Paul, the oracle octopus who made such mythical predictions as Serbia over Germany while correctly calling the result of every German game at the 2010 World Cup has died. He was 2 1/2 years old, had nine brains, three hearts and feared no Argentine chef.

According to Bloomberg, he will be cremated.

Photo via Times Online

I wonder if the people behind the Garmisch Ski Resort’s bid to be part of the 2018 Olympic site have heard of Allianz, the German insurance firm who made a bid for the naming rights of the new Giants/Jets stadium who were nixed after it was discovered that they had ties to the Nazis? The Garmisch must not have, if they actually believe that their Olympic bid is going to work.

Times Online (UK) reports that the Bavarian ski resort, which lies in a town that in the 1930s was “rabidly anti-semitic,” and had to undergo “a comprehensive clean-up to present the sunny face of Nazi Germany” (????) before the 1936 Summer games in Germany,  will be part of the proposal that the German delegation will bring forth next month in Vancouver as part of a bid for Munich to be the 2018 host of the Olympics.

On the surface, Garmisch resembles a typical picture postcard Alpine community, with wooden chalets, flower tubs and the ice-clad Zugspitze mountain looming over the valley, and it is still proud of the last time that it was the site of a Winter Olympics -1936.

In the 1930s, though, the town was rabidly anti-Semitic, so much so that worried sports managers ordered a cover-up lest bad publicity jeopardise the success of the Summer Olympics in Berlin which Hitler wanted to be a showpiece of Aryan superiority.

The organiser of the summer Olympics, Carl Diem, visited Garmisch in 1935 and did not like what he saw. Nazi party rallies were stirring up hatred against Jews, he said, and the anti-Semitic newspaper “Der Stuermer” was on sale everywhere.

Definitely the best plan I’ve heard since I heard about the All-American Basketball Alliance yesterday.

And interestingly enough, the key player in this bid is Willy Bogner, who’s father delivered the Olympic oath in the presence of Adolf Hitler.

If this works out, it’s not going to make Oprah’s unsuccessful stumping for Chicago look that good.

Some cool hell on wheels news of the International persuasion, women’s flat-track squads from Birmingham (UK) and Stuttgart (Deutschland) will face off at the end of the month in Germany. The teams met in the first ever European cross-border battle in November ’08, with Birmingham giving Stuttgart the business, edging out a victory 81-75. They’ll rematch on Jan. 31 in the New Year’s Massacre.

Check out the Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames and Stuttgart Valley Roller Girlz team sites for more info

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