If They Don’t Eat Their Words, at Least They Can Eat the Plates

These are not quite the Greenpeace Games, but give Norwegians credit for trying to take the eco-route in the Winter Olympics.

The bobsled run is made of wood, not metal, and is tucked into a forest, invisible from the road. The Viking Ship, the speedskating arena, is already a landmark. The hockey rink blasted out of a mountain is a huge energy-saver. The Olympic torch burns “bio-gas” produced from rotting vegetation. A smoke-free environment is encouraged. Signs are made of recyclable cardboard.

Get this: Officials even plan to send volunteers into the woods to gather the bullets fired in the biathlon.

Someone, obviously with too much time to kill, even came up with the notion of eating the plates. No kidding. In Lillehammer, you eat the meal and what it is served on--the plates of dull white with a blue ring around the edge made of potato starch. John Eisenberg of the Baltimore Sun, who dined on the trendy cuisine, broke off pieces and tried his with sugar, salt and butter.

It gave new meaning to the phrase “blue plate special.” It also reminded people of the Albertville Games in 1992.

“The French basically put a jackhammer to their beautiful Savoie region, bulldozing acres of forest, building a highway across wetlands and erecting a bobsled run cooled by poisonous gas,” Eisenberg wrote. “It was the first Winter Olympics with coughing as a medal event.”

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Trivia time: Who are the only two men to coach in both the NBA and CBA All-Star games?

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Aw, the Veeck with it: Imagine a Veeck being against a publicity windfall such as Michael Jordan signing with the Chicago White Sox. But that is what has happened, with Michael Veeck, the 42-year-old son of Bill Veeck, the late legendary owner of the same team, angry at the hypocrisy of it all.

“When (current owner) Jerry Reinsdorf bought the team from my dad, he said, ‘Now we’re going to bring style to the South Side. The circus is over.’ When he calls my lineage into question, I can’t ever forget that.

“As a Veeck, I’d kill for this type of ink, but it just doesn’t feel right. The game is the crown jewel. Here you have the greatest team player in sports being put in position as a team-breaker.

“My dad devoted his life to the game with the idea that baseball is entertainment. But Michael Jordan, he’s only a money-making machine to these guys.”

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Garden party: The Boston Celtics probably should have warned rookie Dino Radja. They should have told him the other 26 arenas in the NBA aren’t like Boston Garden, that he shouldn’t necessarily turn around and go back to play in Europe. Instead, he found out on his own.

“(Boston Garden) is a bad place,” said Radja, the Croatian star who had spent the last three seasons playing in Italy after the Celtics drafted him in 1989. “Bad place, bad place. It’s great history, like playing in a museum. When you enter inside, it’s like a special feeling when you step on the court. That was the first place I step in. But after, when I step in other places, I see what kind of hole it is.”

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Just wondering: Did the Kings and the Pittsburgh Penguins break new ground with Tuesday’s Marty McSorley-Shawn McEachern deal? Has it ever happened that two players were involved in a trade for each other, then shipped back in another trade for each other? And in the same season?

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Little Bo sneak: From Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune:

“The Angels have confirmed that Bo Jackson will be wearing their uniform in an upcoming shoe commercial in which Bo sneaks up behind Gene Autry and pulls the wool over his eyes.”

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Trivia answer: George Karl and Phil Jackson.

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Quotebook: Dave Barry of the Miami Herald on Tonya Harding: “The FBI is now saying that she can clearly be seen in frames 189 and 190 of the Zapruder film.”