Elisberg Industries
Decent Quality Since 1847
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like

Bob Sledding

2/22/2014

0 Comments

 
We watch all the time, so you can have a life.  And the Olympics are winding down.


I've been yammering about how good Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir have been as figure skating commentators on NBC Sports Network, and the other day suggested that they might be the primetime analysts on NBC at the next Olympics.  If you didn't see the primetime coverage last night of them in studio with Bob Costas, at the end of the segment Costas enthused, "You two really need to get your own show.  If I'm running the network, you have your own show."  Then right after, Willie Geist did a piece on social media and noted that the #1 person who has been searched for at the Olympics is not an athlete, but...Tara Lipinski.  (I have to figure that this is in the U.S., but he didn't say that, so...?)  Popularity like that does not go unnoticed by network executives.  I stand by my guess.  So, we'll see.

Alas, the U.S. men's hockey team got crushed by Finland 5-0 in the Bronze Medal game, so they'll be finishing out of the podium.  The game was close in the first period, but the U.S. fell apart after that.

The U.S. also fell apart in speed skating and short track skating, which was probably the biggest disappointment in the games.  They got zero medals in the former, and only one in the final team relay of the latter.  And even that, they were the standing world champions and favored to win the gold, but got the silver instead.

The other day, I mentioned a snowboarder Vic Wild who was dropping in the sport and had lost most of his funding and support from the U.S. Snowboarding Association, so he married his Russian girlfriend (also a snowboarder) and competed for Russia instead.  When I wrote about that, he had just won the Gold Medal.  Well, last night, he won his second Gold Medal.  Apparently that whole, "losing his funding" thing didn't work out real well for the association. 

There were a several nice pieces one that didn't make primetime.  The always joyful Mary Carillo had two:  one about the birthplace of the sliding events, at the Cresta Club in St. Moritz, Switzerland, founded in 1885.  And her second about the gorgeous Lake Baikul, the deepest lake in the world.  There was also another piece by Jimmy Roberts on the first-ever Alpine skiing medals by the U.S. in 1964 when coach Bob Beattie predicted medals, and Billy Kidd and Jimmie Heuga both got on the podium in the very last slalom race. 

But it's the third stood out.  A beautiful and moving -- and long, about 45 minutes --
featurette on a Russian hockey team (Lokomotiv)  that lost all its members in a plane crash two years ago, and the impressive effort to rebuild, with several twists near the end.  One twist is political, involving Vladminir Putin and a dissident politician, but the most notable is a deeply emotional sequence when it's discovered later that the team's most popular player had been donating money anonymously to a charity for children in medical need, making his last donation on the day of the crash, allowing a young girl's life to be saved -- who ends up being "adopted" by the player's family and the new team.  I'm sure it'll show up on YouTube.  Look for it.

I had written about the great Norwegian cross country skiier Ole Einer Bjorndalen a few days ago.  During his race today, they told a hilarious story about him.  It seems that several years back, he bought a vacuum from a vacuum salesman and was so impressed by the guy's enthusiasm and attitude, that he hired the vacuum salesman to be on his team as his sports psychologist!

Bob Costas had the wonderful 18-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin in studio as a guest on late night.  She came across very interestingly -- charming and open, but surprisingly sophisticated for her years and even more confident, just on the good side of arrogant.  When Costas asked her about the 2018 Olympics, and if she might be competing in all five disciplines, and not just the two she did this year, she said that that was the goal -- and joked with Costas about his question on winning everything, saying how, yes, she wanted to win everything, and than ran off a string of events which had nothing to do with skiing that she wanted to win -- checkers, hopscotch, everything she competed in.  All with a smile and a laugh, but she looked like she meant it.  It was notable that at the start of the interview when Costas mentioned that she was the youngest woman ever to win an Alpine skiing event and asked if she knew that, she said she did, that someone had told her earlier.  Then, Costas laughed, "Ah, I thought I'd surprise you."  To which he answered quietly, and I'm not even sure Costas heard because he was on to his next question, "I don't get surprised."
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Elisberg Industries gets a commission if you click here before shopping on Amazon.
    Picture
    Follow @relisberg

    Author

    Robert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 

    Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, and two best-selling novels, is a regular columnist for the Writers Guild of America and was for
    the Huffington Post.  Among his other writing, he has a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel.  As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.



    Picture
           Feedspot Badge of Honor

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Audio
    Audio Land
    Books
    Business
    Chicago
    Consumer Product
    Education
    Email Interview
    Entertainment
    Environment
    Fine Art
    Food
    From The Management
    Health
    History
    Huffery
    Humor
    Internet
    Journalism
    Law
    Los Angeles
    Media
    Morning News Round Up
    Movies
    Music
    Musical
    Personal
    Photograph
    Piano Puzzler
    Politics
    Popular Culture
    Profiles
    Quote Of The Day
    Radio
    Religion
    Restaurants
    Science
    Sports
    Technology
    Tech Tip
    Theater
    The Writers Workbench
    Tidbits
    Travel
    Tv
    Twitter
    Video
    Videology
    Well Worth Reading
    Words-o-wisdom
    Writing

    RSS Feed

© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2021
Contact Us    About EI    Chicago Cubs