by Alison Brown
We have a special place in our hearts for our long-term listeners but everyone is welcome. Are you new around here? Confused about this TKFLASTAN word we keep mentioning?
We get pretty excited when we notice an uptick in listenership of the podcast, new subscribers to the newsletter, and new members of the Facebook group. We know we aren’t like other shows covering the Olympics and Paralympics so let’s explain a few things that will give you the lay of the land, a land we call TKFLASTAN.
TKFLASTAN
Back in September 2017, we debuted the podcast under the name Olympic Fever. We interviewed our first athlete, bobsledder Josh Williamson, the following month. We liked keeping tabs on our guests, so we created Team Olympic Fever, with a segment on the podcast called Team Olympic Fever Update. I realized the acronym for that spelled TOFU, which I would say at the beginning of the segment. You can hear it at about the 26 minute mark here.
In February 2020, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee informed us that we needed to change the name of the show. You may also hear us joke about Rule 40 and the Ted Stevens Act, the IOC rule and US law invoked to force the name change. No problem, we can change the name of the show. Well, it was a big problem and required a lot of heavy lifting. We debuted our new name, Keep the Flame Alive, in May 2020.
TOFU was out. Team Keep the Flame Alive made the acronym TKTFA or TKFA.
How do you say that?
We struggled for a week or two, tried putting an L after the F because that is how English works. Jill suggested, in jest, that we add -stan to the end of it and we could have our own country. (Hear that conversation starting at about minute 27).
We struggled with pronunciation until our friend, the dulcet tones of Jason Bryant, veteran of international wrestling announcing and handling names from every language and country, gave us his interpretation (minute 42) and TKFLASTAN was born.
Our flag features the colors of our logo and a sound wave of the pronunciation. Special thanks to Listener Don for this creation!
The flag of TKFLASTAN, designed by Don Whelan.
So now when we introduce the segment of the podcast where we share updates from guests and listeners, I say, “Welcome to TKFLASTAN!”
Magical Hour of Vacuuming
During the Beijing Olympics in 2022, Jill was in Beijing while I was home in the U.S. Jill spent the day at competitions then returned to the media center to record the show. Wi-Fi issues, COVID restrictions, and delayed broadcasts back in the U.S. pushed our recording time later and later. As in every office building around the world, the cleaning people get to work late in the evening. So often by the time we managed to start recording, the vacuums had started on the carpet in the media center.
At first, Jill tried to insulate her microphone, burying herself under coats and blankets. Eventually, we gave in to the ambient sound, which Jill dubbed “the magical hour of vacuuming.” (Hear the first mention of it in the first minute of the show from Beijing Olympics – Day 4).
The Magical Hour of Vacuuming became a hit, with listeners gleefully sharing with us when they could catch the sound during a daily show. By the time I made it over to China for the Paralympics, the vacuum women were our friends.
We continue to keep an eye out for the best floor care at events, as do listeners. You can get a Magical Hour of Vacuuming t-shirt or even become an Official Vacuumer.
Toilet Talk
You would think two grown women could manage the bathroom without incident. You would be wrong.
This too started in Beijing 2022. We fell out of stalls and into toilets, got locked in, got left in the dark, got lost in the search for a bathroom. We found new and creative ways to make a trip to the restroom anything but restful. We chalked it up to cultural differences and COVID restrictions and thought we would have no trouble in Paris. We were wrong.
At Paris 2024, our toilet trouble started the minute we reached our first hotel and never stopped. Tiny stalls, frozen metal toilets, malfunctioning sensor lights, enormous rolls of toilet paper — no matter what venue we visited or where we ventured around the city, we managed to have an issue. So much so that during the Olympics, we had a whole segment of our daily shows called “Toilet Talk.”
Please Italy, have normal bathrooms for us!
Are there things you hear on the show that need to be explained? Let us know and we can do Part 2!