The
Daily Gyro
Updated
Daily on
Greek Time
October 3, 2005
We’ll apologize for the fact that it’s been a few weeks since we’ve brought you
a fresh Gyro. We’d like to blame that on the philoxenia of the Greeks in
Raleigh, NC and Las Vegas, who showed us two very different takes on Greek
festivals. Having missed both festivals in DC and the first two Greek Nights of
the season, we’re glad that we won’t be doing any traveling for a while, and
encourage everyone from all over the country to come to YAL DC Weekend which is
now about a month away. Look for pictures from the few September events we did
make, including Vegas, over the next few days. Many thanks to Ms. Loukoumada
for continuing to provide a reason for all of you to check back every week in
our absence. (And just to dispel any “ms.”-conceptions, Ms. Loukoumada is a
real person, and it’s not us impersonating a woman. Trust us, our advice would
be far less elegant, much more sarcastic, and not at all useful.
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While not followed internationally as much as last year’s improbable run to win
the European Championship in soccer, Greece won its first European Basketball
Championship since 1987 routing Germany and tournament MVP Dirk Nowitzki
(Dallas Mavericks) in the final. The team with no NBA players also managed to
beat bronze medalist France (which featured Tony Parker of the World Champion
San Antonio Spurs) in their opening round match. Incidentally this is the first
time that any European country has held the title in both soccer and basketball
since the Soviet Union in 1961. With Greece winning Eurovision as well this
year, it is now the champion in the only three competitions that Europeans
cares about. Now if there was only a way that Europe could break up so that
Greece could be the perpetual European Champion in these contests.
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The creepy pairing of a girl named Paris with a boy named Paris finally came to
an end last week as Ms. Hilton called off her pending marriage to the Greek
shipping heir. His parents must be ecstatic.
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Speaking of Paris (mythologically), life-sized marble statues of two ancient
Greek goddesses, Athena and Hera were recently discovered during excavations of
a 5,000-year-old town on the island of Crete. (Not found were any statues of
Aphrodite). The statues were about six feet tall and date to between the second
and fourth centuries -- during the period of Roman rule in Greece -- originally
decorating the Roman theater in the town of Gortyn near Iraklion, according to
the Greek and Italian archeologists on the dig. While Athena was in good
condition, Hera seemed to have lost her head, which seems fitting for the wife
of Zeus.
Other Servings of The Daily Gyro
06/30/2010
08/31/2009
08/03/2009
03/25/2009
08/28/2008
08/27/2008
08/13/2008
04/02/2008
03/25/2008
08/30/2007
08/14/2007
03/05/2007
02/14/2007
01/22/2007
11/06/2006
10/02/2006
09/18/2006
09/04/2006
09/01/2006
08/14/2006
07/13/2006
07/10/2006
06/25/2006
06/05/2006
05/03/2006
04/04/2006
03/22/2006
02/21/2006
01/30/2006
01/17/2006
01/11/2006
01/09/2006
01/05/2006
01/04/2006
12/12/2005
11/28/2005
11/16/2005
10/31/2005
10/17/2005
10/03/2005
09/12/2005
09/02/2005
08/29/2005
08/10/2005
07/27/2005
07/13/2005
07/06/2005
06/27/2005
06/13/2005
05/23/2005
05/16/2005
05/06/2005
05/02/2005
04/25/2005
04/18/2005
04/13/2005
04/08/2005
04/06/2005
04/04/2005
04/01/2005
03/30/2005
03/28/2005
03/25/2005
03/23/2005
Read
past feature articles.