With the Olympics about a quarter done, let’s run through the comments to see if there is anything amiss.  And, sad to report, there is.  One of us came with: “curling would be more fun to watch if the competitors carried rifles.”  This instigated a right-hand-menu poll, in which the question was asked: “what would get you to watch curling?”  BC Bud is leading “weapons-grade Roombas” at the moment.

Hold.  Up.  You’re in my house now, as — yes — a former curler. 

Took up the sport while in Madison.  Would curl now, if the rinks weren’t all the way up in North Bumblefuck — a lovely little town which would be an hour and a half away from downtown at rush hour, thus making me late for the start.

Why do I dig curling?  It’s Rule No. 1, entitled “The Spirit of Curling.”  Follow me post-jump, please.

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Well, everybody can shut up now about Canada City putting up an oh-fer in Montreal and Calgary.  Thank God.  Also.  Full fawning is in effect over at CTV-ville, here.

Meanwhile — USA Wimmin 12:1 Chinese Wimmin in hockey.  The PRC is just going to have to console themselves by buying another $2tn in T-Bills.  (And that wasn’t even the worst outcome.  Canada City 18:0 Slovakia.  That’s a goal just about every two minutes.  Pete Carroll should look at that and sob.) 

A helpful viewing tip: Olympic coverage is much more bearable when you can fast forward through figure skating prelims.  If I’m going to sit through athletes crying through their makeup, it had better be for a medal.  (DVR is also quite useful for fast-forwarding through the B.C. Tourism spots, from which I am now officially sick.)

The menu: ice pairs will wrap tonight.  We might have men’s downhill — including everybody’s favorite flinty guy from New Hampshaah, Bode Miller.  And snowboard-cross; whoever can avoid getting tackled halfway down the hill takes the hardware.

The early leader for “Storyline Bob Costas Is Beating To Death” is the whole “no golds for Canada in Olympics held on home soil” deal.  Apart from the fact that home soil is not normally touched in the Winter Olympics unless the snow melts (that’s in the mail for sure, on recent evidence), Canada’s done just fine.  At Torino, they nabbed 7 golds, and 24 overall — good for fifth.

One of those went to Jennifer Heil in moguls.  Ah, but looky here! Hannah Kearney (right) of Norwich, Vt. — Vermont, bitches! — beat out Heil to take U.S. America’s first super-duper shiny object.  Two things about the moguls — (1) my knees hurt just watching that, and (2) you can’t tell the difference between one run and another.  In that regard, it’s like figure skating without spandex, and with more stoners.

Anyway: Canada’s not starving for gold.  Tone it down, Bob.  (And that’s a general instruction, Bob, applicable to all things.)

Briefly: USA hockey (wimmin) draw China to open their run this afternoon (basic cable).  Mothership has more luge (safer than advertised, thank God).  Also: nordic combined has, in a shock, a dark horse American in the mix, and the fellas take to the bumps.  And ice pairs, for those into spandex.

Word is that — yes — the luge competition will go on.  Tonight.  In prime-time.  Notwithstanding the fact that a guy died on the track yesterday.  AP / NBC confirms it:

Fast and frightening, yes. Responsible for the death of a luger, no. 

Olympic officials decided late Friday night against any major changes in the track or any delays in competition and even doubled up on the schedule in the wake of the horrifying accident that claimed the life of a 21-year-old luger from the republic of Georgia.

They said they would raise the wall where the slider flew off the track and make an unspecified “change in the ice profile” – but only as a preventative measure “to avoid that such an extremely exceptional accident could occur again.” …

The International Luge Federation and Vancouver Olympic officials said their investigation showed that the crash was the result of human error and that “there was no indication that the accident was caused by deficiencies in the track.”

Last night, the local NBC affiliate in Chicago (who sent a reporter to Vancouver for some unknown reason) said that the B.C. coroner’s office and the RCMP were conducting an investigation and would not release the track to training, much less competition, until the investigation was complete.  The investigation, it seems, took no longer than an investigation on the Dan Ryan at rush-hour.  Positively criminal.

Remainder of the docket, and other thoughts, post-jump.

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It’s violence, committee meetings, commercialism, and a pure hatred of all things Tim Tebow.  America, eat your heart out.  Literally.

It’s your Second Annual Stinque Super Bowl Liveblog everyone!  More commentary and hijinks post-jump.

1806 (ET) — Well, just got back on a drive from Saint Louis, for a Blackhawks road game.  Hawks fans arrived in droves all day yesterday.  It was a cool vibe, as you might suspect.  Something about Sport binds certain folks together.  It’s hard to describe, really.  Saints’ fans have the same mentality, as you know.

1817 — WARNING: the Internets are clogging up something fierce at the moment.  Technical difficulties are not limited to the refs’ field mikes.  Bear with us.  (ADD: Maybe it was just my computer getting balky for no good reason, momentarily.  All is well.)

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On Tuesday, he was a pawnbroker.  On Wednesday, he was the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Illinois.  On Thursday, he’s dead meat.

Ladies and gentlemen: Scott Lee Cohen!

The newly minted Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor said Wednesday that he doesn’t think a 2005 domestic battery arrest should hurt the party’s chances in the fall general election, although records in the case raise questions about his version of events.

Scott Lee Cohen, a pawnbroker who poured millions of dollars into his surprise victory in the little-publicized contest among half a dozen candidates, had previously disclosed the arrest. He described it Wednesday as an argument with his drunken girlfriend and said he didn’t lay a hand on her, though she called the police and had him taken into custody.

But the official police and court records on the October 2005 incident show the woman alleged Cohen put a knife to her throat and pushed her head against the wall. Public records show that the woman, his 24-year-old girlfriend at the time, pleaded guilty to prostitution that same month.

The misdemeanor charges against Cohen were later dropped when the woman did not show up in court. Through a spokesman, Cohen on Wednesday denied the woman’s allegations that he physically assaulted her and used a knife.

Proving, once again, that Illinois voters know how to pick winners.

Oh, and he’s not dropping out.  Joy.

Hey kids!  Illinois voted today!  And guess who has two thumbs and lives in Illinois?  This guy!

Sparse running commentary / Open Thread lies beneath.

1912 (Chicago War Time) — So this morning I voted.  And then I rode my bike (8.5 miles) to work.  Last second thing at said workplace had me there until 1810.  As every Chicagoan knows: dry cleaners close at 7:00 p.m.  Not 7:01 or 7:02, but 7:00 p.m.  Bust my ass to get home, pick up dry cleaning, and write this here post.

I say this for two reasons.  One: I now get to tell my grandkids, “in my day, I biked 8.5 miles to work in the snow.  Both ways.”  Two: the rage inside me when I heard when turnout was “extremely low” in Chicago due to — excuse me — a quarter-inch of SNOW??  Christ, the rage was massive.  We have 275 snowfighting trucks and CONTINUING TEAM COVERAGE, and nobody can roll out of bed and vote?  After Blago?  After Stroger?  Bad day to flake out, people.

Downstate turnout, however, was steady.  This could end really badly. 
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