Categories
Uncategorized

March madness? Only if you call my writing madness.

I’m no sports fan, so the regular meaning of March Madness holds no meaning to me. However, finding out some of the team names competing in March Madness has left me in amusement and surprise. Look at some of these:

Maryland Terrapins
Georgetown Hoyas
Syracuse Orange (Not just Oranges, ORANGE.)
Xavier Musketeers
Minnesota Golden Gophers (That’s right. Not just gophers, GOLDEN gophers.)
Oakland Golden Grizzlies (More golden stuff!)
North Texas Mean Green (I wonder if their mascot is really the Ninja Turtles)
Purdue Boilermakers (I’m imagining kitchen supplies as their mascot)
Sam Houston State Bearkats (Science gone terribly wrong)
Richmond Spiders (Awesome, and Jonathan Coulton’s terribly wrong pick for winning it all)

Hm, maybe I should have filled one of these out just for kicks. When’s the next elimination-based tournament I know nothing about?

Categories
Uncategorized

How do Olympians pay the rent?

If you follow the world of major sports in the United States, where multimillion dollar contracts are becoming more and more common, it may be surprising to hear about how many U.S. Olympic athletes live from day to day. Most Olympians are not rich by any means; in fact, most of them work jobs that most of us would see as normal, whatever that means. Some people work with Olympians every day. Yet others walk past these people and probably don’t recognize these people who get the spotlight for two weeks every few years.

And if the U.S. is getting pushed out of the spotlight for not hosting the Olympics for awhile, think of all those countries who get much less attention.

Categories
Uncategorized

In which I look at today through a stranger’s eyes

I heard there was some huge sporting event today (well, yesterday now, I suppose). It involved a bunch of men in bulky tops and tight pants throwing a silly-looking object around and trying to keep the silly-looking object out of the possession of the enemy. Meanwhile, the audience is partying and watching the game on big-screen televisions, eating various foods, commenting on the choice of halftime entertainment, and oohing and aahing at people (and occasionally inanimate objects) promoting their products during the breaks.

What a crazy world we live in. So what happened today again?