Are The Olympics Doomed?

I'm really concerned about the air quality over there. There's no telling what harm may come to the citizens of China over time, even with warnings and masks. What if those big clouds of coal-induced smoke start traveling to this side of the globe?

The air quality index (or whatever they call that thing) is 95 in Beijing, which is not very good at all. And I thought Los Angeles had smog.

Did anyone see the opening ceremony last night? The artistry and choreography were beyond what I expected. Too bad such a wonderful event was followed by a terrorist attack the next day.

I agree, L.W. It was totally cool.

Of course, I had a LOT of beer before it started. :) So, it was probably MORE amazing to me because I was seeing it in double. ;)

Only you, Lori. Only you. :-P

China put on a marvelous display at the opening ceremonies. I was sober and still thought it great. Beer and magic, that had to be a great sight, Lori. I heard a jealous American say some of the display was fakery or trickery. I don't give a crap. It was still beautifully excellent!

Clearly, Michael Phelps' record-setting eight gold medals in one Olympics is the headliner. If it weren't for his performance, I don't think Americans would nearly be as interested in the Olympics. I know I wouldn't.

I've been totally enraptured by the Olympics, from Phelps and the U.S swimmers to the men's and women's gymnastics to the diving, volleyball, 100 meters, 200 meters, the American women who got the silver in pole vaulting...I’m hooked. I wish they had Olympics ALL THE TIME.

(OK, that could get dull.)

But I've gotta say I'm enjoying this fortnight!

Some of the games are getting to me. They are not a sport. I think I saw one event of marble shooting and jacks. Donna knows what jacks is since she's not much younger than me. I bet she played them with her friends. When it rained and we boys couldn't go outside, we used to play jacks with our sisters. Of course, we didn't want anybody outside the house to know. Smile.

I wish they had Olympics ALL THE TIME.

Between NBC, MSNBC, CNBC and even Oxygen, you got it. Oh, I forgot, you don't have cable or satellite at home. Well, you could sleep at the office. There's also this little thing call the Internets.

I heard a jealous American say some of the display was fakery or trickery. I don't give a crap. It was still beautifully excellent!

I heard that some of the fireworks were computer-generated because they feared that the real fireworks would not show up on camera. That doesn't really bother me. What DID bother me was having a stand-in lip sync a song because they thought the actual singer wasn't cute enough. She's just a little girl. That was not cool.

Between NBC, MSNBC, CNBC and even Oxygen, you got it. Oh, I forgot, you don't have cable or satellite at home. Well, you could sleep at the office. There's also this little thing call the Internets.

No, I mean every day. Year round. It's so nice not to have to *think* about watching something and just watching it. ;-)

And we do have cable...I call it "twelve-dollar cable." It's just local channels + WGN and CSPAN...basically like 2 through 20. And the cable company doesn't like to tell you they offer it, but they have to. ;-)