Dan has goaded me into putting up "something" to accommodate any chatter focused on good things, like puppies and sunshine and who's going to win the Olympic road races. Somehow I doubt either puppies or sunshine will be in abundance tomorrow night/Saturday. [Aside: this international date line is going to be a killer, I predict. It's like carrying the one in math: who has time to figure out the time difference and the day? For that matter, why does some part of the world have to be languishing in tomorrow or yesterday? Why can't it just always be today?]

As for the race, if Cadel Evans' knee is truly OK, add one more name to the finale. The fave has to be Valverde, but I'm going with Davide Rebellin. Or the Iranian guy. And Marianne Vos. Discuss!

Update: and don't miss the VN photo gallery from today (a/k/a yesterday). Gotta ask: if they hadn't curbed pollution, would these photos just be completely dark?