Why didn't Jamie Lee light cauldron?

If you watched the Super Bowl on Sunday, you might be aware that the Winter Olympics are here and that they’re on CTV. . . . If TV execs are wondering why people use PVRs and later flip through commercials, it’s because of telecasts like that. . . . The Winter X Games, which recently were held in Aspen, Colo., are for what Greg Cote of the Miami Herald referred to as “extreme” athletes. Then Cote added: “Those are defined as people not quite talented enough to try real sports, but with enough money to put off having actual jobs.” . . . The Calgary Flames honoured winger Jarome Iginla on Friday night after he played in his 1,000th regular-season NHL game earlier in the week. Sheesh, time sure does fly, doesn’t it? . . .
First, NBC-TV chose to pay Conan O’Brien something more than US$40 million to disappear for a while. Then, NBC announced it expects to lose more than $200 million on the Vancouver Olympics. To which Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes: “That’s why parent company General Electric will be charging $237 for a toaster come March.” . . . Bill Simmons, at espn.com, on the “most startling moment” of the Super Bowl telecast: “(David) Letterman bringing in (Jay) Leno for a CBS ad. What was Letterman thinking? Why make Leno seem likable for the first time in a year? And how could he sit on the same sofa with that big-chinned, opportunistic, double-talking, job-stealing barracuda after Leno made that nasty joke about his marriage a few weeks ago?” . . .
Chris Ferrell, in the San Antonio Express-News: “Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow at Gobbler’s Knob, meaning Americans will have to suffer through six more weeks of: a) Winter, b) Golf tournaments that don’t have Tiger Woods in the field.” . . . The Minnesota Twins are working at re-signing catcher Joe Mauer and, no, it isn’t going to be easy. As manager Ron Gardenhire told a gathering at a stop on the Twins Winter Caravan: “We just have to decide whether to give him Minneapolis or St. Paul.” . . . Outfielder Tyson Gillies of Kamloops is getting ready to go to camp with the Philadelphia Phillies. He reports that he has been working out in Clearwater Beach, Fla., for more than two weeks now, alongside right-hander Roy Halladay. . . .
Randy Starkman of the Toronto Star reports that Olympic torch relay organizers “managed to find spots . . . for a reported 27 members of the CTV team, including Ben Mulroney, Sandie Rinaldo, Ken Shaw and TSN’s Michael Landsberg, plus a bunch from the Globe and Mail, including columnists Stephen Brunt, Roy MacGregor, Gary Mason and publisher Phillip Crawley.” . . . There wasn’t room for Kerrin Lee-Gartner, who is from B.C., now lives in Calgary and is the only Canadian in history to have won an Olympic downhill gold medal. . . . Vanoc also found room for Gordon Campbell’s good friend Arnold Schwarzenegger as a torch bearer. . . . Does that give you a warm-and-cuddly Canadian Olympic feeling, or what? . . . When I heard the Governator was going to carry the torch, I was hoping Jamie Lee Curtis would get to light the cauldron. . . . Guess she must have been busy. . . . If you are one of the folks looking for Al Trotter’s book, Against The Odds, you now can get it at Chapters. Written with his daughter, Leslie Zwingli, the book chronicles Trotter’s amazing military career during which he saw duty in three wars. . . . NASCAR’s Budweiser Shootout was held this week. Noted Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post: “For the uninitiated, the Budweiser Shootout is a car race at Daytona International Speedway — not a visit by Gilbert Arenas and Plaxico Burress to their favourite watering hole.” . . . The Northern Lights of the Minnesota Junior Hockey League are touring and will play Troy Mick’s Revelstoke Grizzlies on Tuesday, 7 p.m. Sounds like a decent way for Mick’s guys to tune up for the KIJHL playoffs. . . .
Aside from Doug Lidster, there is another Kamloops connection to the Canadian women’s Olympic hockey team. Chris Jurewicz, who left The Daily News sports department a couple of years ago, now works for Hockey Canada and has been travelling with the team to handle communications and media relations. . . . There are eight teams in the CFL and one man, David Braley, owns two of them. Is there a reason why the CFL doesn’t just give him the other six, too? . . . Scott Ostler, in the San Francisco Chronicle: “I love the Who, but why did they let the Budweiser frogs sing their songs at halftime? And I hear Pete Townshend is day-to-day with windmill-power-chord shoulder.” . . . Cam Hutchinson, in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix: “Hockey player Hack Simpson was the Canadian flag bearer at the 1932 Winter Olympics. The second choice that year was Hack’s brother — curler Puck Simpson.” . . .
Dwight Perry, in the Seattle Times: “Surefire golf prediction for 2010: Tiger Woods won’t be among those calling Phil Mickelson a cheater.” . . . Mike Lupica, in the New York Daily News: “All this controversy about what figure skaters can and can’t wear is just one more reason why I have always believed that figure skating is never going to replace baseball as the national pastime.” . . . One more from Lupica: “When Tiger Woods is playing golf again, nobody is going to care much what kind of old Ping wedges Phil Mickelson was using before he took them out of his bag.” . . . Charley Walters, in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on 6-foot-7, 258-pound enforcer Derek Boogaard of the Minnesota Wild being an unrestricted free agent after this season: “Boogaard is being paid $1.025 million this season. It’s expected he’ll remain in Minnesota with a new contract. Among the reasons is that you don’t want him playing against you.”
Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca and gdrinnan.blogspot.com. Keeping Score appears Saturdays.