Olympic Storms

There is a terrible thunderstorm in New York. I don’t like to get wet. So thank God there is Olympic coverage on at least three stations. There is basketball, gymnastics and beach volleyball, with sand, but no beach. The two Americans are wearing sunglasses with no lenses. Is this cool or is this too cool and borders on pretentious. I get that there is no beach inside the stadium and there are terrible rainstorms in China, so even if there was a beach they wouldn’t be going outside, but sun glasses without lenses? I wonder if they paid full price. My Aunt Sophie would not have paid full price for half a product, but then she probably would have returned them after she took the lenses out. “What” you say. “ She couldn’t return them if they had no lenses.” Well when I got married she cut the paper tablecloths so they would fit the tables, decided she didn’t like the way they looked (she preferred linen for a wedding) and then took them back. And the store refunded her money.

This morning I watched swimming, badminton, gymnastics, water volleyball, beach volleyball, the Brazil women’s basketball team play who someone in yellow, who wasn’t America. (My apologies to the yellow team but there was so much activity and I was half asleep so I forget who it was). Before there was cable and NBC owned almost everything, I regretted that the only coverage we had was of participants from the US because it certainly didn’t give us an accurate perspective on “the games.” It’s great that we can actually see teams and individuals from around the globe—sans the Iraqui’s who weren’t permitted to play. George Bush still hasn’t said anything about that but at least he said we disapproved of the Russian aggression in the Georgia’s. Do you think Bush sees any parallel between that and our aggression in Iraq. OK, the circumstances are not the same but aggression into another country is aggression and no matter how you spin it—it is still aggression. (A rose is a rose is a rose) That’s what many women think and that’s why we call war – boys toys. Back to sports as a way to establish lasting relationships between nations large and small.

And speaking of returning tablecloths, David was doing his imitation of Luke Skywalker was walking in the sky and shooting the badminton competition where they call a birdie a shuttle and expect us not to fly or ride on it. (I know, I ended with a preposition but “it” was the best I could do.) Anyway, he reported that he did not drop a lens and kill anyone nor did he drop a lens and break it. He dropped nothing and even took good pictures. He must have been doing this while I was hiding from the thunderstorms and watching it on TV. Isn’t that romantic. What does that have to do with tablecloths? Well, the tablecloth episode took place at our wedding and the this paragraph is about David and romance.

My favorite Olympic competition is synchronized swim, which we used to call water ballet. (I can still do a back dolphin totally under the water but there is never a crowd to watch so I don’t bother.) I don’t know if they still do it but it always makes me laugh because I immediately flash to Martin Short and his version on SNL. For the amount of time and money we spend on these games, the Olympics should be entertaining and maybe even have a recognized goal—like mutual understanding or intercultural respect something beyonf making a billion dollars for the advertisers.

When did the Olympic first become a money making proposition—as opposed to a preposition. I guess it was about the same time they started to name stadiums after products or maybe it was before. There have always been sponsors and a TV network involved. In 1980 we pitched ATT to coordinate the torch run across the country—which has since become very political and even a way to express violent opposition. It has often been a vehicle for political protest about one issue or another, and I didn’t like that very much. (Remember when Jimmy Carter refused to allow US participation). But when did it become a commercial vehicle rather than a true sports event. And, of course it’s a sports event because there are sports and event after event, but “sports event” in the “Chariots of Fire” way. Are you singing the theme song? This is merely a question rather then a political or social comment.

Anyway, it’s fine that the events are taped and that they don’t have to stop the action for a commercial interruption. It’s fine that they have preempted “Morning Joe” for table tennis – the Morning Joe team needed a break before the Conventions. It even OK that we have to listen to background drivel about the competitors – although there seems to be not as much tragedy as usual—what a shame. I wonder how it effects the ratings. I have no real complaints except if the weather gets nice I will have to go back to work and I don’t want to have to miss synchronized swimming.. We’re just sayin...