Wednesday, September 27, 2006

USDST bios

The 2006-07 U.S. Disabled Ski Team still has yet to be officially announced, but I noticed that USSA does have our new bios up over at usskiteam.com. (If you're a regular reader of this site but some of the names look unfamiliar, that's because they lumped the disabled nordic team in with us on that list.) I guess mine is okay, but they always seem to think I've been on the team for a year less than I actually have. (They forgot to list me as a 2002 Paralympian, too.) And then there are a few of the usual typos, of course...

In other news, I've been doing some contributing to Wikipedia lately. Some of the articles written mostly by me are Paralympic alpine skiing, United States at the 2006 Winter Paralympics, Mexico at the 2006 Winter Paralympics, IPC Disabled Alpine World Cup, Disabled Alpine Skiing World Championships, Monoski, Chris Devlin-Young, Seekonk (band), and Phantom Buffalo.

Monday, September 18, 2006

International Talk Like A Pirate Day

The whole pirate meme does seem to be getting a little bit played-out, but here's one cause to rally behind: Tomorrow, September 19, is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. A note on pirate speech from holiday co-founder John Baur, courtesy of AWAD:
I've often heard people talk about pirates' "cockney accents." Wrong! The stereotypical pirate has a Cornish accent, based on the performance of Long John Silver by actor Robert Newton in the 1950 Disney version of Treasure Island. He was from Cornwall, and his over-the-top performance and native accent are the reason people think that's what a pirate sounded like. Of course, pirates came from all nationalities. But the pop culture image is firmly embedded, and Robert Newton is the reason why.

VANOC unveils 2010 emblem


I'm getting a good feeling about the organizing committee for the Vancouver Paralympics and Olympics. They seem to be treating the Paralympics as every bit the equal of the Olympics — case in point: the launch ceremony for the Paralympic logo was a big celebration with performances from some big names in Canadian pop music. Another good sign: the Vancouver 2010 website has no separate Paralympic section like the Torino and Salt Lake City sites did; the Paralympic news and content are fully integrated in the main site, and the Flash photo gallery on its home page mixes shots of Olympians and Paralympians. In fact, the site's current top story and its featured web poll are both about the Paralympics at the moment.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

autumn sweater


Fall arrived in Boulder yesterday.

When I woke up, sun was streaming in my window but I could hear the wind howling outside over the noise of the neighbors' kids playing outside. The leaves don't turn lots of different colors here like they do back in New England, but they are starting to dry up and blow around in parking lots like the plastic bag in American Beauty. Jeremy and I went to the farmer's market on 13th Street in the afternoon and I felt like I was back in Maine or New Hampshire. It dawned on me that the reason I felt that way was that that was the first time I'd really experienced autumn, in the way I conceive it, in Colorado. Up in Winter Park, fall seems to be nothing more than a three-week period during which it could be sunny and 60 or it could snow. There is really very little in-between time up there. Now I'm looking forward to more beautiful fall days here in Boulder on my bike. I think one of the reasons I have such positive associations with this time of year is that it means ski season can't be far off.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

very large wine bottles

There are names for them. Except for 'magnum,' they are the names of biblical people, mostly kings. You probably knew this already, but I didn't:
  • A magnum holds the equivalent of two normal wine bottles (1.5 L).
  • A jeroboam holds the equivalent of four normal wine bottles (3 L).
  • A rehoboam holds the equivalent of six normal wine bottles (4.5 L).
  • A methuselah holds the equivalent of eight normal wine bottles (6 L).
  • A salmanazar holds the equivalent of twelve normal wine bottles (9 L).
  • A balthazar holds the equivalent of sixteen normal wine bottles (12 L).
  • A nebuchadnezzar holds the equivalent of twenty normal wine bottles (15 L).
  • A melchior holds the equivalent of twenty-four normal wine bottles (18 L)

If anyone would like to send me a melchior of champagne for my birthday next year, that would be cool.