy earth again. My head bounced harmlessly off the ground, and as soon as I regained feeling in my shoulder, I felt pretty good. Real snowboarders are good athletes, too. Plus, any set of sportsfolk that prefer weed to steroids is all right in my book.
Go Steelers!
Scots wa' hae ye-
groundskeeper willie
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