The Connections: Post-Olympics Edition

Pakistan's only woman in the Olympics said Sunday that she was hurt by what she called negative feelings about Islam at the Athens Games, where she said she was criticized for running in clothes that covered much of her body. —Agence France-Presse

Toward the end of the season, Cleo and her teammates learn that the Rangers have a new owner and general manager, Ahmed ben Farouky, a Saudi petrodollar tycoon. Shortly thereafter, bed checks by men with Arab headdresses are initiated at home and on the road. Married players find their houses broken into and their wives’s cosmetics, bikini panties, and birth control missing (along with their liquor). (Meade cravenly explains, “They’re pretty ethnic people.”) Finally, Cleo is informed by the Saudi manager that “the men in the Gulf” have reached a compromise: “You must wear a veil when you play.” A full-length veil, which, as Cleo sarcastically observes, will be a distinct handicap on the breakaway. —Gerald Howard on Cleo Birdwell's Amazons (from Bookforum)

The Connections: Separated at....Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! (Olympics Edition)

From Dzyd Sarah's comment on an earlier post: "Need I point out once more M[ichael] P[helps]'s startling resemblance to a certain Howard Phillips Lovecraft??"

Not sure that I totally see it, but...sort of? (And "Phelps"/"Phillips"—that's close enough, right?)
































Guy Trebay's recent NYT piece hilariously referred to Phelps as the "Baltimore merman," which jogged something in the EP thought-box..........




"They were very fond of the water, and swam a great deal in both river and harbour. Swimming races out to Devil Reef were very common, and everyone in sight seemed well able to share in this arduous sport...." —H.P. Lovecraft, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth"

M.P. Phone Home

From today's AP wire story on Michael Phelps (via Dzyd Sarah):

"He is just a normal person, but maybe from a different planet," said Russia's Alexander Sukhorukov, fresh off a thrashing by the Phelps-led Americans in the 800 free relay Wednesday but still wearing a silver medal around his neck.

Cornel Marculescu, who runs the sport's governing body, concurred with the intergalactic theory.

"The problem is, we have an extraterrestrial," Marculescu said. "No one else can win."

British swimmer Simon Burnett has a different take, which he shared with American men's coach Eddie Reese when they ran into each other in the cafeteria.

"He was saying to me, 'I think I've figured out Michael Phelps,'" Reese said. "'He is not from another planet; he is from the future. His father made him and made a time machine. Sixty years from now he is an average swimmer, but he has come back here to mop up.'"

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Check out these false Olympics pictograms at Crude Futures.

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How popular is your name? (There are 12 people in the U.S. named Ed Park??? Fewer than I thought!)(Hmm, but there are 298 Edward Parks...)

(Via MUG)