On the same theme as the OP, can someone explain to me why Matt Lauer was permitted to carry the torch?
I don’t care if he works for NBC, and I don’t care if he’s a Canadian (I have no idea if he is or isn’t)… but one thing I do know is that he’s not an athlete. Seeing him run with the torch totally pissed me off. I can imagine there are THOUSANDS of Canadian athletes who would love the honor of carrying the torch…
Fuck you, Matt Lauer, you NBC dickwad.
Honestly, its right up there.
Question to stpauler: Why, on a board that is generally pretty much gay-friendly, does lissener get so much grief? If you can answer that honestly, and apply it to what you did above, you may have a handle on why it appears people are dumping on you. (Hint: see Rule #1.) I’m not saying this to Junior Mod.; I’m doing it because I have usually never had any problem with anything you’ve posted, and often agree strongly with you – and in this case, you’re trying to defend your right to be an asshole. Which I suppose you have the right to be, until and unless the moderators get tired of seeing you pick fights.
Terry Fox is a folk hero to a lot of people, including most Canadians who have an opinion one way or the other. You’ve gone out of your way to make sure everyone realizes you’re an insensitive jerk about him.
So don’t be surprised that people make sure that you realize that they think you’re being an insensitive jerk. Because in this particular case, you are.
Well, I find I don’t give a rats ass about Arnold, Bob, or even Matt and the torch relay anymore.
No, I don’t think they should have been selected but at least Canadian’s weren’t subjected to having it broadcast for us to watch. It was just a small part of the nameless 12,000 person relay. That’s better than what I thought we were in for. I was sure we’d have to watch in on the Olympic coverage, but since they spared us that I’m willing to give them a pass. It still smacks of using your notoriety to garner special privileges, but I’m sure that’s nothing new to any of them.
Furthermore I have to say I have not the best memory and though I’ve been coming here a long time, I really don’t remember this poster or that, as being a great person or a bum, right or left leaning, gay or straight, even male or female. I admit I make no effort to this end, it’s just not in my nature.
That said, I think it will be a very long time indeed before I am able to forget that stpauler is a person capable of being an offensive dickhead, not to win an argument, not to score points, not out of anger, misplaced retaliation, frustration, or during a heated back and forth, but just because it gives him pleasure. And not just once, repeatedly. In a thread where it was totally uncalled for, unnecessary and inappropriate. I live by the adage when people show you who they really are - your job is to see!
Wasn’t he the guy that, as one of his first official acts as governor, forgave ENRON for all those billions in judgements California had against it for colluding to defraud California over energy price fixing in '03? Not living in California, I’m a little hazy on the specifics, but I’m glad California is doing so well that it never ever needed the money.
Y so srs?
So I’ll participate in this little derailing and admit I must be a crass asshole too, then. I’d never heard of Terry Fox before this thread, but I clicked on the linked Wiki article, and concluded this Terry fellow was a stand-up kid. That said, I still thought stpauler’s comment was funny. I didn’t read it as “Ha ha, cancer boy is such a loser!” I read it as “This story, as presented to me, is amusing.” That is, someone told him and his SO that they built a statue for someone who set out to do something, but didn’t. The particulars of what the “something” is are not what makes it funny. The humor is not in Fox’s cancer or amputated leg. The humor is in the presentation: Guy intended to do Thing. Guy did 0.5Thing. We built him a statue.
And yes, the unnecessary swipe at Canadia made it funnier. It was just a joke.
If I recall correctly, there were a lot of non-athletes carrying the torch. I think Lloyd Robertson carried it for a leg, but I would never criticize that, because Lloyd can do whatever he wants - he’s been anchoring the CTV news for about 60 years now without aging.
Well bully for you!
Bursting with pride over sharing a sense of humour with an insensitive dickhead.
I bow to your awesomeness.
Bursting with pride…?
Oooookay, thanks for confirming that you’re not worth talking to.
It’s funny to you and StPauler; it’s not terribly funny to us.
Well it’s obviously a crass joke, but I think we may need to dampen the outrage a little bit. He wasn’t shitting on Fox or his accomplishment; he was pointing out that the person who told them about Terry Fox and pointed them to the statue probably should have relayed the story better. “He didn’t finish his goal, so we built him a statue” isn’t the best form.
Let me ask you a question. Pretend the statue was of someone else who accomplished a heroic feat, but didn’t have cancer or an amputated leg. Let’s say there was some guy who set out to personally save the lives of 10,000 people, but only saved 7,500, but that’s still a lot of people, so everyone loves him, and he becomes a national hero for obvious reasons. stp and his partner ask, “What should we see while in town,” and someone says, “You should see the statue of so-and-so hero. He made it his life’s goal to personally and directly save 10,000 lives and he saved 7,500. He’s a big hero around here.” If stp’s crack were “Only Canada would celebrate an achievement that wasn’t even achieved” in that situation, would it be funny? Is the joke itself simply not funny at all, or is the background story of Fox what ruins it?
While I’m quoting Cat Whisperer, anyone who’s upset by the joke can answer. I’m genuinely curious. Well, anyone but elbows.
Who are we to disagree?
It’s not particularly funny. Especially after realizing that shortly after, when viewing the statue, the storyteller admits they found out the back story. Perhaps the original guide should have given more detail. Is it funny he did not? And the gratuitous swipe at a whole country is not funny. Only Canada is so lame that that we would celebrate an achievement that wasn’t even achieved? Ya that’s fucking hilarious.
ETA: To clarify:he only “funny” part of the story is the guide who did not give sufficient detail at the beginning. The added extra insults to a country make it dickish.
I think it’s that in stpauler’s telling of the story, the “only in Canada” bit is the point of the story. He didn’t relate it as a funny personal anecdote about how it was described to him, but as a mean-spirited mocking of Terry Fox for not completing his goal and, by extension, all of Canada for celebrating this. Perhaps he didn’t mean it that way, but that’s the way it reads.
Really, it shouldn’t be that hard to see how it’s offensive to boil down the whole of Canada’s fondness for Terry Fox to “he tried to run across the country but stopped in Thunder Bay, and you people consider him a hero?” Because, as stpauler phrased it, that was the point of his story. Apparently, he meant the point to be that someone else’s description left him with that version of the Terry Fox story, which struck him as funny.
In your hypothetical, I don’t really see it as funny, because saving 7,500 people is obviously something to be celebrated, regardless of the original goal. Setting a goal to run across Canada and making it halfway, and having the statue commemorating the endpoint be the top thing to see in town is funny. But it’s also a gross misrepresentation of the situation, which people are going to get upset about. Had he made it clear that he knew it not to be an accurate description, but still thought that it was amusing to have it presented that way to him, he wouldn’t have gotten jumped on nearly as bad.
Betty Fox, the mother of Terry Fox, was one of the eight flag bearers who carried the Olympic flag into the stadium.
Rick Hansen, whose Man in Motion tour was inspired by Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope, carried the Olympic flame into the stadium.
The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) is awarding the the Vancouver 2010 Terry Fox Award to the “athlete who embodies the same values that Terry Fox did. This athlete will be someone who is the epitome of determination in motion, who pushed on no matter what the pain or obstacles in their path and touched Canada and the world by displaying humility and selflessness in their treatment of others both on and off the field of play – a veritable hero.”
Terry Fox’s goal for his Marathon of Hope was to raise money for the fight against cancer. He wanted to raise approximately $24,000,000, which was the equivalent of one dollar per Canadian. More than that amount was raised in his name by the time he died, and to date more than $400,000,000 has been raised in his name.
I would say that Terry Fox met and exceeded his goal, despite dying in the process.
I’m thinking maybe it’s a Canadian thing, like trying to explain to foreigners why hockey is so important. Could it be - we’re developing a national identity? 
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Gfactor
Pit Moderator
Christ, I hope not. I find it a bit embarrassing to listen to American media going on about heroes. It seems that just about everyone down there is a hero for what appears to the slightest reason. It think that such ongoing overstatement detracts from true heroes, such as Terry Fox.
Back in 2004, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ran a short series which invited Canadians to determine the greatest Canadian. 1.2 million votes and lots of discussion later, Tommy Douglas, the lefty who was the driving force behind bringing socialized health care to Canada, was found to be the greatest Canadian.
Terry Fox hopped into second place, reflecting the Canadian public’s immense respect and gratitude for him. The base of his statue in Thunder Bay reads: “Terry Fox inspired an entire generation of Canadians with his determination and devotion, and it was through his strength and commitment that he united Canadians as they have never been united before.” (For folks who have not crossed Canada by road, here is a pic of the statue, looking out over Gichigami and the Nanabijou.)
When the Olympic flame made its way across Canada, the motorcade stopped where Terry Fox was pulled off his run, at the side of the road just east of Thunder Bay in Shuniah. Métis Janine Landry, who is lives in Shuniah and was one of the eleven youth aboriginal Olympic flame attendants travelling across Canada with the flame, then ran with the flame at that place where Terry Fox ceased running.
If you drive by this place, you would probably not even notice it. It is just a small patch of land along side the highway which a fellow from Thunder Bay visits with his lawn mower a few times each summer. At the back of it is a small plaque. That’s all. But each and every time I drive by it, I think of Terry Fox, and what he gave to us.
I very much appreciate the way Terry Fox has been made a part of the 2010 Olympics, for he was a truly remarkable humanitarian who directly used his ability as an athlete to touch the hearts of millions of Canadians, who raised hundreds of millions of dollars for a very worthy cause, and who through the Terry Fox Run has over two-million people around the world each year improve their own health as part of their fundraising.
Terry Fox commands respect all over Canada–a statue of him is located across the street from Parliament. Yeah, just some guy, that’s right.
So you’re one of US Americans now eh?
