Weekender

Olympic Notes - Part One

O.K., I just have to point this out. The olympic torch in the olympic stadium looks like a perfectly rolled doobie. When the guy lit it up, I could hear giggles from 'round the globe, and after the fireworks left a haze of smoke in the stadium, well, I could imagine the bloodshot eyes of thousands of stoners, weeping tears of hilarity at the largest joint ever rolled. The Greeks are either blind or incredibly mellow.

If God Exists, He Has a Wicked Sense of Humor

Militant Buddhists? Are you f*****g kidding me? That's better than Pro-Lifers murdering doctors. Drive-by meditations, anti-tank prayer beads, surface to air chakras...these cats aren't playing around.

Olympic Notes - Part Two

Worst Misuse of Slang by a Professional Broadcaster: Bob Costas, who was doing his usual, capable, if somewhat monotous, spiel during the opening ceremonies at the Olympics, explained that Jaques Rogges made his speech in several different languages to "make sure props were paid" to all the different nations in the stadium.

For those of you scratching your heads, wondering, "What props? Were they doing an impromptu rendition of Hamlet?" let me explain. "Props" are slang for respect, recognition. Props are the shorter version of "Propers" which is in turn the the shorter version of "Proper Respect." What this says about my generation's attention span, I don't know. Probably something mono-syllabic and difficult to decipher.

It is, paradoxically enough, both the evolution and devolution of the language. Which view you take, is I suppose, a matter of perspective.