Bolt again

Big up Usain on another sprint double.

Today I faced a bit of a dilemna. No flash or whatever on mi work computer so I couldnt watch the 200m finals at my desk. Luckily in roaming I found the Olympic tvs in Metro hall and came up with a plan. So see mi at 330 leaving the office to rush over to Metro Hall to get a good seat to watch Usain. Work pun pause!

Twits

Ok will make this short (or try to).

The Olympics are on. Interestingly enough for those who have been following this blog since its inception you would have known that it was the 2004 Olympics which first got me into the Blogsphere but thats not what I wish to speak on.

No, I want to speak on this Gabby Douglas controversy. Who is Gabby Douglas you may be asking? Well she is the African American young lady who just won the All round gymnastics individual gold medal. Congrats to her!

Phelps-gate

Smoking the indo, by the window is sticky
Mad Izm - Channel Live/Krs-One

So multiple Olympic gold winner Michael Phelps, the man who set a record with 8, count them 8, he could give one each to that woman with the octuplets, gold medals in swimming in one Olympic setting was photoed hitting some chronic, taking a hit from the bong this past weekend.

To his credit Phelps seems to have claimed responsibility for his actions and that's commendable but still.

Well to be honest, and let me get this out of the way I'm not making up excuses for Phelps, he's an idiot, but I think the young man is just enjoying himself. Not that I saying this is in any means the right way to enjoy yourself just that the man was in training for years for his gold medal feat and now he has tasted success and fulfilled his dream he's wilding out with his new found stripper girlfriend and enjoying some 'erb and hitting the strip clubs. I mean all the man was doing was swimming up and down and down and up for years like some sort of trained seal, now he's on top of the game and living the high life. (pun intended)

No seriously not to give him a pass by any means but you can see he's probably just letting down his hair here after the strict regime he was on for years and he probably as a pampered athlete is really pretty immature. Plus he has big money endorsements now too so take immature add money and you know where that leads. Yep, insert Paris Hilton cutout.

That said still I am a little surprised by how muted the reaction is to this misstep by Phelps. I thought they had him big up as a role model and all that. I would have assumed that at the least a few of his sponsors would take him to task for being a jackass and getting photoed smoking even if it was only that one time he was sparking an L.

A "Next time at least make sure no cameras around you moron" or a we don't want our wholesome goodness tainted by a druggie like you comment so we are withdrawing sponsorship. I mean especially given this economic climate and a company could find an out like a morality clause for one of those big celebrity contracts and save some money I figured they would use it. So far though not one sponsor has come down on him. Wow!

Instead the ranks have closed and everyone has said is just youthful indiscretion forgive him. First time mistake, coulda happen to anyone, cuhdear we will forgive him etc etc. What gives here?

What about those other athletes who get caught smoking a lil spliff and the book is thrown at them. Why just last year NBA rookies Chalmers and Arthurs were caught with weed at orientation camp and had the book thrown at them and the press get up in an uproar and claim how much eediat and fool they were to be doing that and how they needed to be role models and set examples and was embarrassing the league etc etc. And it wasn't even like we had no pictures of them sucking a glass pipe.

So how come Phelps getting an ease?

And what about all the no-name not so famous youth that get arrested for weed possession nobody don't come out and say well they just kids, they immature, they was just experimenting, give them a ease. Naa star we throw the book at them call them druggies and addicts and point and warn our young girl children to stay away from them cause they aint going turn out nuh good.

So how come Phelps getting an ease?

I know the medals are golden but are they some type of currency that you can redeem for a vote of confidence or two excuses to escape public rebuke? If so I know O.J is probably wishing he had about two or three a dem right now.

They say well weed don't positively affect you as a sportsman it likely to negatively affect you so is all right, youthful indiscretion we give you a pass but you know my mind wonders what kind of reception a fella like Usain would have gotten if he was caught smoking up?

I don't think it would be the same but who knows.

Eat Crow Michael Johnson

19:31 or was it 19:30 by Bolt to break Michael Joshnson's record after johnson said Bolt couldnt break his record. tek dat Michael!

Congrats Bolt. Do ya dance star! Big up!

Cause we all look alike

Thank you China

The newspaper, which has a daily circulation of over half a million copies had meant to make a reference to Bolt in the run up to one of the most anticipated races of the Olympics. However, when it came to selecting an image it seems Chambers and Bolt (despite there being no distinct similarities) were confused.

Dwain Chambers (top) vs Usain Bolt. No distinct similarities except skin color you mean.

Guess Chambers should be happy Bolt never rob or murder anyone or he would find himself on the wanted posters and likely in jail.

Chambers: "But officer de man neva favor me"
Officer: "Stop lying boy ya think we stupidee. we see right through your Dwain alias. Ya coulda at least use a name dat dont rhyme wid Usain.!"

The really sad thing about it is you know almost every black person can relate to this incident too.

ps: big up the jamaican 100m women! beautiful and talented. respect!

Satire

sat·ire (săt'īr') pronunciation
n.

1.
1. A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.
2. The branch of literature constituting such works. See synonyms at caricature.
2. Irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity.

Sigh! People just don't understand the meaning of satire anymore. Thought this post at LivingGuyana was kind of funny and as I'm apt to do I shared it with a few folk. Why is it that half my replies implied that folk thought this was real even though I clearly pointed out it's satire before giving them the link?

Sigh! Ya just cant win.

Bolt

How aptly named is this guy? Bolt wow! 9.69 and he was celebrating at the 80m mark. Congrats! Big up Jamaica!

Asafa choked! Maybe with Tyson Gay not making the finals he wasnt motivated. I'm mad though cause he got beat into third place by a T-pain lookalike. That not right!

Still Caribbean 1,2 big up Trinidad.

Last night on CBC (Canada) they had this discussion about why Jamaica has produced such amazing sprinters over the years. I didnt exactly catch the name of it but they claimed there is some special protein that Jamaicans have more of than men from other countries. Yea what da? its a cop out but whatever.

Anyway whatever this protein was they said that 70% of Jamaicans have it compared to 30% of Australians or something like that.

I dont know bout y'all but it sounded like somebody had been watching Star Wars and the Jamaicans suddenly had mediclorians in their blood that made them Jedis. lol

Olympic coverage

OK in general I'm not feeling these Olympics. So here are three of my gripes:

1) Olympic coverage sucks. First off the US coverage is all or mostly tape delayed. I saw a sticker on NBC saying live swimming and its the same race I saw on CBC 12 hours earlier. What gives. Then the CBC (Canada) coverage royally pissed me off today.

100m second round: They show the first two heats then switch to Women's soccer. I figured ok heat 3 doesn't really have in anyone of note in it but they'll switch back for 4 and 5 when Bolt and Powell are running. Plus there is a Canadian in Bolt's heat anyways: Anson Henry of Toronto.

Do they switch back? Nope. They continue showing the first half of a preliminary women's soccer game and I was left to scramble finally finding coverage of the sprints on the French CBC station.

Now I am upset cause (1) Bolt and Powell are the favorites and the sprints are way more interesting than soccer (2) You're telling me you couldn't switch away from the first half of a soccer game for two minutes to view a sprint that takes about 10 seconds to complete. (3) If you want to make the argument that you are covering Canadian athletes and don't give a hoot about Jamaican Bolt and Powell fine but Anson Henry a Canadian was in one of those races. You'll show every moron swimmer and diver who cant get within throwing distance of the medal podium but you cant show a Canadian sprinter. Why the second class treatment of Henry? That not right! shame, shame, shame.

That said Bolt just ran the easiest 9.92 I've ever seen. The dude wasn't even focused, his head was looking to the side half way through the race. Crazy!

2) These Chinese people aint easy at all. Ya mean the girl thats actually singing wasnt pretty enough to be shown on tv? Cuhdear! Scarred for life!

Forget Ashlee Simpson and them so this is the most infamous lip-synch since Rob & Fab dropped. Thats Milli Vanilli in case you dont know. Yes you know its true oooh oooh oooh!

Man is that messed up. You know that couldn't happen in North America. Parents would sue and people would get on real bad. But ya cant have pins wid China. They do what they do and you cant stop them.

3) These foolish Spanish Basketball players. All I can ask is if you are going to China why would you take a team photo like that? Of course I'm judging by North American and Caribbean standards here.

Spain seems to be known for its racism and its downplaying of its racism. Remember Tierry Henry and that soccer coach? and more recently Hamilton Lewis at the F1.

Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton was subjected to abuse at a Barcelona circuit in February, while former Spain coach Luis Aragones also used a racist remark about France striker Thierry Henry to motivate one of his players. Monkey chants rained down on England's black players during an international friendly against Spain in a match played in Madrid in 2004, soon after Aragones' outburst.

Hmmm! I'm a say it first bring back TJ get rid of Jose! What! You know y'all Toronto people was thinking it too.

TO: 08 welcomes the world

History is indeed written by the winners and sometimes the losers themselves forget.

Most people remember that the 2000 Olympics were in Sydney, the 2004 in Athens and know that the 2008 are currently being held in Beijing. (Most not including me as I actually had to google the 2004 Olympics to verify they were in Greece) but do you remember which other cities bid for these specific games and lost?

Not a clue right?

Well in general me neither except that I do remember that Toronto made an unsuccessful bid for the 2008 games.

Yep it was big news back in those heady days of 2001. Toronto, world class city that we claim to be needs to do more to publicize our greatness and we need to bring the Olympics here said one camp. The games will put us on the map! There was hype, there was excitement, there were waterfront plans and plans for building a new Olympic stadium. There were slogans, there were celebrity endorsements, there were even t-shirts from Roots.

Meanwhile another camp took a different perspective. This Olympics thing is a real waste of time they said. Sure it will or could be an amazing spectacle but at the end of the day events like the Olympics and other major sporting spectacles (read Cricket World Cup) lose money for the host city and then its the poor taxpayers who live there that feel the pinch. Toronto already isn't the richest city so why put ourselves into further poverty to show off to the world for two or three weeks.

But the bid went off with much pizazz and fanfare.

And at the end of the day in 2001 when the votes were counted to choose the 2008 venue we lost. Soundly beaten by Beijing.

Some say it was because Vancouver got awarded the 2010 winter games and the IOC didn't want back to back games in Canada, some blamed Toronto mayor Mel Lastman and his idiotic "I'm not going to Africa because they might put me in a pot of boiling water and eat me" comments, (as if people in Africa so hungry they want dry up, tough meat like he to eat. chupse!) for losing us votes, others just accepted that the Beijing bid was just too strong and we couldn't compete with the overall politics of holding the event in an emerging superpower China.

To be honest most locals were probably a bit let down by the loss, it would have been fun holding the event here, but at the same time we all had mixed feelings because some of us might have wanted the spectacle but all of us sure as hell didn't want to have to pay for it out of our pockets.

Still when I see the Olympics on television this week I cant help thinking what if, what could have been and wondering do Torontonians actually remember that this could have been us?

Oh well, wasnt to be. We weren't the winners but maybe in hindsight we weren't exactly losers either. Still sucks that we've been forgotten by history though.

Still sucks.