WELCOME TO THE LEAGUE OF SMOKE BOMBS, SALAMI
TODAY’S ITALIAN LESSON:Dove (doveh) 1. Where. As in “Where the hell is the exit?” FORLI, Italy — Well now, here’s something you don’t see every day at a basketball game. A smoke bomb. Yep. The man with the balding black hair just...
CHOICE OF ASSIGNMENTS WAS A MATTER OF DEGREES
SOMEWHERE IN EUROPE — HeLP! I Am LOcKed in A bAseMent aND my hANds aRE tiEd aND my mOUth IS gagged aND I AM wRiting tHIs WITh my toEs oN a tYPewriter and aLL beCAuse my BOss toLD HIS hENCHmen to maKE sure tHAt no maTTer wHAt I diDN’t sneak off and go BACk...
New World At Playgames Measure Changing Times, History’S Lines
ALBERTVILLE, France — The thing about printing your own money, the bearded man tells me, is finding a place to do it. It’s damn hard. You can’t just build a mint, you know. Even if you do run the country.
He reaches into the pocket of his blue jeans, which he wears with a denim shirt and white socks and bedroom slippers, not a bad outfit for a deputy minister of the government, and he pulls out a few bills, colorful little things with the picture of a mountain. They are signed by the “Secretary of Finance of Slovenia.”
“Tolars,” he calls them.
UPS AND DOWNS ON ICELEBLANC STOPPED EVERYTHING BUT TIME
MERIBEL, France — Twenty minutes before the curtain came down, when the world was still young and the score was still tied and anything, even beating the Russians, was possible, the American hockey players came clodding through the tunnel to an explosion of...
HOCKEY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH COUNTRY
ALBERTVILLE, France — “Hey, Sam.””Yeah, Frank?””Pass the beer.” * “Hey, Dmitri.””Da, Igor?””Pass the vodka.””You watching the game today, Sam?””You bet, Frank. On my...
American Women Look As Good As Goldito Forsakes Her Advantage — And Loses Her Edge, Too
ALBERTVILLE, France — One jump. One jump. It plays on the mind. One jump. Gotta hit it. One jump. God, let me hit it! The audience can be clapping, the music blaring, filling the arena, violins and kettle drums cascading down to the ice, where the skater glides along in her sequined outfit, big smile, arms out, looking for all the world like Julie Andrews on the hill in “The Sound Of Music.” But in her mind there is only one sound, one voice, one screaming order from the storm trooper in the brain. One jump! One jump!
“Hit it! Hit it! Hit it! Hit it!”
ITO FORSAKES HER ADVANTAGE — AND LOSES HER EDGE, TOO
ALBERTVILLE, France — One jump. One jump. One jump. It plays on the mind like a sharpened skate blade dragged across the skin. One jump. Gotta hit it. One jump. God, let me hit it! The audience can be clapping, the music blaring, filling the arena, violins and...
O BRIO! O EGO! OH, ALBERTO!TOMBA’S BOASTS ARE BIG,BUT THEY’RE NO BIGGER THAN HIS ACCOMPLISHMENTS
REPORTER: “Why did you arrive by helicopter?”TOMBA: “Because everyone else drove.”VAL D’ISERE, France — When we last left Alberto Tomba, he was riding a mob of happy, singing Italians at the bottom of an Olympic slalom in Canada....
EAST MEETS WEST, AND THERE’S NO ONE TO HATE
MERIBEL, France — I am looking for an enemy.I am taking applications. I am knocking on doors. I am walking through the Olympic Village, waving the American flag, approaching foreign athletes and saying, “How’d you like a shot at the title,...Stay Connected
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