Category: Uncategorized

wayne osmond, olympic update, lobsterfest, rocky anderson

I now know Wayne Osmond‘s home phone number. You don’t. Take that, readers.
Sorry for the lack of Olympic excitement here the last few days. I’ve abandoned all hope of getting ahead a day and thus having some time off, so I’m just plugging along, filing every day and trying to get out at a reasonable hour. Last night was my first success: I was out of here by 8 p.m., a new land-speed record for me. But rather than go get drunk on 3.2 beer, I headed to a bookstore so I can read up on Mormon history. I’m a wild man. Also finally got to go to Apollo Burger, which was achieving legendary status among my colleagues. I’m not as sold: I had their namesake burger, which is a patty with pastrami on it. ‘Twas merely okay.
Had an interview today with Rocky Anderson, SLC’s mayor and a liberal Democrat stranded in a sea of conservative Republicans. I asked him what would happen if he ever ran statewide: “I’d lose overwhelmingly.” At least the man is self-aware.
Canadian readers, watch this space tomorrow. Something special for you.
Overheard media center discussion:
Editor: Is “lovefest” one word or two? Or hyphenated?
Reporter: Well, LobsterFest at Red Lobster is one word, so I think we should use that as our guide.

pin trading story

Today’s story: Pin trading reaches fever pitch. I’d promised myself I wouldn’t stoop to writing another damned story about damned Olympic pins, but I couldn’t help it. I think it turned out okay, although the desk did cut out my favorite line in the whole piece: “She’s been trading pins since the Los Angeles Games in 1984, which she considers the fever’s ‘absolute peak’ — kind of like 1873 was a bad year for typhoid.”

olympics, day nine

Day Nine: Started the day out with photographer Chris at Bonneville Elementary School here in SLC, for the schools story linked below. Six Chinese figure skaters were there for an assembly. Chatted a bit with Zhao Hongbo, one of the bronze-medalist pair that finished behind everyone’s favorite Canadians. He’s clearly the guy in charge of the team: I tried asking questions of the other folks, but no matter who I asked, he’d do the answering.
Stayed much longer at Bonneville than I’d wanted, thanks to a hard-of-hearing cab dispatcher who sent our cab to Bountiful Elementary in Bountiful, Utah, half an hour and four towns away. Finally got back downtown in time to see the pairs gold medal press conference. Spent the day writing my schools story and doing more Mormon history research, including reading a really interesting master’s thesis on the hitherto unknown connections between Sam Houston and Joseph Smith.
Here at Media HQ, there are a bunch of volunteer massage therapists available to give free massages to us hunched-over journalist types. They also are available for the athletes, but it’s kind of silly — they’re available to us from noon to 10 p.m., but to the athletes from only 1 to 9 p.m. I know we writers are working hard, but I somehow suspect that jocks need massages more than we do. Anyway, after feeling a little bit guilty about the whole thing for the last week, I broke down and got a massage. Mmmmmmm. I could feel the evil spirits leaving my body. Closed the evening at the Denny’s near the hotel with Juliet, getting the standard awful service. It was the only place still open when we were done working, alas; the Apollo Burger, which has gotten good reviews from my colleagues and has a great name to boot, shut at 10.
Since I have to finish this Tuesday page 1 story today, there’ll be no story by me in tomorrow’s paper, which is an awful strange feeling. Not a bad feeling, mind you — just strange. But eagle-eyed readers will find a short biography of yours truly in the sports section, on page 2, I think. Please do not be alarmed by the photo, which should be burned in all its forms, digital or meatspace.