Interview with John Babcock

By Ken MacQueen - Friday, February 19, 2010 at 10:02 AM - 6 Comments

Those are dangerous words here in America. You were raised on a farm near Kingston, tell me about your childhood.
We had a 50-acre farm, we had a modern sawmill. They had 10 children. [My father] was felling a tree. A dead tree in the path of it came down and hit him in the shoulder. They brought him in on a bobsleigh, cradled in a horse blanket. He lived for two hours. It was an awful blow to our family. That was the year I became six.

You didn’t have much time for school.
Oh, I didn’t care about that anyway.

Do you recall hearing about the start of the war?
Oh, I heard about it, I guess. I enlisted when I was 15 1/2 years old. I remember I was at a place called Perth Road. There was a lieutenant and a sergeant came [recruiting] there. The sergeant quoted [from] “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” I was very impressed with that. During the time I was there they asked me if I wouldn’t like to enlist. I said, yeah. So they signed me up. I walked down to Sydenham, it was several miles and they had a bunch of us together and we drilled in the city hall. We were sent to Valcartier, that was in Quebec. Everybody had a physical before they went overseas. I was A-4. That meant I was physically fit but I was underage. For some reason or other they didn’t call out my name with all the people who were turned down, so I put my pack on and got on the train. I got as far as Halifax and went to get on the boat. The company commander, he knew my status and he had me step aside. They sent me up to Wellington Barracks, that was the peacetime barracks in Halifax. They had me wrestling freight on a big army truck. I didn’t care for that. They called for volunteers for 50 men to go to the RCRs, that was the Royal Canadian Regiment. I volunteered. They asked me how old I was. I said 18.

How old were you?
Sixteen. My service record came through. They found out how old I was so they put me in the Boys Battalion, they called it.

How was the crossing?
I was seasick. Went over on the California. It was torpedoed the second-to-next trip; the submarines were very active then. We landed in Liverpool. They put us on one of those trains that had those compartments that seat six. They gave us a gallon can of bully beef we opened with a bayonet. I was in the 26th Reserve. I’d hear those veterans talk about different places they fought. Finally they got all the kids who were underage and sent us to Bexhill-on-Sea. There were 1,300 of us. About a third of them had been to France. They were veterans.

What was a typical day like for the “Young Soldiers Battalion”?
Well, they drilled us eight hours a day. Our senior non-coms and officers were veterans and they drilled us. We didn’t like it but it didn’t make any difference.

There were 1,300 boys full of piss and vinegar. How did you pass the time?
I went on leave to Scotland. I met a little Scots girl. She was a WAAC(Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps). I was with her part of the time I was in Scotland. We’d just walk up and down the streets. [Laughs] Once, we were parked next to a stone wall. The people across the street, I think they saw us and called the police. The police came, but they didn’t disturb us. We got up and left. These WAACs, they had long johns underneath. Then they had a pair of bloomers, olive drab bloomers, over them. I got her bloomers down but I came home a virgin.

The girls I had gone to grade school with, they had learned about the birds and the bees. They took care of things. I wasn’t a virgin very long.

You must have heard a lot of stories about the front.
I heard the veterans talking about Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele. We had wet canteens. When those veterans were in those wet canteens, during an evening they would drink nine or 10 imperial quarts of beer while they were BS-ing.

What about the brutality of war, did they talk about that?
It wasn’t fun, that was for damn sure. They enjoyed their beer. I felt bad about this [story]. They would capture German soldiers. A detail would have to take them back where they were holding the prisoners. They didn’t want to be bothered, so they’d take them back to the reserve trenches and shoot them. I thought that was a hell of a thing to do.

[Dorothy asks] Were they were just bragging after all that beer?
I think they did it.

Canadians paid a high price in that war. There were some 66,000 killed. You must have known many that didn’t come back.
My brother Manley enlisted after I did. He transferred to the engineers. He became a sapper. They would dig under the German lines and put a bunch of explosives in there and blow them up. It was dangerous. He had a nervous breakdown after he got out of the army.

There were many soldiers who had emotional problems because of the war.
We had a fellow. I’ve forgotten his name. He had emigrated from Germany. He was in the Canadian Army. The people didn’t know that he was from Germany but they had found out. He came off guard duty, I guess. He took his .45 and said, “I’m going to kill myself.” There was a first sergeant there, he said, “Give me that gun.” He said, “Sergeant, I don’t want to hurt you but don’t try to get this gun.” So he shot himself. I was in the room where it was. Another time they used to have pack drill [as punishment]. A man would have to put on his full pack and march around the barracks. One fellow felt so bad because he’d had pack drill he got up at night. Took his bayonet, put the hilt against the wall, and ran it through him and killed himself.

You’ve talked about the honesty of the Canadian soldier.
Stealing from a comrade was the lowest thing you could do. I remember one fellow, he was just a youngster, and he stole a dollar watch and he got nine months [in prison]. He said they’d give you a rusty chain and you’d have to take a piece of sandpaper and polish the links in it. That was your punishment. The discipline in the Canadian Army was very strict.

The battlefields must have built to an enormous size in your imagination. What were your thoughts when the Armistice was signed before you could go?
I felt that I had missed what I had come over there for. And I had. I didn’t see any active service.

Was there a sense of relief, which would be a very sensible reaction in my view?
I don’t recall feeling relief. I thought more that I had missed what I had come over there for.

You didn’t stay in Canada very long after the war, why?
I had relatives in the United States. All you had to do to get into the United States was pay a $7 head tax. I remember when I went to pay my head tax I had a quick-change artist who made a story about changing money. He flim-flammed me out of $10 or $15.

Did you feel there was more opportunity?
There was more opportunity here.

You enlisted in the U.S. army. Was it difficult to switch uniforms?
I’d spent three years in the Canadian Army. In the American army, we put the rifle on the right shoulder. In the Canadian Army we put it one our left shoulder. It didn’t take me long to master the drill. A month after I was in the American army, I became a corporal. In another month, I was a sergeant.

Did you get a Canadian Army pension?
They gave me a cheque for about $750. That was a war gratuity. When I was in the United States, I heard they were giving Canadian veterans vocational training, so I came back to take that. I became an electrician. They would send me out to wire houses in little towns. I was pretty rough to start with, but I got pretty good at that. I ran a little light plant in Canada, it was in Sydenham, it was water-powered.

You have a son and a daughter. How many grandchildren and great-grandchildren?
[Dorothy answers] He had eight grandchildren. He’s got five great-grandchildren.

Did any of those grandchildren wear a uniform?
Matt [an army dentist] did, in Iraq.

It’s not a soldier’s job to question why you’re at war, but a father and grandfather has that right. Do you have any thoughts on the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Well, I know that you’re liable to get killed, and there isn’t any great honour for doing it. It’s a job that every young man of a certain age has to do. You serve your country doing that. I’m sure that when a man is in the trenches he doesn’t consider that he’s going to get killed.

[Dorothy asks] How would you feel about having a grandchild in Iraq now?
I wouldn’t like it.

Do you see this war ending any time soon? Is there a way for the U.S. to extract itself?
I don’t know enough about it, but I wish they’d get the hell out of there.

To get morbid for a moment. You’re now the last Canadian who wore a uniform overseas in the First World War. You’re kind of a rare artifact, an endangered species. Does it feel strange?
[Laughs] My wife waits on me hand and foot, and I love it. I think it’s probably a good thing that people are remembered who took part in World War I.

There had been talk of a state funeral for the last veteran when that time comes. What are your thoughts on that?
Well, I became a naturalized citizen of the United States so I think that should go to a Canadian.

[Dorothy] The last Canadian is dead.
Well, I suppose if they don’t have anybody else, they can choose me. [Laughs] So who else is around? I am the last one?

You’re like the dodo bird, sir. There was some thought that when the last Canadian veteran passes they should celebrate all of the soldiers of that time. Is that a good idea?
I think they should commemorate all of them, instead of just one.

Colonel Williams: ‘Behind those eyes’

By By Michael Friscolanti and Martin Patriquin with Cathy Gulli, Kate Lunau, Tom Henheffer, Patricia Treble and Dianna Symonds - Friday, February 19, 2010 at 7:45 AM - 51 Comments

Jessica Lloyd was last heard from on Jan. 28, when she typed a late-night text message to a friend. The following morning, a Friday, Col. Russell Williams called in sick. At the time, a nasty flu bug was swirling around the headquarters building at Canadian Forces Base Trenton, so nobody had any reason to doubt his sniffles. Or suspect that he might be covering up a murder.

As far as his subordinates were concerned, their wing commander was recuperating at his waterfront bungalow in Tweed, Ont., an hour’s drive from the base. The colonel slept there alone on weeknights, and spent most weekends commuting to and from Ottawa, where he and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Harriman (Mary Liz, as everyone calls her), had just built a swank new townhouse. At some point on the weekend of Jan. 30, that’s where Williams headed.

Over the next 48 hours—while police in Belleville, Ont., ramped up their search for Jessica Lloyd—Williams remained in the capital with Mary Liz. He took Monday off, too, as part of a pre­-arranged leave. On Tuesday, after meeting with members of the Challenger squadron, the Ottawa-based unit that ferries prime ministers and other dignitaries around the country, the colonel climbed into his SUV and headed back to Tweed. Lloyd was still unaccounted for.

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10 things Tiger probably won't say

By Colby Cosh - Friday, February 19, 2010 at 6:23 AM - 17 Comments

1. “…and so, in an effort to avoid temptation, I will henceforth be devoting myself exclusively to golf in its underappreciated, family-friendly ‘miniature’ form. See you at the windmill!”

2. “I’m sorry to announce that I will not be appearing at The Masters in 2010. I will, however, be using that weekend to perform in a golf-themed adult film entitled The Masturs.”

3. “Yes, people of Earth, I have most assuredly been in some sort of bizarre sex jail for the past three months. NOT preparing for a reptoid invasion of your… sorry, our planet. It was definitely the sex jail thing.”

4. “Do you people realize what kind of messed-up childhood I had? You should be grateful my sex life doesn’t consist largely of infantilism, bondage, and urinating on Babe Zaharias lookalikes.”

5. “After a lot of painful introspection I’ve become convinced I made a mistake marrying so young. To just the one woman.”

6. “I’ve asked you all here today so I could tell you about a friend of mine who saved my life. A friend named L. Ron Hubbard.”

7. “Nooo, not the science-fiction author and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. That’s just a weird coincidence. This Ron Hubbard is a bartender who pulled me out of a malfunctioning hot tub in a VIP room. Believe me, poor bastard’s heard all the jokes.”

8. “Basically, as I grew up, I found myself superbly prepared for everything about a professional golf career… except the overwhelming, fatal tide of sexy double-entendres.”

9. “And so I apologize to fans everywhere for my blatantly obvious use of outlawed performance-enhancing drugs. …Wait, what? This is about the screwing? Seriously??”

10. “Above all, I hope my troubles won’t lead to unjust prejudice against my fellow Cablinasians. Stay strong, my people.”

Switzerland almost trips up Canada

By Charlie Gillis - Friday, February 19, 2010 at 12:34 AM - 1 Comment

Whatever this country did to annoy Switzerland—whatever debit we left on their famed bank ledgers, whatever cloth napkin we tucked into our shirt collars—surely it qualifies for bygones now.

Yes, Canada beat their hockey team 33-0 in the first Olympic tournament. That was excessive, but for goodness sake it was 1924. The news probably took three days to reach Vancouver by cable, by which time everyone had gone back to work for the week.

So why are they trying so hard to embarrass us now?

Not that Canada’s 3-2 shootout win tonight was an embarrassment. On the contrary, it was a damn fine hockey game, topped off by a goal from the player we rely on most to come through in the clutch, Sidney Crosby. The fans went home with smiles on their faces. Crosby quickly donned his customary monotone for the post-game mixed zone.

“We expected them to be good,” he said. “It’s not a question of us taking them lightly. They got a bounce there on their second goal. In the third we had some great chances that didn’t go in. When you’re playing one game, a lot of little things like that can change an outcome.”

But Crosby, like everyone, had to feel a little frustrated. At an Olympic tournament Canada desperately wants and needs to win, the Swiss have no business providing the top-notch entertainment they did by storming back from a 2-0 deficit, and coming oh so close to winning in the post-regulation showdown. With three NHLers in their lineup, they kept pace throughout the game, and when Canada backed off its physical play during the second period, they made the most of their chances.

They also got brilliant goaltending from Jonas Hiller, a 28-year-old who in his other life tends net for the Anaheim Ducks. He stopped 43 shots, compared to 18 by Martin Brodeur, the Canadian veteran.

Crosby knows the history here as well as anyone, having watched it helplessly, his pride stung at being left at home. It was four years ago to the day that an overmatched Swiss team dumped a Crosby-less Team Canada 2-0 in Turin, setting the table for an early exit from those Winter Games and a lot of brave talk about Vancouver.

That game, however, haunted the airwaves and sports pages this week—especially after the Swiss clawed back into a game Tuesday against the U.S., losing 3-1. Canada’s Joe Thornton, who played on the ill-fated 2006 team, promised that the 2006 debacle wouldn’t happen again, and for a while it seemed possible the Swiss would make a fool of him. After getting a 2-0 lead, the Canadians let in a pair during the second period, including one 10 seconds before the horn.

It took a shootout, and Crosby, to salvage the big lug’s dignity. The pride of Cole Harbour, N.S. missed on his first attempt, but under IIHF rules, teams can choose whoever they like after the first three players for each team have shot. Having sent Jonathan Toews and Ryan Getzlaf at Hiller to no avail, Canadian coach Mike Babcock went back to Crosby, and this time the Kid made no mistake, wiring one past Hiller on the stick side, drawing a molar-shaking roar from the crimson horde at Canada Hockey Place. Brodeur made a nice save off Martin Pluss to seal the win.

Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau scored Canada’s regulation-time goals, while Ivo Ruthemann, a wiley 33-year-old veteran, and Patrick von Gunten answered for Switzerland.

The decision to go back to Crosby was one of those a coach sometimes makes—inspired if it works, colossally dumb it if doesn’t, considering he had the likes of Rick Nash, Jarome Iginla, and Mike Richards waiting on the bench. Babcock admitted afterward he filled out his shootout card based entirely on the players’ percentages during the current NHL season.

“[Crosby] was the best, Toews was second, Getzlaf was third,” he said. “We thought about going to Nash, because he was fourth, but we just thought Sid had had a look at him once and he’d get it in the second time. It was that simple.”

Still, both Babcock and the players seemed aware they had not turned in a letter-perfect performance. The good news, said Crosby, is that “the gold medal game is not tomorrow.” “We would have liked a regulation win but we found a way, and it’s a short tournament. We’ve got to find a way to get better here.”

As for the Swiss, well, their progress seems quite tangible, despite the heart-breaking loss.

“We knew we played a great game and we had them, but then just didn’t finish in the shootout,” said Roman Wick, one of the team’s slicker forwards. “It gives us confidence to know we can keep up with teams like this.”

Confidence. Right. Evidently, this Swiss grudge isn’t going away any time soon.

Olympic music: Willner's testament

By Paul Wells - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 11:36 PM - 13 Comments

It was noon on the day of his latest artistic triumph, and Hal Willner was running late. “Sorry, man,” he said to me as he walked into Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre, where a dozen musicians were beginning rehearsals for his Neil Young Project, part of the Cultural Olympiad that serves as a running performing-arts sidecar to the Vancouver Olympics. “I knew we were going to do this, and I was into talking, but then I thought, nah, I need another hour of sleep.”

What he was here to talk about was a sprawling tribute to the Canadian rock icon Neil Young, which was to be performed Thursday and Friday night, featuring just about everyone except Neil Young: Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, the singer Emily Haines from Metric, Ron Sexsmith, Colin James, Julie Doiron, members of Broken Social Scene and the usual motley crew of session men, lounge lizards, jazz astronauts and other eccentrics who always fill out one of Willner’s shows.

The 53-year-old Philadelphia native has been doing this sort of thing for close to 30 years. His tribute albums to other woolly geniuses — Nino Rota, Kurt Weill, Thelonious Monk — are the stuff of legend. He has been the musical director for Saturday Night Live since 1980. He did a Leonard Cohen tribute in 2006 in Brooklyn, with Canadian consulate money, and that led to this, somehow. Anyone who has followed Willner knows it will be incontestably one of the cultural highlights of this Olympic-fevered Vancouver winter.

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Maria Riesch makes the world forget Lindsey Vonn (at least temporarily)

By Michael Friscolanti - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 10:42 PM - 2 Comments

Lindsey Vonn lost today, the victim of a very nasty wipeout. But the crash itself wasn’t nearly as painful as what happened a few minutes later, when America’s sweetheart of the slopes picked herself up, clicked her skis back on, and coasted down the rest of the hill. Waiting at the finish line, hugging and whooping it up for the cameras, were the three skiers who did win a medal in the women’s super combined. Vonn had no choice but to slam on the brakes and wait for the victory photo-op to wrap up.

“I tried as hard as I could, but it just unfortunately didn’t go my way today,” said the Minnesota native, who struck gold a day earlier in the women’s downhill. “But that’s ski racing. I wish I could have made it to the bottom, but that’s life.”

To say she choked is a tad unfair, but this was Vonn’s event to win. She finished the first heat (the downhill) with the fastest time in the field, and a respectable showing in the second race (the slalom) would have assured the U.S. star at least a spot on the podium. But after some impressive second runs by her closest rivals—including Germany’s Maria Riesch, the eventual gold medal winner, and American teammate Julia Mancuso, who took the silver—Vonn said she had no choice but to “attack” the course. Unfortunately for her, it attacked back. Coming out of a particularly difficult turn, her right ski clipped one of the slalom gates and sent the rest of her body tumbling toward a very rare DNF (Did Not Finish).

“I wanted to get the gold medal,” she said afterwards. “I won gold yesterday so I didn’t really want to shoot for something lower than that. I knew I was capable of winning. I knew it was possible. I could have skied a safe run and probably still got a bronze medal, but I didn’t really want to do that.”

That bronze went to Anja Paerson, the Swedish skier who suffered her own spectacular crash during Wednesday’s downhill (leaving her with a “bruised butt,” among other bumps and scratches). Until just minutes before today’s first heat, the 28-year-old wasn’t even sure she could compete. “I was pretty scared this morning because it was hurting a lot,” Paerson said. “[But] I got the atmosphere at the start and then I got the determination in my head. I knew I had to go for it.” She certainly made the right choice. Her bronze was her sixth Olympic medal, tying her for most-ever by a female Alpine skier.

But the day ultimately belonged to Riesch, the power-skiing German who finished second behind Vonn in the first heat but roared back with a flawless slalom that pushed her into top spot—and put the pressure squarely on her American opponent. “To win a gold medal, everything must be perfect that day for you,” said Riesch, who was forced to miss the 2006 Games in Turin because of an injured ACL. “And today, everything was perfect for me.”

At the post-race press conference, a reporter asked Riesch if she felt sorry for Vonn, whose crash officially sealed her first Olympic gold. The two women, both 25, are actually dear friends. They vacation with each other in the off-season, and have spent more than one Christmas together. “To be honest, in the first moment you just think: ‘I won the race,’ ” she said. “That’s normal, and I think anybody does the same. I think [Wednesday] she was also happy that I was slower than her and she won the gold medal. It’s normal, but of course I felt bad for her. She has a gold medal from yesterday, today was a bad day for her, and yesterday was a bad day for me. That’s how sports is.”

Riesch was not the only skier who made the world forget Lindsey Vonn (at least temporarily). Amid all the pre-Olympic hype surrounding her teammate—who attracted more than a few new fans by donning a swimsuit for Sports Illustrated—Julia Mancuso has quietly become the most accomplished skier in U.S. Olympic history, with one gold and two silvers. She was so elated by her slalom run this afternoon that she fell to the ground and kicked her feet in the air. “That’s the Julia dance,” she laughed. “It is that moment you wait for as an athlete—the moment that you realize: ‘I have been working so hard for this moment, and anything is possible.’ I just believed and went for it.”

Canada’s female skiers were not so thrilled. Georgia Simmerling, injured in Wednesday’s downhill, was unable to compete. Shona Rubens of Canmore, Alta., was the top Canadian, finishing 12th, while Emily Brydon of Fernie, B.C., placed 14th. Despite the home hill advantage, not a single alpine skier wearing the Maple Leaf—male or female—has stood on a podium this Olympics. “I wish we weren’t in the boat we are in, but we are,” Brydon said. “That’s the reality of it. I don’t think we could have done anything differently to be more prepared.”

Canada’s next chance for a skiing medal comes Friday at the men’s Super Giant Slalom. As for Lindsey Vonn, she’ll be taking the day off—“getting as much therapy as humanly possible” on a famously bruised right shin—in preparation for the ladies’ Super G on Saturday.

Chin up, Canada!

By macleans.ca - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 10:15 PM - 19 Comments

We’re nearly a week into the Vancouver Games and, well, the reviews aren’t exactly glowing. Between the death of luger Nodar Kumaritashvli, the unusually-warm weather that’s caused snow shortages, and the fencing-in of the Olympic torch, the Games’ critics have had plenty of fodder. But the New York Times’s Timothy Egan says Canada should quit taking it all so personally. “Why the lack of self-esteem?,” Egan asks. “Canada — snap out of it! You’re gorgeous, baby, you’re sophisticated, you live well. No need for an apology.” Never mind the awesome beauty of the B.C. landscape, the rest of Canada has a lot going for it, too. “If Canada were the 51st state, they would be on the American medals podium nightly,” Egan writes. “Their murder rate is just a third that of the United States. They have universal health care, and while the system prompts much grumbling, it works for most people — without the death panel quality of America’s heartless private insurers.” So cheer up, Canadians: life is good, with or without the Olympics.

The Opinionator (New York Times)

Let us now begin to overreact

By Scott Feschuk - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 9:45 PM - 13 Comments

Canada. Hockey. Switzerland. Overtime. Shootout. Whaa???

UPDATE: Crosby!

Meanwhile, figure skating: Patrick Chan is warming up, dressed as the world’s sparkliest Keg waiter.

Question: By what percentage does the very existence of an area colloquially referred to as the Kiss ‘n Cry reduce the number of young males willing to consider taking up the sport? 90%? 130%?

This is going to sound terrible, but you know what I enjoy most about figure skating? The falling down. I’m like a person who watches auto races for the crashes or follows Hollywood for the Lindsay Lohan. And already tonight, as the men slap-fight for the gold, there’s been some quality falling down, including a nice slip by a Japanese fellow who Continue…

Liveblog: Women's halfpipe final

By Chris Sorensen - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 8:43 PM - 4 Comments

8:40 pm: Hey everybody. Twenty minutes to go. I’m still blown away by last night’s men’s final, aka the Shaun White show. But tonight could be even more exciting as there seems to be a real battle shaping up.

8:46 pm: Full disclosure. Before I became a boring business writer, I used to do a fair bit of snowboarding. But I have to say that the sport has really progressed since I hung up my Option board. So I apologize in advance if I miss some (all) of the tricks. Things were a LOT simpler back in the day.

8:49 pm: So, as I understand it, the U.S. thinks they can sweep the podium. And they do have four riders that are all very capable, including the defending gold medalist, Hannah Teter. Still, after watching some of the qualifying runs today, it looks like there could be some upsets in the works. Torah Bright of Australia did amazing and Canada’s Mercedes Nicolls snuck in during the semi finals. China’s Jiayu Liu also could be in the picture.

8:56 pm: Hmm…need to decide whether to watch NBC’s coverage or CTV’s. I noticed last night that NBC tended to cut away to commercials when the Americans weren’t riding, but their camera work was a lot better. But hockey is on CTV’s main channel right now, so I may have no choice.

9:00 pm: Going with NBC. They just said one of the riders that was supposed to be there was taken to the hospital. Here goes Swiss rider Ursina Haller. Not a bad run, but she’s going to need to go higher than that. She also hung on the lip on one of her airs. Score is pretty low.

9:02 pm: Next up. France. Sophie Rodriguez. 900 off the top. fakie air. And a little switch fakie grab at the end. Wow. That first 900 was pretty big on the replay.

9:04 pm: Here come the Americans. Elena Hight. I’m not sure I like the U.S. uniforms, with the plaid jackets and snowpants that look like jeans. Anyway. Big method. 900. Another 900 and a 720. Oh. She hit the top of the pipe.

9:13 pm: And we’re back. A little technical glitch there. China’s Jiayu Liu currently in first place.

9:14 pm: I like that the U.S. announcers don’t say the word “amplitude.” The Canadian announcers can’t seem to stop saying it. I have never heard any snowboarder talk about amplitude. Oh, another American is up. Gretchen Bleiler, silver medalist in 2006. Big 900. Backside 540. Followed by a huge inverted 720 — right to the flat bottom, unfortunately. Yikes.

9:17 pm: And Hannah Teter, also of the USA and defending gold medalist. Big backside air. 900. backside five . Another straight air. Some more stuff in between that I didn’t catch. Good clean run though…..and now she’s in first place with 42.4. I have no idea how they judge this stuff.

9:20 pm: And Kelly Clark, also of the U.S., who likes to sing on the platform while listening to her iPod. Big frontside air. Big 540 She’s going huge…but landed the last one in the flat bottom.

9:22 pm: Here comes Torah Bright, who apparently has been trying the double cork, which has apparently never been done in women’s competition. And…she went down on her third hit. She was amazing in the qualifiers though. She has a really smooth yet technical style.

9:24 pm: One other note on Clark’s iPod. I was never a big fan of listening to music while snowboarding. I always found it distracting. You’re on top of this beautiful mountain after all. Why do you need bring electronic toys with you? Plus my toque would push the earbuds into my ears, painfully. Maybe they’ve since worked that problem out.

9:27 pm: Just realized I missed Mercedes Nicoll during my technical problem. And now NBC is doing a promo for the U.S. snowboard team. Looking for Canadian coverage.

9:31 pm: No luck. I will hand it to the Americans though….they really have a way of making everything on TV look epic. They really know what they’re doing what it comes to that stuff.

9:33 pm: While we’re waiting for the second run to start, I would just like to say that the half pipe is huge.

9:35 pm: Anyone else think it’s creepy how they show the riders faces on that giant video screen?

9:36 pm: Torah Bright. Good run this time around with a switch backside 720. “insanely technical run,” says the announcer. That backside 7 was crazy…..She’s in first!!

9:37 pm: Gretchen Bleiler of the USA. Big 900 to backside 500. And a huge something or other!! Oh no. She hit the lip on the way down. That looked painful. I think she’s out.

9:39 pm: She is indeed out. And another commercial. I think it’s kind of lame that none of the Canadian channels are showing this. In a lot of ways, this is a better competition than the men’s was.

9:42 pm: Elena Hight of the US. Down half way through the run. So now the American’s have just two riders left. I guess there will be no sweep of the podium tonight.

9:43 pm: Singing Kelly Clark up again. I wonder what she’s listening to. Oh…she’s adjusting the iPod. I think she’s singing “Love me, you shall.”  Here she goes. Pretty good run with big 900 at the end, but she kind of lost momentum in the middle.

9:45 pm: I should have titled this blog post: Will Canada’s Mercedes Nicoll get any airtime on NBC? They just cut to commercial again. I mean, I can appreciate that four of the 12 riders are from the U.S., but maybe American viewers would like to get a glimpse of who they are competing against? This is brutal.

9:48 pm: Hey a non-American! Sun Zhifeng of China. She’s struggling, but landed everything. I like China’s non-crazy uniforms. Plain red.

9:50 pm: Mercedes is up!! Big 540…..oh no! She went out too far and fell into the bottom of the pipe on her next trick. Apparently, the best she can do is 6th. So Canada is out of medal contention.

9:53 pm: The riders are starting to go for it as they see their chances slipping away. France’s Sophie Rodriguez went for a 1080 right off the bat and crashed.

9:54 pm: China up again. Jiayu Liu. Huge backside method. And a huge 540. Backside 540, but she kind of messed up a trick in mid air.

9:55 pm: Now its Australia’s Torah Bright versus USA’s Hannah Teter for gold. Hannah is up. I really don’t like the fake jean snowpants, complete with rips. Gimmicky. She looks good on this run though. Big straight air. 900 and 540, but she’s really struggling to get out of the pipe by the end of the run. I think Torah has it.

9:56 pm: Yup. Teter Silver, Clark the bronze and Torah Bright of Australia gets the gold. She totally deserved it.

9:57 pm: And Bob Costas doesn’t hesitate to make a joke about a woman from “down under” that  ”goes up and over ” in the halfpipe.   Anyway…thanks for tuning in. That was a lot of fun. Back to my day job.

Opening Weekend: 'Shutter Island,' 'Defendor,' Fish Tank'

By Brian D. Johnson - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 8:20 PM - 10 Comments

Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's 'Shutter Island'

We’ve got an unusually good crop of movies opening this weekend. I wasn’t expecting much from Shutter Island, judging from the lurid trailer, and the fact that its release was pushed back too late for Oscar consideration. But Martin Scorsese’s Kafka-like luge ride into psychological terror is quite the trip. Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo star as FBI marshals who get in over their heads in a Gothic asylum for the criminally insane ruled by Ben Kingsley as its Freudian godfather and Max von Sydow as his head-shrinking henchman. Canadian actor Elias Koteas pops up like a jack-in-the-box as a maniacal inmate, and you can draw a direct line from this scar-faced monster to the grisly villain Koteas plays in Defendor—a kinder, gentler, and significantly smaller tale of hazardous delusion by Canadian director Peter Stebbings. A deft, bittersweet drama, Defendor stars Woody Harrelson as a sad-sack simpleton who turns himself into a homemade superhero. After High Life and Grown Up Movie Star, it’s the third domestic release in the past month that does a game job of blowing the cobwebs out of the Canadian art house. In the Canadian tradition, these are all stories of down-and-out losers, but none of them are downers.

A third new release that I can’t recommend too highly is Fish Tank, an award-winning gem of social realism from British director Andrea Arnold (Red Road)—it seems virtually guaranteed to secure an early spot on my 2010 top ten list. And finally, there’s Reel Injun, a funny, fascinating Canadian documentary that unfolds as a slapdash chronicle of how aboriginals have been depicted onscreen from the silent film era to the present. You can find my take on Reel Injun from this week’s magazine here.

Shutter Island

Like Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese often seems torn between between making films and worshiping them. And although he’s much less of a pastiche artist than Tarantino, he often does both at once. That’s certainly the case with Shutter Island, a movie that gives Marty full-reign to indulge a love for vintage horror that, until now, has just bubbled under the surface of his work. Not since Cape Fear has Scorsese embraced noir style with such giddy abandon, and in this case he goes further, turning Shutter Island into a cinematic hall of broken mirrors, jagged with allusions and references. This thriller, which plays like Hitchcock on steroids, could be criticized for its lack of restraint. And I’m not just talking about the coy quotes, such as the shower shot stolen from Psycho (with the camera pointing directly into the spray), the iconic lighthouse and the inevitable spiral staircase leading to the moment of truth. Scorsese’s monocle-eyed vision recalls the diabolical designs of Stanley Kubrick and the pulp fashions of Sam Fuller. Shutter Island unfolds as a recurring nightmare, riddled with ghoulish flashbacks, ranging from piles of Nazi death-camp corpses arranged like installation art, to macabre visions of drowned children. Not to mention liberal splashes of bright-red blood—worlds away from the darkly realist gore that floods Scorsese’s gangster movies. He directs Shutter Island with the energy of a filmmaker who’s been dying to sink his teeth into this sort of material all his life, and may never get another chance. Continue…

Christine Nesbitt: Canada's self-critical sweetheart

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 8:13 PM - 2 Comments

In Christine Nesbitt’s world, you don’t win gold, you lose platinum.

And the mere fact that such an honour doesn’t actually exist at the Olympics didn’t stop her from beating herself up over her clutch win in the women’s 1,000m today. Skating in front of a raucous home crowd, the 24-year-old from London, Ont. topped the podium with a time of 1-minute, 16.56 seconds, edging out Annette Gerritsen of the Netherlands by just two one-hundredths of a second. Laurine van Riessen, also of the Netherlands, took the bronze.

You see, on the World Cup circuit this season, Nesbitt never lost a race. Indeed, she won most of them in a walk. And to say she is a perfectionist at heart is a gross understatement.

So, just squeaking out a victory, no matter how exciting, amazing and inspiring it was for the rest of the country, wasn’t quite good enough for her. And pretty much the moment she stepped down from the victory podium, Nesbitt started providing chapter and verse on why her gold medal performance was one of the worst races of her career.

“As much as I was fortunate enough to win Olympic gold, this was probably my worst 1,000m race of the year,” she said. “I’m really lucky.”

From the starting gun, Nesbitt said she never felt right. She slipped on about her third stride. Coming out of the first corner, she found herself ahead of the other skater in her pairing, Monique Angermuller of Germany, and started to relax—then saw her time, 18.36 over the first 200m, putting her in 15th place.

“I was panicking,” she said. “I was definitely fighting demons.”

“I didn’t feel technically good. I was, ‘Oh, no!’ I’m not having a good race. I’m not even going to be on the podium.”

At the next split, the 600m mark, she was in 9th place, and sweating it even more.

“I knew I wasn’t skating very well. I almost felt like with a lap to go the crowd fell silent when they saw how far behind I was.” (If that was indeed true, Nesbitt was the only one to notice. It was so loud inside the Richmond Oval that you could barely hear yourself think.)

So, faced with certain doom—or an acute sense of pickiness—Nesbitt turned on the jets over the last 400m. At the lane change on the final curve, she chased down Angermuller, and blew right past her. Then, she burned rubber down the final straightaway, crossing the finish line with an awkward toe kick.

Nesbitt looked peeved after the race. She said she was certain the time wasn’t going to be enough to win. And all through the final pairing of the day—her teammate Kristina Groves and Margot Boer of the Netherlands—she stewed in the infield. But Groves’ time of 1:16.78 was only good enough for fourth. Boer came sixth. And Nesbitt was the country’s newest golden girl.

Ugly? Perhaps, but Canada will take it.

And lest you worry that Nesbitt might be taking this winning thing a little hard, she did allow some measure of satisfaction at the accomplishment.

“I’ve been working really hard, not just physically, but mentally, and that’s what carried me through,” she said. “I’m really proud of myself. A year ago, two years ago, there’s no way—I wouldn’t have had that same drive.”

On Sunday, the new Olympic champion gets to go through it all again, squaring off against the world number-one ranked Groves in the 1,500m.

Another chance at glory, and another chance to find fault.

“I love criticizing myself,” Nesbitt allows.

Keep it up, it appears to be working.

DVD Announcements of Note… If That's the Word I Want

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 8:13 PM - 3 Comments

Two TV Shows On DVD announcements caught my eye:

- Warner Brothers is bringing out season 1 of Family Matters, bowing to huge public demand for more Urkel. (The same demand that caused a one-shot guest character to take over the show in the first place.) I barely remember the first season; I was a regular Perfect Strangers viewer at the time, and I couldn’t understand why they’d given Harriet her own show. So I tuned out after the first couple of episodes, and thereby missed the emergence of Urkel; maybe this will remind us all of how that magic moment came to be. One thing I’m going to bet, though, is that we won’t be getting the early version of the main title where they used the very expensive original recording of “What a Wonderful World.” (Replacing it with a Full House-alike song was a good choice. It’s too gentle for a TGIF show.)

- The company that released Don Bellisario’s Tales of the Gold Monkey overseas has struck a deal to distribute it in North America. It sometimes seems to me that there are a lot of flop U.S. series — particularly adventure series — that become very popular overseas, like Cover Up and other short-lived shows of the ’70s and ’80s. I guess that while a show with only 22 episodes has no chance of being syndicated in North America, it can get picked up as a short-run series in other countries and gain a following. Long after the actors have all moved on to other things.

Men's hockey: Canada 3 Switzerland 2 (SO)

By Charlie Gillis - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 7:28 PM - 2 Comments

Shootout

Format is three shooters from each team, alternating (trust me).

Dominechelli (SUI) – miss

Crosby (CAN) – miss

Lemm (SUI) – miss

Toews (CAN) – miss

Wick (SUI) – miss

Getzlaf (CAN) – miss

Now one shooter of each team’s choice:

Crosby (CAN) – SCORES

Pluss (SUI) – MISS

Wow!

OT

Wild ride in overtime, with almost all the chances going to Canada. Jonas Hiller, take a bow.

3rd Period

Sorry folks, for the head fake on over time. They have a five-minute OT and shootout. As you can see, I need to update my IIHF rulebook. Here, for real, is how the three-point system comes into play:

3 if you win in regulation, 2 if you win in OT or shootout, 1 if you lose in OT or in shootout.

The Heatley line came out flying in the first minute in the third, forcing Hiller to make two enormous saves. Canada carried the play, finishing with 45 shots versus 20 for the other guys. But no W.

It’s not that Canada sucked. You’ve just seen a textbook road game, as played by visiting Olympians.

2nd Period

You probably hadn’t heard of Ivo Ruthemann. He’s one of the best fowards in the Swiss Elite League. Scored 45 points in 37 games for Davos last year. Thirty-three years old.

You know him now. That was a bullet he fired past the glove side of the best goaltender of all time.

That said, Doughty has played better hockey than he has so far tonight. Ruthemann’s goal came on a bad pinch by our Drew and he’ll hear about it from Mike Babcock. Or Lindy Ruff, or Jacques Lemaire.

But Doughty wasn’t the only sinner. Chris Pronger has been playing too long, in too many pressure situations to wander out of position to settle scores with diminutive forwards who throw elbows his way. He was in no man’s land on the tying goal by Patrick von Gunten, and this is the problem with Pronger. He can’t always see the forest for the trees. On this occasion he was busy trying to cut down a rather small one—5-10 Andres Ambuhl, I think it was.

So they’re suddenly tied against a team they appeared to have tamed. Switzerland played Canada much closer in that period, getting nine shots to the Canadians’ 10.

On the bright side, Parick Marleau is having what may be the best season of his career. Ironic, considering he was allegedly being shopped before the free-agent deadline last year. His goal came on a fat rebound. But some players tighten up and miss those chances. Not Patrick.

Heatley took a shot in the arm, and not the kind that keeps the swine flu away. It was point blast from Weber, but he stayed in the game, and took a good shot on his next shift.

As for Crosby, well what can you say, the Euros sitting with me were mighty impressed with his hand-eye, knocking that rebound out of the air and damn near in the net. If he wants to show he’s a big game player, now would seem like a good time to step up.

1st Period

A feverish tempo, and without some laser-quick saves by 37-year-old Martin Brodeur, it could well be a tie or worse. The Swiss can keep pace, and they getting nastier every tournament.

What they couldn’t handle was Canada’s size and strength down low. Hence the penalties.

Jonathan Toews deserves a lot of credit on Dany Heatley’s goal, for taking the hit, for digging out the puck when he was due for a line change. But who could maintain his cool through heavy traffic the way Heatley did? Tracking the puck and tapping it in? Love him or hate him, the guys’s got chops.

The key for Canada will be to keep pouring on that forecheck. The finished the period with 17 shots, and gave up a couple of great scoring chances in the eight they surrendered.

Shea Weber was the team workhorse in that period, logging 8:19 in ice time and registering two shots on goal. Didn’t much notice him? That’s because he’s a good defenceman.

Random thoughts:

-Crosby looks as determined as I’ve ever seen him.

-after a good first outing against Norway, Drew Doughty looked a tad nervous today

-Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley seem to communicate  telepathically. Give them space and they will score. No wonder San Jose is so damn good.

-Mark Streit, the Swiss captain, has gone from being a soft defenceman to a complete player and a true team leader

———-

February 18, 2006.

A day that will live in (Canadian) infamy.

That was the fateful afternoon Switzerland beat Canada 2-0 at the Olympics in Turin—the first time the Swiss had defeated a team wearing the maple leaf at the Winter Games. The first time they played, back in 1924, Canada won 33-0.

Suffice to say, the 2006 result was a soul-shredder for the rather lethargic team Canada sent to Italy. They lost to the Finns, squeaked past the Czechs, then lost 2-0 to the Russians in the quarterfinals and wound up 9th out of 14 teams.

Over and out.

Four years later to the day, in Vancouver, Canada has a chance to set things straight. Joe Thornton, the normally affable centre from St. Thomas, Ont., has heard enough about that Swiss win. He all but predicted a victory for Canada today.

But the Canadians had best not let their emotions get command of their senses. The Swiss have strange way of frustrating good teams in the neutral zone, and using a tactic akin to a football blitz to create offensive chances: essentially, they encourage defencemen to jump up on the play to briefly overwhelm opposing players, get the puck and make a play.

Swiss coach Ralph Krueger reasons that his smaller, less rugged players can’t hope to outmuscle North American players on North American-sized ice surfaces. His method worked fairly well when the Swiss played the Americans on Tuesday. They lost 3-1 and looked good in the third. They have a bona fide big-league goalie in Jonas Hiller.

This is a genuine test for Canada. No more Swiss cheese jokes.

All that glitters is silver

By Paul Wells - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 7:12 PM - 16 Comments

“Please can you tell me,” the Serbian journalist asked me, “is this jewelry store company based here? Or is it more… East-coast?”

“Birks?” I replied. “It’s based in Montreal.”

“Ah. So, East-coast,” he said, with an I’m-a-man-of-the-world, you-don’t-have-to-spoonfeed-me glint in his eye. “Well, closer to the East coast, anyway.”

My Serbian colleague, who soon introduced himself as Vladimir Petrovic from DSL Sport newspaper, was, with me, one of the very few men attending the unveiling of a new Jennifer Heil line of silver jewelry at the Vancouver Birks flagship outlet on West Hastings. There was Starbucks coffee in silver puts. There were smoked-salmon canapés. There were many online style writers. “Oh yes! I read you on Twitter,” one said to another.

Making small talk, I asked Petrovic how many athletes there are on the Serbian Olympic team. “Eleven,” he said. “I’d have thought Serbia could field a hockey team,” I said.

“Slovenia can. Under the old Yugoslavia, 90 per cent of our hockey team was Slovenian. Now we don’t have enough,” he said. His paper used to be called JSL Sport, for Jugoslovenski Sporti List, or Yugoslavian Sporting Newspaper. Now it’s called Dnevni Sporti List, for Daily Sporting Newspaper.

I was scribbling something else in my notebook so I set out to reassure Petrovic. “I’m not taking notes about this.”

He shrugged and smiled. “Oh, you can make jokes about this! I don’t mind. I make jokes all the time. In Salt Lake City, Grimaldi, from Monaco, he finished the bobsled race on his head. He was one of a two-man bobsled and it turned over and he ended the race on his head. With the sled on top of him. And he still finished ahead of the Serbians.”

The main event, of course, was the arrival of Jenn Heil, whom the Birks publicity material identified as Gold Medallist Jenn Heil. Not incorrectly, either: she won gold in Turin. Here of course she won silver, Canada’s first medal of the games, and when she showed up, all bright eyes and wide smiles, she was wearing her medal, which was about the size of a pie plate and had an uneven, curvy surface.

Fiona Forbes, a local TV personality, approached a lectern near the coffee. “Please turn off your phones,” she said. “Especially if you have a Lady Gaga ringer.” Busted.

There were remarks from assorted jewelry dignitaries. Turns out this is the first time in Olympic history that the Games have designated an official supplier in the category of luxury jewelry. Really, you’d have thought they’d done it earlier. It turns out, too, that Jenn Heil’s line of products is in silver, but that this was going to be the case even before she fetched up silver at Cypress Mountain. There were no gold or bronze contingency plans.

She designed them herself, “in collaboration with the Birks design team.” Everything’s based on five rings, which is Olympic-ish and also reflects five “core values” Heil wanted to promote: courage, joy, focus, team and hope. “We are constantly inspired by her,” one Birks guy said. “As genuine a human being as you’d ever want to meet.” A Birks PR lady from Montreal pointed out to me that a line of jewelry associated with a 26-year-old athlete is pretty handy for the company, which doesn’t want to seem old and fusty.

Heil made grateful remarks and unveiled two new products—stackable bangles and stackable rings. There were many, many photos. The wee Olympian stayed cheerful through it all.

“She’s clearly, how do you call it, a hot dog,” Petrovic said as we watched the mogul star. “That’s why she can do her sport. It’s why she enjoys this.”

Stephen Colbert: Fair-weather friend?

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 7:09 PM - 10 Comments

American funnyman Stephen Colbert has been creating a buzz at the Games.

Thousands turned out in a muddy field near Vancouver’s Science World (temporarily serving as the Sochi 2014 pavilion) this morning and yesterday, to witness tapings of his popular Colbert Report TV show.

And in keeping with his jingoistic persona, the jokes were mostly at the host country’s expense. Under bright sunny skies on a 10-degree morning, he riffed from a stage piled high with fake snow, a giant stuffed moose and a totem pole. “It’s 11:30 at night and the sun’s still shining — and they wonder why there’s no snow here,” he began.

Later at the Richmond Oval, Colbert showed up to cheer on U.S. favourite, and the runaway winner of the men’s 1000m, Shani Davis. Sitting in seats reserved for NBC (Colbert is accredited to do “color” commentary for them) and wearing a red team fleece, with “Assistant Sports Psychologist” emblazoned across the back, he was fairly reserved. (Although he did tape a segment for the show before things got underway, featuring him giving faux encouragement to his U.S. charges, and using one of their skates to cut a sandwich.) Still, when Davis did his victory lap, Colbert did clasp his own hands in triumph.

He does deserves a share. When the U.S. Speed Skating team’s major cash-sponsor, Dutch bank DSB went belly-up last fall, Colbert stepped in and launched a campaign that raised close to US $350,000 for the team.

He of course has been paid back. His “feud” with Davis (real or invented) was comedy gold. And harnessing the power of the Olympics has hardly hurt his ratings and profile.

In interviews Colbert, who was born in D.C., but grew up in South Carolina, claims that he is a speed skating fan from way back, first falling in love with the sport watching the great Eric Heiden win five individual golds in Lake Placid in 1980.

But is that as phony as his right-wing faux-Fox pundit schtick?

The comedian doesn’t leave town until tomorrow. But he was nowhere in sight at the Oval today as Canada’s Christine Nesbitt took the gold.

Maybe he only turns out when the Americans have a prohibitive favourite racing.

Liveblog: men's free skate

By Katie Engelhart - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 7:01 PM - 3 Comments

7:00 p.m:
T minus one hour. (I’m already giddy with excitement.) Tune in at 8 p.m for live commentary on the men’s free skate.

7:55 p.m:
OK, Canada. Where are we at? What you really need to know is that last night, Patrick Chan – our domestic darling, our medal-ready men’s master – CHOKED. It’s true. He’s starting tonight in 7th place. But lucky us; we’ve got Vaughn Chipeur standing strong in 4th.

8:09 p.m:
Sorry, folks. Some technical difficulties. we’ve got Tomas Verner skating for the Czech Republic

8:10 p.m:

Verner stands in 19th right now. I’m not surprised. This routine is moving through at a snail’s pace.

8:10 p.m:
Although that was a very crisp triple lutz.

8:12:
Wow. That was a face plant, ladies and gents. Nothing dainty about that fall.

8:12:
I’m confused because his vest was so fabuliciously sparkled. And yet, his routine lacked any hint of spunk.

8:14:
Score is not great. Sorry, Verner.

8:15:
But WOW. Check out the love story that drove Verner to the ice.

8:15
Italy’s up. We’ve got the Paolo Bacchini skating to Cirque de soleil.

8:16:
Nasty take off on the triple axel. Flunk.

8:17
This pale, slender boy is lovely. I’m not sure why he’s dancing like a Frenchman to French music. But man oh man can he dance.

8:18
Nailed the triple salchow, triple toe.

8:18
Italians aren’t used to getting men on the Olympic ice. I bet everyone in Italy is watching this right now.

8:19
A smile! I love it when they smile. Why don’t they smile more?

8:19
The audience is going nuts. People are clapping with the beat. Clap. Clap. Clap.

8:20
Confusion. It seemed as though the music just stopped. But Bacchini kept skating. And then the music came on again… slowly. That’s a strange musical choice.

8:22
(Keep in mind that our dear Patrick Chan was docked a point last night for skating after the music had stopped, and thus going over the time limit.)

8:23
This is what Chan said of his show last night: “I’m really lost, I seriously got off the ice and I couldn’t believe what I had just done. I pictured it in my mind just right, every step of the way. . . it’s OK, Thursday will be a new day.” Oh, Patrick!

8:24
Not bad: 177.21 pints for Bacchini.

8:25
We’ve got Viktor Pfeifer of Austria up. I love a man in a white silk shirt.
The commentator just described him as “a super person.”

8:25
Pfeifer is a professional cello player! I feel so untalented…

8:26
Pfeifer wanted to be bold and start of with a bang! (read: a quad). He just fell. Oh well. Go big or go home, I always say…

8:26
Triple salchow, triple toe was flawless.

8:27
Could this routine be slower? The effect of the pale skin, white shirt, black pants & black gloves makes me think of a mime.

8:28
Wow! Triple jump sequence was very nice. I’m half Austrian. I think maybe I’ll root for this guy…

8:29
How many times can you wildly throw your arms up into the air with a pained look on your face – as if to say: dear Lord of the ice arena I present myself, raw and vulnerable, to you….??

8:32:
CANADA!

8:33
I’m so excited. How adorable is our 24th place holder?

8:34
Smokin! Fine, he singled that jump. Rub it in our face, commentators.

8:35
Those are some smooth moves.

8:36:
Pizazzzzz. More spins. And I’ve never seen someone jump quite so high. And look at that toe-pick action.

8:36:
I’m sorry. I’ve developed a debilitating crush. Refocus:

8:36:
This guy is screwing up every major jump.

8:37:
Great jump! And another! Jumping for days! Like it’s going out of style…

8:37:
Another! Dear Lord!

8:37:
Jazz fingers…

8:38:
Self-embrace.

8:39:
Wow. He spins. Jumps in the air on one foot. Lands and continues spinning.

8:40:
Take a bow, good sir.

8:40:
I think he took that literally. This guy won’t stop bowing. Now, he is skate sauntering off the ice.

8:40
Nope. Not yet. One more lap.

8:40:
Fine! He lost 18 technical points for all those weird high, mid-air jolts and ice touch-downs. (warning: made up terminology)

8:40
Did the commentator just say he had “too much energy”? What? He’s supposed to be solemn a la Czech Republic’s Tomas Verner??

8:44
Commercial break. Let’s talk men’s figure skating. Now, I know my fair share of manly men who turn up their nose are these skilled gliding wonders. But men’s figure skating is NOT a soft sport. Just ask U.S legend Johnny Weir.

8:47
This Canadian Tire commercial (for Canadian Tire commemorative coins??) is adorable. The boy teaches his dad to skate. Why does this touch me so? I’m ACTUALLY teaching my own Dad to skate. Get it? Canadian Tire is relatable.

8:49:
Adrian Schultheiss is up for Sweden.

8:49:
OK he’s wearing a straight jacket. Why?

8:50
NO, he’s ACTUALLY wearing a straight jacket. He begins his routine pretending that his hands are bound to his chest and jerking his head sideways as if insane.

8:51
This is funny because the commentators were just talking about what an inspiration he will be to little boys everywhere.

8:51
The music just changed. Is this an 80s rap remix of Jump Around?

8:52
I have NO idea what’s going on. But I know it’s mighty deep.

8:52
Now he’s doing the robot, I think? I do a better robot. Just sayin’…

8:53
Points for boldest musical choice.

8:53
And he’s really working the facial expressions.

8:53
Commentator just said he’s a “real technician.” No, Schultheiss is a MAD technician.

8:53
Triple lutz, double toe will give him 10 extra points.

8:54
Now the music has changed again. I know this song! Either:
1) I played it in concert band. (flute)
2) I danced to it at a bar mitzvah.
Can’t remember….

8:57
200.44 points. A personal best!!

9:01
Apparently the hockey game is tied. Who cares?

9:05
Stefan Lindemann of Germany is up. I would have told you sooner, but TSN decided not to broadcast the beginning of his routine. I bet it was great, though.

9:06
Let’s notice that all the figure skaters are sporting black gloves. Can we say: MJ commemoration Olympics 2010?

9:06
Lindemann has a lot of fancy footwork going on. Not surprising; he’s a 7-time German champion. But I’m finding his routine sort of understated.

9:07
Just doubled his triple axel. Tsk. Tsk.

9:07
Another double…

9:08
And another double. Oh dear.

9:09
This sounds like Lord of the Rings.

9:09
He looks so sad. And strained.
He’s shvitzing.

9:11
His coaches look peeved too. Hows about a smile, Germany.

9:11
Looked like the coach was giving him a comforting back rub. But she just picked a piece of lint of his bejewled t-shirt.

9:12
171.98 points.

9:13
As he wipes perspiration off his face, I see that his gloves are also bejewled.

9:13
Artem Borodulin of the Russian Federation is up.

9:14
Wow. That jump was crazy.

9:14
He’s dancing to Roxanne (Moulin Rouge version). I love love love.

9:14
Two triple axels in a row.

9:14
Was that three?

9:14
As he tosses his head sensually, his shoulder-length blond locks swirl. They look run-your-fingers-through worthy.

9:15
Landed another jump sequence.

9:15
The crazy thing is that Borodulin wasn’t even meant to come to the Olympics! He only got slated last minute because the Russian frontrunner dropped down. And now look at him

9:17
Roxanne has morphed into some kind of ballet music.

9:17
My friend describes his dance as “a flail fest.” Young people these days and their flailing limbs. Sorry excuse for dancing…

9:18
He does look a wee bit tired. Slowing down.

9:21
210.16 points! He’s in 1st right now. Not too bad, for a guy who wasn’t supposed to be here.

9:21
Jeremy Abbott of the United States of America steps onto the ice in a conservative blue button down, black slacks, and a brown corporate hair do.

9:22
My peanut gallery notes that the shirt has detail on the shoulder.

9:22
That was quite a bad fall on his rump. Left a snow mark.

9:23
He almost fell again. He’s got a scared look on his face. Not on to a good start.

9:24
He’s not really letting himself fall into this routine. He seems very reserved. And he’s had a couple near falls.

9:26
I’m bored. This is a boring routine.

9:27
Abbott looks like he is going to weep on the ice. He can barely bring himself to bow. He throws down his upper body with great sorrow.

9:29
218.96.
1st place.
FOUL
FOUL
FOUL!

9:29
FOUL

9:29
What just happened? He was terrible technically. And stylistically pedestrian. I am shocked and appalled.

9:30
Samuel Contesti of Italy.

9:31
Oops. Messed up his first jump and did not finish the sequence.

9:31
I dig the the windpipe music. (Riddle me this, batmen: what is the name of this instrument? Feel free to comment.)

9:31
It takes a certain kind of man to wear a sun embroidered skin-tight blazer over a fluorescent orange undershirt – tucked in to tight (embroidered) pants.

9:32
Sounds like a didgeridoo.

9:33
He just messed up his second triple axel. His hands touched down on the ice. That’s going to cost him technical points.

9:34
Tribal arms. The Italian is doing some sort of aboriginal-themed tribal dance.

9:34
I’m not not dancing along.

9:35
Contesti made his last two jumps, but faltered on both landings.

9:35
He’s a former European silver medallist.

9:36
It’s like he’s saying: Look, I’m going to get a failing grade on these jumps. But I’m going to blind you with my (tribal-themed) spirit fingers.

9:37
Ouch. That’s a no good very bad techincal score.

9:38
187.5 points. He’ll take it.

9:38
Representing Spain: Javier Fernandez. (What a name!)

9:38
Pirates of the Caribbean theme. Delicious.

9:39
Is he breaking the no accessories rule with that dangling tassel thing around his waste?

9:39
Music stimulates fond memories of swaggering Johnny Depp.

9:39
Ouch. A wipe-out on the first jump.

9:39
Epic recovery.

9:40
His spin gets very close to the ice.

9:40
He’s pretending to be drunk, like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean.
Yeah, about that “inspiring young boys and girls” thing…

9:40
He’s in character. I like it.

9:42
Fernandez is only the 2nd man from Spain to ever make it to the Winter Olympics. First one was way back in 1956.

9:42
Now, he’s fake sword fighting with the air. This is precious. Fight on, man. Fight on!

9:44
I’m still angry that American skater Jeremy Abbott is in first. He was like… Republicans on Ice.  Nay! Chartered Accountants Convention on Ice.

9:46
206.68 puts Javier Fernandez of Spain in 3rd.

9:45
Brian Joubert of France is taking the ice. Why I like him:
1) He has TWO quadruple jumps planned. Can you believe it? That’s a game-change.
2) His physique and chiseled cheekbones.

9:47
His shirt is sort of ravaged and ripped and raw. Like shirt, like man.

9:47
He puts a finger in front of his lips and whispers shhhh. We were already speechless.

9:47
GREAT! He wipes out on the first quad. Tragic. He needed this.

9:48
Will he change his mind and triple his second quad?

9:48
Yep. He triples it. Lands it. But triples it.

9:49
There will be another point reduction for faltering on the triple lutz.

9:49
“With this amount of mistakes not, he needs to just skate for himself now.”
“It’s over.”
“Yeah.”
-TSN, saying it like it is.

9:50
French skating chief Didier Gailhaguet has a theory for why Joubert has fared so poorly tonight. It involves him “not working enough.”

9:51
The commentators are right. Overall, an underwhelming evening thus far.

9:52
At least he has his looks to fall back on. Sigh.

9:54
200.22. Joubert is in 5th right now.

10:01
OK. I know I’ve been hard on some skaters for their outfit choice. But that’s nothing compared to the smack Victoria Beckham’s been shouting: “There’s nothing good about those outfits. I wear the feathers in my relationship. If David came home dressed like that – could you imagine? Terrible.”- Beckham, discussing men’s figure skating attire.

10:07
I just learned this from the commercial break: To hit a triple axel, skates jump 23 inches off the ice. That’s about what NBA basketball players jump to make a slam dunk! Except: the skaters need to land on one foot. Sheesh. Often, during the free skate, skaters do up to 8 of those tricky triples.

10:09
What if Olympic figure skating was in 3D? Wow. Ring, Ring: Calling James Cameron.
Sorry, it’s been a long commercial break…

10:11
The Chan Man is warming up on the ice.

10:11
Oh my gosh. There’s this adorable little girl who is a double amputee (lost both her legs to a disease) whose dream was to be a figure skater. She’s working now at the Olympics. They’re showing her on the ice right now. Tears.

10:12
Chan needs 149 points to get 230 (his season’s best). His personal best is 260. He can do it. I have faith!

10:13
Great picture on Patrick Chan‘s official website. Umm…

10:14
TSN is showing me a bar graph. I mean, skate graph. It’s supposed to tell me something about Patrick Chan’s strategy. I don’t get it…

10:16
Don’t forget: In Turino, Patrick Chan went from 6th after the short program to 3rd (Bronze!). He’s a fighter. Fierce.

10:17
Then again, can you BELIEVE his deduction last night was for going over the time limit. I mean: amateur mistake!

10:18
Takahiko Kozuka.

10:19
At last! Hip hip hoorah for a QUAD!

10:19
Kozuka is slender, dressed head to toe in black with spiked hair.

10:20
Triple lutz double toe at the beginning was just kind of thrown in. He had meant to do a three jump combination. That double sequence will earn him major technical points, though!

10:21
Oh dear. After landing a quad, he fell on a double axel. Yikes!

10:22
My TV is blurring up! Oh no wait. That’s just Kozuka spinning

10:23
You know why I like Kozuka so much? He’s a thinker. He missed the opportunity for a triple jump sequence, so he improvised. And it’s going to pay off. A less experienced skater would have frozen up.

10:25
231.19 points.
That’s a new personal best for Kozuka!
And that puts Kozuka in first.
(For the record: Japan has NEVER medalled in men’s figure skating.)

10:26
We’ve got Ten Dennis of Kazakhstan.

10:26
What a baby-face. He’s only 16 years old: the youngest guy in the competition.

10:26
That was a pretty bad fall on that triple axel. And he’d been hitting them all in practice.

10:26
Come back alert! Nailed the second triple jump.

10:27
And again…

10:27
He’s so tiny and graceful.

10:28
Nice flying camel spin.

10:29
Triple salchow followed by double axel. No big deal.

10:29
And yet, I’m yawning through this routine. The music is dramatic – in a sort of Spanish bull fight kinda way. But this choreography is fairly standard. He’s moving his arms in the right way, but I don’t buy it…

10:33
211.25 points for Denis Ten. He’s in third so far. This teaches me that FLAIR has nothing to do with it at all…
Silly, judges. Technical points are for kids.

10:34
Kevin van der Perren of Belgium. He’s 12th after the short program.

10:34
i’m trying to figure out if those lime green blobs of fabric spattered over his tight, sheer black shirt mean something…

10:35
Um, yeah they do. He’s skating to Robin Hood.

10:35
ALMOST touched down with his hand on the triple axel.

10:35
Might of actually touched down the second time. He’ll lose techincal points for that.

10:35
Triple trip, triple toe loop. apparently, van der Perren was going to do a triple-triple-triple but lost the momentum and only double tripled (aka triple-tripled). Confused?

10:36
The slow, sweet music is somewhat at odds with the very large back tatoo shining through van der Perrin’s sheer number.

10:38
So apparently van der Perren is moving jumps around as he goes, possibly because he’s tired. This is kind of a no-no for Olympic skaters. They’ve practiced for so long. It’s best to just stick with the routine.

10:39
He seems very tired in deed.

10:39
Yawn. That’s some slow spinning.

10:40
I told you to stick with your routine, Mr. van der Perren!
Apparently, he did 3 triple salchows – perhaps in the confusion. Well, only the first two will count. (You can only repeat a jump once).

10:42
189.89 points for Belgium.

10:42
Florent Amodio of France is up.

10:42
Wow, what a life story… LITERALLY abandoned on the streets of Brazil by his parents when he was a baby.

10:43
He attempts the first quad salcow of the night…. (drumroll please!)

10:43
Error. Changes it to a drab double axel.

10:44
Triple axel is rocky at the end.

10:44
Whew. Florent is gettin funky on the ice. Those are some jazzy moves coming from the man in an unbuttoned purple shirt with built-in suspenders.

10:45
Oh wow. Bring on the wind-up-doll moves.

10:45
Nice: triple axel, double toe.

10:45
Triple salchow, double-toe loop. Oh he’s having great fun out there!

10:47
Lost out on that triple jump routine. Won’t be nabbing any extra technical points.

10:47
Intergalactic Planetarium… dadada. Is that really playing?

10:47
No, Katie. No, it’s not. (That’s what 2 hours and 47 minutes of live blogging will do to you). But take my word for it: he’s shakin’ it.

10:48
Adorable. He’s booty-shaking instead of bowing.

10:49
Patrick Chan is on the ice.
His mother is apparently scribbling notes furiously from the stand.

10:50
Florent Amodio’s got 210.30. 4th overall.

10:50
Back to Chan.

The crowd
goes
WILD!

10:50
This is going to be a great routine – choreographed by Lori Nichol.

10:51
Nails his triple axel. We have hope ENCORE!!!

10:52
And again.

10:53
Oh, man. A bit of a falter.

10:53
Hello, commentators? Where did you go?
I think this is a bad sign. The chatter has stopped.
I think this means Patrick Chan blew it for Canada and nobody wants to say it.

10:53
Second triple axel. He is down on his arse. All the way.

10:53
The audience is clapping in a kind of “thanks, but not thanks” kind of way.

10:54
He needed this to be perfect.

10:55
How much do I love Phantom of the Opera. (The Phantom of the Opera is here. Inside my mask… da da da da da).

10:55
He really is picking up such great steam. Wonderfully tight spins.

10:57
He looks so disappointed. Tears, maybe?

10:57
The commentators offer these pearls:
“It was supposed to be his time…ascent to the podium. Vanquished tonight!”
“My heart is just empty right now.”

10:58
241.12
THE CROWD IS GOING CRAZY.
What a smile! What a smile!
He’s in 1st right now.
Oh, Patrick!

11:00
Michal Brezina of the Czech Republic.

11:00
If I ever had a dream about a triple axel, my dream would look like THAT.

11:00
He looks like a JCrew ad. Strolling around the ice in a short sleeved white polo and a pink and brown sweater vest. His sun-kissed (nay, chemically altered) hair positioned ever so casually over his forehead.

11:01
Music is an American in Paris. Pretty.

11:02
Nailed the second triple axel.

11:02
He’s wearing brown sued-ish pants. They don’t even look like skating pants.
True story: male figure skaters HAVE to wear pants. They can’t wear skirts. And they can’t wear tights. Now that doesn’t seem fair, does it?

11:03
Quite the wipe-out on the triple lutz.

11:03
I feel perturbed to see a delicate boy in a pink sweater vest fall so violently.

11:03
The music quickens. Ballet arms joined above his head.

11:03
The music softens, becomes jazzy. He prances lightly into the air before falling effortlessly into a camel spin.

11:04
He looks upset.

11:04
Dear skaters,
Please smile! You always end up smiling when you’re snuggling up to your coaches later. Might as well save yourself the embarrassment of looking like a poor sport now.

11:07
216.17 points for Brezina.
Did I mention Chan’s score was a personal best??

11:14
Evan Lysacek of the United States is kicking off this flight.

11:15
Triple lutz, triple toe loop is beautiful.

11:15
Are y’all noticing that the higher the skater’s rank, the more conservative the attire?

11:16
Triple axel is so flawless. Not a wobble in there. This man is a pleasure to watch. He is big and strong and looks  fully in control of his limbs.

11:16
By the way, this routine is also choreographed by Lori Nichol.

11:17
Manages to land his second triple axel jump.

11:18
This guy is a big deal, people. Class A celeb status. Don’t believe me. Just ask People Magazine.

11:18
“He loves clubbing in L.A. with pals like Nicole Richie and Rachel Zoe.”

11:19
Did you see that? He did a CanCan kick and his thigh almost touched his nose.
Fierce…

11:20
Lysacek celebrates with a self-congratulatory scream. “Oh say can you see by the dawn’s early light… tra la la.”

11:22
167.37: HUGE lead into first place for Lysacek.

11:23
Oda Nobunari of Japan.

11:24
Oh he’s wearing a little bow tie. I want to wrap him up and take him home and put him under my Christmas tree.

11:24
Sorry… carried away.

11:24
The thing is, Nobunari was supposed to start with a quad. He’s been practicing the quad all week – and landing it just fine. But last minute, he opted for a triple lutz.

11:25
Fancy footwork here. This is a darling routine.

11:26
Airborne!

11:26
Some quick, perky jump routines.

11:27
This is where the top skaters are really distinguishing themselves. There’s no time wasting here… it’s all moving.

11:27
Oh dear!
A fall and he’s injured! His skate has fallen apart.

11:27
His coach is on the ice and the music has stopped.

11:28
His skate fell apart like it’s 1994!

11:28
He leaves the ice and puts on a new skate. That will be an automatic two point deduction. But….

11:29
The music has resumed. He’s back on the ice. He’s lost his speed, but the audience is cheering him on. What a trooper!

11:30
The music sounds sort of like nutcracker ballet.

11:30
What applause!

11:30
Can you believe his lace snapped? You make it all the way to the Olympics and your f***ing lace comes undone!

11:33:
238.54.
He WOULD have been in second (ahead of Chan), but for that costume malfunction.

11:34
We’ve got Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland.

11:34
Touch down on his first jump.

11:34
And forward again on his second jump.

11:35
It’s coming: the quad. He BARELY hangs on. But it ain’t pretty.

11:35
Nice double jump sequence.

11:36
Heavenly jump into that camel spin.

11:36
Holding his head at artistic angles.

11:36
Like Patrick Chan, Lambiel is a beautiful dancer. Just look at the way he holds his wrist while spinning.

11:37
Don’t you just get the feeling with him that he isn’t wasting an iota of energy?

11:38
Lambiel, keep in mind, is coming back to skating after a debilitating hip injury. Here’s what the 24-year-old said of that: “Last year at this time I couldn’t skate more than twice a week before the hip would start to bother me. At that point, I never could have imagined I’d be here today.”

11:38
Katie Engelhart award for fastest spin of the evening, perhaps?

11:39
Commercial break.
I’m so excited for American Johnny Weir to skate. He is fabulous. His role models include Lady Gaga. Um…

11:41
162.09 for Lambiel. Chan falls to third. Canada: kiss goodbye to our podium chances.

11:41
Daisuke Takahashi of Japan.

11:42
Another wipe-out!
And he didn’t just fall coming out of the jump, he was completely off balance going in.

11:43
That next triple was landed very nicely. A whole lot of speed on that one.

11:43
This guy has major spunk. Did he just look at the camera and make a fierce face?

11:44
He’s one of only a few male skaters to achieve level 4 footwork (the highest level that can be achieved.)

11:44
A tad off balance at the end of that sequence.

11:45
That’s some dainty footwork right there, I’ll tell ya that.

11:45
Gorgeous triple axel near the end of the routine when – let’s not forget – his muscles are probably rip roaring raw.

11:47
Could Japan finally make it to the podium for figure skating?

11:48
Johnny Weir is blowing his nose on the ice in a white sparkly spandex shirt that is flared at the wrists.

11:49
247.93
In second. BUT 10 points behind Evan Lysacek. Whew.

11:50
John Weir!
Weir almost quit last year after placing fifth. And now, he’s 6th after teh short program.

11:50
He’s skating to City of Angels. He says it’s the story of his life.

11:52
Nails te second triple axel.

11:53
Katie Engelhart award for most elegant skate of the night.

11:53
Smooth combination.

11:53
“He’s only lacking in steps that bring the element together,” says the commentator. Are you kidding? He just did four jumps in a row!

11:54
Fact: Johnny jumps clockwise.  Most other skaters jump counter clockwise.

11:55
The music speeds up. The crowd is rooting for him. (I mean, let’s face it. We’ve given up on Chan. And Johnny’s not a bad second.)

11:56
Routine is finished to booming applause. Now here’a smile!

11:56
Some of you may be wondering: How on earth did Johnny wear prepare for such a grueling routine? I know! His roomate, ice dancer Tanith Belbin, leaves him alone to relax: ”She is the best roommate – she stayed away all day today so I could run around naked and watch Real Housewives of Atlanta,” he adds. “I will do the same for her.”

11:58
Are you KIDDING me?
5th place for Johnny Weir?
I give up.

11:58
At least he accepted his results wearing a wreath of red roses around his head.

11:59
Evgeni Plushenko of Russia.

11:59
QUAD!

12:00
Oh he BARELY hung on to that triple axel.

12:00
Legs for days! Look at those puppies…

12:01
“He stands in his place for too long.”
OK now the commentators are trying to hard to find fault. He rubs us all the wrong way. But look at how softly his skates land on that ice.

12:01
Plushenko, darling. Is that comic relief? A funny little jig breaks up the slow music.

12:02
He’s the guy we love to hate. Think about all the hullabaloo he created around his quad.

12:03
Dancing like his life depends on it.

12:04
That quadruple combination is going to give him some serious technical points. But will it be enough?

12:04
If I had two cents to rub together, I think I’d put them on Plushenko.

12:06
Dick Button is the only man to ever win back to back gold for men’s figure skating.

12:06
256.36.
PLUSHENKO loses by… ONE POINT.

12:07
The American superstar Evan Lysacek wins GOLD.
I can’t decide whether or not to celebrate. Let me think about it….

12:08
While I ponder my sleep-deprived emotions, let me recap: Patrick Chan finished 5th.

12:09
Pluschenko had the quad, but it wasn’t enough to match the yankee skater’s chichi. I think I’ll end with a one-liner… one of them sayings that us figure skating ‘insiders’ like to throw out there: “Quality over Quad.”

12:11
Good night readers. Vive les sequins!

Fast, safe, fun: Bobsledders train on controversial track

By Nicholas Köhler - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 6:59 PM - 0 Comments

Bobsledders launched into their second day of training runs at the Whistler Sliding Centre today even as the track came under even more intense scrutiny.

The controversy surrounding the venue follows Friday’s fatal luge accident, increasingly the defining trope of the Vancouver Winter Games as a troubled and ill-conceived enterprise.

“Whenever you go fast, you could die,” said Canadian bobsleigh pilot Lyndon Rush after a training run this afternoon. “Lightning does strike sometimes, like that poor kid in his luge, that’s just unbelievable.”

Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, died during a training run last Friday after losing control of his sled and slamming into a metal support beam.

Continue…

PHOTO GALLERY: Col. Russell Williams, a timeline

By macleans.ca - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 6:55 PM - 5 Comments

RELATED: LIVE BLOG from inside Col. Russell Williams’ hearing, day 2

Man enough to pull off a quad?

By Nancy Macdonald - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 6:38 PM - 1 Comment

Men’s figure skating, with its international intrigues, plunging necklines, corsets and divas has reached the point, say enthusiasts, where Blades of Glory seems less like satire, and more like cinéma vérité.

A war of words is being waged heading into tonight’s (likely) U.S.-Russia showdown for Olympic gold.

It’s all about the risky, tricky-to-land quadruple jump. And the manliness of those who can pull it off.

Evgeny Plushenko, the Russian—the putative favourite—had a quad in his short program, Tuesday. Evan Lysacek, the American, and reigning world champion, did not.

“Without the quadruple, I’m sorry, but it’s not men,” Plushenko, said Tuesday, shortly after executing night’s only quad—and grabbing an early lead.

Oh, snap.

So Evan can only triple-twirl. Ease up, I say. The guy took to the ice in a feathered, Vera Wang unitard. That’s balls.

Canada's third gold: Christine Nesbitt

By macleans.ca - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 6:31 PM - 1 Comment

After placing 10th overall in the long-track speedskating 500-metre final on Tuesday, Canada’s Christine Nesbitt took the gold in the 1,000-metre race. “I definitely have an advantage in the 1,000 because my starts are weaker, but my finish is quite strong,” she told Canwest before the event. The London, Ontario native finished just two-100ths of a second ahead of her biggest rival, Annette Gerritsen of the Netherlands. Lauren van Riessen of the Netherlands took the bronze, while Canadian Kristina Groves, who took the bronze in the 1,500-metre, came in fourth.

CBC News

Please rob me

By macleans.ca - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 4:28 PM - 0 Comments

Staying connected 24/7 on social networking sites with friends and family has a big downside, especially for those using geolocation technology such as Foursquare. Since your every mobr is recorded minute by minute, burglars can use the information to break into your empty home and strip it bare. Now a Dutch site, called Please Rob Me, has just been launched that provides up-to-the-second information on your every move by coalating information from networking sites like Twitter into one handy-dandy location. The founders claim they are doing it to “warn” the technology obsessed of the danger of publicly announcing your every move.

Daily Mail

What we're talking about when we talk about maternal health

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 4:22 PM - 169 Comments

Bev Oda’s office comes perhaps its closest so far to explaining exactly what will and won’t be included in the Prime Minister’s plan to deal with maternal and infant health worldwide.

A spokesman in Ms. Oda’s office said the Prime Minister has set out several specific areas that will be the focus of funding, but that family planning measures were never part of that group. Instead, they include immunization, access to clean water, better nutrition and improved training for health-care workers on the ground who are delivering babies and treating children.

It is instructive here to read Neil Morrison’s exchange with Ms. Oda’s office and the unanswered questions contained therein.

How to talk to the Taliban

By macleans.ca - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 4:20 PM - 0 Comments

A report that tribal leaders in Kandahar say they could broker a truce with the Taliban comes today, along with news that at the end of January secret peace talks were held between the insurgent group and the Afghan government at the Bandos Island resort in the Maldives. To put these developments into context, Ahmed Rashid delivers another of this indispensable reports on the Afghan conundrum. Rashid’s latest New York Review of Books essay says Pakistan is the key to more formal talks with the Taliban. He says Pakistan’s military is deeply fearful of upheaval after a U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. So, in a major policy shift, senior Pakistani military and intelligence officials are apparently offering to help. This is a must-read for those trying to keep up on the complex Afghan situation.

Canadian Press

Times of London

New York Review of Books

L'Affaire Lightfoot: Trust, Don't Verify

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 4:04 PM - 3 Comments

The Gordon Lightfoot hoax raises some interesting points for anyone who blogged about it. (And if you think I was the only person who linked to that Canwest report under the assumption that it was true; not so: I’m gullible but not uniquely gullible.) Many people who would never believe a mere Twitter rumour — those of us who, mistakenly, still believe that Jeff Goldblum is alive when he’s clearly not — believed a news report that was based on a Twitter rumour, simply because it was a “real” news report and said that someone had “confirmed” it.

That’s why the spread of the rumour can’t be blamed solely on that report. When I, as a blogger, choose to trust a report, then I’m making a judgment about whether it is a “credible” source, and that judgment gives me responsibility for what I choose to link to. Linking to that report is an implied judgment that, lacking knowledge of my own, some types of reports are more likely to be accurate than others. That turned out not to be true.

The existence of a bunch of blog posts linking to an inaccurate report, mine included, doesn’t strike me as the worst thing in the world; the alternative would be for no blogger ever to blog about anything until he or she can verify it independently, which would in effect turn blogging into the exact same thing as “regular” journalism. For the purpose of immediacy — and blogging depends on immediacy — you sort of have to be prepared to link to the “Dewey Defeats Truman” reports once in a while, and update them to correct the record. (In this case, however, Dewey did defeat Truman and all the subsequent reports were wrong. True story.) Part of the responsibility of blogging is to correct things as soon as possible once you know the original link was wrong.

But others have argued that it’s unfair for bloggers to blame Canwest for getting the story wrong, when every single blogger who linked to the Canwest story was doing the exact same thing: assuming a story was true, without getting independent confirmation or at least waiting for someone else to confirm it. And that’s a fair point. It does show, though, that the distinctions between a mere online rumour and a super-trustworthy report have broken down a little. After all, if TMZ had reported something like this, they’d probably have been right.