Here's how Olympics end for journalists: On board a media bus on the final day, with exhausted colleagues slumped against windows or slowly tipping forward in their seats, their chins dropping to their chests as they doze off. Like a track coach talking to a runner, I always remind myself during the final days of the Olympics to run through the tape at the finish line. Don't ease up, because the Games aren't over. There will be time to relax and celebrate after the flame in the Olympic Stadium is extinguished.
Now the flame is out. I have one day of tying up loose ends for SI, preparing to fly home—and sneaking in a visit to the British Museum. Meanwhile, back in Maine, Pamelia and gang are making the final preparations for a wave of fun activities at The Naturalist's Notebook that start this Wednesday and continue through next week. We have dubbed next Tuesday, Aug. 21, as our first annual Big Bang Day—naturalist and writer Bernd Heinrich will be visiting and doing a talk and book signing, and Olympian Lynn Jennings will be talking about running and the Olympics and showing her bronze medal—but in truth, we're heading into a Big Bang WEEK. On Saturday the 18th, ornithologists Jeff and Allison Wells will be at the Notebook for a late afternoon walk, talk and signing for their book Maine's Favorite Birds, and throughout this week and next the Notebook will be holding all sorts of art workshops for people of all ages. I don't have the exact schedule with me here in London, but please call (207-801-2777) for all the specifics.
UPDATE: Just got this from Pamelia:
Children’s art workshops: Every Tuesday & Thursday, 10-noon With artist/photographer Elisa Hurley Portrait drawing workshop: Fridays, 2-5 p.m. With artist Kathy Coe Aug. 15: A fun dragonfly-themed dance, art and science workshop (for all ages) with acclaimed Broadway dancer Elizabeth Parkinson Aug. 18: Birding talk and book signing by noted ornithologists Jeffrey and Allison Wells, authors of Maine’s Favorite Birds, 4 p.m. Aug. 20: Notebook-organized talk by renowned naturalist and author Bernd Heinrich, to be held at SERC Institute in Schoodic, 7 p.m. Aug. 21: First Annual Big Bang Day: - Meet Olympic runner and naturalist Lynn Jennings (who’ll bring her bronze medal) for a midday picnic on the Seal Harbor green (bring your own lunch) and hear her talk about the Olympics with Sports Illustrated editor Craig Neff - 4 p.m. talk and book signing by naturalist and writer Bernd Heinrich Aug. 25: Encaustic painting workshop with Dina Helal of the Whitney Museum of American Art
There. Now, a few last photos from London:
One of the many treasures at the British Museum is the Rosetta Stone, whose engravings of the same words in multiple scripts were a key to the translation of hieroglyphics. It was discovered by Napoleon’s troops near Alexandria, Egypt.
This Roman copy of a Greek bronze sits beneath the museum’s grand dome. The sculpture was missing its head when it was found, so a head from a different statue was put onto it. The whole subject of artistic originals, copies and doctored copies is fascinating. I learned this week that John Keats was inspired to write his famous Ode on a Grecian Urn after seeing a Wedgwood copy of an urn…at the British Museum.
The museum’s cafe has food-related Shakespearean quotations on the walls. This one conveys a particularly visual image that might be fun for kids to draw. Lightning-bolt-shaped French fries? Mashed-potato fog? Tater-tot hailstones?
Never too early to start looking ahead to the Sochi Winter Olympics, to be held in Russia in February 2014. Pamelia and I will be visiting Sochi this November.
Here’s an early look at the Sochi 2014 Olympic mascots. At least they’re based on real animals.
The Sochi Paralympic mascots have a natural twist too.
The final word, posted on most of the doors here at the press center. When the Olympics are over, they’re over.
See you soon back in Maine...