OLYMPIC BADMINTON

Olympic badminton is high speed, high tech, and fierce. But, a cheap badminton set from Walmart will get you vastly more action than a pro set. Here is how.....




Olympic sampler:

SOCHI WELCOMES OLYMPIC GUESTS

It all seems to be an old Russian tradition. Roughing it has been the Russian way for hundreds of years. But, after all the propaganda from Vladimir Putin and the Russian Olympic Committee, we were expecting just a little more of the modern touch than they offered.

Here are some Twitter comments and an article by the CBC correspondent:

My hotel has no water. If restored, the front desk says, "do not use on your face because it contains something very dangerous." #Sochi2014

Water restored, sorta. On the bright side, I now know what very dangerous face water looks like. #Sochi #unfiltered

Also on the bright side: I just washed my face with Evian, like I'm a Kardashian or something.

Stacy McClair

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Made new pal from La Presse as we struggled to find hotel. When we got to our (temporary) rooms his doorknob came off in hand #roadtosochi
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This is the one hotel room @Sochi2014 have given us so far. Shambles. #cnnsochi

CNN booked 11 rooms in one @Sochi2014 media hotel five months ago. We have been here for a day and only one room is available. #cnnsochi

Harry Reekie- CNN reporter
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Still waiting for "preparations" on hotel room to finish. Hoping they're origami-folding toilet roll, rather than, say, putting the roof on.

I have a room! No heating or internet, but it has a (single) bed at least...

Got back to hotel. Lift broken after half day in use. Trekked up stairs. Door to my floor (that'd be the fire door) locked. Utter farce.

Shaun Walker



People have asked me what surprised me the most here in Sochi. It's this. Without question ... it's ... THIS.
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Ok, so my hotel doesn't have a lobby yet.

For those of you asking, when there's no lobby in your hotel, you go to the owner's bedroom to check in. #Sochi2014
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Watch your step @Sochi2014 -- I've noticed on walkway and on sidewalks that not all man holes are always covered.
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Harry Reekie of CNN Tweeted Dmitry Chernyshenko of Sochi's Olympic Committee:

Harry Tweets
@DChernyshenko Our media hotel is not ready Dmitry....11 rooms booked five months ago, only one ready. Please help.

Dmitry Answers @HarryCNN to believe you need just to turn back and to look at the mountains ;)
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This is some half-assed bathroom design in #Sochi pic.twitter.com/0Eie9lnTT8

Matthew Dalton ‏@DJMatthewDalton
Wall Street Journal Reporter
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Now, here is a great article by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on his impressions of Sochi, and he has a more fair take on it by saying the impressions are at the extremes of pleasant and nasty. This seems to me to fit Russia just right.

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Mant Tweets mentioned the stray dogs around which are being rounded up as people move around the city.

And, there a lot ways in Russia which they do not want you to do with a toilet.

I trust that the no fishing in the toilet rule is for comic relief. One is tempted to wonder if a fish could actually turn up in the toilet in Sochi.

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