Tag Archives: adult non-fiction

A Brief History of the Olympics

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marble-relief-fragment-depicting-athletic-prizes
Marble relief fragment depicting athletic prizes (via The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Is this post a bit late, considering the (summer) Olympics will be over by the time this goes live? Perhaps. But to my mind, it’s actually fitting, because we’re going to be talking about the Olympics’ past, not present.

So, when did the Olympics first start, and where, and why?

It all began in Ancient Greece, in a town called Olympia, where contestants competed in various games of strength, skill, and athletics in honour of the god Zeus. This religious event eventually spread all over Greece and would always be marked by a truce, allowing athletes and pilgrims to travel without fear of danger. According to myth, the first Games were played by the gods. “Zeus wrestled his father, Kronos, for the throne; Apollo outran Hermes and beat Ares at boxing; and Herakles, often credited with founding the Olympic games, won victories in wrestling and the pankration, a no-holds-barred combat sport.”1 (Link added by me). Many of the ancient sports are actually still played in our modern Olympics, including foot races, discus and javelin throwing, wrestling, and boxing.

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A Layperson’s Renovation Tips

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The cover of The Homeowner's Guide to Managing a Renovation by Susan E. Solakian

Tip number one: Don’t. Just don’t do it. That’s the only advice I really feel qualified to give. So, fair warning to anyone reading this: the advice beyond this point reflects the attitude of a stressed-out layman whose sole desire is for this whole thing to be over with so I can properly relax outside of work instead of life being entirely work/managing renovations/sleep (sometimes.) Even the prospect of moving into the house pales compared to just being done with the renovations. Though… perhaps I should clarify a touch: If you want work/life balance, don’t DIY. I mean that. We’re doing some DIY, and it’s already more stressful than planning a wedding. If a wedding has some hiccups here and there, it’s a funny memory down the line. If a reno goes even slightly wrong, it’s a massive headache (and a lot of money) to fix down the line. Maybe, before we decided to try doing some things ourselves, I should have checked out The Homeowner’s Guide to Managing a Renovation. The opening sentence on the blurb is probably the most accurate advice you’ll get in this blog: “Major home remodeling isn’t for the faint of heart…”1, though honestly, that feels like a kinder way of saying: Don’t do it.

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There be Whales (And Dolphins) Here!

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The cover of The Whale in Search of the Giants of the Sea by Philip Hoare

I’m back from Alaska, and while we tended to be asleep before true darkness since we were there right around the summer solstice, thus missing any potential Aurora Borealis, we did see plenty of wildlife: A black bear, stellar sea lions, harbour seals, bald eagles1, sea otters, enormous ravens, and, of course, orcas and humpback whales. There are probably some other birds we saw that are unusual, but despite my love of Wingspan, I couldn’t identify them. However, that is partly linked with watching glaciers calve at the time. We saw a lot. So it seems appropriate to follow up on the Alaskan… not quite history post that I made with some items to help share the sights.

Starting with what was a highlight of the trip: bubble net feeding humpback whales. For those of you who don’t feel like reading a whole Wikipedia article, this is a group-feeding behaviour that only certain humpbacks perform, and they need to learn it from other humpbacks. The group2 circles around their prey, exhaling air bubbles to trap them in a circle or spiral, then the whales swim right up the middle, mouths wide open. We were pretty low to the water, so we couldn’t see the spiral in the water, but we certainly saw plenty of flukes, dorsal fins, and “big Buddha bellies,” as our tour guide put it whenever we saw a breach.

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