Does it get any more Canadian than this? We go to bed on a wave of Gold medal fervour and wake up to Roll Up the Rim to Win. It’s Canada’s Best! Day! Ever!
If you watched even a bit of the Olympic coverage (Go Canada GO!) this year, if you felt that nascent tug of patriotism deep in your heart, if you stood as I did with tears running down your cheeks as your kids bellowed the national anthem at each gold medal victory, then you’ll enjoy this: Stephen Brunt’s touching essay about the Canadian Olympic experience, from its rough start to its glorious gold medal finish. (You might be asked to download a program called “Silverlight” which is Microsoft’s version of Flash. Annoying, but worth it!) If you can’t get the video to work, you can read a text version of what seems to be an early draft on Brunt’s Olympic blog.
And if you’re feeling a little snarkier, you might enjoy this essay courtesy of our Vancouver correspondent Fryman on how the “musical phenomenon known as “I Believe,” the official anthem of Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, may in fact provide the true legacy of the Games: another generation of Canadian kids who don’t know me from you, nor their “I” from a hole in their head.”
Cuz you simply can’t be Canadian if you can’t poke a little fun at yourself and your country, even after celebrating it all night long. Now where’s my coffee?
You don’t know how well it feels to be part of this country!
Thank you Canada for opening your doors and let us be part of this!
Roll up the rim: Olympics for the average Joe!
Thanks for the Fryman link. That refrain “I believe in the power of you and I,” drives me batty every time I hear it!
And hey, what a great start — my first cup was a free coffee. Yay!
(hahaha captcha = demonaic news! Someone get the holy water for my coffee?)
Oh, good. I’m not the only one who noticed the “you and I” error. It’s the rhyme. “Me” doesn’t rhyme with “fly,” and lord knows you can’t write an inspirational song about sports (or anything else) without the word fly.
The last part of that linked article is great — “We Are the World” makes the opposite mistake!
My daughter’s fourth grade teacher played them the video (which I admit makes me teary in that emotional-knee jerk way) and had them write a reflection about it. No discussion of the grammar though.
Ack! No! I can’t believe Roll up the Rim is starting just as I have embarked on a new caffeine-free challenge for the next month. *Sigh* I guess there’s always decaf.
RT @DaniGirl: Went to bed on a wave of gold medal glory and woke up to Roll Up the Rim to Win: Canada's Best! Day! Ever!! http://ow.ly/1cIJw
RT @DaniGirl: Went to bed on a wave of gold medal glory and woke up to Roll Up the Rim to Win: Canada's Best! Day! Ever!! http://tinyurl.com/y9hmhpz
Dani, I was catching up on yesterday’s tweets this morning and I LOVE your Star Wars tweet – when the U.S. tied the game, I presume? That was just brilliant.
🙂 Thanks Bea. It seemed perfect for the moment!
(For those of you who missed the flash of insight into my essentially geeky nature, in the moment after the USA scored that heart-stopping goal with 24 second left on the clock, I tweeted “… as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.”)
lol i keep hearing about that roll up the rim to win contest… makes me want to be there!!
Seriously. What a week. Rolled up the rim first thing yesterday morning. Won nothing, but was still basking in the glory of the hockey win and the Olympics so kept my composure. Now two days of gorgeous weather. I’m on some kind of weird natural high 🙂