Mark’s Musings – August 10, 2016
Mark Fortune
The Olympics are hitting their stride, we just had the opportunity here in Ohio to shop and purchase without paying any state sales tax – nice idea – and baseball is in full swing.
The USA sent 583 athletes to the Rio Olympic Games and is competing in 248 scheduled events. As of Monday noon, the US of A had won 12 overall medals with China second at 8. The US women should win the basketball gold – although as the Russians will recall – nothing is guaranteed in the Olympics.
The Italians are right behind the Chinese with seven overall medals. No, they are not competing in wine making, wine drinking or any pasta contests. Let’s give the Italians their due at the Olympics – they won a gold medal in fencing and judo, a bronze in cycling and swimming and silver in fencing, judo and diving.
The American 4×100 freestyle men’s swimmers won gold and Michael Phelps helped propel the team to victory and claimed his 19th gold medal and 23rd career medal in his now fourth Olympics games. He will be fun to watch as the games continue. To say that Phelps will go down in history as one of the greatest Olympic athletes of all time is a great understatement.
We have less than three months to the Presidential Election and, in talking with most folks, we can’t wait for it to be over. It’s almost like putting Christmas decorations out in early October – but even that is not as long as we will have to endure the tasteless and vicious attacks by the candidates and all of those supporting them that have something to gain – or lose – in this contest.
Perhaps one of the most watched events of the Rio Olympics will be Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt competing in the men’s 100 meter final – the time is this Sunday evening, Aug. 14 at 9:45 p.m. The preliminaries are this Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. If Bolt wins gold in these Olympic Games he is destined to go down in history as one of the greatest of all time. You can rest assured that the fans from Jamaica and perhaps around the world will be rooting him on. We seem to love champions and underdogs. Speaking of Underdog, what ever happened to that lovable mutt?
Let’s turn to the local scene for a moment – lots going on and lots coming up. A busy weekend just concluded with the 50th annual River View Park Social and the always fun filled and eventful Beaver Run Duck Race. The White Night event hosted by the Johnson Humrickhouse Museum was another fun event and the 25th anniversary of Leadership Coshocton County dinner at Raven’s Glenn was held over the weekend.
Coming up this Thursday (Aug. 11) is the always popular “Taste of Coshocton” event held at the Lake Park Pavilion. It’s always delicious, always fun and always for a good cause – the United Way of Coshocton County. Thanks to those that invest their time and energy to make all of these events happen in our community. We are indeed blessed.
Category: Mark's Musings, Opinion
