Wendy's wonderful world of whimsies

Greetings, gorgeous ones.

As the great baseball player, ‘Yogi’ Berra said so eloquently, "Half this game is 90 per cent mental".

In this edition, Wendy girds her loins in anticipation of the Olympics.

But first, have a look at the Demotivational Series.

Are you absolutely fed up with the hype and glamour that seems to go hand-in-glove with the modern Olympic experience? A lovely antidote is this site developed by the Perseus Project at Tufts University. Just ignore the references to the Atlanta Games and dive right in and you can rediscover the beauty and wonder of the ancient Olympics. The site offers a tour of Olympia as it looks today along with some fab bios of Olympians who were famous in ancient times, including Diagoras of Rhodes, who was a beaut boxer. Apparently the citizens of Rhodes claimed that he was the son of Hermes, which explained his supernatural prowess. Yeah, right, probably an IVF child.

Back to the here and now.

Does Sydney have an ego or what! Not only do they snaffle the 2000 Olympics, but they’re also hosting the 6th Gay Games, scheduled for November 2002.   Want to find out more about this fabulous sporting and cultural festival? Just tippee-toe over to: www.gaygamesvi.org.au/index2.html and be impressed. I think they could teach SOCOG a thing or two. The Federation of Gay Games is about perpetuating and safeguarding the founding principles of inclusion, participation, and the pursuit of personal best.

Hear, hear.

And for all those who have developed an allergy to any word beginning with the letter "O" (sorry), and who would rather be anywhere else on the planet than Sydney in September (what a great name for a song - perhaps Slim Dusty could have a go?) - I offer the ultimate escape: meander over to www.away.com and you can plan your next flight of fancy. I intend to be at cyber-Lake Como for the duration, pretending to have a squillion dollars, slurping on Peach Bellinis and practising my Italian on a gorgeous young man named Antonio.

Sigh.

And while I’m at Lake Como, I’ll be thinking of real heroes from my childhood. Like Shintaro, the Samurai. Remember him, the master swordsman and his faithful sidekick Tombei (AKA The Mist) from the Iga Ninja?

For a truly nostalgic trip, hurl your shuriken (baby boomers will know what I mean) at: www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Taping/8248/samurai/index.html.

Until next time, dear reader.

"We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality" Albert Einstein