The London Olympics

I am a sports fan, and I am enjoying the Olympics!

I had an interesting conversation with my "train buddy" yesterday (or at least it was interesting to me). You see, she's British, so she has an entirely different take on the Olympics this year as they are being hosted in London.

I wasn't able to see all of the opening ceremonies, and what I did see I thought was a bit "different." She agreed with me on that point, and I'll be honest, I turned the channel during the parade of nations. It seems I missed some of the more interesting parts of the ceremony, however. My friend highlighted some of the things that made it particularly interesting for her - British benchmarks that highlight the culture of the host country. I have several British friends (and at this point I'd like to make the distinction between English and British, because more often than not, the Brits will point this out to you. English refers to Englanders, while British extends to Great Britain, i.e., Scotland, Northern Ireland and the outlying territories, so overall, they are all British, but they are not all English).

Another interesting contrast is that here in the U.S.A., we are getting mostly filtered coverage - American athletes in competition - rather than broad-based coverage. That's probably not a big deal since that's what we are mostly interested in, and I do believe there is on-line coverage of events not being selected for television broadcast. In England, I'm told there is a "red button" on the television that lets them select which events they want to watch, not necessarily limited to the Brits.

I'm not sure America needs to expand coverage to see other country's athletes, and I have seen the shining stars from those other countries (like the British and Chinese gymnasts). Maybe its pride in our home-grown folks, or maybe we have an excellent crop to watch, but I'm probably okay with missing out on some of the other stuff. How do you pare down what to televise and what to pass over? Seems as if we're doing it right, although it is certainly disappointing for expatriots.

Back on the writing front, I've certainly been distracted the last week or so with the launch of Living Canvas and with family matters (first book signing tentatively set up for September - Schaumburg, Illinois!). The new work in process is nearing completion, the most critical part now being to clean up the messes I've left behind in my sprint to the finish. Filling in the holes, fixing continuity, etc. I'll keep you posted!