Sunday, September 07, 2008
Sports, "Hunt's Grunts"

Lost But Not Found

Napoleon Bonaparte helped establish what would be known as the first lost and found office...

By Hunt Archbold

In 1805 in the City of Lights, a year after he crowned himself Emperor of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte helped establish what would be known as the first lost and found office. It’s hard to believe it was only 200 years ago that such a thing became reality, for people have been losing and finding items since the beginning of time. Of course, “lost and found” can also be a metaphor for a lost purpose or life. Out in the sports/dive bars of our city, for example, where every day is apparently not opening day; from Dugan’s Tavern in Stone Mountain to Runaround Sue’s in Marietta’s to Mr. C’s off Howell Mill Road, there are thousands of souls in the lost and found. But at least for a few months, they have their fantasy football.

Of course, there wouldn’t be such a thing as lost and found if there weren’t people with something to lose and something to find. Presidential candidate John McCain was lost as to whom he should choose as a running mate, but he found one in a sportscaster turned hockey mom. Our city’s professional hockey team remains lost as to who should be calling the shots, so the reins of the organization’s direction remain found in the tight grip of the same general manger who has led them virtually nowhere from the outset. And the Braves’ new general manger lost himself in thinking that he could depend on aging arms and a tiring manager this summer, and found that this rebuilding project will take longer than expected.

And then there’s Oprah Winfrey, the richest self-made woman in America, with a reported 2008 income of more than $275 million. But more than money, whomever and whatever she endorses turns to gold, from Dr. Phil to Sarah Blakely and Barack Obama (well, that’s still to be determined), and now her adopted hometown Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympic Games. Taped last week and to be aired this Monday, “The Oprah Winfrey Show” will feature more than 150 Olympic medal athletes, including swimmers Michael Phelps and Dana Torres, gymnast Nastia Liukin, volleyball players Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, andbasketball’s Kobe Bryant.

It’s not known if U.S. 1,500-meter runner Lopez Lomong was at the taping, but he should’ve been despite not medaling. He grew up as one of the Sudanese “Lost Boys,” but found himself chosen by his 595 U.S. Olympic teammates to carry our nation’s flag in the opening ceremonies last month. What is known is that Chicago’s Olympic organizers went looking for maximum exposure for their city’s bid, and considering Oprah’s talk show reaches 21 million viewers a week in the U.S. and airs in 108 countries worldwide, they certainly found it.

A little lost in the dark is how Falcon season-ticket holders must have found themselves last week after the organization offered discounted tickets for the team’s season opener in order to prevent a local TV blackout. The early-bird Falcon fan may have gotten the worm, or in this case, a seat to see two of the league’s longtime under-performing franchises play, but he paid more for it in the long run. 

And emotionally lost is how everyone involved in the Brett Favre-Green Bay Packer fiasco must have felt this summer. Favre is now a New York Jet, and the Packers found themselves some much needed public relations help in the person of former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who has been hired by the team as a consultant. Yes, the same man who for two and a half years found a handle on the press to make President George W. Bush seem not so lost is now helping to bring about calm and sensibility to people who call themselves cheeseheads.

Fleischer was working at the White House seven years ago this week when the targeted attacks on our country took the lives of 2,974 people. Americans truly felt helpless, scared and lost those first few days after Sept. 11, but our government said it would find and punish those responsible. So much has happened since, including the giving of $6 billion to the Pakistani government in the form of military aid intended for the counterinsurgency operations against al-Qaida and Taliban sanctuaries.

And yet what has been accomplished? The terrorist group that carried out those attacks has grown comfortable and secure in a Pakistan safe haven. Our government said it would relieve our fears by finding this terrorist leader lost in the mountains and caves of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. But seven years and $6 billion later, Osama bin Laden is still nowhere to be found.

Happy times … and we will never forget. SP