Bobbing for Medals

We watch the Olympics all day so that you don’t have to.

​Disappointing that the U.S. women’s soccer team got beat by Canada in the semi-finals.  But unfortunately it wasn’t terribly shocking, since they got shut out yet again.  And when you don’t score, it’s quite hard to win.  In fairness, Canada is a very good team and played excellent defense – on the other hand, the U.S. women had a hard time scoring in earlier games.  The most unfortunate thing about the game, though, is how they lost – on a penalty kick with only about seven minutes left. The U.S. defender and Canadian forward both dove for the ball, but when the American kicked at it, she caught the Canadian in the foot.  Also, it was against the backup goalie, since the starting goalie for the U.S. injured her foot diving for a ball in the first half.  Whether she would have blocked the penalty kick, though, who knows?  All that said, the team still competes ahead for the Bronze medal.

I liked watching field hockey, although it has three weird equipment rules which limited my interest.  The first, which I’ve never understood, is why field hockey sticks are so short, making the players all lean over to pass the ball and shoot – making it all much less forceful than if you were able to stand straight up and put all your body and leverage behind whacking the thing.  The second is that it turns out a field hockey stick has a flat side and a curved side, and you’re only allowed to use the flat side.  I haven’t figured that one out either.  It gives players less control – stick handling in ice hockey is one of the great skills.  And finally, weirdly, I noticed that the goalie doesn’t have gloves, but two big pads, sort of like pillows.  So, he can make a save, but can’t grab hold of the ball to direct it to a teammate or to stop play.  If he blocks a shot, the ball can still get away from him, unless he’s able to flop on the thing and cover it up.

There was an absolutely great moment in the high jump when Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshm  and Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy tied with the same height and also the same tiebreakers.  Even before the decision is made what to do, Tamberi is already so emotionally moved that he raced over to his friend Barshim and throws his arms around his friend is pure job.  As the official calmly explains to them the two possibilities, Barshim quiets the Italian to find out what their options are.  The first, he’s told, is to have a jump off.  “Can we both have Gold?” he interrupts, which you can only barely hear on the soft audio.  It turns out that that is, in fact, the other possibility, to just declare a tie.  When the official starts to note that option, “It’s possible…”, Barshim from Qatar doesn’t need to hear anymore, since sharing a Gold medal with his friend is the best way to him and makes the decision.  That’s it, two Golds, no more discussion needed.  And when the Italian Barshim realizes what has just happened, that the two friends have just each won the Gold medal, he goes crazy like only an emotional Italian can.  It’s an unabashed joy, aided by  Barshim himself being emotional, though far more quietly, The 5-minute video shows the build-up to this, but if you only want to see the decision and what results, jump to the 3:40 mark.  But it’s all worth it.

(Note: it turns out that the owner of the video doesn't let it embed here, but as you can see, if you just click on the link it'll take you to it on YouTube.)

Lots of volleyball and beach volleyball, which is basically enjoyable, though there’s a limit to how much volleyball-type activity one can watch after a while.  I go back-and-forth in trying to decide which version I like more.  Regular volleyball has more intricate team play, though is more a power game.  Two-person beach volleyball has  more finesse, though at times that’s a bit limiting for the “sameness” of the play – there are only so many options teammates have.

And on a non-sporting end, one of the things about vegetating in front of the TV watching the Olympics most of the day every day is that you tend to see some commercials over and over and over and over…  Especially for upcoming TV shows that NBC is promoting.  And the one that gets me laughing is for an upcoming new series that's called La Brea.  It’s not a comedy at all, mind you, and it wouldn't be funny anywhere else in the world except in Los Angeles.  But being in Los Angeles as I am, I can’t help but keep laughing each time I see it.  The series actually looks like it has a good, though utterly weird premise – an incredibly massive sinkhole opens up in Los Angeles, and people fall into it, ending up in a sort of “Lost World”-type netherworld and have to figure out how to get back.  Forgetting for the moment that that’s not how sinkholes -- and falling for miles -- work and is totally unbelievable, it looks like it at least has the potential of being a nicely-done series.  But what gets me laughing is that after they set up the danger and the mysterious world where they’ve landed, and there are stalking creatures we only see in shadows, one of the characters says, “Where the hell are me??!!”  And then they cut to a black screen and superimposed in huge letters filling the screen, it says ominously, “LA BREA”.  That’s where I laugh, each time.  Because, if you live in Los Angeles, trying to scare people with, “You’re in La Brea!!” is not going to cut it.  The only thing that might have made it funnier is if it said, “PACOIMA.”  I’m guessing they chose “La Brea” because it’s associated with the internationally-famous tar pits and dinosaurs.  But a few years back, I wrote here about going to the La Brea Tar Pits, and...well, this is --

​...LA BREA..

Cue music sting:  Dunh, dunh...duuhhhhhh