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.

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.

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.

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.

modern times

In case you've been living under a rock, Dylan's new album, Modern Times, came out yesterday. I love it and will have more to say about it in the future, but today I was pleasantly surprised to read that my current favorite track, "When the Deal Goes Down," is the first single. Today Sony launched a streamable video for the song on their website, starring Scarlett Johansson in a gorgeous clip shot on old film stock or with old-school lighting or something. (You film snobs out there can tell me what exactly they did to get this effect.) I would love it if there was a way to watch this on my roommate's 50" TV. Watch it here.

Update: Thanks to SJR, here's a link directly to the video file so you can download it and enjoy it in its full sun-washed glory.

interesting obit

Dartmouth College consistently produced the best American skiers (alpine and nordic) of the early twentieth century. Many of them served in World War II and went on to distinguished careers both in and outside of the skiing world. Only a few of those pioneers of American ski racing still survive; Aug. 18 marked the death of one of Dartmouth skiing's standouts, Warren Chivers. You can read his obituary from Ski Racing here.

skidictionary.com preview, part 2

The first entry I posted here from my forthcoming dictionary of ski racing terminology seemed to generate some buzz, so I might as well post another one today. (No citations for this one yet... if you come across one, please let me know.)

bib•bo informal
adverb
in sequential order according to bib number: After racer 15A, the race will be run bibbo.

adjective
arranged in bib order: a bibbo start order.

2006-07 schedule

We just found out our preliminary training and racing schedule for the upcoming ski season, and it looks something like this. Let me know if you want to come watch a race somewhere or visit me in Winter Park in between events.

• Sept. 8-12: U.S. Olympic Training Ctr., Colorado Springs, Colo.
  
• Oct. 16-30: Hintertux, Austria (team training camp)
  
• Dec. 2-6: U.S. Olympic Training Ctr., Colorado Springs, Colo.
  
• Dec. 7-13: Breckenridge, Colo. (Ski Spectacular, Nor-Am SL/GS, speed training)
  
• Jan. 2-8: Park City, Utah (Huntsman Cup, Nor-Am 2xGS/SL)
  
• Jan. 16-22: Aspen, Colo. (World Cup 2xSG/2xGS/2xSL)
  
• Jan. 25-29: Aspen, Colo. (Winter X Games XI monoskier-X, event date TBA)
  
• Feb. 1-6: Winter Park, Colo. (Meridian Cup, Nor-Am SL/2xSG)
  
• * Mar. 1-10: Abtenau, Austria (World Cup SL/2xGS/super combi/SG)
  
• * Mar. 10-15: Zoncolan, Italy (World Cup Finals SL/GS/SG)
  
• Mar. 19-25: Waterville Valley, N.H. (U.S. Disabled Alpine Championships DH/SG/GS/SL)
  
• Mar. 29-Apr. 1: Vail, Colo. (SkiTAM team fundraiser)

*selected team members only

Today I have been learning some interesting things about junk foods. For instance, I was fascinated to learn how Necco wafers are made and also which knock-off brands of Dr Pepper are best (and worst).

coming soon(ish)...

SkiDictionary.com!

As some of you may know, for the past six or eight months I've been working on a dictionary of ski racing terminology on historical principles — that is, following the lexicographical method (popularized by the OED) of including only words that have appeared in print and of including these print citations within each entry. (Yes, web pages count as print now, too.) So far I have a few hundred entries with preliminary definitions written for most of them, along with citations for many, drawn from such sources as Ski Racing, rec.skiing.alpine, Bode Miller's Bode: Go Fast, Be Good, Have Fun, and Hermann Maier's The Race of My Life. Next on my reading list are Mike Wilson's Right On the Edge of Crazy and Bill Johnson's Ski to Die.

Here is a little sneak preview of a sample entry for you NTAA readers:

ang•u•late
verb [ intrans. ]
bend sideways at the ankles, knees, or hips so as to tip the skis on edge : 1994 From what I remember, they recommended somewhere between 1-2.5 degrees of angulation, making you slightly knock-kneed. This allows you initiate a turn instantly without having to angulate to get your ski on edge first. I had a race instructor cant me for this, and it makes a phenomenal difference. (rec.skiing.alpine, “Boot cant,” 12/18/94) • 2002 “Gretchen [Bleiler] is one of the few women freestylers that angulates real well,” [Pete DelGuidice] says. (SR, 12/27/02)

[ trans. ] 1994 Top racers are stuffing amazingly thick shims under their bindings to elevate the boot and improve their ability to angulate the ski. (rec.skiing.alpine, “new Ski Manufacturer wants input!,” 10/24/94)

DERIVATIVES
ang•u•la•tion noun : 2003 [U.S. Ski Team coaches] also talk a lot about snow contact, pressure distribution and balance through angulation. (SR, 11/12/03)

Feedback welcomed in the comments section...

language wars

It seems that Iran has joined France as the latest country making a futile attempt to rid its language of so-called impurities. It would be nice if all the politicians trying to make English the "official" or "national" language would read that little AP story, make some offhanded comment about the futility of trying to prevent "pizza" from entering Farsi, and then have it pointed out by an impartial observer that they are trying to legislate something just as un-legislatable. (There, I just made up a word. Come and get me, language purists!)

laguardia

The name of this airport has always reminded me of the bacteria giardia. Assuming you find bacteria distateful, the comparison is apt. I sat on my plane from Portland for about 35 minutes before the people showed up with the ramp and aisle chair to get me off the damn thing. (Fortunately, I have lots of time to kill here before my flight to Denver.) They have the weirdest system of transferring between the different terminals here; you have to take a bus that's not wheelchair accessible, only comes every 15 minutes or so, and leaves not from the gate area but from baggage claim... wha??

After I get in to Denver, I have to pick up my monoski from Aspen Seating, go home to Boulder and pack, and then head back to the airport tomorrow to fly to Mt. Hood for a one-week training camp. I'm looking forward to it though.

i think i'm in love...

...with the inaugural U.S. women's ski jumping team, that is. Click for video: wmv mp4

SoPo

I've been home in Maine for the past 8 days or so. I figured I should mention that, although I don't have much to write right now. Been hanging out with Jared, Elise, and the fam... went to a couple Sea Dogs games; they're kicking ass right now. Heading back to Boulder on Friday.

tapioca time bomb

The following is a genuine news story from 1972:

CARDIFF, Wales, Sept. 14 (AP) — The biggest tapioca pudding in the world is cooking in the hold of a fire-swept Swiss freighter and threatening to split the vessel at its seams.

"It's like a huge tapioca time bomb," said an incredulous fire chief today as he watched the smoldering 12,165-ton Cassarate at the Cardiff docks.

Firemen earlier controlled the fire which started in timber stacked in the upper holds 25 days ago at sea. The crew kept the smoldering timber dampened until the ship docked here late [on September 12].

But the water from the Cardiff hoses seeped down to the lower holds where 1,500 tons of tapioca from Thailand were stored.

The water swelled the tapioca and the heat from the flames started to cook the sticky mess.

The swelling tapioca — enough to serve a million plates — could buckle the ship's steel plates, fire chiefs warned.

"It's got to burst somewhere," one said. "It will take dockers a couple of days to clear the smoldering lumber before we can reach the tapioca."

The plan is to load the gluey mess onto a fleet of trucks and dispose of it. One report said there was enough to fill 500 trucks.

But where do you dump 500 truckloads of tapioca pudding?

grass skiing

This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen in my life.

For a while now I've been vaguely aware that the Fédération Internationale de Ski governs "grass skiing" as an official discipline — in fact, on the FIS website you can view grass skiing race schedules, results, competitor biographies, and official rules (even though nary a mention is to be found there of disabled alpine or cross-country skiing, both of which are administered jointly by the FIS and the IPC and which have hundreds of competitors and THEIR OWN FREAKING WORLD CUP CIRCUITS). (Not that I'm bitter.)

Nevertheless, until today I had never really investigated this "sport" or fully grasped how truly asinine it is. If you want to learn more about grass skiing history or technique, the place to start seems to be this website, the online home of Grass-Ski France. (Why doesn't it surprise me to learn that the French are really into something this dumb?) From that site I learned that the only place to go grass skiing in the United States is apparently Bryce Resort in Virginia, where its introduction is the brainchild of one Horst Locher, a German-American who says of the "sport": "It's kind of my baby... I still dream that it will grow big."

Keep dreaming, Horst. Keep dreaming. I can think of no better way to bastardize my favorite sport than by removing the essential ingredient: snow. Why not try swimming without water or playing baseball without a ball? Those might be fun, too. I bet grass skiing involves way too much friction, a much greater potential for injury, and a lot of overheating due to wearing too much protective gear in the hot sun, with a dose of hay fever thrown in for good measure.

But OK, I can hear you critics out there already: "How can you knock it if you haven't tried it, Carl?" This may or may not be a valid point. So here's what I'm proposing: if anyone reading this can find me a place to stay within one hour of Bryce Resort and arrange with the mountain's management for visiting U.S. Disabled Ski Team dignitaries or potential disabled grass-skiing pioneers to receive grass-ski rentals and lift tickets free of charge, I will be on the next plane to Appalachia. Because to tell you the truth, I'm kind of curious.

joe buck

I'm a little confused... earlier today, I watched the 1969 movie Midnight Cowboy, starring Jon Voight as Joe Buck, a tall, blond, hickish male prostitute in New York who dresses like a cowboy. I liked it pretty well. But now I'm watching the MLB All-Star Game, and Fox has a tall, blond, annoying commentator named... yep, Joe Buck. Weird.

new toy

I decided to use some b-day cash to buy a new stereo for my car. I wanted several features that I didn't have in my factory-installed stereo:

1. a CD player that works
   
2. a way to hook my iPod directly into the stereo without needing a terrible-sounding cassette or FM adapter
   
3. satellite radio. I've been curious about it for a while, and after taking a few trips with Ralph in his Sirius-equipped Subaru, I can't deny how nice it is: 175 channels of commercial-free music, NPR, baseball games, stand-up comedy, and just about anything else worth listening to. (They even have a left-wing talk-radio channel!)

After mulling it over for a week or so, I bit the bullet today, bought this stereo and signed up for Sirius. At first the controls were really confusing, so I parked outside my house, turned off my engine and spent over an hour reading the manual (yes, I actually do that), figuring out the controls, and setting my pre-sets. Then, abruptly, it turned off. I had drained my battery and my car was dead... d'oh.

In other news, I'm going to a Rockies game tomorrow and hope it stops raining. What's up with this? It never rains in Colorado.

tour de france

I'm really getting into watching the Tour de France. When Lance was still racing, I never had OLN, so I couldn't watch their daily coverage — which, incidentally, is fantastic. Now I'm glued to the TV. Today's first full stage finished in an exciting sprint, with a Frenchman winning for the first time in 20 years and George Hincapie becoming just the fourth American ever to wear the maillot jaune. Yesterday's prologue winner, Norwegian Thor Hushovd, got a nasty gash on his arm after getting clipped by a spectator with a giant green foam hand during the final sprint.

(video highlights here)