The other night while having dinner on our deck on a warm summer evening we heard automatic weapons fire. We live in the suburbs of Denver, about a mile as the crow flies from the Family Shooting Center in Cherry Creek State Park. We often hear the peppering of gunfire as people shoot and train with handguns and rifles. It is background noise for us, … Continue reading Guns In My Backyard
There was never a dull moment with Hunter S. Thompson. He wrote this cover letter in 1958. Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times shared it today with his Facebook fans and remarked that it was the best job application letter he ever read. It also appeared in the Fear and Loathing Letters Vol. 1. We miss Hunter S. Thompson in Colorado. When he died … Continue reading How Hunter S. Thompson Looked for a Job
When I’ve produced stories in the past I’ve always been on location with my crew. But times in television, well sometimes, they are a changing. This story about the serious problem being caused by an overpopulation of Moose in Newfoundland was a collaboration between cameraman Greg Locke of Straylight Media in Newfoundland and me in Colorado. We met via Google. I set up the story … Continue reading The New Normal: Moose in Newfoundland
Several of my friends and even my family think social networking is a waste of time. They won’t Facebook, Twitter or read blogs and can’t really understand what I get from it. I’ve found the most vehement opposition from my tango dancing mother and my friends who are cyclists. These are not ladies who exercise casually, but rather women who compete on the dance floor, do … Continue reading Favorite Friends I’ve Never Met
Just another couple of days and I’ll be heading home from Vancouver. Didn’t want to leave the Olympic city without sharing this commercial with you. Over the course of the games, out of the corner of my eye, I kept joining this television ad in progress. I never quite grasped what it was about because I didn’t see it in its entirety until tonight. It … Continue reading Tim Horton’s Coffee Commercial
It’s hard to believe that the Olympics are almost at an end. It is already Day 15. Soon the closing ceremony will be here and the torch will be extinguished and it’s all over. Vancouver will be back to its old self with perhaps a wicked Olympic hangover. It happens every time a city returns to normal after being the center of the sporting universe. … Continue reading Olympic Moments
I was in a beer garden in Vancouver’s Yaletown when a guy draped in an American flag strutted in. He was carrying on like Superman, all layered up in red, white and blue and making lots of noise. Boy, did he rile up the Canadians. After all today is the Canada versus USA men’s hockey match and as friendly as we are with our neighbors to the north, this … Continue reading Hockey Night in Canada
Walking down Granville Street in Vancouver tonight I saw something you hardly ever see in the United States. Twenty something girls playfully singing and strutting to their national anthem. They were on the crosswalk and at the top of their lungs they were singing “Oh, Canada, our home and native land…” Of course patriotism and spirit are running high at the Olympics but the Canadians also have a very singable … Continue reading Oh Canada
My 16 year old son is mad at me. When I call home his anger is palpable. He does not understand why I leave home for extended periods of time every couple of years to work at the Olympics. He won’t listen when I try to explain so I’m putting it out to the world. Being part of a production team at the Olympics is, … Continue reading Why I Work at the Olympics
I walked out of my hotel room this morning carrying a plastic bottle of water and by the time I was at the front desk it was empty. I handed it to the concierge and asked if he could throw it out. Before I could correct myself a hotel manager did it for me. Recycle! From what I can tell, Canada is an enlightened country. There are as many … Continue reading Enlightened Canada
Vicky Collins Online 