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five-ring circus: Scenes from the Olympics.

How To Watch the Winter Olympics

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from: Troy Patterson
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Enter the Wu Tang

Posted Thursday, Feb. 16, 2006, at 5:03 PM ET

Seth—

This confession of your obsessive viewing of wipeout footage is inspiring another film pitch, something a bit more indie, a kind of Cronenberg-does-Cool Runnings. I'll forward more notes on casting later, but I definitely think there's a place there for Jeremy Irons playing twin arthroscopic surgeons.

Carole Montillet-Carles. Click image to expand.

I should have thought to mention Carole Montillet-Carles this morning; unfortunately, this case of Olympics fever has inflamed my jingoism. The Frenchwoman took a Monday spill that was even worse than Kildow's, smashing her face to such a swollen pulp that, when she raced yesterday, it was necessary that she do so with her eyes taped open. This is at once extremely heroic and unfathomably demented. Either way, it is food for thought the next time you consider calling in sick.  

I checked out the District of Columbia Olympic Committee Web site. What is the significance of its being "sponsored" by Labatt Blue? That the DCOC isn't associating itself with a domestic beer suggests a perilous lack of political savvy. And also that these people are doing a shoddy job of attempting to dignify their drinking club. Does Washington's local press have any other angles on the games? Here in New York, we are meant to take a special interest in Strong Island's Emily Hughes, called up to figure skate after Michelle Kwan dropped out. Here's a ready-made narrative—out of her sister's shadow and into the spotlight, or some such chiaroscuro.

Our curlgirls will hit the ice any minute now, also facing off against the Swedes. The evening's highlight, however, is the Olympic debut of snowboard cross. I don't yet have a handle on what the sport really is, but I know that it features a type of jump called a Wu Tang, which is cool, and that Nate Holland, an American and a medal favorite, is on record promising lotsa crashes: "I can guarantee you will see some wreckage." Lucky you.

Yrs.,
Troy

five-ring circus
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from: Troy Patterson
to: Seth Stevenson

Enter the Wu Tang

Posted Thursday, Feb. 16, 2006, at 5:03 PM ET
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Troy Patterson is Slate's television critic. Dana Stevens is Slate's movie critic. Seth Stevenson is a frequent contributor to Slate. Julia Turner is Slate's deputy editor. You can e-mail her at .
Photograph of Shaun White John Macdougal/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images. Photograph of Apolo Anton Ohno by Goh Chai Hin/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images. Photograph of Michelle Kwan on Slate's Also in Slate by Timothy A. Clary/Agence France-Presse/ Getty Images. Photograph of Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao by Franck Fife/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images. Photograph of Joey Cheeks by Franck Fife/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images. Photograph of Japanese skater Daisuke Takahashi by Toru Yamanaka, Agence France-Presse. Photograph of Russia's Evgeni Plushenko by Franck Fife/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images. Photograph of Johnny Weir by Franck Fife/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images. Photograph of Lindsey C. Kildow by Donald Miralle/Getty Images. Photograph of Georg Hackl by Arne Dedert. Photograph of Lindsey C. Kildow (Thursday) by Thomas Coex/Getty Images. Photograph of Angela Ruggiero by Filippo Monteforte/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images. Photograph of Emily Hughes by Yuri Kadobnov/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images. Photograph of Carole Montillet-Carles by Jeff Haynes/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images. Photograph of Seth Wescott by Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images.
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