...and you know what Laura Wilkinson looks like.

You can imagine how obtuse I feel right now.

I was under the delusion that Gary was writing the column BECAUSE he didn't have the picture and yet he found a way to communicate with WORDS exactly what Laura looked like at that moment.

DragonDawn didn't see the televised image and yet "I can see exactly what smile she had just from what he wrote".

If Gary had the picture why would he take the time to carefully craft such a column.

Take Frodo, take Laura...use your imagination, and like DragonDawn you "can see exactly what smile she had."

Isn't that why people write?

Gary, and a lovely piece detailing a true Olympic moment.

Or so I imagine.

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o306/piper909/Green_Playboy_Bunny.jpg

Ummmm. . . .

We know what freakin' Frodo looks like. The problem is that the article lacks a picture of Laura Wilkinson to confirm with that awww-snoogums cootsie-poo analogy.

Once again, a beautiful piece with wonderfully descriptive writing. I wish I'd seen Wilkinson's last dives, but I decided to watch 'Burn Notice' instead. Yeah yeah, I know...but hopefully I can still catch it on the web. Regardless, Gary Kamiya's beautiful writing expressed the emotion of the moment perfectly, and I can see exactly what smile she had just from what he wrote. I'm sorry she wasn't able to go out on top, but even according to Wilkinson herself in one of NBC's puff pieces, her body was done after years and years of basically throwing herself off a 3-story building into a pool of water. She's such a graceful diver, and a great athlete.

You complainers really need to get out more.

The movie won 11 Oscars for god's sake. What have you been doing for the last five years?

The reference was perfect and Gary deserves praise for conjuring up such an image on the occasion of such a sad sweet departure.

It may not be a reference to the Mona Lisa smile (do you know what that looks like?), but if I didn't know what Frodo's smile looked like I'd hide my ignorance and go rent the movie instead of expecting to be hand fed each cultural reference I needed to get by.

Great column Gary

Well, where the hell is it? Can we see too?

thanks! i felt it with you

a pic might help tho

Geez, you guys are stone-cold tough. Use your imagination if you haven't seen it! In this case, 485 words is worth a picture.

Nice article. I felt the same way when I watched it last night - that she was truly content.

http://www.geocities.com/c-leaper/frodo/Frodo071604.jpg

I've linked my signature to a site with a video of her final dives: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0821_hd_dvw_hl_l1574

Alternatively, go to www.nbcolympics.com - click on diving in the left hand nav, then click on videos on the left side panel.

:-)

if your going to talk about how something looks, let us see, too.

(i don't think there are copywrite issues, news is news)

It has been surprisingly difficult to get any information about the diving finals, other than the scores. I was watching the diving final last night when my cable box decided to reset itself. I missed the last round, including Wilkinson's last dive as well as the dives from the leaders. I figured it would be shown during NBC's 2 am replay, but no, they skipped it in favor of more beach volleyball. So I went online looking for video, pictures, anything - I haven't been able to find it.

...would linger in our memories a lot longer if you'd posted a picture or a link to it.

A "Frodo smile"???

Lord of the RINGS reference - see how that ties in with the Olympic Rings.

Godfrey Daniels!!!

You write about her smile--its message and depth and fullness--and don't show us a picture? I'd like to see it for myself. Are there copyright issues or something? Why not a photo of that last smile or youtube video or something?

Maybe some day when they invent a way to put pictures or video on the intertubes we'll know what a "Frodo smile" looks like. Until then we'll just assume it's totally awesome.