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The Daily Dose/August 12, 2008
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
The Photo Department actually reported for duty today, but cut out early. Pics will return!
Notes from around the Human Experience...
HIGHER, STRONGER, FASTER: Our Norwegian women's team handball squad, trying valiantly to break the Writer's Shack jinx, moved to 2-0 in exciting Group A play, defeating dreaded Angola 31-17 Monday. Like they did in the opener with China, they let the Angolans - or Angoloites, or whatever they're called - streak out to a 1-0 lead before taking charge with eight unanswered goals. Personal fave Gro Hammerseng followed up her seven-goal effort against China with a more modest two goals, but she is still nine for ten shooting, which leads the team.
In other Group A action, Romania, usually a power but reduced to making the Olympics by winning a qualifying tournament last March, remained undefeated beating China 30-24. France also moved to 2-0, sneaking past dreaded Kazakhstan 21-18.
Next Up: Our Norskies, who do charity work around Beijing on their off days, are in action Wednesday, with the obligatory pool play smack down agains Kazakhstan.
Another Sport That Interests Us: You ever seen men play volleyball? Not that let's-hold-hands-and-go-play-on-the-sea shore crap, but real volleyball played on a court that doesn't give when you dive on it and where the ball comes at you just slightly slower than a bullet. Jesus H, that may be the most difficult sport to play. Have you seen them long jump 15 feet before serving the ball a jillion miles an hour?
USA! USA! The Americans opened pool play by defeating Venezuela 25-18, 25-18, 21-25, 21-25 and 15-10. Italy defeated Japan and Bulgaria defeated China in other Pool A action Monday. The US will play Italy Tuesday.
FunFact: Volleyball has been an Olympic sport since Tokyo in 1964. American men have won three volleyball medals over the years: gold at Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul in 1988, and, bronze in Barcelona in 1992. The Soviet Union won three gold medals, and Brazil has also won two, including 2004 in Athens.
FunFact II: Team USA is ranked third in the current International Volleyball Federation rankings, behind Brazil and Russia. Bulgaria and Serbia round out the top five.
Higher, Stronger, Fatter: In the Lardo Transport event, held in Monterrey, Mexico because the only contestant is too fat to leave his country, gold medal favorite Manuel Uribe (MEX), who at last report weighed over 700 pounds but whose current weight is undisclosed, was transported on his specially made bed to the shore of a nearby lake to spend some time with his rather normal-sized girlfriend. The bed had been forked lifted onto a truck.
Back In The Saddle Again: This was Uribe's first competition since March of last year, which followed five years of extensive training inside his home. Uribe once weighed 1,200 pounds.
Facilities Update: We're not entirely sure what the people in charge of Bird's Nest Stadium were smoking when they finalized its design. It was something pretty good because Bird's Nest is the ugliest sports facility on the planet, bar none.
So how in the hell has virtually every other venue turned out to be a masterpiece? Good gravy, everything looks like it was created by God on the seventh day. Our fave is the softball stadium, but the Water Cube is inspired and even Worker's Stadium, which was built in 1959 and based on the name could be expected to be dreary, is nice.
Meanwhile: The Writer's Shack, despite our best efforts, is still avoiding censors and China and remains available to whomever wants to read it, though, honestly, we're not getting a whole lot action in the Orient. Also, the Games have been more or less free of any embarrassing Tibet protests, though we still hold out hope some robed monks on a suicide mission will fly gliders into Birds Nest Stadium.
LOVE STORY: On this date, in 30BC, Cleopatra died, killing herself after receiving news of her lover Mark Antony's death in the Battle of Actium. Legend is that Cleopatra induced a poisonous snake to bite her.
A Richard Daly Was In Charge There, Too: On this date in 1833 the Town of Chicago is established, with a population of 350. The city of Chicago would be incorporated in 1837.
Editor's Note: The Chicago Cubs are celebrating the 100th anniversary of their last World Series championship and On This Date is celebrating right along with them, chronicling the 1908 season!
Back In The High Life Again: The Cubs take game one of a two game showdown against the first-place Pirates 3-0 in Pittsburgh as Mordecai Brown pitches a three-hitter. After losing five (5) straight the Cubs have won two in a row and are now three games behind the Pirates.
FunFact III: The game took one hour and 22 minutes, about half as long as your average major league game today.
Scoreboard, Baby: In other National League action, the Giants lose to Brooklyn 5-1 and remain a game-and-a-half back.
Couldn't They Have Shot The Lawyers? On this date, in 1952, 13 prominent Yiddish writers, poets, musicians, artists and actors are shot in the Lubyanka prison in Moscow. History refers to the night as The Night of the Murdered Poets.
Higher, Stronger, Whiter: In 1964 South Africa is barred from the Olympic Games due to its racist policy of white minorities ruling the black majority. It would not return to the Olympics until the 1992 Barcelona Games.
Dive! Dive! Uh, Not So Far Guys: On this date, in 2000, the Russian submarine Kursk and its crew of 118 officers and men, were lost during naval exercises in the Barents Sea.
No one, much less Russian investigators, area entirely sure what happened, but it is believed a torpedo warhead exploded, which led to other warheads exploding two minutes later. There are other theories though, ranging from the ship's batteries exploding to a collision with an American submarine.
This Is A Hell Of A Way To Go: Not all of the crew died immediately. 23 sailors working in the aft part of the submarine survived. It's not known for how long, however, the Russian navy reported picking up tapping sounds from the area of the sunken submarine for two days.
More Great Moments In Transportation: History's worst single-place air disaster occurs on this date in 1985, when Japan Air Flight 123 suffers structural and hydraulic failure and crashes into Mount Ogura about 60 miles outside Tokyo. 520 people die, four survive.
Thought For The Day: …Clevenger, the corporal and Colonel Korn agreed that is was neither possible nor necessary to educate people who never questioned anything. - Joseph Heller, Catch-22
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: There was not a trivia question last time. We hope you used the extra time for good, not evil.
Today's Stumper: Baseball is getting thrown out of the Olympics after these Games. How many times in the past has baseball been thrown out of the Olympics? - Answer next time!
Threats? Recipes? Trivia question answers? Email The Writer's Shack Here!
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