Icing, the Competitive Edge...Transmogri-fly!!

In other words:  "convert, metamorphose, transfigure, transform". While all these words covey the idea of change, as in changing one 'thing' into another, to "transmogrify" is another matter, as in changing, converting matter, or another preposterous metamorphosis, such as converting a human into a flying figure with flaps attached at the bottom instead of where wings should be, more naturally. Sometimes in combination. An Olympian feat. Like the men and women who have lined up to take turns to be released down an incline, the surface of which is just the right amount of transmogrified H2O, crystallized, when reaching the end, just before they fall off, they instead LEAP! and fly through the air with the greatest of ease ("look, no hands!" as they hold them oh, so close so as to not be a drag), transmogrified if only for a few moments, as if a bird in flight seeking a soft landing (like we've ever seen birds with such long feet, maybe only in a bad dream), a landing which is assisted with yet another composition of transmogrified matter, slightly different in nature. Lots of this these past few days in different forms, both animate and inanimate...

On thin ice: A place we've likely been, hopefully only in a figurative sense (we tested the ice last weekend to make sure it was transmogrified big time before venturing out, partly by watching the ice fishermen and their shanties, benefitting from their risky business, before risking ourselves). Not only is the margin for error extremely thin for the athletes that do their thing on skis and skates, in order to gain the advantage on their competition, but the composition and arrangement, re-arrangement (in the case of moving snow around, almost all of which was artificial so far in Bejing, the "Winter Olympics, XXIV") has to be "just right!" in order for them to obtain the right speed, posture, 'attitude', altitude, to complete their respective feats. Such as being able to glide across the ice, dig a toe ('pick') into previously untarnished, transmogrified, crystallized, zamboni'd water, in order to twist and turn in an attempt to appear as a ???, and landing on the thinnest of skate edges, which itself is transmogrified elements that manage to hold the whole weight of a grown man or woman after completing a "quadruple flip"!!!! The combination of such 'elements' usually gains the advantage.

Icing: As in "icing the puck" is a maneuver in hockey which otherwise would result in giving your opponent the advantage on the ice, bringing the puck back into your own zone, but one which is deemed "OK" when you are down a player, for has committed some type of penalty which has taken hm/her off the ice temporarily. Kind of like extending you a courtesy or smoothing, evening out the ice in the spirit of fair play, even though you committed an infraction. Whereas "icing the competition" conveys gaining the advantage in whatever means necessary. Whereas, when a competitor the other day exclaimed "Being able to compete in these Games was awesome enough; winning a medal is icing on the cake!", was simply sweet.

Well, that's enough play for one day, as in play on words, on snow and ice, psyching up and out...back to more serious posting next, as in "With Friendlies and Tests like this..."