Saw my first ever hockey game last night, the gold medal games: US vs. Canada. Needless to say, the place was packed. In the riotous moments just before the game began, with Axl Rose tearing into 'Welcome to the Jungle', the whole arena vibrating with anticipation, it occurred to me that VANOC had done a really smart thing: instead of opting for the obvious choice of dressing their volunteers in red jackets, they dressed the volunteers in nice blue jackets. So the volunteers didn't blend into the red-on-red-on-red crowd.
Last night's game had one of the most one-sided crowd in the history of the Games. Whenever a Canadian player got within 13 feet of the puck, the crowd cheered. And should an American player made a good play, a few brave American fans would lift their heads and cheer, then promptly dive back into their fox holes.
A few star sightings at the game: Marney McBean, Anita Defranz (who gave the medal to the American team), Janet Gretzky (and her husband, who I'm starting to think might be stalking me - we seem to run into each other a little more than you could attribute to coincidence. Why are stalkers always so deranged looking? Is there some law against a stalker having a semi-normal appearance? The best sort of stalker would be like Sandra Bernhart in King of Comedy: rich. But they're never rich and they always look as though they just took early leave from a mental institution. No wonder Richard Branson has his own island.)
Afterwards, walking through downtown Vancouver, you get a sense that every male between 16 and 25 who lives within 400 miles of here has shown up, facepaint on, getting their drink on, having the absolute time of their lives. In 50 years, they'll still be talking about it the way my dad still talks about serving on the USS Fanshaw Bay (CVE-70) during WWII, or more specifically, the night one of the pilots made a slight miscalculation and overshot his landing, falling off the front of the flight deck and into the warm Pacific, never to be seen again.
I watched the women's figure skating finals while standing in this crowd of thousands, the TV image being projected onto the side of the Sears department store. We all cheered the success of the Canadian skater - her strength and determination was nothing less than remarkable.
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