Boy, sometimes you just can’t win for losin’. Poor old Mitt Romney got a royal butt-chewing from some of the members of the International Olympic Committee when he arrived in Sydney for the Summer Olympics. G’day to you too, mate.
Some IOC pooh-bahs were already pissed at the Mittster and SLOC for throwing the world’s largest Olympic scandal to date. Hiding behind the glories of athletes who make sacrifices to represent their countries in non-professional sports, IOC members apparently don’t like the rest of the world to see what a bunch of money-grubbing fascists they really are.
Romney not only wasn’t allowed to stay in the same hotel as His Excellency Juan Antonio Samaranch and his high-rolling IOC entourage, but they read Mitt the riot act for making public the so-called “geld document” that outlined bribes individual IOC members might desire before bestowing the 2002 Winter Games on Salt Lake City.
The irony, of course, is that news media pounded on Mitt and SLOC’s Management Committee to make the geld document public. SLOC’s chief outside counsel, Beth Wilkinson, argued that it should be kept secret or the FBI would accuse the organization of fouling its investigation.
Wilkinson threatened to sue City Weekly when we disclosed that she had “leaked” the geld document to the target of the federal investigation, Tom Welch. She and her attorney said they didn’t leak it, but provided the document under an agreement to share information with Welch. That, of course, is true, even though Romney told news media he would be “very surprised” if she had provided the document to Welch after warning the Management Committee to keep it under wraps.
After a long ruckus, including statements from City Weekly that Romney had promised to make all documents public, he released the geld document to reporters. Now individual IOC members say they intend to sue SLOC for the document that makes them look like shakedown artists. What’s a mother to do?
They love to drink Down Under. That’s no surprise, but the notion was reinforced recently in a front-page story by Salt Lake Tribune reporter Linda Fantin. The Trib has sent several dozen reporters to cover the events in Sydney. Drinking, apparently, is one of them, although at this writing swilling Foster’s lager has yet to be sanctioned as an Olympic sport.
In her story in the Sunday paper, Fantin gave a rundown of some of the slang Aussies use to describe libation: “bevvie,” “bobbie,” “butcher” and “pig’s ear” are just some of the names Fantin came across in what appears to be a well-researched story. (The Deseret News sent fewer reporters to Sydney, apparently deciding that not everything about Australian life should be included in their coverage.) Other terms the reporter came across included “heart-starter” and “leg-opener,” referring to drinks intended for seducing women.
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