Must congratulate the Canadians on a nice opening ceremony last night. Some of the special effects in the beginning,( whales moving across the floor with the use of projection) were pretty amazing. Looking forward to some good events–hockey should be interesting. I’ve got nothing against Wayne Gretzsky, but wouldn’t it have been a wiser choice to have RUSH come in on some type of float to light the flame playing ‘By-Tor and the Snowdog’? One of the better bands to roll out of Canada. Seems it would have fit better than an opera singer, IMO…
I LOVED the whale part, really awesome. Watching it right now, speed skating is pretty cool. Someone on the radio yesterday said something that pretty much sums up the Olympics. It’s sports that we would never watch any other time, but we are glued to it during the games. Can’t wait for my favorite winter sport… Curling.
@Bart +1 on RUSH rather than the operatic approach. Annoying to me as well. Aside from that, very good opening ceremonies. Now to find time to actually watch some of the events!
There is something about the Winter Olympics, something different than ‘professional sports’, where you are rooting for people and countries( not because you’re from those countries), but because you want to see them succeed, no matter where they’re from. @Chris I swear the Dutch are born with skates on their feet hahha! @OTD I really wish I had one of those recorders to catch the good stuff while I’m working
@ Bart: Don’t the Dutch use all their canals for speedskating in the winter, it would be cool to have an ice track to get around town on! @cstokes4: I’m trying to get into curling. A club in Pennsylvania is having an open house in a couple weeks. I really want to try it. Also for Bart and OTD:The tobes of hades lit by flickering torchlight The netherworld is gathered in the glare Prince By-tor takes the cavern to the north light The sign of eth is rising in the air By-tor, knight of darkness, Centurion of evil, Devil’s prince!
Yes, I always have this image of Hans Brinker and the silver skates. Surely would keep you in shape… Thanks for the excerpt, Xander.
Skating is indeed very popular in The Netherlands. Last year and this winter we ware lucky with the weather and could put on our skates. Most people like to make tours through the country. Only one wish remains to fullfilled, that is a tour called “De elfstedentocht” which means the eleven cities tour. It is tour in the province of Friesland and stretches almost 200 km. For many people that is the ultimate achievement in skating. The last tour was in 1997 and during the last century we had 15 tours. Jaap Bes.
Damn, you are lucky Jaap! Can anyone take a tour on their own or do they have to pay and follow a guide? i’m coming over there… It also looks as though they do an eleven city bike tour as well,Elfsteden? I was just looking up some information from your post. Just dreaming about skating the canals, stopping in a heavy snowstorm, ducking into a pub for pinches and pints with beautiful Dutch women serving food and beer…I have to get off this ‘Rooster Booster’…
@ Bart Participation in that tour is limited. Only members of the elfsteden society are admitted, but there are a lot of smaller tours all over the country, mostly organised by local skate societies, there you have to pay a fee. But there is always the possiblity to go on your own, in principle all the ice is free. In the village where I live we have the Rottemerentour, it is a circuit along the river Rotte of a about 10 kilometers, also on the Kralingse Plas, the lake next to the windmils, there is a lot of skating going on. Jaap Bes.
Thanks for the info, Jaap!
I Just watched the Canada v Slovakia women’s ice hockey game…18-0…talk about kicking ass! 
Then at this point, Wayne Gtretzky would come riding into the stadium on the back of the snow dog, guitar screeching, growls, possibly Anne Murray could have been involved in the fight in some way here…
Rush hour traffic, Jaap?
Good ice hockey in quarter-finals: USA won really good Switzerland, Canada massacred Russia(my favourite in tournament!) with incredible pressure&bad defence and goalkeeping from Russia and Finland played badly, but still won Czech Republic. So semis are Finland-USA and Canada-Sweden/Slovakia. Hope Finland goes all the way this time and wins gold!
for some reason the olympics always turns me off. it all seems to be some commercialized thing with a weird dash of cult of personality. plus i always hope the swedes win everything, too. lmao
Seems Slovakia is beating Sweden now!
@Bart, why is it called “rush hour traffic” whilst the traffic is actually moving at walking pace?
I have to agree with saucy jack. The olympics are basically a gladitorial distraction, much like the super-bowl, or the Roman coliseum. A flashy, propaganda laden distraction. But when I’m in the mood for that type of thing, olympic hockey is great. Was happy to see USA beat the Canadians. hehehe
I like that the majority of the events are actually the athelete vs. HIMSELF. If he /she can overcome stress of the situation, many times an athelete can come from behind from an unknown counrty and beat a favorite. That’s what I like. Yes, some of them are still overpaid, glorified atheletes, but some are not. This makes me believe I may still have a chance next Olympics in the sUPER G TruckTube competition.
then again they’re making every rinky dink sport an olympic event - i’m surprised thumb wars isn’t on the menu.