Excentric

I guess because I recently decided to straighten my teeth I have paid a lot of attention to the smiles of the olympic athletes. It's amazing how almost every athlete's teeth are perfectly aligned and pre-plowed snow white. Are they children of privilege or do they just have ortho-frenetic parents? Either way, I can't help but stare at their pearly smiles, even in defeat. And by defeat I don't mean being judged as a lesser athlete, but rather wiping out on the track with no other contestant within a skate, board or ski length in sight. It's beautiful that we all take a pause from our regular jabbing and sparring and shooting and bombing to watch our young athletes compete for a round piece of metal that they can hopefully cash in for endorcements for products most people could otherwise do without.
Speaking of products, my mentor and friend of yore used to ponder the concept of new and improved taste in pet food products. Who was volunteering to taste this stuff. And while Morrie is on mind, I am reminded of a call from Sedona's newest city manger who used to have copies of the Sedona Excentric mailed to him by our former police chief, Bob Irish. I told him that Irish, though quoted often, never really communicated his thoughts to the paper. Like about seventeen years back when we quoted the chief reporting a rampant increase in crime in Sedona, citing the example of a man stopping in the Basha's parking lot, leaving his driver's window down, exposing 2 season tickets to the Arizona Cardinals on the top of his dashboard. Upon returing to his vehicle, he noticed there were 4 tickets. We also advertised for free singing lessons, from Gregorian chant to Rap, taught in the privacy of your own shower. It makes perfect sense if you think about it. Everybody thinks they can be on American Idol based on their shower volcalizations and their ability to sing along with their car radio blasting at window glass rattling decibels.
Hey, President Obama met with the Dahli Lama, much to the chagrin of China's leaders. What do they fear? Could it be that a whole 10% of their population would convert from Taoism to Buddhism? Let's see, 10% of 1.3 billion is around 1.3 million  people. They lose that many people in bicycle accidents delivering Peking Duck and eggrolls annually. Personally, I prefer the eggdrop soup and Cashew Chicken. My wife makes me add tofu. Maybe it's the weight of the tofu throwing off the cyclists. There is an art to leaning to keep your balance when toting tofu laden carry out.
While repairing some damages to my home caused by the December 8 winter-soon storm, I have had the privilege of working with some terrific people, like the guys from Behmers Roofing, John Di Battista and his crew of C J and Sam, and Gus the drywall guy. Local guys who care about the quality of their work at an affordable rate to working Joes.
Well I'm wondering how snowboarding became an Olympic sport, but my age is probably interfering with the processing. Jumping and spinning from a youngster looks like fun, but hardly seem worthy of being deemed an olympian. Perhaps it's not that much different than tossing a long spear or hurling a ball on a chain or bowling a granite stone down an alley with broom handlers chasing  it for top position.
We'll see what tomorrow brings. Gotta like that Ono kid, Shani Davis and the team of Mancuso and Vonn.
Meanwhile Taliban leaders are being captured, Haiti is reeling under new storms, Iran is ready to be a free nation and Europe is ready to bail out Greece. Things are good, much better than they could be and we are all sitting one the edge of a tiny planet, forced to hold each other's hold to keep one other from falling off.
What a great world!
That's all for now . . .