If this whole Olympic torch business has taught me anything

[Robb]

...it's that I don't know a thing about most stuff. To wit:

ISLAMABAD: The Olympics torch relay was held in a peaceful manner in front of Liaquat Gymnasium here on Wednesday....

The Olympics torch was handed over to the President and Prime Minister who then delivered it to former Pakistan hockey star Samiullah. Former squash star Jahangir Khan completed the relay, which involved 66 people running laps around the stadium. “Squash has never been in the Olympics and it was my dream to play in the Olympics but that never happened. But today I felt I was doing the finishing line here,” Jahangir said.

(more)



So, two things I learned today:

1) There is hockey in Pakistan.

2) There are people who are considered "squash stars." :D

[rockymountaindem]

1. "Hockey" probably means field hockey

and "squash star" is relative. I'm sure there are "vacuuming stars" too, and I say that who has enjoyed playing squash every time he's tried it.

[DarkTirade]

2. Mmm... squash...

although I prefer sweet potato. :P

[Chan790]

3. Did you know...

the word yam was born of a misunderstanding.

The sailors of the one of the colonial powers (England, I think) observed the native West Africans digging this tuber out of the ground and asked what it was called. The West Africans, who generally didn't name things because they considered it unimportant (they also didn't have a strong idea of possessions), called it "nyami", which means "It's something to eat." This word was adopted by the sailors as the name of this type of sweet tuber native to West Africa and the word came to be bastardized to "yam".

[tjwmason]

4. Hockey's big in Pakistan, if memory serves

though of course this is field hockey rather than ice hockey.

[Rhiannon12866]

5. Thanks for sharing the information!

You're definitely not a dingbat...:hi: