Canada's Closing Ceremonies Flag Bearer

Christine Sinclair, Canadian women's soccer team captain
credit:Getty Images

The headlines are screaming at us from all corners of the internet. Well, all Canadian corners, that is. "Christine Sinclair for flag bearer," says coach John Herdman. "#SinclairForFlagBearer" is the hashtag of a Twitter campaign that has a lot of supporters. A lot of them. "Christine Sinclair selected as Sun Media's flag bearer," declares Québecor Média, who then pronounce the matter closed. Well, I guess that's settled it then, right? Who am I to argue with the Toronto Sun?

Except that hasn't settled it. Not by a long shot. Not for me and hopefully not for the people who are actually in charge of such decisions.

I am not saying that Christine Sinclair should not be part of the discussion. She was the leading scorer in a soccer tournament that resulted in Canada's first medal in a "traditional" team sport at the Summer Olympics since 1936. She was captain of our women's soccer team, an inspirational leader and a role model, especially now, for many little girls all over this country. But if she hadn't been a soccer player and had performed many of the same feats, would she be such an overwhelming choice for everyone? If Christine Sinclair had chosen to play, say, volleyball and been the leading point-getter on a bronze-medal winning team, would there be a similar Twitter campaign with so many followers? I sincerely doubt it. Many of you who know me are aware of my intense dislike of the sport of soccer and I will admit it may be colouring my judgment here; but then that is exactly what I am accusing it of doing to millions of Canadians who are so convinced that Sinclair should be the flag-bearer on Sunday night that they refuse to even discuss it. This is one of the reasons I really dislike soccer: its unfathomable hold on so many otherwise rational people the world over. But I don't wish this post to devolve into another of my rants about soccer; rather, I wish to discuss the many other excellent athletes who should be mentioned in equal measures as flag-bearer hopefuls.

Sarah's Vacation is Winding Down

We've been very busy while Sarah's been off work, at least by my own recent standards. Her vacation has been quite relaxing for her, but I am going to have to rest up once she returns to work next week. In the meantime, we spent a day just decompressing around the apartment today, which was fine because it was kind of miserable outside and really not worthy of getting out into the world.

The bronze-medal-winning women's soccer team
credit: Paul Hackett/Reuters

I watched quite a bit of the Olympics today for the first time in several days and it was at times quite invigorating but mostly...it was frustrating, mainly due to the erratic (to put it kindly) coverage of the CTV-headed consortium this year. I did manage to suck it up and watch the last half hour or so of the the bronze medal game in Women's Soccer, so I got to enjoy the amazing finish when Diana Matheson scored the match's only goal with a few seconds left in extra time. I also watched Tonya Verbeek come away with a silver in Freestyle Wrestling in the early afternoon; the odd thing about this is that the bronze medal, even though I really hate soccer, felt so much better than the silver because Canada had to win their last game to get the bronze whereas Verbeek had to lose in the finals to gain the silver. Sometimes sports can be extraordinarily cruel in this way.

Getting the Most out of Simcoe Day Weekend

I think this is a scene from Superman 2

Sorry for the "cone of silence" this weekend, but Sarah and I have been really busy...relaxing. We've been visiting or hanging out with a lot of different friends (and yet it still seems as if we missed seeing so many) and have hardly been home together since Friday night. In no way should you construe this as complaining; rather, I'm merely explaining my absence from this blog for a couple of days. On Saturday we went to a barbecue at the home of our friends James and Karen, with whom we have gone camping in July for several years in a row until the streak came to an end this summer. This was our opportunity to catch up with them because these chances do not come along every day in these busy summer months. James built a tree fort or tree house or clubhouse or some such thing (I'll get it wrong no matter what so let's just say it's one of those) and Susan and Jason decided to pay it a visit while James was grilling the meat. Then, if this picture is an accurate portrayal of events, apparently Jason became trapped in the glass of the fort, never to be heard from again. He looked for all the world like Han Solo frozen in carbonite, or perhaps more like General Zod, banished to the Phantom Zone in Superman 2. Or, um, perhaps something less geeky. Either way, here's Jason in the clubhouse. Or whatever it is. Time to move on....

It's Already August?

Addie enjoying some rare fresh air

Even though the heat of this summer has been nearly unbearable for me - and I spend so little of my day outside, but this computer room is crazy hot - it still seems incredible to me that it's going by so fast. It feels like the fireworks of Canada Day just happened! The truly odd thing is that, even though the air in Toronto has been stifling this summer, we've still managed to open the windows for Addie a couple of times each day, which is something we really didn't do last summer even though it was quite a bit cooler. Odder still, though, is the fact that Addie has recently shown signs of staying away from the open windows because it's too hot even for her. Tonight while I was out at a meeting, Sarah took Addie back out on the balcony to get some wind on her fur (Addie's, I mean) and let her walk around on the harness and leash for a while. We call this a "picnic" in homage to a wonderful Whiskas commercial of a year or so ago:

I love that it's a guy in that commercial with his cat; this is not a common theme for advertising and, as you can imagine, I can't get enough of this sort of thing.

Just an Unusual Day All Around

The one and only "G-Mac", owner of many cool lids

When I woke up this morning I was determined to dedicate my day to getting my website to the point where it could go "live" tonight, come hell or high water. The last I had heard, the Toronto Sun article about the Challenge Factory (with me in it) was supposed to come out tomorrow and there was still work to be done. By noon I realized that it was going to be very difficult indeed to complete my mission - and that was before I realized that Yahoo! mail was down. I mean, really down. Completely inaccessible for a very long time. It was pretty frustrating. At almost exactly that moment it also dawned on me that today was Tuesday (I was convinced it was Monday, for some reason which was likely to do with the kids being here yesterday) and that I was supposed to meet my friend Gavin for our semi-regular coffee "man-date". Since that wasn't until 2 p.m. I had about an hour before I had to start getting ready. So I decided to check my Gmail, an account that I usually reserve for more professional pursuits. The first email I read was from the Sun reporter letting me know that the article was postponed a week and will now appear in the August 8 edition. Hallelujah! But immediately after that moment of elation I noticed the next item down on the list: a reminder from Google Calendar of my "date" with Gavin....at 1 p.m.. Uh....how could that be? Surely I must have entered it into the calendar wrong? I mean, it was already 5 minutes to 1!

Olympics Time Again

I love the Olympics. Even after all of the tragedies, the cheating judges, the doping scandals, the ridiculous upheld or denied appeals, the politics, the billion-dollar losses by the host nations, even after all of that the Olympic Games still manage to enthrall me each and every time they are staged, winter or summer. My memories of past Olympic Games go back as far as Mexico City in 1968, although I really only saw the events that were staged on the two weekends that summer. Television coverage back then, as I recall, was pretty much restricted to prime time during the week and that was past the bedtime of my 7-year-old self. I don't recall a lot of what I watched that year, simply that I did watch some of the events and probably on American television for the most part. After the Olympics I began to watch ABC's Wide World of Sports every weekend, hoping to see some of the strange and new (to me) sports that had captivated me during the Games. Before Mexico City it is very likely that I had never seen gymnastics, diving, judo, fencing, or most track and field events; after that I was excited to try almost every new sport I saw that summer.