The "spirit bear"
The Olympics are open....
Highlight - the show projected onto the curtains - very West Coast! I loved the "whales", the "totem poles," the "flying" boy, and Donald Sutherland reading quotes from Canadian writers.
Lowlight - the cauldron malfunction at the indoor torch lighting. Somebody is never going to live that one down!
Token gay moment - k.d. lang singing some song that had nothing to do with the Olympics.
Saddest moment - the Georgian team entering the stadium wearing thick black arm bands to indicate they are in mourning.
Most self-indulgent moment fabricated by the Olympic committee - the Olympic "hymn." That song was waaaay too long and waaaay too stupid.
I probably won't watch any more of the Olympics but the opening show (usually a snooze-fest) was worth sitting through. Also, my friends daughter was dancing in the show - I suspect she was dancing to the fiddlers.
And here is a REAL "spirit bear" better known as the Kermode bear. (Say kerr-mode-ee.) In the Tsimshian (Sim-shun) language, these bears are known as "Moksgm'ol" (muks-kum-ol.)
It is NOT an albino bear or a polar bear but a sub-species of black bear. Kermode bears range from white to cinnamon colored. They only live on the northwest coast of British Columbia and SHOULD have been the Olympic mascot as opposed to those Japanese manga-wannabe "mascots" that are a slap in the face to the First Nations people of Canada, particularly those living on the West Coast.
And one last thought - when everyone was chasing Wayne Gretzky down the street I wondered...what if Jesus was in that truck - would everyone be running after Him? Would the excitement and emotion be as overwhelming?
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