My take on the Winter Olympics...

I don't know what it is about the Olympics, but I watch. For some reason a lot people can't get into them and I'm not really sure why. When I watch the Olympics I'm wanting to see the U.S.A. drive every other country into the ground like a railroad spike. I can see how some people can't get into a certain event or sport, but the competition is worthy of my time.

I also can appreciate these amature athletes put it all out there for their countries and seeing their shear joy or the proverbial "agony of defeat" makes it compelling to watch. Which is why Bode Miller and athletes with attitudes like his don't really entice me to watch. He's in the more high profile skiing events, but what was truly a shame was when Ted Ligety won gold for the U. S. in the slalom as the youngest athlete on the ski team it was overshadowed by Miller's disqualification. It would have been different if he was upset about it, but in a interview well before Ligety's gold medal run Miller acted as though he could care less that he was disqualified.

Where is that producer in the studio who says, "Screw Bode, let's stick with the kid" and the glory that he just achieved. I know that my competitive juices flow when I get to see more and more of the athletes who don't give a damn lose and then seeing continuing coverage of their apathy while the athletes who care are winning.

That's how you get viewers NBC. Good thinking. No one has ever refused to watch a sporting event of any kind because the athletes care too much. In fact, another skier in the slalom that Ligety won finished third for a bronze medal and cried his eyes out because he and his sister had a chance to both medal in the Olympics together. That third place celebration, in my opinion, overshadowed the U. S. gold and Bode Miller's disqualification. It's all about emotion.

As far as the crazier sports go, I've watched probably 45 minutes of women's curling every morning. I only watched because the U. S. team was playing, but once I figured out how the scoring went I found out that it's a pretty neat little game. It's big time strategy mixed in with ridiculous shot making to save points or get points. I'll probably never play it, but I think it would be loads of fun if there was a place close to play on a regular basis like they have up north.

I don't really have too many problems with any events. However, I tend to feel that if the event isn't a straight up game like curling, it should be a sport derived from a normal activity. In this case a winter activity.

All of the skiing, snowboarding and skating are fine with me. I think the judging process could be better in some of them, but I'm not going to get into that. The only sports I don't really like are the sledding sports. Luge, skeleton and bobsled.

I understand that these sports came about from sledding but, honestly, do any of these events resemble sledding? I can handle turning a sled into a carbon fiber bullet on rails, but when you have to build a million dollar track of pure ice, that's where I draw the line. When you have to build a track specifically for the equipment used in the event, that's silly and that is probably why some people don't watch. I think people would rather watch sports that they could try over sports like the luge.

Bascially, if it snows 5 feet outside a Sam's Choice saucer sled will hammer a luge, skeleton or bobsled going down the big hill in my front yard.

So as soon as they bring the winter Olympics to the OC, the experimental Saucer Sled event will be held at my place.