In Praise Of Team Spicoli

I have a new favorite Olympian, and he is the guy who, when asked yesterday how it feels to be a member of the U.S. snowboarding team, responded with the following bit of bongwater poetry:

"Try to imagine Pegasus mating with a unicorn and the creature that they birth. I somehow tame it and ride it into the sky in the clouds and sunshine and rainbows. That's what it feels like."

Graham Watanabe, everyone. What he means, I think, is that it feels like doing whippits. And the Olympics haven't even started.

The best argument for the winter games over the summer edition is that these Olympics are well-stocked with young men and women like Graham Watanabe who have evidently spent a lot of time staring at lava lamps. ( Altius, indeed.) It's as if we took all our Spicolis, threw them into skates and ski boots, and bundled them off in the direction of NBC's cameras. Go look at Watanabe's web site. His entire bio is written in a typeface not often seen outside of ren fairs and Megadeth albums. I like this guy. You can have Lindsey Vonn, who more and more is looking like a distaff Bode Miller, and you can have Bode Miller, too, for that matter. The fellow I want representing my country is the blissed-out dude on a winged unicorn. USA! USA!

Pegasus rising: snowboarder Watanabe a star wordsmith [Chicago Tribune]