Happy New Year!

I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year for 2006 from warm Tampa Bay, Florida!

Sportswoman of the Year

While Sports Illustrated has named New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady the Sportsman of the Year for 2005. But an honorable mention was given to a person who could probably have been named the Sportswoman of the Year: Danica Patrick.

Danica Patrick entered this year’s Indy 500 in the fourth position. With twenty-eight laps to go Danica held the lead. She ended up finishing the race in the same position she started in, fourth.

Patrick went on to have a busy rookie season, competing in seventeen different races.

She seems to have become the face of auto racing.

Congratulations to Danica Patrick for a great year in racing.

Honorable mentions go to the LPGA’s Annika Sorenstam and Paula Creamer, the WTA’s Lindsey Davenport, Justine Henin-Hardenne, Venus Williams, and Serena Williams, and the WNBA’s Sheryl Swoopes.

Simply Amazing

Yesterday I visited the most spectacular Christmas light display that I have ever seen.

While visiting my friend Sam Bradley and his family for Christmas they took me to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio to see their Wildlights display. The entire zoo was decorated with some of the most intricate light displays. It was amazing to see and something that I could not do justice to with my description.


The attached pictures, from the Zoo’s website, are just a small example of the lights. If you ever have a chance to visit this amazing display I highly recommend that you do so.

Possibly the Best Movie of 2005

This past Friday I took three hours and went to the movies. I saw an excellent movie that I would like to recommend to all: Steven Spielberg’s Munich.

I have a great interest in the Olympic Games. (Any regular reader here knows that.) Munich tells the story from the days after the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. Eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team were held hostage by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September. During a botched rescue attempt Black September killed all eleven hostages.

The movie follows Mossad agents assigned to track down and kill the eleven members of Black September responsible for the killing of the Olympic athletes.

This drama is so well acted and Spielberg does his best job that I have seen in many movies. Though I knew a bit of this story before going in, I was on the edge of my seat watching how these Mossad agents, supposedly with the endorsement of then Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, tracked down and dealt with the members of Black September.

It was, quite literally, the best movie that I have seen all year. I highly recommend anyone and everyone to go see it.

Happy Holidays!

I just wanted to take a moment to wish every a Happy Chanukkah and a Happy Kwanzaa.

Merry Christmas!

Hello all. Sorry for my recent inactivity on this space.

I just wanted to check in and wish everyone reading a Merry Christmas from rainy Columbus, OH!

Return to Greatness?

One of the greatest tennis players of the past ten years is planning a return to the sport.

After quitting in 2002 while facing numerous injuries, Martina Hingis became sorely missed in women’s tennis.

Hingis, who turned pro in her teens, is making a return at the age of 25. She is not close to being considered past her prime age for tennis. She is expected that, once she regains her competitive form, she will retake her place among the best female tennis players in the world.

She is making her return at the Mondial Australian Women’s Hardcourts tournament. She will begin her first tournament on January 1, a fitting start to a new year.

Here’s hoping that Hingis makes the world of women’s tennis even more exciting than it currently is.

With the probable return of Monica Seles in 2006 the Women's Tennis Association is on the brink of even greater success.

Odd World News

The city of Nova Iguacu in Brazil passed a law this week regulating the city's bathrooms. Business such as shopping malls, movie theaters, and restaurants are now required to have three bathrooms.

Yes, that's right. Three bathrooms. For those of you wondering why, one is for men, one is for women, and one is for transvestites.

After being told that this news story was on NPR, I decided to look it up online. I found a news story about it from the Chicago Sun-Times.

It seems that Nova Iguacu has a large population of transvestites, and both men and women were uncomfortable sharing public bathrooms with transvestites. The city council took action and passed a bill requiring three bathrooms in many locations. The mayor recently approved the measure.

Is such a law really necessary?

Men Vs. Women

Many individuals categorize sports as those that are appropriate activities for men, those that are appropriate for women, and those that both men and women could participate in. The ideals behind how these sports are categorized boil down to society’s ideas about what are appropriate behaviors and characteristics for men and women.

Masculine sports are the ones that typically are highly competitive, those that are aggressive, and require stamina and discipline. These are many of the same qualities that society ascribes to being necessary in order to be considered a man. Sports that qualify as masculine include wrestling, football, weightlifting, and rugby.

In contrast, sports that are considered feminine are those that embody the characteristics of what society believes are necessary to be a woman: beauty, grace, and poise. Figure skating, gymnastics, and synchronized swimming are sports typically considered to be feminine.

Then you have your gender neutral sports. These sports typically aren’t characterized in the same way as the feminine or the masculine sports. Gender neutral sports include golf, skiing, and bowling.

Recently I’ve recorded (or will be recording) sporting events that you would not normally see, those where men and women compete together. Last week I watched Ice Wars, a professional ice skating competition when male and female ice skaters competed against each other. Today and tomorrow is the Wendy’s Three Tour Challenge where three members of the PGA tour, the Senior PGA tour, and the LPGA tour compete against each other in a golf event.

I find it fascinating that men and women can occasionally compete against each other in a feminine sport (ice skating) and a gender neutral sport (golf) but it is highly unlikely that you will see men and women competing together in a masculine sport. We’ve finally moved to a time where men and women can compete against each other, but in only sports were society deems it gender appropriate for them.

I guess only time will tell if we will ever see men and women competing against each other in traditionally masculine sports.

More Lasts

Today marked the end of my fall semester here at Indiana University.

I just finished my last final exam and turned in my last homework assignment of the semester.

What I feel is worth noting is that it was my last final exam and my last homework assignment in a Telecommunications class, the department that I'm getting my Ph.D. in Mass
Communications from. Can it really be true that, even though I have one semester of courses left, I have learned everything that I need to know from my department?

It really is a strange feeling. I can't believe I'm done.

Now I just have two classes (one in Gender Studies, one in Library and Information Science) to complete and I will be completely done with my coursework.

Who Knew?

Who can’t forget the controversy leading up to the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway? The entire world knew the names Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding, and the crowbar incident that rocked the world of sports.

But did you know that they were not the only Americans that competed in women’s figure skating at that event? The U.S. is able to send three competitors for this competition, and do you know who the forgotten competitor was at that event?

It was current figure skating great Michelle Kwan.

I bring this up because Michelle Kwan is preparing to compete in 58 days at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. This would mark her fourth Olympic appearance, something that isn’t seen very often in the sport of figure skating.

Kwan has two previous medals at the Olympics, but none of them gold. In the waning years of her career, a gold medal would just be the icing on the cake. (Yes cake, even though she’ll win a doughnut.)

I’m sure that nearly every American that tunes in to the Winter Olympics this February will be pulling for Michelle Kwan. But will they remember that she is also a footnote to the Kerrigan-Harding saga?

Finals

This is finals week here at Indiana University. Most of the time I can't figure out if I'm coming or going. Between two assignments due this week, an exam on Friday, and a ton of grading for TWO different classes, I barely have time to breathe.

At least I know that by Friday evening I'll have the fall semester finished and I'll only have two more classes to take. EVER!

Winter Wonderland?

Yesterday marked our first significant snowfall of the season. It appears we received five to six inches of snow, making it the largest snowfall we've ever received this early in December.

My only question is why do people forget how to drive when it snows? In driving my less than two miles trek home yesterday I saw tons of people stuck in ditches and one car skid so that they were settled going away from the direction of traffic. It's like people see white stuff falling from the sky and then they panic and getting awfully stupid.

The First of My Lasts

I'm in my fourth year of graduate school here at Indiana University. I have one semester left of coursework, during which I'll be taking two classes. However, yesterday marked one of a series of "lasts" that I will be having over the next six months.

Yesterday was my last lecture ever in a Telecommunications class (which happens to be my home department).

I've spent the last seven years taking telecom classes; ever semester I had one without fail. Next spring my two classes are in the Department of Gender Studies and the School of Library and Information Sciences.

It is strange to think that my structured learning in my chosen field is complete. It sure is a strange feeling.

Big Rivalry Coming to the Winter Olympics

What has become a very friendly, yet highly contentious, rivalry will be coming to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.

And what is more interesting to note is that this rivalry is between two women’s teams.

Women’s ice hockey became a medal sport as of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. In 1998, the United States was the team to bring home the gold. Then at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City the Canadian women won gold.

Over the past eight years these two teams have met many times in international play, with each time winning nearly an equal number of times.

This rivalry could come to a head in Turin, where it is expected that one of these teams will win gold while the other will win silver.

But what will result from this competition is an even higher profile for women’s ice hockey. Since the inclusion of the sport in 1998, the number of colleges with women’s ice hockey teams has increased from nine schools to more than thirty. Also, there are now two semi-pro women’s ice hockey leagues.

I know that I’ll be watching for this match during the upcoming Olympics, but the ramifications of such a high profile game will extend much farther than many of the viewers will realize.

No More Class Before Dawn

Today marked the last time that I will have to attend my 8am class. Not only that, but my 9:30am class is also cancelled for Wednesday.

Wow. Now maybe I'll be able to sleep on a Wednesday past the time the sun comes up.

Congratulations, Here's Your Gold Doughnut

The organizers of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy revealed their design for the medals that winning athletes will receive.

In a unique move the centers of the medals are missing, making them look like metallic doughnuts.

The organizers and designers have stated that the design is intended to represent an Italian piazza. In order to represent the open spaces of an Italian town square an Olympic medal now has a gaping hole in the middle?

Seems like an odd (and frankly ugly) design to me.