Olympics

I love the Olympics. Although I'm not well-versed on the history of the games, I love the sportsmanship and the comraderie of the athletes.

For example, during the games in 2006, a Canadian cross-country skier was participating in a sprint during which her ski pole broke. The importance of this lies in the fact that without two poles, she would likely lose the short race. Seeing this, the Norwegian cross-country ski coach threw her a spare pole from his own team so that she may finish. He thought nothing of this besides the fact that he figured it was the right thing to do. True sportsmanship like this is simply not seen in any national sports, and I really miss it.

Even the fans watching the games exhibit a lower degree of patriotism seen in most other matches. Although I'm positive that each fan wishes for their own country's representative to win, each time an athlete falls and is potentially injured, the fans of all nations hold their collective breath. It's a refreshing change from the times I've worn a Minnesota Gophers hockey jersey in downtown Madison and was told to "fuck myself" from the sixth floor of a dorm building by an inebriated freshman student. Although intense support and blind faith in one's team can be both thrilling and entertaining, I am glad that we have something like the Olympics so that we as sports fans are able to step back and appreciate the abilities of all the athletes, disregarding what nation they hold citizenship to, and the competitions for simply what they are.

Life Experiment: Grapefruit Consumption

I've never eaten a grapefuit before. Although I'd heard that they were delicious, I was afraid that I would not enjoy them and thus had never tried it. Similar story with grapefuit juice. In a recent fitness center program one of the challenges for the week was to purchase a fruit and vegetable that I'd never tried, and therefore I ended up with a grapefruit.

Procedure:

Apparently grapefruit is commonly eaten several different ways:

Procedure A:
Eat grapefruit by peeling rind off and separating and consuming the individual slices, much like how an orange is eaten.

Procedure B:
Cut grapefruit in half. Dig out meat of fruit with spoon (or if you're fancy, a grapefruit spoon with small tines on the tip), taking care to separate meat from thick rind and dividers between slices. When all fruit has been consumed, squeeze juices out into bowl and drink. Optionally, sprinkle sugar on top prior to eating.

Procedure C:
Slice ends of grapefruit and peel with knife (like an apple). This separates the fruit in slices and releases it from the rind. There is a technical name for this that escapes me now.

Experimental:

After deciding that Procedure C seemed too complicated, I decided on Procedure B (mostly because this is how I've seen it eaten on TV). I opted to disregard the sugar at first, in order to experience the complete flavor of the grapefruit. I did have a packet nearby, just in case it was too much for me.

During the experiment, I found that it was much easier to eat the grapefruit alone, over a bowl. There are a lot of juices under pressure that once a spoon is used to dig into the fruit, shoot at the user and the surrounding area. Also, wetnaps are nice to have to remove the sticky juice from not only your hands but your wrists and forearms as well once the process is completed. Otherwise, head straight for the sink.

Results/Conclusion:

I found the sugar to be unnecessary. The grapefruit was tangy and sour, however in taste was very similar to that of an orange. Since I like tangy, I was fine without the sugar, however I would recommend it to those of you with sweeter teeth to take the some of the bitterness out. I enjoyed it very much and would buy again.