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Calgarian Duff Gibson’s gold medal not only proves that he can hurl himself down an icy chute on a tea tray at higher speed than anyone else in the world, it also revived the Olympic dream for many of us. At 39, he had 4 years and 0.26 of a second on silver medalist Jeff Pain of Calgary, 2 years and 0.92 of a second on bronze medalist Gregor Staehli of Switerland, and 8 years and 1.12 seconds on fourth place finisher Paul Boehm of Calgary. In fact, you have to go all the way down to seventh place before finding a youngster still in his twenties. Hurrah, geezers!

When it comes to matters of consequence, Zev Borow, regular contributor to fine publications such as Spin, The New Yorker and McSweeney’s, knows where it’s at. About his inspiration to “cover” a Duran Duran song for Lit Riffs, he writes:

I sort of think you can divide the world into people who appreciate Duran Duran, and people who don’t, and I’d rather vacation with the people who do. To me, Duran Duran in general, and “Rio” in particular, shimmer with the absolute brain-freeze purity of pop-rock’s transcendent ridiculousness, whatever that means.

Some of our favourite current events weirdness from the past year:

1. End of Ze World
2. Harlan McCraney: Presidential Speechalist featuring Andy Dick and Arianna Huffington
3. Raj Binder discovers curling (December 9 episode). Raj made it onto CBC’s Top 100 of 2005 media list, just 3 spots below Toro magazine.
4. Bush in Freefall. Use your mouse to give him a kick if he gets stuck.