Today, I got in my car to go to the gym and as I drove down the street, there's was this odd crinkling sound coming from the back. I turned and looked quickly as I was driving, but didn't see anything. At the stop light, where I had more time, I turned completely around and saw that my right rear window had been shattered. The crinkling was the from small pieces of glasses falling into the station wagon as I drove. I'm sure I swore something awful under my breath and I didn't even know then that the dude who busted my window stole my gym bag with climbing shoes carabineered to the outside.

I turned around and parked to assess the damage. I don't know how I didn't notice it before I got in the car. There was glass everywhere. On top of my things. In the little whole that the seat beat comes out of. On the ground beside my car. Everything that was in the car last night was there, except my Camelbak Hawg gym bag. I shook my head in disbelief. Went upstairs. First I called the cops. Then I called my insurance company.

The officer came out quickly, but basically to tell me that he wouldn't dust for prints (had I asked?) because it would be a waste of time. I would probably never see my gear again. I should check around for the climbing shoes in dumpsters around the area. Great.

Then I walked down the street to Safeway to get some cardboard. The boarded up car looked pathetic, completely insecure and cosmetically a joke, but it would suffice for a day or two. I removed anything from the car that anyone could possibly want to steal and went inside to make arrangements to get the glass replaced.

I called the local Subaru dealer, but there were a waste of time. They didn't have the part in stock and it would take at least 5 days to get it in, which they couldn't guarantee. I did find out that the window cost 179 bucks. My insurance company called back to tell me that they would be sending someone out from SafeLite Auto Glass to fix the window, but the earliest they could schedule me was for next week. I looked online and found that SafeLite had an office in Concord up the way. I called and made an appointment for the next day.

My deductible is only $250 bucks, which is low, but that's $250 that I don't have. Plus to replace all the things in my bag, not to mention the bag itself which cost about 70 bucks, is going to run another 200 or so. The only good news is that I thought I had my old passport in the bag and worried sick about losing it. It's such a great piece of my personal history. But I later found it in the car. Fa'afetai le Atua.

So now I can't climb until I pony up for a new pair of shoes and a chalk bag.

Posted by andrew at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The USA Women's soccer team keeps rolling on with a 2-1 overtime in the gold medal match against a younger, faster Brazil team. It was rough game. Tons of fouls and tightly contested on both sides. Brazil had more chances, but the USA made the most of theirs winning on an Abby Wambaugh header with only minutes left in the final overtime period.

The game marks the end of the road for some soccer legends including Mia Hamm who has said she would retire after these games. Here at the pinnacle of competition US women have really shown that they are made of steel.

This soccer team won the gold medal without losing a single game. The only blemish on their record, a 1-1 draw with Australia in pool play. The US men did not qualify.

The US Women's Softball is perhaps the most dominant to take the field in any sport anywhere at anytime. They outscored their opponents 55-1 in romping through the field to the gold medal. The US Men's Baseball team did not qualify for Athens after taking the gold in Sydney.

The US Women's Basketball team is clearly the class of the field and will win another gold medal. The US Men's Basketball team, the so-called "Dream Team", is into the semifinals and still has a chance to win, but has struggled, losing two games in the round robin competition.

The US Women's Water Polo team took home bronze. The US Men's Water Polo finished out of the medals.

On the beach, Misty May and Kerry Walsh won the gold medal in Beach Volleyball with Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs grabbing the bronze. The men, well, no medals this time around.

Clearly there is a huge disparity in the strength of the men's and women's teams relative to the rest of the world. I think you have to look no further than Title IX which pried opened the door for women's athletics in the United States in the 1970s. I don't agree with everything about Title IX, but it has clearly had a massive impact on women's sports and for that we should all be grateful.

Posted by andrew at 05:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The sailing venue at Athens rang with the sounds of the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah, for the first time in Olympic history as Gal Fridman took home the gold in the Mistral class. It's a landmark achievment for Israel, their first gold medal ever in the country's 50+ year history. Israel had won only one silver and four bronze medals in 12 previous Olympics dating to 1952.

This might not be the last time we hear Hatikvah in the games. Pole vaulter Alex Averbach is one of the top favorites to win.

Posted by andrew at 02:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Velodrome is cycling is always one of the most exciting events at the Olympics. Unless you live in Trexlertown, PA, it's also one of the events that you're not likely to see but once every four years. I don't think the Americans are faring very well on the Athens track. The reason I don't know is that NBC has hardly covered it at all.

Posted by andrew at 02:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NBC did such a good job announcing the Athens swim meet that I wonder how they could have so bungled the track and field. It's a simple thing really. These events are not happening in a vacuum. This event, these Olympics, are part of a continuum of sporting history. Therefore, in order to appreciate and understand what we are watching, we need perspective. It could come in the form of a featurette, as it so often does. It could come in the form of historical performance including archival footage of past games, which we so rarely see, or it come simply with just presenting the World and Olympic record holders and their respective times and distances, which for some ungodly reason, NBC has decided to hold in confidence.

I shouldn't have to go online whenever I want to know even the most basic information about a particularly event.

The coverage which started off on such a high with the live coverage of the preliminary shot put round from Olympia has fizzled into a serious of disjointed, unreferenced highlights and it's really, really sad.

Posted by andrew at 02:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gymnastics is finally over and it's time to reflect on the coverage and the performances. I have three main thoughts about this.

1) NBC really needs to rethink their commentary team. Team Trautwig is not getting the job done and Elfi Schlegal in particular needs to be put out to pasture. We don't need the Canadian perspective that badly.

2) The level of gymnastics in the world has fallen off the high bar. While these are still incredible atheletes, never have I seen so many miss routines, make simple mistakes, and fall on their collective asses. It's one thing to miss your grip on a difficult release move. It's another thing entirely to fall off doing a giant swing. And if Paul Hamm can fall on his kiester and literally have to be held up by the judges in the vault and then come back to win the all-around gold medal, something is lacking in the rest of the field. That never would have happened in the days of Nemov, and Sherbo. Korea's Yang Tae-Young might deserve the gold medal, but if he can only beat a guy who fell on his ass by a tenth of a point, then he's hardly going to fit into the pantheon of the sport's all-time greats.

This brings up the whole concept of whether or not gymnastics and other subjective judgment based "sports" ought to be in the Olympics at all. On top of the Hamm controversy, we saw Bulgaria charge hometown bias in scoring of the men’s rings against Jordan Jovtchev, Svetlana "can someone bring her a sandwich" Khorkina claim American-biased judges cheated her in the all-around, and Russia — along with most of the Athens crowd — complain that Alexei Nemov was robbed on the high bar.

3) Despite these problems, I love to watch the gymnastics. And I found some hope, at least on the men's side, that this Olympics provided a great springboard for the future. In the event finals, not only was each event won a different athlete, but none were from Japan, USA, or Romania, the winners in the team competition.

Kyle Shewfelt, Canada, Floor Exercise
Teng Haibin, China, Pommel Horse
Dimosthenis Tampakos, Greece, Rings
Igor Cassina, Italy, High Bar
Valeri Goncharov, Ukraine, Parallel Bars
Gervasio Deferr, Spain, Vault

Marian Dragelescu of Romania probably should have won the vault, but he didn't. So we have 5 of the 6 winners, China being the notable exception, from non-traditional powers. This bodes well for the breadth of the sport. On the other hand, what the hell has happened to Russia and Belarus?

In the final analysis, the judges and the governors of the sport have an incredible amount of work to do to iron out the wrinkles in the system so that we are not faced with similar problems in Beijing.

Posted by andrew at 02:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight is the last night for swimming at the 2004 games. The meet has been great to watch. Not too many world records were set because of the Athens' heat, but competition was as hot as the weather. As far as I know, NBC covered the entire meet. Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines did yeoman's work behind the mic. The underwater cameras revealed a side of swimming we never see and the computer graphics with the flags of the swimmers, the race leader and the WR line were very, very cool.

Americans also fared incredibly well. Michael Phelps didn't live up to the hype, but how could he? His quest to break Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Games was unrealistic, but his performance was still insane and he's only 19 years old and, this is scary, will only get better. How could you not love Gary Hall, Jr. in the 50 free? Aaron Peirsol stayed cool in the face of controversy and came home with two wins. Amanda Beard and Natalie Coughlin were scintillating on the women's side.

Despite the American dominance, there were many standout performances by the rest of the world. Inge de Bruijn from the Netherlands. Ian Thorpe, of course, and the rest of the Aussie team including Grant Hackett and Petria Thomas. Kitajima from Japan outswam Brendan Hansen in both breaststoke events. Yana Klochkova of Ukraine defended both her 200 and 400 IM golds which had never been done before. Kristy Coventry won the first swimming medals of any kind Zimbabwe, gold in the 200 backstroke, silver in the 100 backstroke and bronze in the 200 IM. The South African world record in the 4x100 free relay was probably the best moment in the most exciting race of the event, the only possible exception being the 4x200 where Klete Keller just out-touched a charging Ian Thorpe for the gold.

With the meet in Athens ending, this will probably be the last swimming event shown on TV in the states until partial coverage of the Olympic trials in 2008 before Beijing. I think this is sad and I don't really understand it. This is a sport where Americans dominate so thoroughly (look no further than the medley relays if you want proof). I don't know what the ratings are like, but NBC pumps up the swimming in a big way, which Michael Phelps alerts and the like. But after the games, swimming, like so many of the will disappear off the radar for another 4 years.

It's not like these athletes are mothballed and stuck in cold storage until the next Olympics come around. There are World Championships. There's the Pan-Am Games (who remembers that?). There's the Pan-Pacific Swimming Championships, outside of the World Championships, the most significant swimming-only competition in the world (to be held in Vancouver in 2006, btw). There's the US Nationals.

When I lived in Australia, swimming was all over the places, so I know these events are being covered, just not by the American media. It's possible that Michael Phelps huge celebrity will change all this, but I doubt it. We most likely won't see him swim again until Beijing.

Posted by andrew at 09:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I started off not wanting to watch tennis because this just seems like another stop on the tour. You can watch tennis almost anything weekend and there seems to be nothing Olympic about it at all. Then Chileans Fernando Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu came on the scene, seemingly from out of nowhere.

First Gonzalez eliminated Andy Roddick which was a huge upset. Then, in a match that took 3 1/2 hours, went on to beat another American, Taylor Dent, in the bronze medal match, 6-4, 2-6, 16-14. And Massu, who beat Dent in the semis, is set to play yet another American Mardy Fish in the gold medal match, so the Chileans are assured of at least two of the top three spots in men's tennis. On top of that, Gonzalez and Massu outdueled the Germans for the doubles title.

What makes this performance all the more amazing is that this tourney has been grueling for the players. The heat, the humidity and the relentless schedule of the Athens games has made for the most demanding conditions. Then there's the stress of competing against the best in the world in a pressure cooker environment not seen anywhere outside of Davis Cup competition.

I think Massu, who is a clay court specialist, is out of gas and Fish will take him in the final, but you have to acknowledge the amazing Chileans.

Posted by andrew at 08:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Does anybody else think that NBC's gymnastics coverage sucks? This is one of the marquee events of the games and NBC is blowing it and this is why:

1) There were 32 competitors in the all-around completion for both men and women. How many did we see? Rafael Martinez of Spain finished 5th on men's side. Remember him. Probably not. NBC didn't even show him once. They didn't even show a list of competitors for either men or women nor their scores in the prelims that qualified them for the finals.

2) The vault apparatus has completely changed. It used to look something like the pommel without the hand grips and was situated vertically for the men and horizontally for the women. How many times did Elfi Schlegel or Tim Dagget bother to explain this? Not once. How many times did those two wind bags explain that a step will cost a gymnast a tenth of point? Like the stars.

3) It's obvious that there's been some sort of planned score deflation by the world body governing gymnastics. When can you remember people getting excited about a 9.662 routine on beam? But what's the reason? I don't know. NBC is keeping it a secret.

4) Kip. Diamdov. Stalter. Remember them. Maybe not, but you might remember the moves named after them. But you so rarely hear the Tim or Elfi describing what the athletes are actually doing. Instead you hear, ooh, that's going to cost her a tenth.

I don't know what the answer is to this problem. Maybe Tim and Elfi are just the best money can buy, but somehow I doubt it (see below). A good start would be to try some fresh voices and show the damn completion live.

I'm a huge gymnastics freak for a couple of reasons. I used to watch it all the time when ESPN was starting up and the only sports they could get the rights to were Aussie Rules Football and NCAA Gymnastics (Go Jim Hartung!). Plus not only is American gymnastics great Peter Vidmar an alumnus of my tiny high school in LA, but he also gave the keynote address at my graduation. (Oh, yea, he's also the gymnastics commentator for CBS. Maybe NBC ought to think about hiring him away from the tiffany network.)

Posted by andrew at 06:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The story of Iranian world champion judoka Arash Miresmaeili has been bothering me immensely since it broke at the beginning of these games. What's bothering me is not that this guy, the world champion by the way, disqualified himself by showing up overweight rather than face an Israeli competitor. That's a perfect example of the stupid stunts that Iran has been up to for years. What's bothering me is that there isn't more international outrage over this.

This isn't just an Iranian not wanting to fight an Israeli. This is a muslim not wanting to fight a jew (Ironically, Ehud Vaks lost in the first round to a judoka from Algeria). Imagine if the scenario was a little different and it was a German not wanting to fight a jew. Outrage then? Off the charts. What if it was a South African not wanting to fight a black American. People would fly off the handle. So why is the world so quiet when a Iranian won't fight a Israeli?

According the Reuters, the International Judo Federation is investigating the situation and trying to determine the proper the cause of action. But IJF spokesman Michel Brousse had said that "before speaking of sanctions we have to know exactly why he failed his weight. We have to know whether it was done on purpose or accidentally. At the moment we don't know. Someone was overweight that is clear. But we do not punish overweight people."

Now Mr. Brousse might be trying to be diplomatic, but Miresmaeili has been quoted as saying he had avoided fighting out of sympathy with the Palestinian people and I have heard talk that Iranian officials are trying to give Miresmaeili the money that Iran gives to any gold medal winners after the games. It seems pretty clear to me.

On top of that Iranian government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh said, "Our policy is not to recognize the Zionist regime in any international event ... We cannot accept the presence of anyone in international events under the flag of that regime. We thank all our athletes who voluntarily follow our policy in international events and consider them our real national champions and heroes of peace." Not much grey area there, Mr. Brousse.

Miresmaeili might just be a pawn in this geopolitical silliness, but his action is not only petty, but also against everything the Olympics stand for. He should never be allowed to fight again. Period. That's the only way to make sure this never happens again. Period.

Posted by andrew at 05:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Is there anything weirder than race-walking? How did this become an Olympic event let alone a sport?

Posted by andrew at 05:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Despite skepticism from the rest of the world, the organizers of the Athens games have done so many things right, and nothing exemplifies this more than holding the shot put at Olympia. I don't know who thought of it, but it was a stroke of genius.

In a games already steeped in history, the organizers thoughtfully connected the ancient and modern Olympics in a serene setting that was so unusual that it will probably be remembered as one of the highlights of these games whenever they are recalled. The competition was exciting and the setting was as intimate as it was historical.

The shot put normally takes place in the middle of the field with the track separating the crowd from the event that seems so distant as if it's happening in another place. In Olympia, the shot put took center stage as the only event being competed with 15,000+ fans watching right on top of it from the grassy knoll right next to the pit. It must have been great to be a part of it.

The crowd was treated to a fascinating men's event, which ended in controversy when the Ukraine's Yuriy Bilonog tied the United States' Adam Nelson, which meant Bilonog would really beat Nelson, unless Nelson could come back with one last amazing throw, which he did, except he fouled, except he said he didn't foul, but he really did.

So Nelson settled for the silver, while two other Americans, John Godina and Reese Hoffa, finished out of contention, far short of his prediction that Americans would sweep the event.

Posted by andrew at 08:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Has anyone out there caught any of the coverage on HDTV that NBC keeps pumping? I wonder if it has been any good. I don't even know how many people have Hi-Def TVs. I suspect the numbers are tiny which makes me curious why NBC is putting so much emphasis on it. Still, I want to know what it's like, because it's, like, you know, cutting edge and all.

Posted by andrew at 05:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There hasn't seemed to have been much talk about this, but you couldn't help but notice that North and South Korea marched together in the Olympic opening ceremonies. Soon afterward, in an unrelated albeit not inconsequential move, President Bush announced a global troop realignment that would bring home thousands of soldiers who are currently guarding the 38th parallel. There has also been talk of North and South Korea competing at a single team at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

I think this is a fantastic development. If, perhaps, this is the start of a reunification of the two Koreas, and who knows whether it is or not, then this will definitely make the world a safer place. Who knows what motivates North Korea, but on some level they have to realize that remaining a world pariah is not anyone's long term interest.

Posted by andrew at 05:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ok, so they are having some trouble getting their IPO aprroved, but they are big into the spirit of the games. You have to love it.

Posted by andrew at 09:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ok, after weeks of waiting, the main event of the WSOP is finally here, tonight on ESPN at 6 PM PST. No excuse now for anyone not to watch, unless they are glued to the Olympics. I'll be switching back and forth myself.

Who knows who will take the bracelet this year. The field is far too deep to predict, but if I was a betting man, I'd put my money on Phil Ivey. The guy is steel. As long as some of my favorite players (Daniel Negreanu, Layne Flack, John Juanda, et al.) have a good tourney and show up at the final table (and Phil Hellmuth doesn't) , I'll be a happy poker fan. Enjoy the show.

Posted by andrew at 04:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I've been watching the Olympics for three days now and there's the awful trend that is really sad for the organizers of the games in Athens. After an Opening Ceremonies where the stadium was packed full of enthusiasts, athletes have been laboring in the obscurity of empty arenas all across Greece. From beach volleyball, to tennis, to rowing, the crowds have been sparse and the venues have been empty.

It's not just a matter of a seat here or a seat there. Huge blocks of seats are empty. It's eerie. The biggest surprise is at the gymnastics arena. Gymnastics is typically the jewel of the Olympics. But in the prelims, just like everywhere else, except maybe swimming, the fans are staying away in droves.

It's sad that even if terrorists don't manage to disrupt the games with a bomb or some other incident, their impact on these games is felt nonetheless. They have succeeded in sowing fear so deep in the rest of the world that people are staying away from one of the greatest sporting shows on earth.

Posted by andrew at 01:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I understand why NBC tape delays most events at the Olympics and shows them during primetime. It's because they care more about ratings that the quality of their programming. What I don't understand is why they can't show events live and then repeat them on tape delay from 8-11 (or 7-10 central and mountain) for the TV dinner crowd.

Part of the great magic of sports is the drama created when the events you are watching are happening simultaneously and you don't know the outcome. That's the key. Not knowing what is going to happen creates tension that tape delay diffuses.

Now I can try all I want to avoid the news and thus hearing the results, but it's next to impossible. I try not to listen to the news. I don't surf the web. I listen to music on the radio. I train my eyes above the scroll on ESPN or CNN or any channel that doesn't care if they blow the mystery of the outcome. But so far I've had trouble, especially with swimming.

I don't know if NBC will ever figure it out so I'll just have to do my best to continue to avoid the results of the tape delayed events and catch as much of the live stuff as they are willing to throw out there.

Posted by andrew at 01:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You want to see the real "Dream Team". Forget Men's Hoops. Look no further than USA Women's Softball, arguably the most dominant team of any sort on the planet.

Before Athens, the team had a 53 game barnstorming tour of the US and Italy. I caught 3 of these games on ESPN (Texas, Arizona & UCLA) and it was simply unfair. Team USA, a fine balance of speed and power destroyed all comers handily. On their tour, the finished a lofty 53-0 with a team batting average over 400, almost 80 home runs, a team ERA below .030, 4 perfect games, 12 no-hitters and god knows how many strikeouts. In a word, awesome.

In Athens, they've kept the throttle down winning their first three games without giving up a run. I stayed up last night to watch the game against Japan, the team USA played in the gold medal game in Sydney. Cat Osterman pitched a scintillating 8 inning 1-hitter as they beat Japan 3-0 in extra frames. Japan is probably the toughest competition they will face in these games, so a gold medal is likely.

Posted by andrew at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So the USA lost the Men's 4x100 Freestyle relay for the second games in succession after dominating the event, never having lost the event in the previous history of the Olympics. In Sydney, we lost to the Aussies led by Ian Thorpe. In Athens, we lost to South Africa.

The controversy comes not because we probably didn't field our best team, but because of the way the team was put together. 1st Michael Phelps was placed on the team in favor of Gary Hall, jr. Phelps has one of the fastest 100s in the US, but he didn't even bother to swim the event at the trials. He was put on the team in a vain effort to give him a chance to win 8 gold medals in a single games, a feat that will have to wait for another four years. Then there was Ian Crocker's dismal start. He went out in 50.05, the worst split of any swimmer in the race, and left his teammates with a margin too big to close. Crocker was suffering from a sore throat before the race and probably should have been scratched.

The result, a third place finish after Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands zipped past Jason Lezak on the final leg, is the USA's worst finish ever in the event.

What seems to lost in the shuffle is that RSA set a world record in winning the gold so it's likely that even had our best swimmers been out, we would have lost anyway. Huge congratulations to Roland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend and Ryk Neethling of South Africa.

Posted by andrew at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I, like everyone else, watched the horror show that was the USA's Hoops opening Olympic disaster against Puerto Rico. I had seen most of the games in the pre-Olympic tour, including the 17 point shellacking at the hands of Italy, so I knew the US was less than prepared as a team and bereft of talent because of injuries and security fears. However, we had beaten PR by 25 points just two weeks ago, albeit with Tracy McGrady in the lineup, a guy who can shoot. Which brings me to my main point.

There's no denying the denial. Despite protestations from coach Larry Brown and co-captain Allen Iversen that the team's problem is defensive in nature, the reality is that the team simply cannot shoot 3 pointers. Remember that in the international games, the 3-point is only at 20' 6", 3 feet shorter than in the NBA game. Most of our best shooters, the aforementioned McGrady, Ray Allen and others stayed home and they are sorely missed.

It's not like Puerto Rico just squeaked by either. With one NBA player, Carlos Arroyo of the Utah Jazz, and a band of CBA castoffs and NCAA rejects, the PR dismantled a "team" with 2 NBA MVPs and many all-stars. Back when college players made up team in 1988, when we lost to the USSR by 6 points it huge deal. Now we're losing by 20 to a nothing team. It's a disaster.

Fortunately, it's just the opening round in the pool play, so the USA has a chance to make amends. And they will take care of Greece handily on Tuesday. But what happens when they have to play one of the top of the teams like Argentina or Serbia? Could the USA finish out of the medals for the first time ever in Olympic competition? That would be incredibly sad. We've already fallen behind the world in baseball and volleyball, two sports we invented. Is basketball next?

Posted by andrew at 07:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't watch the Today, so I'm not subject to the mystical power that Katie Couric seems to exude over the American public, but watching (and listening) to her in action during the Olympic Opening Ceremonies was excruciating. Even Bob Costas was particularly inane. There were so many stupid or downright incorrect or inappropriate comments and some awful mispronunciations. And both of them were talking over Bjork's performance like they were covering some kind of parade. I t made me really wish I could have watched the coverage of the BBC, the CBC, or the ABC.

That said, I really enjoyed the ceremonies. I almost always do. They only thing I can ever remember not liking was the pickup truck business at the redneck games in Atlanta. I love the pageantry, the color, the symbolism. I always look forward to the parade of nations, as it's almost the only time we get to see athletes from the majority of the countries that will not only never win a medal, but won't even come close (including, for example, Samoa). I don't care about that. I still want to see them. And I do expect Katie Couric to do some damn homework so she can pronounce Lesotho and Paradorn Srichaphan.

I thought the stadium designed by Santiago Calatrava was an architectural marvel. It's really spectacular. The parade that demonstrated the history of Greece with living statues was impressive and beautiful. And the lighting of the torch was novel and memorable even if not lit by the Greek 200m Olympic champion Konstantinos Kenteris, because he's in a little spot of trouble with the IOC for missing a drug test.

Personally, I've never bought into NBC being the Olympic network. For my money, it's got to be ABC. The coverage has been dumped down since the coverage changed hands from one network to another. Bob Costas will never stack up to Jim Mckay. Since I don't think NBC is ever going to remove Couric. So my only hope is that ABC can someday wrest the Olympics back from the peacock network.

Posted by andrew at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The 1972 Munich Olympics were supposed to be the Olympics of Peace, a showcase for the new democratic Germany. But celebration turned to tragedy as Palestinian terrorists infiltrated the Olympic village and took Israeli athletes hostage.

On the even on the 2004 Athens games, an Olympiad many suspect will be marred by the specter of terrorism, I watched the documentary One Day in September about the events that unfolded that dark day in Bavaria.

The film details not only the attacks, but how the operations to rescue the Israelis were botched time and again by the German authorities ultimately ending in the death of 11 athletes and all but three of the 8 terrorists. The tragedy unfolds through first hand footage from ABC (thank you, Jim Makay) and subsequent interviews, including the startlingly revealing descriptions of Jamal Al Gashey, the one terrorist still living (the two others were assassinated by the Mossad after being released from prison in Germany).

It was sad and awful event not only in the history of the Olympics, but in the world. One can only hope and pray that the massive attention paid to security in Athens will have the desired effect of keeping these games safe.

Posted by andrew at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Have you got it? I do. Big time. The games don't officially open until Friday, but there are prelim Women's soccer matches starting tomorrow with Greece vs. USA getting things underway.

NBC is covering the games like never before with live coverage on their wide series of networks. Dick Ebersol, head of NBC Sports, has finally seen the light after years and years of crappy coverage and is going to blanket the event. I'm thrilled.

However, I think the networks have down a less than stellar job of building up the event. I can't remember a time when I knew less about the athletes competing. I've seen some the US Men's hoops pre-Olympic tour, which has been dour. I caught a good part of the track and swimming trials. But other than that, precious little. I can't name a single gymnast, boxer, or anything else for that matter, and I'm a sports minutae junkie. I get into the archery and the equestrian, especailly cross-country. I want to know about field hockey and pentathlon, diving and, especailly, wrestling (even Greco-Roman).

That aside, the games are going to awesome, so let them begin!

Posted by andrew at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

When I heard about how the Feds had arrested an Imam and an accomplish for laundering money through their pizza parlor to buy a shoulder fired rocket to assassinate the Pakistani ambassador to the UN, my first thought was not shock that a religous leader would be implicated in an assassination, nor praise for the FBI to capture these two before they could hatch their nefarious plot. My first thought was, isn't odd that an Imam owns a pizza place? It's sort of like a rabbi owning a kebab shop. Or as my brother put, sort of like a rabbi who's trying to buy a shoulder fired missle who has a kebab shop.

Posted by andrew at 05:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This afternoon, the phone rang. I picked it up. The voice on the other side said, "Can I speak to Andrew." I said, "This is Andrew." Then the phone went dead. And then nothing. No call back to say something like, "Hey, sorry about that, the phone just went dead," or whatever.

Now, I'm not really paranoid. It's just weird. My guess is that either they got disconnected and lost my number or I am about to be served.

Posted by andrew at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I didn't do much to celebrate my birthday. I did have dinner with my sister at an Indian restaurant in Albany, just north of Berkeley. I hadn't seen her since her wedding last year, so it was nice to touch base again, especially since she's in her second trimester and moving steadily down the path to make me an uncle for the first time.

Thanks to all of you who wrote me today with birthday wishes wondering where I have been. I didn't really go anywhere. I just needed a mental vacation from updating the site. Now I'm back.

Posted by andrew at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Fil, my female kitten, has become a one woman guerrlla attack cat when it comes to Jen's tuxedo, Smudge. Smudge will enter the living room, gingerly now, as she suspects an imminent attack from any direction. Fil will stalk her or launch a speedy offensive without provocation. And there's nothing I can do to make her stop. Squirt guns don't work. Throwing pillows doesn't work. Giving her a stern talking to doesn't work. She's just a truant. i didn't raise her that way.

Posted by andrew at 05:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It always bothers me when a great Hollywood classic like The Manchurian Candidate gets remade. What's the point? The remake is almost never as good as the original. What they should do is remake bad movies. Take some old piece of tripe from the 30s or 40s, rework the script, add some stars and a dose of modern movie magic and you could have a great film.

The idea of this updated< i>Manchurian Candidate is absurd, because the brainwashing that takes place during the Korean War when the opposition was significantly Chinese is replaced in the remake with the first Gulf War. Where are the Manchurians in the Middle East? What kind of supidity is this?

Posted by andrew at 06:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)