Eric the Eel

Maybe it's just too easy to link a video in and call it a blog post, but...



Rumo(u)r has it I was named after the Olympian Eric Heiden. I can imagine my folks sitting around, Lorraine all preggers, brainstorming on names. They came up with Eric, flipped on the telly and saw Mr. Heiden with his 5 speedskating medals at the 1980 Winter Games in New York, and that was that. Apparently my sister also gave her $0.02 and we can all be thankful that Arby didn't stick.

Anyhow I'd be proud to be named after Eric the Eel as well. I'm certainly more like he is (or was -- he actually improved unbelievably between 2000 and 2004) in the pool than Heiden is on ice. The announcers are taking the piss which you should probably expect from the Aussies, but I think it's a great Olympic moment.

On an incredibly similar note here's to my friend Julie (of the famous duo "Nate & Julie") who's flying to Beijing tomorrow to coach Tanzania's first swimming entrant and youngest ever athlete. Her name is Magdalena (Missy) Moshi, she's 17, and she will be swimming the 50m freestyle on Friday.

The Olympics really should be more about chances like this, and about taking the piss out of Aussie broadcasters, and less about (1) steroids; (2) medal count cold wars; (3) censorship; (4) people getting stabbed; (5) President Bush falling off the wagon and being creepy around beach volleyball players; (6) Putin's quest to bring the Olympics to South Ossetia; (7) softball; (8) smog; (9) that little 14 year old English diver kid; (10) corporate sponsorship.

And with that [fantastic post] I'm off to 'Merica for a week. Maybe I'll see you there.