Conflating two memeries

[oursin]

My head has put together that 'strange customs of your people' thing that was going around a couple of weeks ago, with the 'new Olympic events' thing, and come up with:

Guaranteed Gold for Team GB in 2012!

with the following suggested Olympic sports:
- Grumbling
- Queuing
- Understatement
- Heroic failure
- Stiff upper lip

Comments

[wordweaverlynn]

Have you read Calvin Trillin? He's a delightful writer who often focuses on food (although he covers deaths, too, and politics). Think of him as an older version of Bill Bryson much more interested in eating than beer or walking.

He once wrote:
English people apparently queue up as a sort of hobby. A family man might pass a mild autumn evening by taking the wife and kids to stand in the cinema queue for a while and then leading them over for a few minutes in the sweetshop queue and then, as a special treat for the kids, saying “Perhaps we’ve time to have a look at the Number Thirty-One bus queue before we turn in.” - Calvin Trillin: American Fried.

[hitchhiker]

If you enjoy Bill Bryson and his ilk, check out George Mikes too. Delightful stuff.

[rosathome]

On the basis that most of our medals have been won sitting down (cycling, rowing, riding etc.), may I suggest 'having a nice cup of tea and a sit down'?

[altariel]

I read your post and thought, "Oh, but surely we have nothing to grumble about given this current Olympic gold rush!" and then clicked on to the BBC website to see the headline: "Is Britain too good at cycling?" So, yes, a gold.

[mrissa]

I don't know, dear, the Commonwealth countries each get their own medals, so Canada might challenge at Understatement. The rivalry between University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin Men's Understatement teams is pretty fierce, but those teams are stacked with Canadians who would compete for their own country in the Olympics. (Women's Understatement is more or less a rout for the University of North Dakota in the US collegiate competitions.)

[shiv5468]

We appear to have developed a new sport of gloating, at least as regards the Australians.