added a black cloud of despair to the grey skies looming over Vancouver. The games haven’t even started, yet you get the eerie suspicion that more tragedy and heartache awaits us."With Glowing Hearts, We Kill the Arts,"
The various protest groups got things started with their predicable pleas and demonstrations, and managed to cause the route of the torch relay to be altered. If those stunts bring attention to their cause, well ‘yippie’ for them. On the dark underside of their movement, you can be assured that many of those protestors looked on with glee as the Georgian luger crashed and sealed his fate. The irony in their mantra, “With Glowing Hearts, We Kill the Arts” was not lost.
Evening turned to darkness and the opening ceremonies got underway and softened our collective memory of the afternoons cold hard slap of tragedy. Yet, as the lighting of the Olympic cauldron was coming to a climax, a moment Canada
spent seven years building towards, a technical malfunction marred the event. In the awkwardness of the moment, speedskater Catriona LeMay Doan 
improvised a salute to the crowd with her torch, while skier Nancy Greene, NHL legend Wayne Gretzky 
and NBA All-Star Steve Nash 
proceeded as planned.The uncharacteristically warm weather contributing to the rain, the mud and the glum, has forced the cancellation of training runs, and has delayed both the men's downhill which was scheduled for today, and the women's super-combined which was originally scheduled for Sunday.
Prior to her interview in a room that was oddly decorated by several candles, a jubilant Lindsey Vonn 
was heard to selfishly squeal out a ‘yippie-yi-ya’ for what the delay would mean to her badly bruised shin. No 
doubt NBC’s Olympic guru Dick Ebersol was also girlishly giddy over these developments. None of this is surprising in this age where the pursuit of personal fame and television ratings trumps all else. Still, although I’m pulling for Bode Miller
, Shaun White
, a.k.a. The Flying Tomato
, Apolo Anton Ohno
, Shani Davis
, Gretchen Bleiler and the other Americans
, I feel a bit sorry for the Canadians this Saturday.
, Shaun White, a.k.a. The Flying Tomato, Apolo Anton Ohno, Shani Davis, Gretchen Bleiler and the other Americans, I feel a bit sorry for the Canadians this Saturday."Oh Canada" indeed...
Even as a child I never really had any illusions as to what the NFL Pro Bowl was, but the 2009 installment has become quite the charade. Bad enough that the voting in recent years has made selection more of a popularity contest than anything else, but now because the game is played before the 
become an absolute joke. Second and third alternates starting in the game used to be the norm, this year promises to feature fourth, fifth and in at least one instance a sixth alternate. Give me a break. 
being well, Brett Favre, are now groaning over the announcement that Bryant McKinnie was booted from the Pro Bowl. Weary Vikings fans, take some solace in knowing that the bum had no business being selected in the first place, but I digress.
inspired mixed martial arts spectacle either. Who didn’t like seeing the NFL’s strongest man competition, fastest man, quarterback challenge, and the obstacle course? I don’t know, does the league still hold those contests? If not, I say bring ‘em back with a vengeance. Do it with the full complement of NFL regalia too. Get rid of those red and blue outfits, and have the players wearing t-shirts and shorts from their respective teams. The television coverage of these events had consisted primarilyof highlights, kind of like watching 
back in the day, but since the NFL network is compelled to feed us every moment of the NFL Combine, why not give us these events in their entirety too? 
