Up Vancouver Way

What, no flying acrobats or 2,010 Dancing Mounties in the opening ceremony of the Winter Games? Lilly said she was a little disappointed with Friday's ceremonies, compared with the big-do that Beijing put on. I pointed out that dictatorships are fond of mass spectacle. I'm not sure what she made of my geopolitical soapboxing, but she's young yet, and hasn't seen the likes of this or this.

I skipped most of the opening ceremonies myself, but did sit down with the rest of the family to watch the parade of nations, which always gives me a chance to field geographic questions from the girls. Every other answer to their questions this time around seemed to be, "It was a part of the former Soviet Union."

Lilly had heard about Jamaica being in the Winter Games, and we paid special attention as its team paraded by. No bobsledding this time around, it seems. But the island nation did send a fellow named Errol Kerr to do some freestyle skiing. I hope he does well. That might encourage more people (at least more Jamaicans) to name their baby boys "Errol."

I'm not planning to watch all that much of the Games this year, but I might take the time to learn the difference between luge and skeleton. It was hard to miss coverage of luge, considering what happened to Nodar Kumaritashvili. Skeleton gets less attention, but seems just as insanely dangerous.