Before I begin to discuss what I am itching to discuss, I want to share with you a home remedy that appears not only to work, but work well. And, as a little kid who had ear infections for years, this one is something that I wish my Grandma had known about.
When I was little and got an ear infection, my grandmother used to take salt and heat it up in a pan and then wrap it in a cloth and make a little pouch. I was then given the pouch, which I pressed to my ear. And I have to tell you, I did the same thing for my children because it is comforting. I don’t know how much it actually works but with a little hot oil in your ear, the pain is definitely helped. But, regardless, here is the remedy that I heard the other day, which they say does work... you take a clove of garlic, dip it in olive oil and put it in the child’s ear. To prevent the oily clove from popping out of the ear, you should put a band-aid over his or her ear hole. And that’s it. The pain goes away and for some reason the garlic helps the infection. Don’t laugh, it does work and it is a lot easier to work with than some nasty tasting antibiotic - and cheaper too.
But what I really wanted to discus was the Olympics. Now, I know that they are long over but I am still crabbing about the ice skating and specifically the pairs ice skating competition. Did you see it? Well, as you probably know, the figure skating is a judged sport, which means someone decides what is perfect, good or poor. But, to me, there doesn’t seem to be any touch to reality! The couple who skated perfectly and had no falls or anything didn’t get a particularly high score. I thought that they did wonderfully, but the judges, not so much. And then the couples from China, Germany and I can’t remember which other country, who were all considered “the favorites,” skated well but had lots of errors that even I could see. And several of them fell!
For me, this brings up the whole discussion of not only figure skating but judged competitions. I can remember the first time I saw Scott Hamilton skate and he was by far the best one in the competition. In fact, he was so good he made the rest look worse than they were. The commentator did say however, he was fabulous but that he couldn’t win because he had to “pay his dues.” Now, I assume that he meant that he was young and new to the sport and needed to be around for a while before they would grant him a win. I thought then and I think now that this is outrageous. Either you are the best or you aren’t. Several years later, of course, he went on to be the fantastic skater that he continues to be today. I guess he stayed around long enough to be able to win!
But this isn’t true of the competitors in the Olympics, especially the pairs. Most of them have been around for a while but again, for some of them it was their first Olympics. That they were flawless and terrific appears to have no touch to reality. And the older, more seasoned skaters won even though they were obviously not the best nor the most error free. What I really would like to know is who gets what to make their decision? Do the winners slip a little cash gift to the judges? We know that this has happened in the past, but people like me want to believe that those days are past. And what is the foolishness about having to “pay your dues” before you can win? Fair is fair and it would appear that figure skating still hasn’t figured out how to play fair. Give me a timed event every time. If you are the fastest no one can award the trophy to whoever pays them the most or is the politically correct competitor. Nope, whoever is the fastest wins and that my friends, is my idea of how it should be.
