Vancouver Secrets

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…