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Snow’s all but gone – leaving this yucky muck on the sidewalks of NY.

How about those Chinese figure skating pairs? One pair, the bronze winners of 2002, earning a bronze again in 2006 – but a well-earned one, considering how Zhao had that horrible Achilles tendon injury and then his partner, Shen, had those slips in their programs during the Olympics 2006. The silver medalists – Zhang and Zhang (not related) – well, when the female Zhang had her fall, one wondered if they’d medal, but they had their courage and got out there. Quite something.

American skier Toby Dawson wins a bronze in moguls (the hilly ski course, with the acrobatic elements). Dawson is an Korean-American adoptee, who grew up in the ski country of Vail, Colorado. NBC has an interesting profile on him.

NY Times’ Lee Jenkins tells Dawson’s story poignantly (poignant: a classic Olympic style, no doubt):

Toby Dawson arrived in the United States with no name and no birthday.

He was adoptee K81-2879, found on the streets of Seoul, South Korea. Workers at the South Korean orphanage where he lived called him Kim Soo Chul. They listed his date of birth as Nov. 30, 1978, because it seemed like a reasonable guess.

On Wednesday night, adoptee K81-2879 became an Olympic medalist. When he won the bronze in the men’s moguls competition, his adoptive mother, Deborah Dawson, flashed back to the first time she saw him, on a spring day at a Denver airport 24 years ago.

“It felt,” she said, “a lot like it feels right now.” [….]

Dawson came to the United States when he was about 3 years old, adopted by a husband and wife who were ski instructors in Vail, Colo. One of the first toys Dawson received in the United States was a trampoline. As he jumped up and down in the backyard, Deborah Dawson watched from her kitchen window, recognizing his passion for physical activity and a determination to stay on his feet.

Sitting in the stands Wednesday in Sauze d’Oulx, Deborah Dawson wore a gold jacket and a cowbell around her neck. She saw her son choose a path down the mountain that no one else wanted. It was on the right side of the hill, covered with enough excess snow and pine needles to halt even the most accomplished skier.

“We tried to get him to move more to the right, but he stuck to his guns,” said Jeff Wintersteen, the United States coach. “Toby’s an individualist. He liked that line and he was going to go for it.”

The line was difficult. It was undesirable. It was filled with unnecessary obstacles.

For skier K81-2879, it was perfect.

The men’s figure skating — well, wasn’t that much of a surprise,was it? Plushenko, gold. After that, was the fight for the two other medals. Lambiel of Switzerland, silver. Canada’s Jeffrey Buttle – a chemical engineering student in U of Toronto – a bronze – lucky him (earning something, despite tripping on an attempted quad). US men? Evan Lysacek – coming back from the poor short program, but not winning the bronze with 4th place, so close! – and Matt Savoie – well, I liked his short program, so I think he came close, too. He ended at 7th. He’s an aspiring lawyer, about to go to Cornell Law. And, the US Champion, Johnny Weir – hmm. He was 5th place, with a pretty long program, but no quad. You need a quad, man! You don’t get a medal unless you try risks.

And the new point system for skating? I just don’t understand it, even when the pairs tried it out (and they were the ones who caused the old scoring system to be ditched) – but, I guess it’s a work in progress. Maybe it’ll make more sense to me once I see the ice dancers and the women skaters.
Well, I’m not behind on “Grey’s Anatomy” for once. Man, that part 2 of the Super Bowl episode was really something. Explosive (pun intended). Too bad for Bomb Squad Guy, played by Kyle Chandler. I thought he had a moment with Meredith Grey, who, in reality, is still stuck on Dr. McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey). And, really, Meredith needs a dynamic kind of guy, to offset what she went through with McDreamy. But, next week’s “Grey” will be interesting – Mark, the ex-best friend of Dr. McDreamy (sorry, Dr. Shepherd) and the guy who had an affair with Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd, Shepherd’s wife, will visit (for how long?) Seattle Grace Hospital – and, gee, sparks will fly, but whose sparks? (Meredith’s, or Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd’s?). Hmm…

Due to the Olympics, I’m behind on “House.” Will catch up some time this week.

Sometimes, I think my workplace is something out of ER. The interminal meetings were punctuated by: medical drama, a guy from Nepal gets asylum, job interviews, a (three time put-offed) yearbook picture, lost and found email, network outages, arguments with subordinates over email, and figuring out what’s for lunch. This was all true.

P and I had dinner at Bar Tabac on Smith Street, passing on Sur because it was completely empty, which we took to be a bad sign on Valentines. We had a little intermission at One Girl Cookies to make up for getting doused by a car speeding through slush.

It was kind of busy at Bar Tabac, but we were seated immediately without reservations. We ordered all of the specials, plus an onion soup for myself, and we were well satisfied. They had their live band playing several pieces, including “Blue Skies”. Absolutely wonderful!

Watched the tail-end of the Westminster Dog Show on USA network. Rufus is pretty darn cute!

A record-breaking thing in NYC: some more than 20 inches. 26.9 in Central Park. So is it a plain ol’ nor’easter, or a real blizzard? The National Weather Service can’t seem to figure that out yet. Quite something. The weatherforecasters are already saying we’ll be back to the 50’s by the end of the week. Got to be kidding me…

The Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics of Torino (or Turin), 2006 – quite something, I had to say. Lot of abstract stuff. I kept thinking, “Boy, am I glad I read the Divine Comedy, so I can read much more into the symbolism than I probably should.” The Italian poet, Dante, would have been so proud. And, really, I think it’s great that now, Turin will now be more than just the town known for the Shroud of Turin or for the Ferraris. (well, okay, so they just had to have a Ferrari in the Opening Ceremony).

Bob Costas was joined by Brian Williams and Mary Carillo (who joined the men later on). It felt weird, since one wondered where Katie Couric was (and wondering if those rumors in the newspapers were serious – was NBC really doing something to Katie Couric because CBS is interested in her?). Yahoo! posted this interesting analysis from AP, where AP writer David Bauder observes:

“The games begin at an interesting, some say dicey, time in our world,” NBC News anchor Brian Williams said at the ceremony’s outset.

Williams and Bob Costas were the network’s hosts for the ceremony and parade of nations. Katie Couric has helped handle those duties for the last few Olympics but, with her NBC contract nearing an end and CBS courting her, she was benched this time in favor of Williams.

Perhaps no entertainment event truly approaches an Olympics opening or closing ceremony for general loopiness, and this was no exception. There were girls raising flags mounted on the backpacks of men, an unfortunate fellow being forced to continually pound a fire-breathing platform with a mallet and those model cows being led around the ice.

Costas tried gamely, at first, to try to decipher it all: “The universal symbol of passion, the beating heart,” he said.

But eventually he seemed to simply give up and the narrators allowed long stretches of silence.

Well, that was rather notable – I kept thinking, “Gee, Brian, where are you?” when it felt like Bob and Mary were doing the talking. Kind of odd that. And, nice surprise as far as the torch bearer was concerned (I kept thinking, now where is that Alberto Tomba, and pleased that Italy had other Oympians to honor). Otherwise, beautiful ceremony (and that Pavarotti – you can’t keep a legend out, right?).
Michelle Kwan stepping out of the Torino Olympics. She will be honored for her achievements.

Plus, tonight, Part 2 of “Grey’s Anatomy” – the resolution to the cliffhanger episode of last week’s Super Bowl episode. Poor Meredith Grey. But, you figure she’ll be fine, since, her name is the title of the show.

Stay warm!

Saw the opening for the Olympics on the DVR. It’s so much more efficient playing it from the DVR – was able to watch the whole thing in 2 hours. Thumbs up for the acrobatics and synchronized dancing – the skier stunt was excellent. Thumbs down for the disco music when the athletes came in – surely they could have found some Euro Dance music. Torch run was excellent as well. The opera closing with Luciano Pavarotti singing “Nobody’s Sleeping” from Pucini’s Turandot was spectacular – it’s the one opera piece everyone must know.

Yeah, it’s Friday! I took the half day off to check out the Alumni Law School’s program on Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the subject of the new biography by Joan Biskupic. It felt like a nice sequel, so to speak, to the Justice Blackmun program, the subject of the Linda Greenhouse book – I mean, both Biskupic and Greenhouse were there! – so it was very, very cool. I so want to read both books. But, I’m not planning to get the books for awhile yet. (supposedly, to stay consistent with my whole idea of not buying too much stuff this 2006).

The passing of Franklin Cover, the actor best known for playing the character Tom Willis, the Jeffersons’ neighbor (whose tv marriage was one of those few bi-racial marriages celebrated on tv, I must say); Tom, George Jefferson’s foil/best friend/son’s father-in-law. A tv thing to note, I guess, but then again, I used to watch way much of the Jeffersons.
I watched Harrison Ford on Charlie Rose and Tavis Smiley last night. Interesting interviews – none of the annoying tabloidy feel, more like conversation. Ford’s really no spring chicken – he really looked his age and he seem very realistic, telling Charlie Rose that he’d like to do more character roles and being very gracious to Tavis Smiley, who was being such a fan (well, apparently, it was his first interview with Harrison Ford, so the enthusiasm was genuine). If Hollywood isn’t kind to aging women actors, it’s no less kind to aging male action heroes. I’d like to see Harrison Ford do more than the usual Indignant Man Forced By Circumstances To Be A Hero. I think he might have it to be a character actor, especially when it’s not that believeable for him to jump off cliffs like he used to do (an aging Indiana Jones? Doesn’t anyone realize that getting Sean Connery to play Prof. Jones, Indy’s dad, was a little odd, since he’s not that old enough to be Harrison Ford’s dad?). Good luck to Harrison Ford.

Ooh, the New Doctor Who is going to be on Sci-Fi channel (the 9th Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston). Funny thing is, the 1st season was already shown in Canada and Britain, and they’ve already gotten a 10th Doctor, played by David Tennant (who played a strange character in the latest Harry Potter movie). See, I’m not a Doctor fan at all (only saw the FOX movie with the 8th Doctor), but I like hearing about a sci-fi franchise that won’t die. (as opposed to the franchise to which I keep sticking by, somehow).

Will there be snow this weekend? I so want to go out tomorrow night to see the whole gang…

And, last but not least, time for the Olympics! My VCR will tape the end (?) of “Arrested Development.”

Check out this video about an American Airlines pilot’s 3 day tour of duty to Paris. You gain new respect for the folks flying the plane.

Played the Maitre ‘d role at an 575 person banquet yet again. Tips: 1. have someone else make sure everyone’s paid before they show up, and 2. deal with people’s issues before they get blasted at the open bar. The people arguing tied up everything, and I couldn’t spend any time with P. She got pissed off and went home. If I didn’t have a dozen volunteers to mind, I would have gotten blasted along with the rest of the people. I just had to be satisfied with drinking at home.

Man, this is a weird winter. 40’s/50’s this past weekend, and today, low 40’s,30’s and windchill in the teens or 20’s. It’s the wind, really.

And, in today’s news, Bill Nye the Science Guy Gets Hitched. Congratulations, Science Guy!

In Slate: the dangers of reading memoirs – is a disclaimer good enough? I recall reading Barack Obama’s memoir and saw the little disclaimer. Then, I thought, you know, I would hardly expect Obama, at the time a soon-to-be-elected politician, to be entirely honest. And, he’s a lawyer on top of that – as if he’d really name names of people who passed through what was likely a more ordinary life. If the point of his book is to express his views on race and politics in America, not to express his actual memories, then maybe a little embellishment or literary license is allowable.

And, then I think about Bob Kerrey’s memoir and how, when I read it, I felt there was some kind of holding back about what he did in Vietnam – whether due to his faulty memory or his (understandable) desire not to discuss because he was not ready (whether for personal or political reasons).

Memoirs are touchy things. I’m not sure who really reads them because they’re accurate, or because they’re about art (artifice?) reflecting on reality. Would you feel cheated if it turns out what you read didn’t really happen? Sure. But, why did you really read the book – because it’s “real’ or because of the way it’s written and what you felt in reading it?
Prof. Tim Wu explains in Slate why patent law seems to allow this nasty guy to go after the makers of Blackberry. I thought that this article was amusing and educational. Hey, who knew that patent law could be funny? (speaking as a non-patent law person – the one IP class I didn’t take in law school, primarily since I didn’t – still don’t – have the scientific technical background).

Tuesday night, the bunch of us went to Virgil’s BBQ after a City Bar event. Good eating. Cheesy mac and cheese – wow. Digestion’s still on-going. 😉