I return home today, but I couldn't wind down the trip without a Puerto Rico post. Fortunately, I already wrote one, back in August 2004:

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The good folks at Catallarchy beat me to blogging about a curious question:

Why does Puerto Rico have an Olympic team?

Last time I checked, Puerto Rico was part of the United States — specifically, it has "commonwealth status."

Same thing for American Samoa ("protectorate status"), and apparently for the Northern Marianas Islands ("commonwealth status"), the U.S. Virgin Islands ("unincorporated territory") and Guam ("unincorporated territory"), which also have teams.

What's next — the Guantanamo Detainee Olympic Team?

Of course, as for the Olympics, the whole Puerto Rico thing is a publicity maneuver (think "basketball"), as is the whole ridiculous sham of allowing professionals to play at all.

But this is as good a time as any to revisit the whole loopy Puerto Rico situation. I always find it amazing how loudly (and I'm in NYC, so I mean loudly), Puerto Ricans walk the walk when it comes to questions of pride and culture, and even of independence from the U.S., but they never seem to walk the walk whenever there's a referendum on the matter in the homeland (the last such referendum was in 1998).

I guess being a recipient of unspeakably massive amounts of mainland tax dollars, not to mention the ability to issue tax-advantaged municipal bonds, has its addictions advantages.

(The International Olympic Committee's reasoning here. But after the Beijing Olympics human rights debacle, the IOC's reasoning on anything is irrelevant.)

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The 2008 Puerto Rico Olympic Team earned zero medals. They entered 22 athletes in eight sports.

Meanwhile, Congress passed the Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2007, instructing the Puerto Rico government to hold yet another (non-binding) referendum on Puerto Rico's status no later than December 31, 2009.

See Also:
–Do They Have a National Anthem? — The Sequel

Sorry for the poor quality; recall that I lost my camera at SeaWorld back in July. So I'm stuck with a disposable and my camera phone.

I have some canned posts ready, along with relevant archive pieces — and, of course, Kip Clips for your enjoyment.

Little to no same-day blogging through Sunday, but I'll be Internetted and tweeting when appropriate (which, given the non-stop adventure that is Sarah Palin, is likely to be "often").

Except when someone gets sloppy with the photo layout and forgets that the calendar will have a hole punched through the pages so it can be hung:

That's Just Wrong...

(Carnivalized at Modulator's Friday Ark.)

Where was I Thursday night? Be specific…

Hint #1: One previous time I was here was on December 31, 1999.

Hint #2: I left a clue somewhere on this website. Can you find it?