And now for today's Winter Olympics Update, a periodic feature that will appear on the Blob whenever I remember to do it:

One thing these Games will not go down in history for is their sterling mojo. Indeed, the Olympic gremlins seem determined to ruin everything; bad karma has attached itself to the Vancouver Olympics like a leech armed with Super Glue.

Consider:

* The horrific death of the Georgian luger on a training run before the Games even started got things off to just a wonderful start. It cast a pall over the opening ceremonies, and painted the Vancouver organizers in an absurd light when they tried to claim that the venue itself wasn't at fault.

Uh, guys, news flash: When you build a venue that sends lugers into the most treacherous turn on the course at close to 100 mph and then line the outside of the turn with steel beams, that's a problem with the venue. It is, in fact, virtually asking for someone to die.

* Moving right along, the opening ceremonies themselves were dazzling until the climactic moment, when one of the supports for the cauldron refused to work ... leaving Steve Nash and the Great One, Wayne Gretzky, standing there with frozen little grins on their faces. An exceedingly awkward moment.

* Moving right along some more, the men's super-combined Alpine skiing event had to be pushed back today because, get this, it was snowing. Not to be outdone by Mother Nature, one of the speed skating events was set back because of a Zamboni malfunction.

Seriously, people. This is Canada. How hard can it be to find a working Zamboni? Doesn't every Canadian keep one in his garage?

All for now.

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