Olympic notes: is Chad Hedrick from Spring or Houston?

Chad Hedrick may be a bigger star than Bode Miller once the Olympics are over.

As you may have heard, Hedrick, pictured here to the right, won the gold in his first event and could win more as he has four more events.

The speed skater from Spring (who's from "Houston" according to NBC; why do they always lump the small towns around Houston in with Houston?) is the anti-Bode Miller, who's given to the shocking, headline/sound bite-making remark.

Chad says all the right things. He won the gold on the 13th anniversary of his granny's death, of which he made mention. And he said he cried before the event cause of all the emotion. And his daddy wore a black cowboy hat as he looked on at his son win. That's good All-America TV...
Even saying that, Bode Miller, the downhill skier, seems like a pretty cool guy. Check out his Web site. Be sure to click on the outhouse pic. The outhouse is his fortress of solitude. Everybody needs one...

Of course, it's all designed to get you to buy some products from the fine folks at Nike. If a $90 Nike gym bag is your bag, go for that Olympic gusto. Be all you can be, OK? ...
During the couples figure skating on Saturday night, one duo did a routine to a Led Zepellin song. Wonder if Plant/Paige/Bonham/Jones get a royalty for that...
Best TV commercial so far? Pace Picante Sauce. A bullrider's atop his ride, in the chute. Two cowpokes are looking on. One tells the other that the bullrider about to go for a ride is "from New York City." The chute opens. Suddenly, as the New York City rider hangs on as the bull gives the first big buck, an airbag pops out to protect his citified self...

I sort of half-watched the opening ceremonies on Friday night, but my attention definitely was grabbed when I heard a Barry White song as the athletes marched into the stadium. It was just one of many, many disco songs played during the processional. "We wanted to make a beautiful party," explained Marco Balich, the creative manager, to the LA Times Bill Plaschke. "The music of the '70s and '80s is party music. We wanted to have a fun parade. We wanted to have fun."

Plaschke, to his credit, wasn't buying it, writing, "The mission of these Winter Olympics, stated in the hopeful oath of its athletes, is to strive for the sublime.

"But, first stop, Funkytown."