olympic hockey win

First of all, happy birthday to my niece Annie, who turns five today! Jeff and I are going to my sister's tonight for the party. We bought her a Chrissy bath set and play set.

If you watched any Olympics coverage last night, you probably know that Canada won the gold medal in the men's hockey game late yesterday afternoon.

Jeff watched the last half hour of the game. I confess I only watched the last five minutes or so, when Jeff called me into the living room. As soon as it was clear that the Canadians had won, we heard the celebration start outside our window...there are several sports bars in our area, including the Wayne Gretsky restaurant, Nicholas Nicholby's, and the Peel Pub. There were Canadian flags a-wavin' on the streets within a few seconds of the final score being announced.

Here's what the crowd looked like within a few minutes:





I wanted to get some Blatherpics (hey, it was all happening within view of our apartment window...how could I resist?), so went down to check things out. The noise was unbelievable...everyone screaming and laughing and hugging each other, waving Canadian flags, honking horns. Can't blame everyone for getting so excited, really; it's been 50 years since the Canadians have won the gold in men's hockey. So what if I only watched the last five minutes. I was happy, too. :-)

There was a fire engine in the middle of the street; the firemen inside were grinning and obviously honking the horn in celebration rather than frustration (unlike the cars lined up behind them), so I suspect they purposely drove along King Street to join, at least temporarily, in the festivities. Ecstatic fans had climbed up on top of the fire engine's roof and were waving flags around, dancing. I think the fireguys realized that things were getting out of hand, though, and sent someone up on the roof to get everyone off.

Undeterred, fans climbed on top of cars and a TTC streetcar (Toronto Transit) that was trapped in the crowd. There were sparks sizzling each time the wire from the streetcar hit the overhead wire as a few overly-happy fans jumped up and down on the roof of the vehicle. I'm amazed none of them electrocuted themselves before the police got them down.

According to news reports last night, most of the celebration took place at Yonge and Dundas (a few blocks from our place). We could hear the yelling and cars honking for hours after the game actually ended.

I watched the Olympics Closing Ceremonies last night. So what was with that weird Wayne Gretzky announcement with no appearance from The Great One himself? Also, am I the one who thought the Donny and Marie comedy dinosaurs were a stupid idea?





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Links/Updates:

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Blogging's on the rise...in a sagging dot-com world, will bloggers help redefine public perception of the Internet?

A futuristic shiny white pod called the ULTra (Urban Light Transport) is being tested as a potential "smart taxi". Bladerunner gets closer all the time...

Peter Jackson is promising fresh characters and plot twists for the second Lord of the Rings movie and says that the second instalment feels very different from the first. Interesting to see the competition heat up in speculation about which will dominate the Oscars, LOTR or A Beautiful Mind. Speaking of the Oscars, don't forget to place your Oscar votes in Blatherchat!

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Today's Blatherpics:

	Fans on a car on King Street, jubilant after the Team Canada Olympic win.
	View of the crowd from our apartment window.
	Fans celebrate on a fire engine. The firemen seemed pretty tolerant (they may even have purposely driven along King Street to help with the celebration).
	Eventually the firemen had to get the crowd off the vehicle, however. This shot was of a fireman having problems dissuading one particularly enthusiastic fan.