Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Nyam some Yam

Nyam is the Jamaican Patois word for eat. When we were living in Kingston in the 70's, there was a fast food chain that sold nyamburgers instead of hamburgers.

In the just completed Olympics, Usain Bolt's father credited his son's outstanding performance in track and field to yellow yam, which, along with boiled green bananas, is one of my favorite foods.

I googled the words yam bolt and was fascinated to get 395,000 hits. I also googled the words yam bolt father and got 102,000 hits.

Reuters has an article from August 16, titled Bolt's gold down to yam power, father says.

The Jamaica Gleaner has an article from August 25, titled Yellow Yam - Worth its weight in gold.

My sister Marianne sent me the following in an email, titled Suspected PEDs Mailed to JA's Olympic Camp in Beijing/Ja only.
A 200 kilo shipment of suspected Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED) addressed to the Jamaican track team at the Olympic Village was seized by authorities at the Wong Hung Lo docks in Beijing early this morning. Coming on the heels of the disclosure that a member of the JA team has tested positive for a banned substance, the news has rocked the JAAA and cast an even greater pall over the team's preparations for the Games.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior customs inspector told Reuters that suspicions were aroused by the bulky and lumpy shipment which was wrapped in rough, dirty burlap. Stenciled in bold letters on the bag was the address of the Jamaican team at the Village and also the words:

DELIVER TO ASAFA, USAIN, VERONICA and KERRON ... DEM CYAAN RUN GOOD WITHOUT IT.

Upon opening the package, dozens and dozens of a dirty, tubular product was discovered and immediately sent to the WADA lab in Beijing for testing. Chinese customs are certain that they have intercepted a shipment of pure, unprocessed steroids and have put the IAAF and the JAAA on notice that severe action will be taken as soon as WADA confirms their findings.

The picture below is of one of the mystery 'products' from the shipment and was taken at the lab just before testing commenced. We will update this story as soon as there is more to report as indeed the entire world of track and field anxiously awaits WADA's report.


The moral of the story is that if you want to run like lightning you will have to nyam some yam.