Bolt and Puzzlement

I finally saw the Usain Bolt commercial for the Jamaica tourist board today, ironically, while I was visiting my pops who was watching Fox News. Jamaica advertising on Fox? I suppose with Golding's attitudes about homosexuality (video) it makes sense. But amid JA's current political troubles, the ad is a reminder of the island's inherent beauty.

Unrelated, my pops mentioned a question in a New York Times crossword puzzle he was working on: "The Jamaican version of Rap." The answer that fit in the space he had: Ska. You'd think NYT had better crossword puzzle editors...

Ska is, of course, the primarily instrumental Jamaican music form popular in the late-50s through mid-60s. A closer analog in Western pop music would be American jazz.