Jezebel
on the run?
Posts Tagged “
Olympics
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Lost And Found
Friday feel-good alert! In 1991, 6-year old Lopez Lomong was snatched from his family and taken by Sudanese rebels to be one of the numerous child soldiers who came to be known as the "Lost Boys of the Sudan." Lopez was eventually able to escape and was ultimately discovered in a work camp by Catholic Charities, who placed him with an American family in upstate New York, where he quickly became a cross-country and track star. "In my country, soccer players are athletes," he said. "But runners? Everybody runs. You want to go to a neighbor's house, you run. You want to go to school, you run." Now, Lopez is competing in the Beijing Olympics. More remarkable still, he's been reunited with his birth family, who had long assumed their son was dead. (In the movie version, he'll obviously win Gold.) [The Guardian]
on the run?
Leftovers
Everyone Sees Themselves In Hello Kitty • China Mixes Opera With Hip Hop For Olympics Cheerleaders
Hello Kitty's success could be explained because consumers viewed her as a "blank canvas" of possibility and could mean different things to different people. One thing: she is always adorbs!• In less than a decade, STDs among Americans 45-years-old and older has doubled. Maybe 'tis time to practice what you preach about safe sex, parents? • There are no "dangerous dogs," only irresponsible and dangerous dog-owners. • China prepares 600 cheerleaders, who mix "elements from traditional Peking opera into more typical hip-hop routines" for the Olympics. So kinda like Carmen: A Hip-Hopera in Beijing? • Debrett's Etiquette Guide For Girls will be republished in a new edition this fall, with updated rules such as no grunting or screaming at the gym. More »
clips
Related: A Swimmer Of A Certain Age [NY Times Magazine]
41-Year Old Dara Torres Aims To Be Oldest Female Swimmer In Olympic History
Dara Torres broke her first world record in swimming at age 14, back in 1982. In subsequent years, she's been in four Olympics, and she's looking to compete in her fifth this year in Beijing. The 41-year-old will be the oldest female swimmer to compete in the games, according to a profile of Torres in yesterday's New York Times magazine. Despite some surgeries and giving birth only two years ago to baby Tessa, Torres broke the American record last November for the 50-meter freestyle short course, swimming it in under 24 seconds. She's dealt with a college bout of bulimia ("The coaches routinely weighed all the swimmers, and if a swimmer didn’t make weight, he or she had to swim extra morning workouts," the Times reports) and "13 small surgical incisions on her knees, elbows, shoulders, hands and fingers," and yet she's still a fierce contender. A clip of Dara talking about her competitive spirit on this morning's Good Morning America, above.Related: A Swimmer Of A Certain Age [NY Times Magazine]
crappy hour
Is Fox News Looking For Drama With Obama's "Baby Mama"?
Oh, this will warm your heart: Fox News has dubbed Michelle Obama Barack's "Baby Mama." See, because "baby mama" is a term originating in the African American community used to delineate a status of romantic partner, somewhere between common-law spouse and "boo," that one attains by fathering or giving birth to a child. Over the years, as the term — which rhymes not only with "Obama" but more common terms like "drama" and "Cappadonna" — grew more common, it was embraced and co-opted by the Caucasian community to the point that it un-controversially became the name of a Tina Fey movie with two white leads and even, I believe, once used by my father as a term of endearment for my mother, who incidentally, popped out her firstborn (me) three years after exchanging vows with him. All of which is to say: isn't this great? It still isn't fully acceptable for even the most "down" white dudes to refer to their black friends as "My N—--" — and, let's be honest, "my nizzle" sounds really stupid — but thanks to Fox News it's now okay for white folks to refer to such a fearsomely accomplished, disciplined black woman as Michelle Obama as Barack's "baby mama." Doesn't she seem more approachable already? Anyway, that and China finally says something to Darfur about their genocide problem, another "consummate Washington insider" finds himself on the outs, Nigerian pirates and why I called Geraldine Ferraro "sweetie" with Megan after the jump. More »
consumption olympics
Teen Vogue Gives Summer Olympians A Sliiight Makeover
Although we were so very heartened to see Teen Vogue editor Amy Astley take the evil fashion industry to task for perpetuating unrealistic body ideals on the Today show, we admit we were skeptical! Just how was this new focus on health going to manifest itself in the pages of her theretofore anorex-positive magazine, hmmm? Now we know! Just in time to celebrate the Genocide Olympics, the July Teen Vogue is celebrating female athleticism in a 12-page fashion spread. (This is in stark contrast to its big sister Vogue, which only last month ran an entire "body issue" celebrating male athleticism by pairing male athletes with female…supermodels.) Such independence and spunk, that Teen Vogue! Catch the mag's take on fencing, beach volleyball, ping-pong, and leaning against a balance beam looking vaguely malnourished in a Berhard Willhelm cape and vintage Indian headdress,after the jump. See girls, you can be "athletic" without sacrificing your ACL. — or your BMI. More »
news roundup
Jeremiah Wright: Still The Least Of Our Problems, But Our Problems Kind Of Suck
- "He's obviously a well-educated, sincere man who has done good work in building Trinity United Church of Christ. But, to borrow a phrase that Wright might have used in one of his sermons, his rant at the Press Club demonstrates, that he is also a damn fool." [TheRoot]
- Surely I wasn't the only one who detected some philosophical ideological undertones to the Lauren Conrad-Heidi Montag feud, but both actually turn out to support bombing Iran. [NY Mag]
- Perhaps because Iran recently condemned Barbie dolls. [NYT]
- The Fed's bailout of Bear Stearns is the "worst policy mistake of the generation." Well, I mean, we pointed that out already, but when a former Fed head of monetary affairs says so it's apparently "news." [WSJ]
- It was a real delusion. It was like [former New York Gov. Eliot] Spitzer: "I am doing something dangerous, but because of who I am, and how smart I am, it is not going to come back to haunt me." -89-year-old financial manager and historian Peter Bernstein. [WSJ]
- And now we've got 18.6 million vacant homes on our hands! [Wonkette]
little girls in pretty boxes
Former National Champion Says Girls Gymnastics Is Not All It's Chalked Up To Be
In 1986, when Jennifer Sey was 15, she lived on fruit and laxatives. She also won the U.S. National title in gymnastics. Sey has written a book about her experiences as a top-tier gymnast called Chalked Up: Inside Elite Gymnastics' Merciless Coaching, Overzealous Parents, Eating Disorders, and Elusive Olympic Dreams, which came out this week. In an interview with Salon, Sey discusses her experiences boarding at the Parkettes National Gymnastic Training Center under notoriously-brutal coaches Bill and Donna Strauss, who were hellbent on producing winners by "any means necessary." Sey's responses to interviewer Julia Wallace's questions are satisfyingly balanced — Sey points out that the coaches encouraged disordered-eating and dangerous training (and sometimes sexually abused their charges) but also acknowledges that "I was willing to take [the abuse] because I wanted to win." More »
leftovers
Bad Economy = Teen Emo; Blogger Bitches Out Know-It-All Reader
• The recession is turning Juicy-wearing teens into emo kids! • An O.C. teen is in trouble over video of him tossing rabbits and a puppy into the air. • Speaking of pets, a new study reports that Americans' creature companions are full of dangerous chemicals. • Swedish scientists have found that people with good rhythm are the most intelligent. • Are eating disorders contagious? • A bill up for vote in South Carolina would require medical providers to ask pregnant women if they want to see want to view ultrasounds of their embryos before undergoing an abortion. • A blogger responds to nit-picky grammarians; bloggers everywhere rejoice.
leftovers
Your Period Could Save Your Life; Swedish Prisoner Gifts Guards With Wooden Willies
• Scientists have found stem cells in menstrual blood. • And a new company, C'elle, is already offering women period blood storage starting at just $99/year! • Joan Benoit Samuelson, "the matriarch of marathons," is running Olympic trials in Boston for fun. • Amy Poehler eats Honey Nut Cheerios because of The Wire• An ex-prisoner in Sweden was fined after he gave parting gifts of wooden dicks to female guards. • More from Sweden: a Muslim woman won a discrimination case after she was told to vacate a bus for wearing a niqab scarf. • The first born are usually the smartest. • The Supreme Court will consider using the death penalty for child rape. • Media Matters calls Bill O'Reilly a big ol' homophobe.
leftovers
Bjork Feels Bad For China; Hair Dye Equals Death
• Bjork feels sorry for China. You know, over all that Tibet stuff. • Italian porn star runs for office, promises to create "cute" red light district. • H.S. teacher resigns after being outed as madam. • Macho, alcoholic men have trouble dealing with serious injuries. • Gabrielle Union sues Craigslist pranksters over faux ad. • India bans sale of cheap hair dye after farmers use it to commit suicide. • Uterine fibroids can now be treated with a non-invasive ultrasound. • Australians engage in wife-carrying competitions. • Hayden says: Sexual harassment is wrong, even if it makes you "feel good."
crappy hour
Who Are All These China Haters And Where Did They Learn All Their Death Defying-Moves?
So...China. Like, oy, right? Yesterday San Francisco rained on the protesters' plan to rain on the Olympic torch relay, but so many questions remain. Where did all these angry Crouching Tiger bridge scaling people come from? Isn't Tibet a kind of nineties cause? Are the protesters just holdovers from the anti-WTO movement who somehow made the massive logical leap from "thinking globalization is evil bc Starbucks" to "thinking globalization is evil bc lead toys and monk beating"? Who are the mysterious men in blue? And who beats up on the torch bearer in the wheelchair? And if even the Chinese press is covering the wheelchair thing, and the Dalai Lama himself is saying he's all in favor of the Olympics...could the whole thing be a sinister inside job? Megan and I ask each other these questions and more with occasional pauses to Google answers for answers after the jump. More »
Olympics Roundup
The Olympics: yikes. So China, a country governed by a repressive and corrupt autocracy that buys oil from Darfur and gets away with all of it because its citizens are used to a whole lot worse and so, in fact, are most citizens of most countries...well China thought it would be a neat idea to do this epic six-continent Olympic torch relay in the lead-up to the Beijing summer Olympics. (Okay, it wasn't their idea, but it was the longest ever torch relay, like the Great Wall or something.) The French apparently had other ideas! The torch had to be re-routed three times before they gave up on the whole Paris leg of the trip. Now Hillary Clinton is calling for George W. Bush to boycott the ceremonies. (Seriously, Hillary Clinton who visited China to celebrate women and how they like to abort them or somesuch back when you were First Lady?) (To be fair, she chastised them over that and got censored.) This is a pic of French tennis player Arnaud di Pasquale looking dismayed. (And unrelatedly: hot.) In the words of a Dutch pro-Tibet protester: "You almost have to feel sorry for the Chinese." [Politico]
news roundup
Will Michelle Obama Be The Next Member Oprah's Book Club?
- For some inexplicable reason publishers seem to think Michelle Obama could write a bestseller. Perhaps it was that college thesis? The admirable physique? Just hard up for cash in a challenging credit environment? [Observer]
- McCain: the "first real postmodernist candidate for the presidency." ? [NYT]
- Why would you assume our passports were made in U.S. America? [Washington Times]
- Sigh of relief for society! Jamie Lynn Spears is engaged. [US]
- Boycotting the Olympics: actually a pretty powerful condemnation of repression, when you think about it. Oh, well. [Slate]
- Some guy made up a story about how Diddy knew about Tupac's assassination plot and the LA Times totally bought it but the source turned out to be a "wildly impulsive, overweight white kid from Florida whose own father once described him in a letter to a federal judge as 'a disturbed young man who needed attention like a drug.'" [TheSmokingGun]
news roundup
Hillary And Barack Can't Morph Into One Supercandidate, But Wouldn't It Be Cool If They Could?
- Yeah, how do we know when the this fucking nomination process has gone on too long? When the candidates' lives have not only been covered breathlessly in US Weekly, ostensibly dignified magazines like The New Republic have started co-opting their "if they mated" feature. [TNR]
- The Hillary campaign is now pinning its future on an "Electoral vote" strategy, basing her appeal to the conventioneers on the notion that she should win the nomination because she managed to win big states important to winning the electoral vote. Because California is in grave danger of voting for McCain over Obama? [NYT]
- Will her concession to Sinbad re the "sniper fire" mess up her chances? [NY Times]
- Speaking of comedians who are not Sinbad, this little Q&A with Tracey Ullman reminded me how much I missed Dave Chappelle. What's he up to? No performances I can find. [WSJ]
- New York risks losing as many as 20,000 finance jobs. I would be sad, but it's also sort of a "And at long freaking last they came for the bankers, and I didn't say anything because I had already spend much of my twenties unemployed kthanxbai" situation. Also, no industry finds fresh liquidity faster than finance, so, you know, they'll be back. [Reuters]
sporty spice
Women Around The World Run For Their Lives, But Does Anyone Care About Female Athletes?
The only woman on Afghanistan's Olympic team is a runner, reports National Geographic. She does the 1500 meters in 4:50, which is great, but probably not good enough (3:50 is the record). Still! Afghanistan has never won an Olympic medal, and the country was banned from the Sydney games due to Taliban rule. Mahboba Ahdyar (pictured), 19, is Muslim, so she trains in a headscarf and loose-fitting track suit. If officials try to make her compete in something different, she says she just won't run. Meanwhile, in Ethiopia, where girls as young as 12 are often forced to drop out of school and get married for economic reasons, running is a way to keep hope alive."Girls who run tend to stay in school longer and, if they train hard enough, might make a good living one day as a pro athlete," reports the Washington Post. But over at a blog called WIMN (Women in Media and News), there's a post about the coverage of women's sports in the Chicago Tribune. That is, the lack of. More »
international titocracy
"Plump But Not Fat" For China Looks Kinda Ana To Us
In preparation for the Olympics, the Chinese government is hiring female college students to serve as "ambassadors" from each of its major cities. Would you believe appearance is apparently factoring into the hiring decisions? And it's gotten competitive: in an effort to make sure its city is remembered for the most attractive girls, Shanghai officials established a list of VERY WEIRD STRICT appearance guidelines as to who ought to be hired for the job. Recruiters were instructed to seek out girls with "elastic skin" and a "ruddy and shiny complexion." (Re the "ruddy" part =I guess they're still supposed to pretend they like, revere peasants or something in China? Jezebel Sinophiles, do you know?) Much much weirder, the rules included strict ratios governing almost all the proportions of the face, and the posession of a "plump but not fat body." More »
dirt bag
Scarlett Johansson Will Hold A Grudge
- A reporter from Us magazine tried to interview Scarlett Johansson after her appearance on the Today show, but Scarlett was all, "You have got to be kidding me after that [plastic surgery] cover you did." Oh, snap! [Gatecrasher]
- Christina Aguilera on son Max: "When he's breast-feeding, I just sit there and stare at him. I'm in awe of this little miracle." [Page Six]
- If you're getting married in Vegas today, you might have Pauly Shore, Mario Lopez or "Chocolate Rain" singer Tay Zonday as a witness to your nuptials. Lucky! [Page Six]
- Britney's "manager" Sam Lutfi is trying to get California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to help her with her "civil rights" issues, like why she can't keep a lawyer. Wait, what? [Gatecrasher]
- Britney's boyfriend Adnan Ghalib: Questioned by cops! He may or may not have punched a photographer snapping him at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Don't you love it when the tables turn? [TMZ]
- Apparently Britney is getting along great with her mom, it's her dad she's not happy with. She doesn't want him in her personal — or financial — affairs. Do you get the feeling that if she's so annoyed at him, he might be talking some sense? [E!]
