Finally, the Olympics are over! Oh, but for some reason, there is still curling on TV. Why is that? I reckon because the Olympics are over for the Canadian men's hockey team, they've got nothing else to show. I guess I don't have too much to say about that, just that it wasn't the goalie's fault. It probably wasn't Wayne Gretzky's fault either-now there was a player, I remember when he was a kid. Oh, baby, he was a dandy. Sort of like that Russian kid, Ovechkin (thanks to the editors for getting the spelling of that for me). I never seen a Russian so excited. They used to be like robots, those Russians. Now they're playing with more heart than...oh, wait, we've been there before.

Anyway, should be fun to watch some good hockey without having to suffer through worrying about who is going to win or lose. I have a confession to make. I do live up here in Northern Quebec, but my favourite hockey team is the Toronto Maple Leafs. I can't help it-I was born that way. I am old enough to remember more than one Stanley Cup parade down Yonge Street, mind you, but these last, oh, thirty years, have been murder. What really got me afraid for these Canadian men was that when I watched them, it was like I was watching my Leafs: can't score, goalie saves the day, dumb penalties. At first I thought it was Bryan McCabe. He looked like Aki Berg out there a few times. But then I realised that it was the whole team. And then I saw them show a shot of the coach. I guess I had been so used to seeing that guy, Pat Quinn, looking unhappy behind the bench that I never made the connection. Of course Canada was going to lose! They've got that guy as coach! They played just like the Leafs. Oh, my.

On to happier things, like curling, my new passion. Ol' Shannon was solid today, taking out the Norwegians like night-vision on a squirrel. Bronze is good. At least when you get bronze in a team game it means you won your last game. Brad is playing tomorrow, for the gold medal. But back to those women for a sec. You know they played sick, some of them (Ed. note: Amy Nixon and Christine Keshen). I guess they got too excited about the buffet at the Olympic Village or something, I don't know, but something didn't agree with them, and it took out their players, one at a time. But they had a good spare, and enough energy to go out there and get the job done. Just like Haley Wickenheiser played with a broken wrist.

Maybe that's something, there. I mean, if you go over there, on the tax payers' dollars, you gotta at least finish. I mean, we bellyache about medals (or fourth places), but you can guarantee that. The only thing you can guarantee is that you get out there and do it. The women curlers did that, and got themselves a medal.

They just interviewed Helen and Heather, the bobsledders, and wow, those are some attractive young ladies. Kinda gives an old man a bobsled of his own, if you know what I mean...