Apolo Ohno to sell t-shirts in Sochi?

When Bob Costas interviewed Apolo Anton Ohno before the Closing Ceremony, it seemed to me that Ohno hinted that he may become an Olympic announcer at the next Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Based on his reaction, Costas didn't seem all that interested to clarify.

Costas: Is Sochi a possibility in 2014?
Ohno: Socci is definitely in my mind. Whether I have my skates with me or not, that’s going to be the question.
Costas: This is a semi-retirement speech.
Ohno: There’s going to be no speeches like that. For me, I’ll make the decision when the time is right. But for now, there’s many many other things that I want to pursue. You’ll definitely see me in Sochi, it’s just whether I have my ice blades with me or not.
Costas: We’ll let you be coy about it.

What would Ohno be doing at the Sochi Olympics if he's not skating? Coaching or announcing, right? What else is there?

Hey hoser! Thanks to you, we're getting hosed

Growing up in Wisconsin, I frequently heard (and used) the words "hoser" and "hosehead" as put-downs. And to "get hosed" meant to have something bad happen.

Then I went a decade or so without thinking much about those words until the Vancouver Olympics, when it confused me to hear Americans use them to mock Canadians. Evidently, Americans outside of Wisconsin see theme as exclusively Canadian terms. Huh.

Media control

Tiger Woods set the ground rules for his speech today in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., including how many video cameras would be allowed in the room (two), how many questions from reporters would follow his prepared statement (none) and how many somber white people in blazers would be in attendance (many).¹

Allowing questions from journalists may not have resulted in any new information, but that's hardly the point. Being accountable means fielding a question or two, even if they are the types of pointless queries sports journalists typically pose.

Of course, the networks like to control information too. For instance, NBC embargoes live coverage of exciting daytime Olympic events such as Lindsey Vonn or Apolo Anton Ohno going for gold medals. Even as NBC airs the big events in prime time, why can't it also broadcast them live? After all, the network is already expecting its prime time audience to have avoided TV and the Internet all day and then show up at 8 p.m. and let Bob Costas² take them for a ride.

This isn't a terribly important issue, of course. It's not like the Iranian government banning reporters from transmitting video feeds and shutting down Internet access to silence critics.³

But the days of standing by while a news and entertainment network controls when we learn about information that's already taken place are becoming outdated.

Morning newspapers and the evening network newscasts would love it if people avoided the news all day and didn't use their phones or laptops to access news articles.

Unfortunately for them, media consumers have come to expect access to all information. Right now. For free. For better or worse, that's where we are.

As for questions for Tiger Woods to answer, I'd love to know who he thinks is blaming Elin for his transgressions.


¹Bill Simmons, a white man in possession of a blazer, is angry he didn't get an invite.
²And his giant microphone.
³An attempt that didn't really work, due to an explosion of new media sites operating outside the government firewall.

Hollaback Girl

NEW YORK — This breakfast cart at 52nd St. and 6th Ave. serves hot oatmeal with raisins and "banana of the day." How many kinds of bananas are there? And which of them was served as the banana of the day? (I regret that I didn't stick around to find out.)

Take the high road

NEW YORK — Until the 1930s, freight trains heading to Manhattan's Bell Laboratories Building and the Nabisco Plant operated on street-level tracks. Unfortunately, they caused so many accidents that 10th Aveue had been known as "Death Avenue."

In the 1930s, New York Central Railroad opened the elevated High Line for freight traffic to cut through the center of blocks and connect directly to factories and warehouses. The railroads abandoned the tracks in 1980, but the city has reopened a portion as an elevated park running through the Meatpacking District, West Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen.

Is this the nation's only park that prohibits jogging, biking and pets?