I will admit, I had to look up what the word “sheen” meant.
Sheen (noun): A soft luster on a surface.
Originally, my mind went right to Charlie Sheen, who is a man of many colors. Mostly white. But this word seems to stick out in a New York Times article that has a lot of words and phrases that should shock any human being that is reading it. Sheen refers to the colorful film that exists on the surface of the water that the 2016 Olympians must compete in while in Rio this summer.
NY Times Article: KEEP YOUR MOUTH CLOSED
I have heard a lot about the water in Rio, along with the rampant crime and general malfeasance. Nothing too too positive. I had not read anything in depth on the issue, mainly because I do not plan on watch the Olympics. However, with an article entitled “Keep Your Mouth Shut” highlighted on the NY Times website, claiming that these world-class athletes must now train themselves to literally keep their mouths closed when competing in the water, it certainly creates a level of curiosity. The author quotes a dude who fishes in these waters that says that he picks up TV sets and dead dogs in the water. Dead dogs. And it is said so matter-of-factly that it seems to not be the most ridiculous thing to happen during his day.
Now on the one hand, I can see someone yelling “done” once they hear one more god damned thing about the 2016 election and throwing their TV into the ocean. You know, if you live on the coast and have just had enough. Just to point out, that this is absolutely an ethnocentric view because I doubt that Brazilians give a shit about American politics. Judging by this article, they have had enough to worry about in their own country. But a dog? Was the dog dead already when you threw it in the ocean? Since the guy says “dogs,” I imagine we could get multiple interesting answers to this question, but dammit. Dead, floating dogs.
As a dog owner, I feel that I have the authority to cry into the keys on my laptop thinking about dead dogs adding to the multi-colored sheen that exists on the Olympic-training waters. A lot of the athletes had already pulled out of the Olympics because of the Zika virus and water quality in Brazil, but I think this would be where I drew the line. Dead dogs floating in the water. Even if I was competing in basketball and would never see the water, just having the knowledge that dogs are floating around outside would make my decision easy.
Why is it always dogs? The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi had all of the stray dogs running around, which was its own sub-story of the Winter Games. This story had everyone in America up in arms. And now this. Dead dogs in the water. I don’t want to know where this trend goes with the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang (took me 8 tries to get that right). I just hope the next scandal can involve stray cats or floating humans. You know, stories that don’t pull on the heart strings. Let’s leave the dogs out of this.