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Most Americans watching the Olympics from Vancouver --- and according to the TV Nielsons, there are plenty of us --- seem to be quite concerned with medal count or if Team USA will defeat the friendly Canadian hockey team. Not this Hound. What's with the goofy uniforms donned by our American athletes?

Like those Farmer John pants the snowboarders were wearing. They looked like a cross between a Vermonter harvesting maple syrup and a Central Valley lettuce farmer. That's the best we can do when it comes to uniforms on the world stage? The Chinese snowboarders had nice uniforms.

One can only guess what Joan Rivers might say if there was a red carpet for the Winter Games. Or Mr. Blackwell, if the catty one were still alive. And the uniforms for Team USA hockey? They looked like rejects from the Dallas Cowboys of the Eddie LeBaron era.

The contestants on "Project Runway" could come up with better costumes. For the next Winter Olympics in Russia, let's begin now working on team costumes. Who cares how many medals we win. Style always counts. Ask Dick Button.

Every news network went live Friday so we could all watch a horn dog apologize to us for cheating on his wife with women, some which included porn stars. Should The Hound care? Nope, but Tiger Woods' sponsors sure do.

No mistake, the world's top golfer didn't do his mea culpa for his fans, the PGA or his wife. He did it to protect a withering franchise. And, like Toyota, his motoring company is floundering. Tiger didn't stray too far from his script that he was sorry, soooooo sorry. Well, who isn't when they get caught?

His public apology should have been done a few days after he crashed his Cadillac Escalade right after Thanksgiving just outside his Orlando-area mansion. Who's this guy's handlers? Especially considering all his girlfriends came forward days after the run-in with wife Elin, most of us knew he had cheated on his wife.

At least Tiger didn't cry crododile tears like most of these celebrities do after they err. He gets an eagle from The Hound for retaining the last bit of dignity he has --- on or off the course.

Just in time for the college bowl season, which kicks off tonight with the New Mexico Bowl pitting Fresno State vs. Wyoming, some members of Congress are still blathering about forcing the NCAA to start a playoff system. It reminds this Hound of what Mark Twain once said of our national lawmakers: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."

If Twain were still with us, he'd certainly consider this current Congress national champions in the idiot department. A House subcommittee has approved a bill that would give the Federal Trade Commission the authority to penalize the NCAA if it calls future top-rated BCS games a national championship. Like the one set for Jan. 7 in the Rose Bowl featuring Alabama and Texas.

Don't these characters have more to do than worry about college football? Isn't there two wars going on, a ballooning deficit and a sputtering economy? Perhaps they figure a national playoff system would add jobs. And wouldn't this national playoff system start cutting into the NFL season-ending playoffs?

Much to Congress' chagrin, it looks like the two top collegiate teams will be vying for a national title next month. Time for Congress to take care of it's own legislative agenda and leave football to the professionals, er, collegians.

The Hound has returned from an extended stay in Denmark after the International Olympic Commitee dashed the hopes of Chicago Mayor Daley, talk show maven Oprah Winfrey, President Obama and the twin villages of Old Mill Creek and Wadsworth. If you have never been to Denmark, The Hound recommends it. It's sort of like Wisconsin, but without Packers fans.

Old Mill Creek would have been the site of the equestrian events during the 2016 Summer Games, although Wadsworth would have been the beneficiary of some of the spillover and certainly Gurnee and Waukegan, with their hotel spaces. Instead, they'll be doing dressage and jumping fences in Rio.

The Hound has never been to Rio de Janeiro, but knows someone who once traveled there for Carnivale. On the Ipanema Beach, he was accosted and was the victim of a female pickpocket. Or at least that was his story and he's stuck to it ever since.

The Hound was a full-blown Olympics supporter, and will be boycotting next year's Winter Games in Vancouver. The Hound also is considering boycotting NBC, but why bother? Most viewer already are.

As for the reason Chicago and the United States lost the 2016 bid it is simple: Rio is in South America, a continent which has never hosted an Olympics, and the rest of the world hates us. Despite the rock star status of President Obama, he couldn't close the deal because, outside of our culture and money, the U.S. is disliked by nearly everyone around the world --- except the Saudis. And they did so before George Bush made it worse with the invasion of Iraq.

Will there be a 2020 U.S. Olympic bid? Not from Chicago, The Hound predicts.

Waukegan Mayor Robert Sabonjian has the pedal to the metal working on getting some sort of motorsports road race to his city next year or more likely in 2011. The Hound hears all those Waukeganites backing the mayor: "Go, speed racer, go!"

Sabonjian and city minions appear farther along the trail than most originally thought. They have a map of the 1.9-mile course which uses the Amstutz Expressway (or is that the Bobby Thompson Expressway which state Rep. Eddie Washington, D-Waukegan, unilaterally christened two years ago?) and downtown streets. Anybody check with the County of Lake, which has a pretty large presence in Waukegan's downtown for their input? They've also had preliminary talks with race organizers and they have a steering committee, Waukegan Grand Prix LLC.

What they don't have is money. Estimates run between $12 to $15 million for the initial rally; about a $9 million ante every year after. The bet is the seed money will generate millions more. Other cities have done it and been successful. It is within the realm of possibility for Waukegan.

So far, the city's populace has been eerily silent on the topic. Perhaps they're stunned or they haven't caught up to speed on what the impact could be on the city both in quality of life issues and financial gain or loss. Or they are a silent majority, riding in the back seat with the new mayor on this issue.

The Hound like's Sabonjian's attitude about landing any sort of road race: "We can be world class, but we have to do it right." So for right now, it's full speed ahead!

Like a Roman emperor, Waukegan Mayor Robert Sabonjian is offering the city's citizens bread and circuses to perhaps keep their minds busy with extracurricular activities. This at a time when the city's finances appear to be on shaky ground, to say the least. Not that a deficit budget and high-interest loans are any of his doing. He's cleaning up those messes.

Sabonjian suggested this week some sort of motorsports event --- a road race or circuit --- on city streets next year. Folks in his administration are meeting with folks who apparently can make this happen. Except for a few things, Mayor Bob has a sound plan.

Those few things happen to be what this economy has done to auto racing in the U.S., whether it be NASCAR, IndyCar or Grand Prix events. They're hurting, to say the least. Sponsor money has dried up, along with the evaporation of racing venues.

The Milwaukee Mile, aka the Rex Mays Classic, usually held at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds in West Allis the weekend after the Indy 500, has been off the map for several years. The Detroit Grand Prix is DOA. The Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet hosted a NASCAR event earlier this summer and will do an IndyCar event later this month. To fill the stands for this race, promoters made sure race fans bought a package ticket to go with the NASCAR race.

It's a tough market out there for racing events and it also should be noted the schedules for race dates for major events certainly already have been set for 2010. Which Waukegan residents should be grateful.

Putting together a race which could draw thousands for a weekend, the logistics involved and closing city streets needs a bit more planning than a year, The Hound believes. This isn't Scoopin' Genesee, after all.

The Hound understands Mayor Bob's need for speed, but there's more important races to run at the present.

Tuesday was Olympic Day in the U.S. so The Hound drove to Wadsworth to see if the village, home of the planned equestrian events if Chicago is awarded the 2016 Summer Games, was holding a special celebration. There was a lot of water standing around, but no folks standing around marking Olympic Day in the "Village of Country Living."

Chicago celebrated the Olympic movement, as did another 158 cities in 43 states. But not Wadsworth, which will host actual Olympic events, if Chicago gets the games. Maybe Wadsworth Mayor Glenn Ryback didn't get the memo from fellow Democrat, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.

In Chicago, 30,000 kids took part in fun runs across the city. Another 20,000 people attended the Olympic Day celebration at Chicago's North Avenue Beach. Past Olympians were on hand to mark the event. Not even a Wadsworth toast to the Olympics was heard at the Duck Inn.

Thinking that rural folk are a little slow or maybe the party line from Chicago wasn't operational, The Hound traveled up to Wadsworth the next two days in a row. Still nothing. Guess they don't have the Olympic spirit yet in Wadsworth.

But Waukegan did celebrate Olympic Day --- on Friday, with two past Olympians taking part at happenings sponsored by the Waukegan Park District. Better late than never, but that can also be said for a casino and a minor league ball team.

If former Chicago Cub and White Sox Sammy Sosa tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug, is anybody really shocked? From all the cries of, "Sammy, say it ain't so!" you'd think people weren't paying attention back in 1998 when Sosa and St. Louis Cardinal Mark McGwire chased Roger Maris' record of 61 home runs in a season.

To The Hound, both those guys looked pretty bulked up back then. McGwire eclipsed the Maris mark, while Sosa finished with 66 round-trippers that season. The next year Sammy blasted 63, then 50 in 2000, 64 in 2001 and 49 in 2002. Remember the "Cork Bat Affair" in playoff year of 2003? He hit 40 that year.

Sosa testified before the House Government Reform Committee investigating steroid use in Major League Baseball in 2005 stating, "I have been tested as recently as 2004, and I am clean. To be clear, I have never taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs." The New York Times report of Sosa testing positive for the drugs said it happened in 2003. Heck, if he was taking them then, he should have hit 60 homers and led the Cubs to a World Series berth, right?

Instead he did a salsa dance before the congressional committee, choosing his words and dates carefully. If he took 'roids back then, it's history. The idea is to stop current players from using them.

And, if a handful of names have leaked from this anonymous survey some government bureaucrat has, let's see all of the names. The Hound wants to know who are all the 104 players who allegedly used performance-enhancing drugs. Let's get beyond this latest taint on Major League Baseball and give us the names.

So-called dog lovers certainly have their leashes all wrapped up in a knot over plans to have a real bulldog be the mascot for Waukegan High School in the very near future.

Waukegan Unit School District 60 has been bombarded with e-mails from "outraged citizens", as has The News-Sun, The Hound has been told. Most of them don't live here and are concerned about the dog's mental state.

The Hound says: Chew on a Milk Bone for awhile, will you.

Waukegan High students voted for a flesh-and-blood mascot, an American, not an English bulldog, and picked a brindle-colored puppy. School officials have high hopes for the so-far-unnamed mascot. Besides being paraded around at various sporting events, it will be used as a partner dog in special ed classes. During the day it will have a dog house at the school being built by woodshop classes and at night go home with a faculty member.

The anti-mascot patrol believes this is a bad thing because? How many of these so-called dog lovers leave their dogs home all day when they're at work or put them in a kennel when they vacation?

He without sin shouldn't cast the first kibbles at this mascot plan, which The Hound, who should know about such things, heartily endorses. Arff!

If you watched on the TV what some have called one of the best prep football games, last weekend's Antioch versus Glenbard South thrilling overtime game, you heard one of the announcers time after time mispronounce Sequoits as Sequats --- even after he was corrected by his fellow broadcaster.

Perhaps the pronouncer was confused between Sequats and Sasquatch, those mysterious manimals that supposedly reside in the wilds of Oregon, Washington State and northern California. We know better and know that such creatures do not exist along Sequoit Creek.

It matters little if the Antioch squad are called Sequats or Sequoits. The Hound predicts they will be victorious against a tough and nimble Lemont team known by the not-so-politically correct moniker of Indians. It will be a tough-fought battle and close, but the Sequats, er, Sequoits will make the championship game against Springfield Griffin, which The Hound is also picking to beat Providence.

Antioch defeated Glenbard South 28-27 in that overtime game and has a 12-0 record going into today's game at Lemont. How about a good baker's dozen of victories to take into the 6A championship game?

It can be done and most Sequoit fans will be there to see it as they travel well, even though it is a trek to Lemont. Isn't Kankakee the next stop down that way?

The Hound expects to see a rabid Sequoit defense attack the Lemont Native Americans and stop them in their moccasined tracks. Be prepared for that victory convoy, folks, because The Hound says: Antioch 20, Lemont 14.