Columnist Susan Snyder: Naked truth about Olympics

Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2002 | 8:27 a.m.

Maybe they should be called the 2002 Wienie Games.

Or Weenie Games?

A friend of mine who lives in Northern Utah asked me late last week whether I'd heard about "the hot dog debacle," which has not received the notoriety of Skategate but is interesting just the same.

My friend says the Salt Lake Organizing Committee lifted its policy of barring people from carrying food into Olympic venues after vendors sold out of the more than 400,000 hot dogs they had purchased for sale at the games.

And speaking of being in a pickle, plenty of e-cackling was done over last week's tale of a Canadian reporter who was tossed out of his Salt Lake City hotel for wearing nothing more than a newspaper in the front lobby.

What's the gig with Canada this year?

Anyhow, according to Canada's National Post this reporter stepped just outside his room to pick up his morning paper wearing nothing but the sleepies in his eyes. The room door shut and locked behind him. He trotted to the front desk for another key while strategically covering himself with the paper in front and back. The news story says the guy was asked to pack up and leave after an argument with hotel security.

My friend wonders whether the reporter simply made the unfortunate choice of covering himself in the front with a Victoria's Secret ad, thereby offending Utah's state porn czar.

Hey, it could happen. The Utah porn czar spent about half of last year trying to figure out whether a Salt Lake City woman who mowed the lawn in her bathing suit was guilty of public lewdness.

Monday's edition of the Standard-Examiner, a newspaper in Ogden, Utah, now reports that school district officials one county away from the Olympic downhill venue at Snowbasin are thinking of yanking school support from "high risk" sports clubs for activities such as skiing.

It seems the state of Utah is asking all districts to withdraw school sanctioning of such sports because a state Supreme Court ruling says parents can't sign waivers or be held to agreements that they will assume the financial responsibilities for injuries to their children in such activities.

School districts that adopt the policy will basically be telling Utah students who choose skiing over football they can train for an Olympic gold medal but can't obtain a varsity letter for the jacket back home.

Pretty amazing, coming from the state that built one of the toughest Super-G downhill courses in history and is home to Picabo Street.

Lastly, Friend says a downside to Utah's legal ticket-scalping has emerged. He purchased biathlon (which they do, why?) passes from a local Rotary Club, which reportedly bought $17,000 worth of tickets and sold them to raise money to build a park for kids with disabilities.

Good plan, except the tickets didn't sell as hoped, he said. More than half were donated to local schools. Maybe they had too many curling passes.

But before you get too many giggles at the expense of our Utah brethren, remember where we live. We do absurd better than anyone on the planet. Daily.

On Saturday the Palms Casino Resort's new spa is hosting "Botox cocktail party," complete with injections by a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon.

They supply the Botox. You bring the wrinkles.