"Love Means Never Having To Say You're Sorry"

That's a quote from an old movie called "Love Story" which was really popular when I was young.  If you want "cheese", that's a movie to watch!  The line was really iconic and everybody used to say it in all sorts of circumstances.

It comes to mind when people like Patrick Chan and Spencer O'Brien apologize to Canada when they don't do as well as everyone hoped they would at the Olympics.  I really wish some "spinmaster" responsible for the Canadian team would instill in the athletes that they aren't responsible for fulfilling Canadians' hopes and dreams.  Of course, we would like to see them do well, but obviously they are doing their best and obviously they want to succeed and if, on that particular moment, their athletic performance isn't quite as good as someone else's, well, that's just the way it is.  We're a small country with very few people and so for someone here to be the second best figure skater IN THE WORLD at a given moment is quite an achievement.  I know that he can skate much better than he did yesterday, but what he has accomplished is amazing and he has provided us with an outstanding example -- he has worked hard to achieve greatness, he performed admirably in front of the whole world, and he was a gentleman throughout the whole process.  He has nothing to apologize for.

I heard a movie critic talking about movies about the Olympics on the radio a couple of days ago.  There aren't many good ones.  I remember "Chariots of Fire" which focused on two British runners.  It is the only really great Olympic movie I've seen.  I have a vague recollection of "Jim Thorpe: All American" about the aboriginal athlete, Jim Thorpe (played in this movie by Burt Lancaster, who was not aboriginal) and he won medals (more than one, I think) in the Olympics, but then they were all taken away from him, because he had played semi-professional football while he was in college, or something.  There used to be a rule that Olympic athletes had to be pure amateurs but obviously that rule has fallen by the wayside.  Anyway,  Burt Lancaster was a terrific actor and that's probably why I remember that movie.  Perhaps the Olympics is already dramatic enough -- it can't be dramatized.  (I don't think I really believe that.)

Anyway, on a more local note,  we have auditioned everyone who was interested in a role in "The Wars of 1812" and then Ms. Levin, Rachel, Karina and I discussed how to cast it.  It is really hard because you were all so terrific.  Obviously, you younger aspirants understand that the older kids get priority since they will not be able to perform with us again, but that being said, some of the "little 'uns" were really spectacular.  I believe we will understudy the leads and do one show in the evening that features the understudies.  In addition, there are non-speaking roles for the two armies and the crews of the Shannon and the Chesapeake.  We were unable to finalize the cast on Friday, so we are meeting again on Monday.  The cast list WILL be up on Tuesday!