Closing the Curtain on China '08

Some parting shots from the LATimes and a bit of a counter point from a Denver Post columnist (in the Seattle Post Intelligencer)

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-olympics26-2008aug26,0,4466878.story

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/olympics/376460_voices26.html

...and an interesting "people in glass houses"+"we're in the same boat" (the one Bush built for us) viewpoint

http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=332686

...and reflections of a Boston Globe reporter...

http://www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/olympics/extras/olympics_blog/2008/08/one_last_lap_ar.html

OK enough is enough. I'm just going to have to muscle through until football starts. It's going to be a long week!
R

Correction

It's been brought to my attention by certain parties (Ryan) that I ought to mention that we ate our omelets around noon, thus making his consumption of beer less odd.

The Triumphant Return of the Sunday Morning Omelet

Once upon a time, in jolly old England, there was a tradition of Sunday morning omelets. These omelets were accompanied by pastries and breads (from the Belgian bakery I wanted to move into) and mimosas. The tradition continued in the U.S. when we were both in it and began to occasionally see some of the best French toast on the planet (if I do say so myself...and I do). It even happened shortly after we moved in to the new apartment. We were the largest consumers of chicken sausage in Erie county (I can't actually substantiate that particular statement...).

It fell apart after I got pregnant. Apparently, my inability to tolerate the smell of cooking chicken extended to cooking eggs. We hadn't had Sunday morning omelets in a very long time until last weekend.

The magic has returned.

My omelet in progress. Yes, I see the shmootz on the stove. Yes, I cleaned it up. I'm great, but I'm not particularly neat...what do you want?


Ryan accused me of loading his omelet with vegetables so that I could put all the sausage and cheese in mine. He seems to forget that he ASKS for jalapeños and onions and such in his omelets.


Ok. Maybe there is a lot of sausage and cheese in mine. Baby wanted chorizo.


Wow. That looks good enough to eat...oh, wait...that's right...we did.


Ryan tears into his omelet like a ravening beast.


Gracie chews on something a little less delicious...her leg.


For those of you who were keen enough to spot it in the above picture of Ryan devouring his omelet...ten points. That is a can of lager from "America's Oldest Brewery." Yes, nothing tops off breakfast like a fine can of Yuengling, brewed right here in beautiful nearby Pottsville, PA (ok, it's not really "nearby," but it's way closer than the Guinness brewery).


So, the Sunday morning omelets have found their way back into the Sitter household...at least as long as I get relatively long periods of uninterrupted sleep, that is. Somehow I think a screaming baby will make the preparation of omelets much less appealing.

Milli Vanilli & the Potemkin Olympics

Lynnsey is handling my addiction with remarkable fortitude. Most of you may not know I've been addicted to the Olypmics since I was a wee lad. I've been glued to NBC since last Friday's opening ceremonies the way I was glued to the Tour de France through most of July (sorry babe :-). Phelps & Co. are amazing and the US mens gymnastics guys rose to the occasion admirably a couple of nights back. I can't get enough!!

When I think of the Olympics the picture in my mind's eye is the ideal of the olympic movement - the expression of humanity that radiates from fair and sportsmanlike competition between the best athletes in the world. The Olympic charter says it best: "The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity."

The embrace of the beach volleyball players from Georgia and Russia before they did battle on the sand court in Beijing yesterday is the latest example of how the Olympics embodies that ideal.

There is, unfortunately, a commercial parasite - also called the Olympics - that feeds on this positive energy. Big Business and Big Government see Big Bucks when they think of the Olympics. That vibe is decidely phony and the synicism it promotes poisons the true Olympic spirit. Yuck!!

Maybe I'm biased (by my naive idealistic tendencies :-)) but it seems like this time around the negative vibe has been even worse than in the past due to the selection of China as the host country. Don't get me wrong, I've got no beef with the Chinese masses but I do with their apparatchik overloards.

The Chinese government has turned Beijing into an enormous Potemkin Village, a sad display of life behind the curtain. I can understand playing good hosts to the world but I think it stinks when you go so far as to pull a Milli Vanilli with an 8-year-old little girl because she is "too ugly" to represent the country. Does that demonstrate China is a "society concerned with the preservation of human dignity"? Do they play the rest of the world for fools? Too bad they couldn't find the courage to respect the diginity of this girl by celebrating her genuine beauty and her wonderful voice...

...and that is just the most emblematic example of countless other phony, oft-publicized measures the government has taken including the attempt to hide China's atrociously polluted air.

The funny thing and one of the unitended consequences - both at home in China and around the world - may be that people see the true face of China. This article in the Washington Post this morning was pretty interesting: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/12/AR2008081203262.html?hpid=topnews... I hope that people celebrate the good vibe of the Olympics - it would be a shame for them not to enjoy the spirit of the games - but I also hope they see the Olympic parasite and its Chinese host for what they really are - a sham. I shudder to imagine these guys as a superpower at the help of world politics.

-R