Winter Olympics Are Underway

My friend Roger Magnuson once described himself to me as an “Olympics junkie.” He traveled around the world to attend a number of Olympics. I haven’t done that; the only Olympics I’ve ever attended, even briefly, was in Lake Placid in 1980. Where, by the way, I kept telling the ABC camera crews who stayed in my motel that the U.S. hockey team was pretty good and shouldn’t be counted out.
The 2006 Turin Olympics got underway with opening ceremonies tonight:

Here in Minnesota, the local media have noted that by far the largest number of U.S. Olympians come from our state. So some have calculated how we might do if we seceded. It’s an academic exercise, of course; no one is going to leave the U.S. of A. for the privilege of being the curling capital of the world. Still, once every four years we can contemplate the advantages of being snowed under from November through March.