Vancouver Secrets

Great Moments From The Games: Our Girls Know How To Party

The snowboarders have nothing on our girls, who now carry the “bad boy” image for the Winter Olympics.

They caused a bit of a ruckus, but you can’t fault them for showing how Canadians party.

IOC to investigate Canadian women’s celebration.

After being told of the celebrations by a reporter, Gilbert Felli, the IOC’s executive director of Olympic Games, said, “I don’t think it’s a good promotion of sport values. If they celebrate in the changing room, that’s one thing, but not in public.” Of course, no one would ever see footage or pictures of the women celebrating in the same matter inside the locker room. No, definitely not. It isn’t like it was a huge event for Canada whatsoever. We’d just have to rely on second-hand stories and Zapruder-like footage in years to come when remembering the vivid Canadian celebration in front of their country.

The one sticking point with the IOC was the fact that Marie-Philip Poulin, who’s 18 years old, was part of the celebration and not legally old enough to drink in British Columbia.  She doesn’t turn 19, legal age, until next month. OK, fair enough for that. But what sort of punishment would the IOC give to Canada, one its two world powers in the sport? Or is this just a PR case for them to continue to be ahead of the National Football League in keeping the fun out?

To calm down the IOC, Hockey Canada released a statement apologizing for display:

“The members of Team Canada apologize if their on-ice celebrations, after fans had left the building, have offended anyone,” the statement read.

“In the excitement of the moment, the celebration left the confines of our dressing room and shouldn’t have. The team regrets that its gold medal celebration may have caused the IOC or COC any embarrassment.

“Our players and team vow to uphold the values of the Olympics moving forward and view this situation as a learning experience.”

This will blow over like the Miller mask issue once the IOC actually looks at what they’re “investigating” here and understands how ridiculousness they look yet again.

If you’re currently not employed by the IOC and can handle it, the Canadian press has a small gallery of photos of the celebration.

The complete photo collection is here.

Good Thing The Emergency Shipment Arrived

Another first for the Winter Olympics…

With the historic medal tally comes another historic feat:

Rowdy curling crowds; spontaneous street parties; public drunkeness. You don’t have to look far for evidence that the crowds at Winter Games in Vancouver know how to have a good time.

And, as if anymore proof is needed that a wild Olympic atmosphere permeates B.C.’s largest city, now there’s an apparent condom shortage.

That’s right. As you read this, an emergency shipment of condoms is desperately making its way across Canada to the West Coast city.

Health officials in Vancouver have already provided 100,000 free condoms to the roughly 7,000 ahtletes and officials at the Games. That’s about 14 condoms per person. But as of Wednesday, those supplies started running dangerously low.

So naturally, the Canadian Foundation for AIDS research decided to step and make sure there were no hitches in Olympic action.

“When we heard about the condom shortage in Vancouver, we felt it important to respond immediately,” said Kerry Whiteside, CANFAR’s Executive Director. The organization assembled three large boxes of about 8,500 condoms, much to the relief of libidos at the Olympic Village. They’re expected to arrive on Thursday.

Free condoms first started to be distributed at the Olympics in Barcelona at the 1992 Games. This appears to be the first time that a shortage has struck the Games.

photo credit: George Eastman House

New Canadian Anthem?

It hits all the major points – and features Canada’s team.

To you from Toronto… which, they tell me, is Canada.

FREE TO BE

(THE LEAFS’ SONG)

VERSE 1

From the Isle of Vancouver
To the Labrador Sea
One nation, glorious and free
Where I’m free to be me.

VERSE 2

From the song of the Prairies
To the call of the pond
Heroes of times come and gone
Where the memories go on and on and on
Oh! Oh! Oh! This is Canada’s song
Oh! Oh! Oh! Where my heart belongs

VERSE 3

Free to be a dreamer
Free to be who you are
Free to believe in your star
Free to go far
Oh! Oh! Oh! That’s Canada’s dream (Go Leafs Go)
Oh! Oh! Oh! This is Canada’s team (Go Leafs Go)

BRIDGE

TAG

Free to be a dreamer
Free to be who you are

Maybe VANOC Will Run The Games Better Than The Technology.

VANOC blows it again with their last chance, online Olympic ticket ordering scheme.  Saturday was the day for those brave enough to fork over huge amounts of money to see Latvia play Poland in hockey, or maybe a luge event. The claim was 100,000 tickets would be available.

The online ticket system broke down on November 7th, leaving over a hundred thousand people frustrated, so they decided to push it a week and get things fixed. The concept of a waiting room was employed, so that the ordering system wouldn’t crash with the anticipated 150,000 visitors.

Things didn’t go well - although not quiet an epic fail, enraged Internet buyers spent the day waiting in a virtual waiting room for tickets.

Some of the better comments:

I waited for about 25 minutes in the Virtual Waiting Room, got in, logged on and the site crashed!  I went to search for the event I wanted and the page never came up.  I know it’s not my internet connection because I opened another window just to make sure.  I tried several different events too, and the same thing happend.  After  a while I hit “refresh” and the page just went blank and stayed that way.  I had to give up because I have places to be, but I’m  hoping there will be another opportunity if this happend to everyone and not just me

got in and then the site didn’t work – 5.5 hrs

How can VANOC possibly report it went smooth?????? absolute rubbish.  I signed in at 10h00 to the virtual waiting room .  At 10 to 6 p.m tonight , I got into the  site. Yes, some 7 and half hours later.  So few events left, I got nothiing.  Don’t publish it went smooth.  Nothing in the lotto, nothing inthe second round, and Nothing in the fiasco today.   So much for being a local who cannot enjoy some of the events.  So much for Vancouverites being allowed access to the games in our own city! Pathetic!  You shouold be ashamed VANOC

I got  on after  six hours  but  the site  froze.. so now  I am back to square one.

So, if you want to come to Vancouver and need some tickets, there’s always Craigslist.  Or, you can try again with VANOC’s official scalper site.

“Our plan is to have our own valid resale sight so we can guarantee the tickets sold on our site are valid,” Denton said.

He said Vanoc would not be “policing” Craigslist for people selling tickets over face value and, in fact, Vanoc is “leaning to allow people to resell above face value” on its website.

“The purpose is full venues. We’ve seen in past Olympics seats go unused and it’s not as good an atmosphere for the athletes and fans,” Denton said.

Asked if Vanoc would profit from the re-sales Denton said any charge would re-coup the costs of designing the site and configuring its security.

“Our plan is certainly not to profit. There’s a lot of time and money spent to develop it. If we ended up breaking even I think we’d be pretty happy.”

Let the games begin.

photo credit: bensonkua Vancouver Limousine

Vancouver Olympics and The H1N1 Flu

photo credit: B Rosen

Spectators and athletes will be encouraged to get vaccinated against the H1N1 flu before traveling to next year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver, an official said Wednesday.

The pandemic couldn’t come at a worse time for the games. Vancouver is the hotbed right now for the virus and we’re experiencing a little Canada Health Care Chaos right now… our doctors and clinics are overwhelmed by people wanting the vaccine.

I was in China a few months ago and will never forget the people in the white suits that boarded our plane and shot a thermometer beam into our foreheads.. Fever=quarantine. Great way to start a trip.

With our luck, The Vancouver Winter games will probably time out at the height of the swine flu pandemic.

Let’s hope the vaccine works. And the publicity doesn’t scare aware our anticipated visitors. Lord knows we could use their money to pay for this event.

The White House, Glenn Beck, and The Vancouver Olympics

More free promotion for our Vancouver games (that is drawing attention the financial mismanagement that we are just months away from being saddled with) as the White House website decides it should correct a HUGE error:

From the White House website -  ‘A partisan attack to boost ratings’ – in response to Glenn Beck referring to the Vancouver Olympics in the past tense.

They forgot to mention that Vancouver has actually lost more than a billion so far, and will probably lose closer to a $4 billion, which is really chump change to the Barrack O’Carter administration. And peanuts compared to what Chicago would have inflicted on its residents.

As much as I like what Glenn is doing, he really needs a lesson on the history of the Canadian Olympic hosting successes and failures. (Montreal is a far better example of what Chicago’s corruption would have led to.)

Glenn Beck’s response on his show:

GLENN: But apparently nobody’s disagreeing that Calgary hemorrhaged money because they didn’t respond to, you know, the hemorrhaging money of I mean, you could easily see how that was a mistake. I, you know, said Vancouver instead of Calgary. I was just in Washington State. I know that the Olympics happened up there, you know, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Isn’t this kind of a strange thing to attack? I mean, I’m talking about the Olympics losing billions of dollars. I’m talking about corruption, and they are calling me out on the order of Olympic cities? I mean, this is like is this trivial pursuit? Because I mean, it’s like we’re doing Olympic trivia or something like that. I’m not sure who won the bronze medal for speed skating in Calgary that year but I guess the White House is going to, you know I’ll just have to go to the White House for that kind of information because they will have that, I’m sure.

PAT: You said they were losing a fortune. And they haven’t even had the games there.

GLENN: All right. Well, you asked for it. So well, you didn’t. But at least the White House asked for the details on the Vancouver games. So let’s give you the details on the Vancouver games, which again haven’t happened yet. The Vancouver Olympics budgeted $175 million for security. According to the Vancouver Sun, that number may be $800 million higher. British Columbia’s auditor general reported that British Columbia, quote, has not fully disclosed the risks associated with the cost and revenue projections, end quote. He says they didn’t include, quote, what he and two previous auditors believe should be counted as Olympic related costs. The billion dollar sea to sky highway improvements, the billion dollar trade and convention center and the $2 billion Canada line. That’s close to $4 billion that they just kind of shuffled off onto other books. Plus the $600 million the government admits to.

PAT: Okay, but those numbers don’t …

GLENN: Hold on just a second. I’m not entirely done here. Also missing from the budget, the $300 million Olympic bonus that unionized government employees got for signing a four year contract that ends after the games. I just, I just love these unions. By the way, that contract ends right after the election, too. Transportation to the event, which is another unaccounted for $250 million, Canadians are also on the hook for the Olympic village for a billion dollars. Its original budget was less than $200 million. They thought they could make the money back by selling everything as condos after the games. Yeah, guess how well those condo sales strategies are working out for them. Just interest on the money for all the unsold units could cost Canada $48 million. Every single year. So far we’re up to over $6 billion in unaccounted for costs. The original budget was $1 1/2 billion. Also remember it doesn’t include everything. There’s still almost a year before the games actually start, but, you know, don’t worry. They planned for this, you know. They have a contingency fund. $66.8 million. Unfortunately they’ve already spent 98% of that money.

Glenn: Calgary Winter Olympics made money. You can thank an organizing committee that was headed up by oilman Frank King. Vancouver’s is headed up by the usual tax and spend political hack crowd.

That’s the real story.

photo credit: ViaMoi

The 2010 Olympic Joint

I’m not the only one thinking that our Olympic committee was smoking something…

Suzanne Reeves, the Vancouver organizing committee’s director of communications for the Olympic torch relay, dismissed the claims of the resemblance.

“It’s quite magical. Most people’s reactions are emotional,” she said.

Hmmm, Hmmm…

Seattle Times:

About that reefer-bished Vancouver Oly torch

We hate to delve into smut and cheap innuendo — leaping into it is more fun and profitable these days — but the subject can be avoided no longer.

More and more people seem to be agreeing with select Canadian potheads (pardon the redundancy) that the Official Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch, lying on its side, looks suspiciously like a big, fat doobie. As in, joint. Marijuana cigarette. Fill in your own nickname here.

Toronto Star:

Does Vancouver torch look like a joint?

Composed of stainless steel, aluminum and sheet moulding, the torch was designed to evoke snow, ice, skiing and skating, but to many, the metre-long white torch looks suspiciously like a marijuana joint, especially when lit.

The observation has become so common in this city that it’s hard to know who was the first to say, “Hey, doesn’t that look like …”

But the torch’s resemblance to British Columbia’s biggest cash crop was evident right away to Jodie Emery, editor of Cannabis Culture magazine.

“A lot of people come to Vancouver because it’s marijuana-friendly, so I think people who already enjoy a joint themselves will feel a little more kinship to the Olympics,” said Emery, who ran as a Green party candidate in the provincial election this month.

“I’m sure the organizers didn’t intend for it to look like a joint, but that’s what a lot of people are seeing.”

And of course, the CBC misses it completely:

2010 Olympic torch unveiled

The swooping design of the nearly one-metre long torch is meant to reflect the lines of a skier’s turns carved in the snow and the undulating beauty of Canada’s winter landscape, Olympic officials said.

The torch was engineered and designed by Olympic sponsor Bombardier to withstand the challenging conditions it will encounter along the 45,000-kilometre relay route through 1,000 communities, they said.

And our Vancouver Sun is always last to the party:

2010 Olympic torch unveiled

If every Olympic torch is supposed to say something about the country in which its Games are being held, then the torch for the Vancouver 2010 Games says cold, bright, expansive and snowy.

With a flourish befitting the unveiling of an art sculpture or a long-lost master, the organizers of the Vancouver Games revealed Thursday their concept of what an Olympic torch should be.

Inspired, Vanoc says, “by both the lines carved into the snow by skiers shushing down mountains and the undulating beauty of the snowy Canadian landscape“, the Vancouver torch is a long white and chrome staff utterly different from the racy blue curve of Turin, the red scroll of Beijing, and even the squat wood chrome cauldron of Calgary.

Me? I think it is perfectly fitting. Shut up and pass it along…

Canadian WWE Champ Test Found Dead

Andrew “Test” Martin, 33, has died at his Tampa home.

The former World Wrestling Entertainment champion was found dead at his apartment Friday night. Police say a neighbor reported that she could see into his apartment through a window and that Martin had appeared motionless for several hours.

Police say Martin was dead when they arrived, but there was no indication of foul play. A cause of death won’t be determined until after an autopsy.

From PW Torch

Jim Ross, who was formerly WWE’s VP of Talent Relations and hired Andrew “Test” Martin in the 1990s, said today that Martin was recovering from personal health issues prior to his death on Friday night.

Martin completed WWE’s rehab treatment after starting in August 2008 and he was in constant contact with WWE to follow-up on whether he was remaining healthy. Friday was a scheduled check-in date for Martin, Ross said.

“Since being released from the facility after successfully completing the program, Andrew had been doing well in his 12 Step AA program and was in contact with WWE with regular phone calls,” Ross said on jrsbarbq.com. “Ironically, Friday was the day for his regularly scheduled ‘touching base’ but when called his voice mail box was full.”

Ross said he spoke to Martin extensively at last year’s WrestleMania  in Florida and he did not see any outward signs of personal problems. Martin, who died at age 33, told Ross that he didn’t want to wrestle much longer and he was only taking dates on his terms.

“Andrew had always told me that he never wanted to wrestle past the age of 35 which was why he ‘listened to the lectures,” Ross said. “I honestly had never seen him happier.”

More on his personal challenges here.

Condolences here.

Is it me, or does it seem that Canadian WWE wrestlers seem to die tragic and young deaths…

In memory...

photo credit: debstarr913

That Other Tiger Woods Guy

Thankfully the real Great One is returning. And not a moment too soon.

I think it’s awesome,” Kenny Perry said Wednesday. “The economy is down. We need something to boost us up.”

Woods downplayed his role as “a stimulus package” for golf.

“This was the time to get back and play again.”

Woods, who is scheduled to play Australian Brendan Jones on Wednesday, cited not only recovery from knee surgery but also family concerns for the timing of his return.

I wanted to make sure the family was all good,” he said while admitting he might have come back earlier if not for the birth Feb. 8 of Charlie Axel Woods, the second child for him and wife Elin.

Welcome back Tiger…

photo credit: stevenjude

Now Hockey Fights Are Racist?

Of all the hockey fights I’ve watched, been in, or read of, this is a first:

Racism not a factor in Muslim hockey riot: official

BURNABY, B.C. — The president of the B.C. Muslim Sports Association has denied accusations that a recent riot at a ball-hockey tournament was sparked by racism.

“He played last year and nothing happened. You know how (rough) hockey can be – that is normal in hockey. The majority of the players were Sunni but there were a few non-Muslims and non-Sunnis.”

“It was just disgusting. They believe we are non-Muslim. At the end of the day, that is the cause.”

Why this would even be a press item is confusing… replace Muslim with Catholic and see how ridiculous it reads.

I knew when they allowed moms in the dressing room, hockey wouldn’t be the same. Imagine what religion will do to the game.

What Happens When The Ski Hill Goes Broke?

photo credit: Andre Charland

Seems like Intrawest, the owner of Whistler Blackcomb and 10 other ski resorts, is being hit hard as it struggles with $1.68 Billion in debt that comes due October 23rd.

The London-based Financial Times broke the story.

How this could impact the Olympics is unknown. Maybe we’ll end up owning the hills?

Why Didn’t We Get To Vote?

Is it just me or does the new HNC theme really suck?

Bagpipes? Why not a fiddle too…

I’ll be watching TSN from here on in (Except when Cherry is on).

Can You Say “Fore”?

photo credit: jalalspages

If you want to join the Vancouver Golf Club, you’ll need to speak English.

A few years ago they instituted the policy after prospective members – in particular East Asian immigrants – started applying with the help of translators.

“We ask them to go away and take language courses and reapply,” says the club’s general manager, Brent Gough.

The LPGA Tour plans also institute a policy that would suspend players who aren’t fluent in English.

The LPGA policy, which will sanction women golfers for not speaking English in pro-ams, trophy presentations and media interviews.

Human rights and legal experts agreed the Coquitlam golf club is likely within its legal rights to limit membership.

What next?

Requiring people to speak English as a requirement to immigrate to Canada?

I’m anxiously awaiting the response from French-Canadians…

Whew! Canada Gets a Couple of Medals

photo credit: Shutterhack

I was getting tired of email coming in each day…

email like:

Mongolians rejoice at first-ever Olympic gold

Then Canada finally snagged 1 of each today… vaulting us to 29th spot.

A couple more and we’ll pass Georgia if they are still a country by the end of next week.

Something is wrong with Canada’s Olympic program – at least from a return on investment basis.

I’ve heard that we are more of a Winter Olympic country – so why is Norway, Switzerland and even the Netherlands blowing us away.

Lets go Canada…