Bones In Paris

TigerBlog went to empty the compost bin the other day when all of the sudden his kitchen was besieged by fruit flies.

They were everywhere. It was awful.

So how do you get rid of them? TigerBlog took the internet and read that if you put a bowl with two cups of apple cider vinegar and a splash of dish soap and leave it on the counter, the fruit flies can't resist them.

Okay. What could be the harm? So TB put out two bowls on either side of the counter and then went about his business. 

About an hour later, he went back to check on the bowls. And what did he find? Basically every fruit fly in the neighborhood came back, dove into the mixture and, well, died. 

It was amazing. Things don't usually work that well. The only downside was the smell of the apple cider vinegar, which can be a bit overwhelming. Still, it was a good trade-off.

This is TB's public service announcement for today.

Meanwhile, the 2024 Summer Olympics in France are (un)officially underway. The first events, mostly early group rugby and soccer games, started today, with the official Opening Ceremonies to be held on the Seine Friday. 

TB mentioned yesterday that the best way to follow is the Olympic website and the best way to follow Princetonians in Paris is with the Princeton Athletics microsite.

To those two, TB now adds another way. 

Sean Gregory, the Princeton men's basketball alum from the legendary Class of 1998, has spent most of his professional career as a sportswriter for Time Magazine. One of his best assignments through those years has been his coverage of the Olympics, which is really second to none.

Gregory, whose nickname at Princeton was "Bones," is in Paris, sort of another Tiger In Paris.

The path to the Olympic village dining hall that used to be a Paris power plant feels like the UN of mess. Follow along these next few weeks for such killer observations and more! pic.twitter.com/HS1hyULtbw

— Sean Gregory (@seanmgregory) July 23, 2024

Bones covers the Olympics the way TB would if he had that job. He writes about the people more than the results, and he does so in a way that very few people can match. He is a truly great storyteller. 

For instance, remember yesterday, when TB mentioned that breakdancing is now an Olympic sport? Well, TB learned a lot more when he read the story that Gregory wrote about an Afghani breaker who found the sport in an unlikely way and in a very unlikely place. It included this paragraph:

So once Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021, following the withdrawal of U.S. troops, Talash and her breaking crew had to make a wrenching choice: live under Taliban oppression and give up breaking, risk their lives in Afghanistan by continuing to break under the Taliban, or leave their families and flee the country to pursue their passion. “If you want to do something to reach your dreams, or want to tell people who you are, where you’re from, and what you want to do, then let’s go,” says Talash. “This is the moment we need to leave.” 

Then there was his profile last month about American sprinter Noah Lyles. It starts this way: 

Noah Lyles should be a miserable human on this suffocatingly hot May morning near Orlando. Two nights earlier, the U.S. sprint star was up until 3 a.m. in the Bahamas, waiting on a delayed drug test after a race. You can still spot fatigue under his eyes.

Lyles, however, can summon social energy on command, and today he’s yapping away between stretches and sprints: about his love of anime, how he needs a pedicure, how he’s the most fashionable guy in all of track and field. He had been absent from the past few practices while running in Nassau, where he and his 4 × 100-m relay team took first place. “We did miss you,” one of Lyles’ training partners, Paralympic sprinter Nick Mayhugh, tells him. “But did we enjoy the peace and quiet of the past two days? Yes.”

They make you want to read more, don't they? Well, you can if you click HERE and HERE.

It'll be more of the same for the duration of the Games.

Make sure you're following him for the next two weeks. He's another Princetonian in Paris to root for during these Games.