The Original (and Still Current) Logo of Cracker Barrel
The current occupant of the White House is a man with wide-ranging opinions and talents. (Snicker!) When Cracker Barrel wanted to change its logo, the Trumpster weighed in and set nyet! In addition to [mis]governing a large democracy, he also plans to take change of the 2028 Olympics in his favorite city (Los Angeles) and strike back at anyone who doesn’t like him.
I fully expect to go to the supermarket one day and find empty shelves which contained foodstuffs not liked by our presidente. The meat department will be all fried chicken and hamburgers. Fruits and vegetables? What are those?
Perhaps he will step in to break the engagement between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. Not that he likes either of them: It’s just that they don’t deserve to be happy together. How could they be if they don’t like him? Mr. Likeability-in-Chief.
This presidency is a slow motion nightmare that just keeps going on and on and on …
Although the 2024 Paris Olympics have faded into history, there are still some controversies swirling about. Mostly, these are because of some pigheaded bureaucratic judges. I have already written about Jordan Chiles’s bronze medal in gymnastics.
Also victimized by poor judging was Rachael Gunn of Australia’s entertaining performance in breaking. Raygun, as she is better known, received zero points from the judges for her highly individualistic routine. In addition, she has become the target of hatred from more “conservative” breakers, if there can be said to be such a thing.
Has breaking suddenly become so wrapped up in tradition that anything that smacks of innovation is pilloried by judges and social media trolls?
Hey, Australia did a great job in these Olympics, winning a disproportionate number of medals considering the size of its population.
Read the BBC’s story about the controversy, and give this talented, gutsy breaker the support she deserves.
Simone Biles and Jotdan Chiles Bowing to Rebeca Andrade
This viral photo from the recently concluded Olympics has been spoiled by the decision of some fusty Eurocrat to deprive Jordan Chiles of her bronze medal. For the complete story, check out CNN’s coverage of the story. There was a one-minute deadline for the U.S. gymnastics coach to protest the awarding of the bronze to a Romanian contestant (whose floor exercise was, in fact, quite excellent)’ and the U.S. was four seconds late (?!) in filing the protest.
Time to Introduce New Sports for the Next Olympics
The 2024 Paris Olympics were a smashing success. The Chinese continued their domination of track and field, while the Americans took medal after medal in platform diving. For the next Olympics in my home town of Los Angeles, it’s time to consider some new events to mix things up a bit:
SYNCHRONIZED PIZZA DOUGH TOSSING. Let’s face it: Pizza has become an international food and is due for some recognition by the Olympics.
THREE-LEGGED MARATHON RACE. I’ve always thought that Marathon runners had it too easy. I mean the only difficult thing about the 42.195 kilometer (26.219 mile) course is doing all the decimal math in your head while running.
FACEBOOK FACEPLANT. Let’s acknowledge the role of social media in our lives by having a race during which the participants must complete a series of responses to social media posts while running.
UNDERWATER GYMNASTICS. On one hand, you have greater buoyancy in the water; on the other hand, you don’t want to stretch out your routine too long.
CLIFF DIVING. For lemmings only. You dive off a cliff into a net. You can have a number of heights: 100 meters, 200 meters … the sky’s the limit.
Martine at the Zimmerman Automobile Driving Museum
I have not posted any blogs during the last three days because Martine was hospitalized on Tuesday. By accident she took a second dose of powerful glaucoma eye drops instead of the medication she intended on taking. The result was weakness, dehydration, and a host of other symptoms that required an ambulance trip to the UCLA Santa Monica Hospital where blood tests revealed that the sodium levels in her blood were dangerously low.
For two days, Martine was literally non compos mentis—not in her right mind. On Tuesday night, as she was waiting in a temporary patient treatment area for a hospital bed to be assigned to her, she was shaking like a leaf and was barely able to recognize me.
When I returned home, I was shattered. Was this the beginning of something critical, or possibly fatal? On Wednesday, she was slightly better as the hospital worked at raising the sodium level in her blood. But she was still not quite right in her mind: She kept attempting to get up to go to the bathroom while multiple tubes were connected to her body. She kept insisting “This is a free country!”
In the end, a licensed vocational nurse was delegated to keep her safely in bed. I visited her twice, but she forgot that I was there. Fortunately, yesterday and today saw a return to the Martine I knew and loved. Essentially, she is still in the hospital mainly for observation to make sure that her blood work stabilizes.
At home, I was too upset to read or write; so I have just watched the Paris Olympics endlessly.
It looks as if Martine will probably be discharged tomorrow. I hope so: I desperately want to return to our normal lives.
555827 19.07.1980 Вынос олимпийского флага на торжественной церемонии открытия Игр XXII Олимпиады. Центральный стадион имени В.И. Ленина 19 июля 1980 года. Сергей Гунеев/РИА Новости
Remember the 1980 Moscow Olympics? We weren’t represented because Jimmy Carter pulled us out after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979. In 1984, the Russians got back at us by not sending anyone to the Los Angeles games.
It was a different world back then. It seems the Olympic contests were always being interpreted as Free World vs. Communists. Maybe that was mostly the news media’s doing, but not entirely. For instance, I remember the euphoria in the air when the U.S. hockey team defeated the Russians at the Lake Placid Olympics in February 1980 (that was when both Olympics were held the same year) by a score of 4-3. That despite the fact that the frantic Russians outshot the Americans 39-16.
Soviet Russian Athletes on the Award Stand
But after the fall of Communism things changed. It’s no longer just the Free World vs. the Communists. The rest of the world got better, across the board it seems. Early this afternoon, I watched three Caribbean island democracies medal: St. Lucia, Dominica, and Grenada.
Of course, Russia and Belarus are not represented because Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine, with his assistance of his willing stooge Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus.
Gone are the lovely Russian women gymnasts. No more “White Swan of Belarus.” A few Russian and Belarussian athletes are participating under the Olympic equivalent of the Skull and Crossbones—and probably facing the ire of Putin and Lukashenko. It’s a pity, because they have some splendid athletes there, but the Olympics is nothing if not political.
I used to always root for the Free World. Then, I just rooted for the U.S. Now I’m just happy to see the rest of the world catch up.
Of course, China is developing an impressive sports machine, but at least they haven’t invaded anybody since they got their wings clipped in 1979 in Viet Nam by Vo Nguyen Giap.
The term was much discussed during the last Tokyo Olympiad (2021), when U.S. gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from competition after suffering an attack of “the twisties.”
At that time, the BBC discussed the phenomenon:
So what are the “twisties”?
Gymnasts have described the twisties as a kind of mental block.
In some sports a sudden mental block – like the “yips” in golf – may cost you a missed putt, or a lost game.
In gymnastics, it can cause a person to lose their sense of space and dimension as they’re in the air, causing them to lose control of their body and do extra twists or flips that they hadn’t intended. In the worst cases, they can find themselves suddenly unable to land safely.
The twisties can happen to a gymnast even if they’ve done the same manoeuvre for years without problems.
Biles – one of the sport’s all-time greatest athletes – appeared to become disorientated while performing a vault on Tuesday and stumbled as she landed.
It was a moment that struck an instant chord with those who suspected what she might be going through.
I have been watching the U.S. women gymnasts on the balance beam earlier this evening, and the subject came up on an NBC interview with Simone Biles before her routine was televised. Now Simone is a very grounded person with clear perception and first-hand knowledge of the demons that can assail a performer in the spotlight. And, like few other participants in the Olympics, Simone is definitely in the spotlight. All. The. Time.
As it turned out, Simone’s balance beam routine in Paris 2024 was spot on. Afterwards, NBC showed another gymnast in the process of suffering a major case of the twisties. It was Melanie de Jesus Dos Santos of Martinique, who was competing for France.
A stunningly beautiful young woman, Dos Santos is shown muffing spectacularly all the major gymnastic events. In between gaffes, she was almost perfect; but she was in the throes of the twisties.
Whatever we do in life, we can suddenly lose our way. We could drive a chef’s knife into our fingers while chopping onions; or slip and fall in the bathroom while getting out of the tub; or turn the steering wheel the wrong way when backing out of a parking space; or any of a thousand other missteps.
When we are in the twisties, we should do what Simone Biles did: Drop out momentarily from any high performance activities. It’s not cowardice. It’s what we have to do to survive when we momentarily lose our way.
Opening Ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Olympiad—in 2021!
Japan was put in an untenable position by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). At a time when Covid-19 was surging through the island nation, the IOC said the Olympic Games had to go on nonetheless. Of course, we won’t know for a week or two whether Japan will pay the price by putting on the games during an epidemic.
I must say, however, that Japan reacted with competence and grace and managed to put on a memorable event. Even if the stands were mostly empty, these games were an utter delight, even if NBC’s televising was at times ham-fisted and soap-opera-ish.
My favorite events were the team competitions, such as men’s and women’s basketball, women’s indoor and beach volleyball, women’s water polo, and some of track and field events. I didn’t much care for golf, canoeing/kayaking, swimming and diving. Never before have I spent so much time glued to the television set watching sporting events. It was worth it, and I feel bereft now that the Games are over.
In the above picture, Moldovan women athletes are synchronously showing amazement at a random consonant, in this case the letter “T.” Below, however, are some actual events planned for the next summer Olympics:
Team Parcheesi. Expect the Chinese to win gold here.
Underwater Track Cycling. Canada and New Zealand are already gearing up for this event.
Low-Jump. Exactly what it sounds like: medalists must leave the ground, but only for a few millimeters. The world record is currently held by Burkina Faso at 11.68 mm.
Ballroom Balance Beam. Ballroom dancing with a man and a woman as partners atop a balance beam. Both are expected to stick the landing … but exactly where I am not at liberty to say.
Dog Walking. Contestants must walk a pack of at least ten dogs and are downgraded for the dogs’ disobedience, toilet, and sniffing stops.
Sand Kayaking. How fast can contestants be when they have to paddle on sand dunes of various heights?
Dumpster Diving. Exactly what it sounds like. The dumpsters are filled with plastic detritus from the Pacific Garbage Patch, from heights of 10, 20, and 30 meters.
Women’s Cubic Beach Volleyball. The same as beach volleyball, but the “ball” is an inflatable cube. What matters most, however, is the skimpiness of the bikinis worn.
Blind Man’s Buff. Played on a 10-acre obstacle course.
Weight Watchers Watch Party. Judges will look for the most vapid and overweight participants in home watch parties. The U.S. is expected to win the Lead Medal at this event during most Olympics.
Athletes’ Families Back Home Rejoicing in Family Member Medal Performances
If you’ve been watching the 2020 (2021?) Tokyo Olympics on TV, you’ve seen it a hundred times. Cut from the proud medalist to his or her family back in the states howling and dancing like a bunch of Yahoos. NBC is using Microsoft Teams software to show the family response to the winners. And the result is usually pretty nauseating.
They are usually packed in large rooms as big as dance halls in groups of several dozen, usually wearing T-shirts or sweatshirts emblazoned with the name of their boy or girl in Tokyo. My usual response is to say to myself, addressing the athletes, “So those are the clowns you’ve managed to give the slip to. Time to stay far away from Podunk: Find a life for yourself away from these people.”
Oh, you can telephone them once every few months, but now it’s time to live your own life.
I imagine that some people get pretty weepy about showing the families of the athletes. My reaction can be summarized in one word: Flee! That’s what I did when I went 600 miles away from home to go to college, and then moved to the opposite side of the country to go to graduate school and begin a life of my own.
All of us eventually have to weaken those family ties in order to live our own lives. I find that the ones who don’t wind up leading stunted, dissatisfied lives. Seeing those T-shirted family mobs on NBC make me glad that I did what I did back in the 1960s. Not that I didn’t love my family, but I didn’t want to live as the college boy who never left home.
Tarnmoor 
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