"Long Live the King..."

I'm no different than anyone else; a lot of the experiences and events in my life which I gleefully describe as something close to paranormal, can also be explained by mathematical coincidence and normal statistical variance.  ("I don't care what anyone says...I made the dog bark with my mind!")  However, the event which occurred this past Monday night (9/10/12) on WWE's (Pro wrestling) television broadcast is too chilling to dismiss so easily.

Jerry "The King" Lawler, is 62 years old and a semi-retired Pro wrestler, who shares commentary duties with Michael Cole on WWE's "Monday Night RAW" broadcast.  He stepped into the ring in one of the earlier matches to continue a feud which had been started a couple of episodes ago.    My wife walked into the room and I updated her as to the current state of affairs with the wrestlers in that match.  After pointing out that Jerry was the oldest guy in the ring, I informed her that sometimes they like to bring former "superstars" out of retirement to battle and put the younger upstarts in their places...and usually  the fans love it.

However; I couldn't help but add that I worry about what kind of shape the older stars were in whenever the script called for them to join in the fracas with the younger guys, and whether they might sometimes be too complacent and not shape up enough to stay in touch with the highly-trained and skilled current guys.  I openly stated that (and I actually used Jerry as my example), I hope that none of them push themselves too far because they're having too much fun remembering the good ol' days.  (Especially true for Jerry as I learned that he still mixes it up once or twice a week on the side - so it would be very easy for him to fall into the trap of not realizing his limits have changed.)  I finished by saying how easy it would be to make it through the match, but incur a heart attack later as the body catches the brain up on its condition.

Then, it happened.  Less than 30 minutes later, his co-announcer (Cole) comes on camera with an obviously solemn expression that Jerry had indeed just collapsed only minutes ago and had to be given CPR before rushed off the the local hospital.

No; I'm not trying to lay claim to any special prescient ability here - despite being open-minded, I'm still quite rational.  Nevertheless; the fact that it happened right after I had mentioned it, in pretty much the same manner I had described it, to the specific person I had used as an example...

...well, that shit has a way of sticking around your thoughts for quite a long time.  Kinda' makes me want to casually discuss >how many former wrestlers with the first name of "Jerry" survive heart attacks with no loss in ability" - just to balance out the karma, ya' know?

Olympics

I'm finding the NBC coverage of the 2012 Olympics to be more interesting and engaging than their coverage of prior Olympiads.  In the past, NBC always seemed to practice such deep bias in favor of the U.S. athletes that I would literally choke on too much "rah, rah".  I root for the U.S. just as much as anyone else, but I see U.S. athletes for 200 weeks between every Olympiad.  I tune in to the Olympics as a reminder that there are other countries and other athletes out there and I want to see what they look like, what they're good and not good at, what are their personal stories, how nuts do their fans get when their team is ahead, etc., etc.  With so much time devoted to our own athletes, I feel like I'm watching propaganda, not sports.  This year's coverage, however, has been far more broad, inclusive and informative and I don't feel like I'm seeing less of the U.S. efforts.  Good work.  Now, I can feel some of that "Olympic Spirit".