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Media watch
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Crossing the Street an Olympic Event"
By Guy Curtright
Forget the NBA's 24-second clock or college basketball's 35 seconds to shoot. In Salt Lake City, you have to try to cross the street as the final seconds of your life possibly tick off.
Walking around downtown is almost like an Olympic event. As the light is about to change at an intersection, the final moments of safety for those on foot is displayed second by second. This way you know exactly when to start running as your final 20 seconds click down. . . .
Las Vegas Sun
"Olympics expose our many biases"
By Dean Juipe
More than 11,500 runners strolled the torch through 46 states in the eight weeks since it was lit in Atlanta, yet it didn't pass through southern Nevada. Nobody seems to know exactly why, but the slight underscored the commonly held belief that we aren't apt to experience any residual benefits of having the Olympics so close, as well as the fact we're opposites; after all, you have to pay a membership fee and join a club to even get a drink in the state next door. . . .
Seattle Times
"Opening Ceremonies were at least dignified, if terribly dull"
By Peter Lewis
Where was the tribute to the bribe takers who brought the Games to Salt Lake City seven years ago? Where was the greeting from indicted former Salt Lake Olympic Committee member Tom Welch? Where was the parade of the children of the International Olympic Committee members who got scholarships to Utah universities in exchange for the right to stage this event?
And why was there no specially commissioned music paying tribute to the U.S. taxpayers who financed the highways leading to many of the venues and paid for the many of the vast improvements of the Snowbasin Ski Area?
The theme last night was "Light the Fire Within." A more appropriate theme might have been "Whatever It Takes." . . .
The Washington Post
"Salt Lake City, Capital of Nice"
By Hank Stuever
Salt Lake is where nice is being slathered on top of nice, and the result is the nicest ever. It's the omphalos of sweetness and lite. It's the happier version of Margaret Atwood's novel "The Handmaid's Tale" — a pleasantly theocratic and militarized life, with corporate and municipal logos watching over you. . . .
The Miami Herald
"Some fun things to know about Utah"
By Fred Tasker
Utahns — that's what they call themselves — are so relentlessly pleasant most refuse to swear. They let off steam with such euphemisms as "oh gash," "scrud," and "dang," and have even coined their own "f-words" including "flip," "funch" and "fetch." As in, "Oh, fetch!" . . .
The Miami Herald
"Secure in the knowledge that moguls are terror-proof"
By Dave Barry
There is no way a terrorist could ever make it past the fiendishly clever, multiple-level defenses that have been set up to prevent penetration of the moguls competition. The first line of defense is the Olympic transit system, which is a series of buses you must take to get anywhere, with each bus populated by friendly Utah residents, every one of whom asks you where you're from. This weeds out your dumber terrorists:
UTAH RESIDENT: So! Where are you from?
TERRORIST: Iraq. No! Wait! I mean Iowa! . . .
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February 11, 2002
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