LEAVING BEHIND A THANK-YOU NOTE

(from Brian Williams, NBC anchor and managing editor)

After tonight's broadcast and after looting our hotel mini-bars, we're going to try to brave the blizzard and fly east to home and hearth, and to do laundry well into next week.  

Before we leave this thoroughly polite country, the polite thing to do is leave behind a thank-you note.

Thank you, Canada:

For being such good hosts.

For your unfailing courtesy.

For your (mostly) beautiful weather.

For scheduling no more than 60 percent of your float plane departures at the exact moment when I was trying to say something on television.

For not seeming to mind the occasional (or constant) good-natured mimicry of your accents.

For your unique TV commercials -- for companies like Tim Hortons -- which made us laugh and cry.

For securing this massive event without choking security, and without publicly displaying a single automatic weapon.

For having the best garment design and logo-wear of the games -- you've made wearing your name a cool thing to do.

For the sportsmanship we saw most of your athletes display.

For not honking your horns. I didn't hear one car horn in 15 days -- which also means none of my fellow New Yorkers rented cars while visiting.

For making us aware of how many of you have been watching NBC all these years.

For having the good taste to have an anchorman named Brian Williams on your CTV network, who turns out to be such a nice guy.

For the body scans at the airport which make pat-downs and cavity searches unnecessary.

For designing those really cool LED Olympic rings in the harbor, which turned to gold when your athletes won one.

For always saying nice things about the United States...when you know we're listening.

For sharing Joannie Rochette with us.

For reminding some of us we used to be a more civil society.

Mostly, for welcoming the world with such ease and making lasting friends with all of us.

                      

Always considered Williams to be a pretty cool guy.  Doesn't take himself too seriously and appreciates where he is and the "gifts" that come with the job.  Always enjoy his appearances on Leno.

Just don't ask him to do any celebrity impersonations. He'll, as we might say, "leave you in stitches."

Brian... your welcome.

Sounds like Williams might be a candidate to receive the keys to the City of Vancouver.

There is already a move afoot to honour the NBC Today Show hosts thusly.

Perhaps the people behind that effort could add Williams' name to the list?

Personally, I must admit, all of my Olympics viewing was confined to CTV or SportsNet. Had to get the Can-a-jun perspective, ya know.

If we're throwing out Kudo's then a bunch should be sent out to the Camera guys/Producers for the "first Olympics in HD" - some of the shots on both sides of the border were simply stunning.  I watched the first week in Canada and the second in the States and can say that NBC was 'tremendously complimentary' to Vancouver and to Canada throughout the broadcasts.  Biggest problem down here was 'delaying' the on air broadcasts thus losing a bunch of the drama when you either watched or researched on line and knew the results before they hit the air on traditional television.

The "NBC Big Brains" have had other difficulties lately, as well.

Talking about NBC having issues...while I didn't see it myself, I hear NBC pulled away from the Olympic Closing Ceremonies a half hour early so they could air the debut episode of Jerry Seinfeld's new reality series.

That's not going to earn them more brownie points toward their keys to the city. Mind you, they don't know about the movement yet, I don't imagine.