Olympics Underway!

I think since the Olympics are only on every four years, it should be two-week national holiday and everyone should stay home and watch water polo and cycling all day. So far we have been enjoying the first couple of days of the Olympics. A few thoughts:

I'm not a big fan of Bob Costas, but I have to admit that it wouldn't seem like the Olympics without him sitting in the studio grinning like the Cheshire Cat. At least he tones it down a bit from his Winter Olympics act, when he sits by the fire in an Alpine lodge sipping hot cocoa and wearing a smoking jacket. It seems to me that Bob doesn't really age - he looks the same now as he did in 1986.

Some people don't like the little featurettes that are inserted into the Olympic coverage. Sometimes they're a bit overdone, but sometimes necessary to give a little background on some of the foreign athletes. The annoying part of the coverage for me is when Bob spends like an hour every night talking to people in the studio. Personally, I don't need to see a nightly interview with Bela Karolyi, who is basically unintelligible anyways. And I'm not any more enriched having witnessed the chat between Costas and the US sabre team. Come on! There's so many sports to watch! Baseball! Table tennis! Basketball! Water polo! Volleyball! And if those don't work, I'm sure there has got to be a swimming heat that hasn't been televised (although I doubt it).

We enjoyed the gymnastics coverage last night from Tim "Thundercloud" Daggett. With every slight misstep by Team USA, he reacted as if civilization as we know it might come to an end. I almost expected them to cut to a shot of Tim back at the hotel packing the girls' bags for their flight back to the US. Meanwhile, Al Trout Wig (not real spelling, but it should be) was preoccupied with the speculation that some of the Chinese girls might be younger than the required age of 16. Only in gymnastics would someone be accused of cheating for using a team of children.

Swimming commentator Rowdy Gaines had back-to-back bold predictions blow up in his face last night. After proclaiming Italian swimmer Federica Pellegrini to be without peer, she failed to medal in the 400 meter freestyle. And he said more than once that the US would not be able to beat France in the 4 X 100 relay. Which, of course, they did. So far that has been the most exciting event of the Olympics, seeing Jason Lezak catch the trash-talking Frenchman on the final leg of the race and snag the gold for the USA. Afterwards, we mocked the French by rehashing the old Jon Lovitz SNL bit, "I'm Frenchy!"