Olympics

A postcard from Verona

~ MaryG ~ 11 Comments

The Winter Olympics end today. And thanks to Alysa Liu and her fellow skaters (but mostly Alysa), they were very satisfying for me. I really enjoyed watching the figure skating “gala exhibition” yesterday, especially the opening with the entire US gold medal team skating together.

Now I know there’s still the little matter of the US v Canada Gold Medal Men’s Hockey game yet to come in about an hour. (I’ll be at church for most of it, but I’m sure my husband will watch intently.)

The last thing I actually care about is the Closing Ceremony in Verona, which starts at 2:30pm EST.

I thought I had been to Verona during my semester abroad in 1985. I had a very vague recollection of wandering around the city thinking about the Montagues and the Capulets. But, unlike Milan, there is no photographic evidence from Verona.

Then I remembered that I started buying postcards, rather than taking pictures, at a certain point during my time abroad. Maybe it was because it was a pain to get film developed and printed in Italy, or maybe I just got tired of always lugging my camera around with me.

Anyhow, I recently located my stack of 41-year old postcards and sure enough there is one from Verona:

The caption means “Verona in the 1800s”

This actually looks like something I would buy if was wandering around thinking about Romeo & Juliet. Very romantic in a 1980s kind of way. Note the shopping bags. This was very much the vibe of a 1980s semester abroad in Italy. We were there to see stuff, buy stuff, meet people, and generally have a good time. Studying was not a priority. Anyone who spent a lot of time studying in their room was missing the whole point of being over there.

So yes, I can confidently say that I have in fact been to Verona when I watch the Closing Ceremony today. (My husband will only be half-listening when I say this, but hey, l’ll only be half-listening while he watches that hockey game.)

Olympic Redemption

~ MaryG ~ 7 Comments

In case you didn’t hear (because you were at work or something), those of us in the U.S. without jobs were faced with an Olympic dilemma this afternoon. We had to choose between watching the US v Canada women’s ice hockey Gold Medal game OR the women’s figure skating long program finals. They occurred simultaneously. So, if you wanted to watch them live, you had to choose.

Truth be told, it was not a hard decision for me. There is no world in which I would choose to watch a hockey game over figure skating—even a women’s hockey game. I mean, go hockey girls, but I’ll take spins and jumps and rhinestone-covered costumes over slashing, bashing, and hitting the boards any day of the week.

Even so, I was reluctant to get too invested in the women’s figure skating finals after the gut punch of the men’s. I was able to watch the first group of skaters live at my daughter’s house and was heartened that my favorite American skater, Amber Glenn, redeemed herself after a bad short program. (Still, it was highly unlikely she’d get a medal.) After Amber, I had to drive home and was on the road during several of the top skaters performances, including Alysa Liu. But by the time I got home and turned on the TV, Alysa was in first place with only two Japanese skaters left to go. The Japanese skaters weren’t perfect and Alysa held on to the top spot and won the GOLD! The free spirit from Oakland with face piercings and crazy Zebra-striped hair came out on top. SO COOL.

I later watched her performance on the primetime version of the Games and it was awesome. She skates with such wild joy and abandon, crazy hair flying. She’s really the opposite of a traditional ice princess. (It almost made up for the Quad God fiasco.)

Definitely look up Alysa’s Gold Medal skate, if you didn’t see it yet. And her backstory is just as good as her skating. Check out the piece 60 Minutes did on her here.

Yay, I feel like I had a Good Olympics now.

EPIC sports fail

~ MaryG ~ 22 Comments

I have a confession to make. We didn’t have a lot going on yesterday. We met with our financial advisor in the morning. (He annoyed me by referring to Kamala Harris as Ka-MA-la—mispronouncing her name in that dismissive, racist, sexist way that Republican men do.) Once we got rid of his bald ass, I decided to settle in and watch TV for hours. I really wanted to enjoy my favorite Winter Olympics event—figure skating. Live.

The men’s finals long program was starting at 12:30 and I was psyched. My husband, who is still strapped to a chair with a polar ice machine on his knee a lot of the day, watched with me. We really got into it. Yes, there were a lot of falls, but there was a lot of gorgeous artistry and crazy athleticism too. I cried when Max Naumov, the skater from Massachusetts who lost both his parents in the DC plane crash last year, went out and skated poorly, but made it through. For him, just being there at all was Gold. It was so, so poignant.

The entire afternoon was leading up to the “Quad God” Ilia Malinin who was definitely, positively going to win the Gold Medal. There was no way he wouldn’t, especially since the other skaters had fallen so many times and he is a once-in-a-generation talent. Even my childhood idol Dorothy Hamill was there to watch.

It was approaching 5pm, so I went ahead and had a gummy, just to enhance the experience of watching this young man WOW us—LIVE. I even texted my son at work to let him know that Quad God was about to skate. Ilia looked great—so relaxed—as he skated out to win his gold.

Oh my GOD.

I have never seen such an epic sports FAIL on a bigger stage in my life. (Granted, I’m not much of a sports fan, but still.)

Just Google it.

The Olympics can break your heart, if you let them.

Missing white lady!!!!

~ MaryG ~ 18 Comments

I’m sorry that Savannah Guthrie’s mother has gone missing, but GOOD GOD. The media coverage is ridiculous. They actually broke into primetime Olympics coverage of the men’s figure skating—with “Quad God” Ilia Malinin on deck—to tell us that absolutely nothing had changed.

How many Native American women go missing every single year and we never hear a peep from the media about them?

While Nancy Guthrie has been receiving 24/7 coverage, it sounds like things are still really bad in Minneapolis.

Copied and pasted from “The Other 98%” Facebook page:

Minnesota is still very much under assault by Trump’s private ICE army, even after the headline friendly withdrawal of 700 agents. You would not know it scrolling through your feed, where posts from Minneapolis residents about raids, beatings and shootings keep getting flagged or buried while the national press treats the state like a backdrop instead of a crime scene. And now there are early reports that ICE agents may have killed yet another person, adding to the sense that this crackdown is only getting deadlier, not winding down…On the ground this does not feel like “enforcement,” it feels like an occupation that has simply swapped helmets. The numbers have not really drawn down, they have just changed tactics, leaning harder on pre-dawn home raids, unmarked vans, so called “collateral” arrests of bystanders and courthouse stakeouts meant to snatch people when they show up to comply with the law.

———————————————————

On the bright side:

Randy Rainbow’s latest is a real gem—a perfect Ode to the Sycophants. 😂

Last weekend my church raised over $2,500 for a local non-profit social service organization that supports refugees and immigrants with a fantastic concert by Emma’s Revolution. We also raised $4,500 to buy a used car for a hardworking immigrant family from Afghanistan that several church members know.

Thursday Doors—Milan’s Duomo

~ MaryG ~ 13 Comments

With the Milan-Cortina Olympics about to start, we’re going to be seeing many shots of Milan’s iconic Gothic-style Duomo.

This reminds me that I visited Milan in 1985 with my friend Julie during our semester abroad in Italy. We climbed up to the rooftop terraces of the Duomo. Back then, you didn’t need reservations or special tickets to go up.

I love it when photographic evidence of my foggy memories actually exists!

Here’s a photo I took of Julie taking a photo through a doorway atop the Duomo in Milan 40+ years ago. Julie is a great photographer so I’m sure she got a wonderful, artistic shot. But I like my pic too. Her red coat looks cool. And you can see some of the over-the-top decorative elements of the roof. Those endless spires remind me of wet, drippy sandcastles.

Posted for Dan’s Thursday Doors.

1974: GenX turns 9

~ MaryG ~ 2 Comments

Born in the summer of 1965, I am part of the oldest GenX cohort (1965-80) and I’m discovering through my photo digitizing project, that I’m quite well documented.

My parents took a lot of pictures. Many of them were bad (“delete” was not an option back then) but there’s at least a few photos from every single year of my life through college graduation. (Whereas, we probably have five pictures in all of my father as a kid.)

It looks like the summer of 1974 was the peak of my gymnastics prowess. I remember that I worked very hard and mastered a “front walkover” as a kid and here’s the proof:

This appears to be a class performance

I don’t think I ever progressed to handsprings (too hard). And I certainly never did a walkover on a balance beam (too scary).

Two years prior, in 1972, a tiny Soviet gymnast named Olga Korbut did a backflip off the uneven bars in the Munich Summer Olympics, won three gold medals, and inspired a lot of little American girls to try some new tricks. I was one of them.

And so, for my 60th birthday this summer, I pledge to work hard to reenact this photo and perform a front walkover in front of an audience.

KIDDING!! Can you even imagine? I’ll stick to Downward Dogs.

My 9th birthday party on my parents’ porch in the summer of ‘74. My sister and I and my neighborhood friends Candy, Kim, Carolyn and Bethanne had a good time.

Paris

~ MaryG ~ 10 Comments
Daily writing prompt
If you won two free plane tickets, where would you go?
View all responses

I’m excited—and nervous—for the Olympics Opening Ceremony today at 1:30pm (EST).

They were very busy getting ready when we were there in December.

They are planning the first ever outdoor ceremony. The 7,000+ athletes are going to parade in on boats floating down the Seine. I can’t even imagine the logistics involved in planning something like that in a city as old and iconic as Paris. From the weather to security, there are so many things that could go wrong. And I’ve just read that there has been a malicious arson attack on several railway lines there. I hope all the performers are still able to get to their spots.

But if they can pull it off, I think it’s going to be next-level!

Godspeed Paris. The world is with you. 🤞🏼🇫🇷 🌎

Paris selfie, December 2023
(I’d use those two free plane tickets to go back in slightly warmer weather.)

Figure skating and gymnastics

~ MaryG ~ 11 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What Olympic sports do you enjoy watching the most?
View all responses

I was not a jock. I played some competitive tennis and ran a bit of track, but I never played any true team sports. I was a good swimmer and eventually a lifeguard, but swim racing was of no interest.

I loved both of the dance-y sports—gymnastics and figure skating—until they got hard. At one point, I could do both front and back walkovers and a front handspring. (A back handspring was too hard.) In skating, I progressed to the point of doing one competition in a hand-sewn skating dress made by my mother. Figure skating to music was fantastic and freeing, but I did not enjoy being judged.

My Olympic heroes were Nadia Comaneci (the Romanian gymnast) and of course, Dorothy Hamill. Both made their marks at the 1976 Olympics when I was ten or eleven. Nadia with her perfect tens was a bit of a mystery because she was from a Soviet block country, but Dorothy was EVERYTHING. All-American and perfect in every way, she was the ideal. And yes of course, I got the haircut, but it never looked as good on me (or really anyone other than Dorothy). She was America’s best Olympic hero ever and I will never be convinced otherwise.

Dorothy Hamill in 1976

So yeah, give me the opening & closing ceremonies and figure skating in the winter, or gymnastics in the summer, and I’m good.

The Flinstones and The Phryges

~ MaryG ~ 8 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What’s your favorite cartoon?
View all responses

I no longer watch cartoons, but as a kid, my favorite cartoon was definitely The Flinstones–a GenX cornerstone. If you never pictured yourself going out for a Brontosaurus Burger with Fred in his foot-powered vehicle, you must be a millennial (or younger). And I still think of any one-shouldered dress as a “Wilma.”

The Flinstones

But sorry, I’m not done relating these “daily prompts” to my recent trip to Paris. As I mentioned, they were very busy gearing up for the 2024 Olympics, while we were there. The mascot is The Phryges – pronounced like “fridge” with a long E sound and an “uh.” He/She/They? (I’m feeling like “they” is the correct pronoun in English) are described as “being part of the Phryges tribe, those little Phrygian hats that have come to help the French with their revolution through the power of Sport.” They’re cute, n’est-ce pas?

I didn’t buy one, but I thought about it.
By 1791, the Phrygian Cap or Bonnet Rouge had become de rigueur for sans-culotte militants to wear to show their loyalty to the cause. (I’m hoping US citizens don’t need to adopt something similar after our 2024 national election.)