from Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor

Brian Williams - the good looking one from NBC

Thank you, Canada:

For being such good hosts.

For your unfailing courtesy.

For your (mostly) beautiful weather.

For scheduling no more than 60 percent of your float plane departures at the exact moment when I was trying to say something on television.

For not seeming to mind the occasional (or constant) good-natured mimicry of your accents.

For your unique TV commercials — for companies like Tim Hortons — which made us laugh and cry.

For securing this massive event without choking security, and without publicly displaying a single automatic weapon.

For having the best garment design and logo-wear of the games — you’ve made wearing your name a cool thing to do.

For the sportsmanship we saw most of your athletes display.

For not honking your horns. I didn’t hear one car horn in 15 days — which also means none of my fellow New Yorkers rented cars while visiting.

For making us aware of how many of you have been watching NBC all these years.

For having the good taste to have an anchorman named Brian Williams on your CTV network, who turns out to be such a nice guy.

For the body scans at the airport which make pat-downs and cavity searches unnecessary.

For designing those really cool LED Olympic rings in the harbor, which turned to gold when your athletes won one.

For always saying nice things about the United States…when you know we’re listening.

For sharing Joannie Rochette with us.

For reminding some of us we used to be a more civil society.

Mostly, for welcoming the world with such ease and making lasting friends with all of us.

Thank YOU Brian Williams, for covering our Olympics with grace, humor and style. You rock!

A video essay byy Stephen Brunt of Globe and Mail… I’ve watched this 3 times and each time I do, I get a little tear in my eye.

and even prouder to live in Beautiful British Columbia…

My Vancouver 2010 volunteering duties are winding down and coming to an end, but everytime I see this commercial, I remember why I signed up to be a 2010 Olympic Games volunteer and why I am proud to be a Canadian. This commercial makes me emotional and is often accompanied by a little tear of pride and joy that I live in such an amazing place, filled with AMAZING people with huge capacity for good and profound moments of greatness. It’s been a honor being a part of this special special event, and even though I’m not an athlete [not even close] I truly feel like I’ve done my very best to enhance the experience of the Games for those attending events, performing and working at them. Who knows, I may even look into London 2012…

Here are some photos from the Slovakia vs. Norway game last night.

Click READ MORE for the jump to more images…

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been posting throughout the Games that we have had the wonderful opportunity to watch the best of the globe play hockey at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Both Men’s and Women’s hockey. It’s been great fun to watch, but I have a question, and if the universe is listening, can you please tell me why every game we’ve been to features the Slovakia Hockey Team?

It’s the most bizarre and funny thing ever… Each of the 4 games we’ve attended so far, and I mean EACH and EVERY game, has had the Slovakia Team as one of the opponents. Yup. All 4 of our games. They’ve included both men’s and women’s hockey, and have had Team Slovakia pitted against the Czech Republic, Russia [twice - both men's and women's teams], China yesterday and this evening… Yup, you guessed Slovakia vs. Latvia. So that’s 5 for 5 hockey tickets featuring the Slovakia Team, it’s just plain weird LOL!

Don’t get me wrong… I’m NOT complaining, especially since the hockey has been good. Competitive. Men’s hockey is almost always a tough fight, with each team battling for placement. Former and current NHLers [including Vancouver's Pavel Demitra, and top NHLers Marion Hossa, Marion Gaborik and stellar goaltender Jaroslav Halak] make up the Slovak team, so the quality of play has been excellent. The game vs. Russia was outstanding. We came for the Russian Ovie show, and ended up getting more than full value for the match-up with the game going to ’sudden victory’ overtime [love the positive spin on OT by the Olympics] and eventually decided in a 7th round shoot-out goal scored by Pavel Demitra. The Slovakia goaltender Halak make some ridiculous, stand-on-his-head saves in the net [that goalie is SICK in the best way!] and helped his team beat the ever persistent, ever skilled Russian team in a dramatic fashion.

Women’s hockey is usually a blow out [if the opposing team is pitted against Canada or the USA], but the two games we saw had the Slovakian team against Russia and China respectively. It made for competitive and fairly well-matched team play and meant that neither team were humiliated by a 18-0 score. We enjoyed both of them, and were fairly surprised at how well they played.

One thing I have to say is that the Slovak team fans are kinda rabid, loud and generally a lot of fun. It’s that kind of team spirit really makes the Olympic Hockey experience come alive. Cheering, chanting, costumes, team gear and national flags. That is the true testament to the Olympic spirit. Nationalism at it’s finest. After 4 games with the Slovakian team, now even we are chanting along with them: “Go Slovaks Go! Go! Go! Go! Go Slovaks Go!” LOL! I feel like we’re being assimilated into the Slovak culture ala the Borg Collective. ‘Resistance is futile!’

So universe, what are you trying to tell us? Somewhere in our bloodlines are there Slovakian genes floating? Are we lost members of a Slovakian hockey family? Or are you just telling us that we should be cheering for the underdog? Regardless of what you’re trying to say, we’ve enjoyed our Olympic Hockey experience, even if it has been just a touch one dimensional ;^)

Go Slovakia Go!