Rings of fire

I'm watching today backwards--didn't get back until 10 pm, so will have to watch the first two hours on tape later. Had dinner and saw the Johnny Cash biography, Walk the Line--which was great, best thing I've seen this year.

Joaquin Phoenix is pitch-perfect as the Man in Black, and Reese Witherspoon is wonderful as June Carter Cash. Had no idea JC's life was so epic; and JCC's may have been even more compelling. One of my favorite parts of the movie was when they showed the two of them driving around on tour with the likes of Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Waylon Jennings.... Wish there was more of that, the greats just sitting around jamming.

JCC seemed an almost preternaturally good person; a woman touring in a man's world, and preserving her individuality, and after it all managing to bring Johnny over to her side. He was a decent person too--he cared, wanted to do good, and fought through his self-destructiveness. A lot of people give in; I think his commitment to his music and needing to perform wouldn't let him.

The movie ends as they get married, and says for the next few decades they toured the world together. I think that may make just as interesting a movie; hopefully they'll get Joaquin and Reese to make it before too long.

Hour One
Failed moguls
Funny watching these backwards, but blogging them in order. Feel like I'm just smarter than the announcers right now... this is why I avoid the 'live' results online, like participating in NBC's storytelling.

It's just qualifying round for women's moguls; defending world champ is an American, Hannah Kearney. Hmm, Canadian's name is Jennifer Heil?! Okay....

Ugh, hate hate these loud grating announcers. Camera angle from the back is stupid too. Can we get a real-time comments option on the website? I mean if everyone complains about the same thing, how hard is it for the announcers/staff to change before the next broadcast?

Kearney had a rough run, at least two mistakes... hmmm, not a good score. Looks like she may not even make the final round. Back from break, she sounds nervous in the post-race interview; she sounds nice, but also used the I'm young, still have years ahead. Generally, people who say that don't win--unless they're sandbagging.

Another American, Shannon Bahrke; another mediocore run... these things are infectious, wonder if 30 years in the future they'll have ironed out some of the emotional domino-effects, and things like how your teammates do, and how the crowd reacts, won't have such potentially definitive effects.

Jillian Vogtli, third American, big screw-up early.... The yips are definitely cascading through the U.S. team. The fifth skier they've shown is the fourth American, Michelle Roark. I bet she does well; has a look--yup, big run, big celebration, in third right now.

Whoo-hoo, another non-American, some Aussie--she has a chance to bump out the U.S. champ, who's in 20th right now; only 20 make it. Aussie runs pretty clean; I think she'll bump Hannah out.

And she... does! Gosh, it's weird when the gold medal favorite doesn't even make it out of qualifying. And the supposedly powerful U.S. team only has a 4th place finisher in the top ten after qualifyings.

Da luge
I'm concluding from this the U.S. doesn't do anything in the men's luge competition either, else they'd have shown that first. Oh well, I like the Italian guy anyway, he was good in Salt Lake.

German guy up first, J. Eichhorn... amazing how much the Germans have dominated this sport. Ice and steel... very Teutonic; but this guy's apparently been a disappointment.

Now the American, stuck in 9th... Tony Benshoof. Ugly yellow leggings; also moving all over the track. In luge you want as little movement as possible, especially up early. He's picking up time on the bottom though; is the leader at the moment.

Latvian, Martins Rubenis. In 5th going in, so they skipped some people. Camera work in this event could stand some work, you feel like you're not really seeing the race; they're just going by too fast, sometimes before the camera catches up.

Ah, Armin Zoeggeler, Italian. He's good; luge is such a mental game. Idiot announcers again; not talking about the race, about past stuff, as it's going on--very odd, luge is like not even a minute long only. Absolutely no analysis. AZ is in first, American in second. Can he grab bronze--cause there's no way he's gonna beat out the legendary German, Georg Hakel.

Hakel, going for his fourth gold medal in four Olympics here. Again, announcers talk history during the race. Wow, he even looks faster/better than everyone else. These announcers are just talking over the race, idots. Dennis Johnson and two clowns.

Next up, Russian, Demtschenko. Again, constant three-person talking over the event. Russian does well, despite what announcers were guessing. American sits in third, after second of four runs--which the announcers just mention at the end. This has to be the worst announcing job I've seen so far. Which is saying something; just about everyone has been bad. Astonishing that NBC is putting these guys on air--doesn't anybody have standards anymore?

Bob Jr.
Back in the studio, Bob Costas is joined by Jimmy Roberts--who's gonna look back at the Sale/Pelletier pairs ice skating scandal from Salt Lake. He compares it to a soap opera--which is dumb.

Sometimes JR tries a little too hard to be clever. And the gimmick gets in the way of the storytelling, especially since the clips seemed to have been staged just for the segment. The story itself is compelling enough, lose the stupid stuff. The segment really doesn't have any point to it; just an excuse to get more air time for ice skating.

HOUR TWO
Ice skating kicks off
Yaay! My favorite Olympic genre. First off--the Americans, Rena Inoue and John Baldwin. He looks like a paunchy fool; another dumb white guy with an Asian American. Going for the first-ever triple throw axel in Olympic competition; I already know the result, unfortunately.

He's all in black, she's in some white/green/blue mix. Good lift to start; they don't skate very fast though. Wow, they landed the throw! That was great to see. Too bad announcers are horrible, of course. You'd think they'd have some line prepared.

Ooops, off-kilter side-by-side double axels, inconsistency is the American hallmark in ice skating. That and lack of speed. But so far this is a decent program, no stupid mistakes. Audience reaction muted, that'll hurt; also, they're skating very early in the evening, so won't get the scores they deserve.

Who is this third man in the booth? His voice is horrible, and he speaks so haltingly. It's a very choppy broadcast so far.

Baldwin's way too touchy-feely, and controlling in the kiss and cry area. He's trying too hard to be the man or something, gesturing to the audience to applaud more. He's totally lacking that likeability factor.

Oh, now they introduce the announcing team--Dick Button is the horrible guy, Sandra Bezic the dorky woman, Tom Hammond the well-intentioned but only steady veteran. They just don't flow.

Pang Qing and Tong Jian, a pair from China. Ugly black uniforms with traces of gold. Good classical music though; and they skate fast. Too deliberate getting ready for the first jump; good first throw with nice height, but again, it's too set-up, the best Russians always make it flow organically, no pausing before or afterwards.

Music is quite good and standard, it's now Stravinsky's Firebird Suite (not that NBC tells us), they learned music choicefrom the Rooskies. All-in-all a technically impressive team, but no fire/heart somehow. All by the book, nothing terribly imaginative--still, well-done. As best as they can do, says Bezic, actually an apt comment. And they're in first at this point, of course.

Next, the top Chinese pair. They showed images beforehand from his ruptured Achilles--totally ugly and ridiculous. Now, NBC tells us, they don't have to win no medal to win, just competing is great. Uh, sure.

Hmm, big smiles; similar black/silver uniforms, but they somehow look more world-class. Interesting beginning, not standard. And fast! Ah, she touches ice--not him. Nice, big throw. A little bit of personality as the music changes, but the touch makes it seem a little forced. Bezic is turning out to be a decent commentator, she gets things right. Nice high lift; effortless. Their elements are set up much more fluidly, you don't necessarily see them coming. Good death spiral; nice program, but for the bobble, and Bezic says he missed something at the end. They seem happy at the end--maybe part of the problem. Russians would've been stone-faced, not satisfied. And they're second, to their teammates.

One thing I'm noticing--commercial breaks are shorter than American Idol's blocks, like half as long.

Heil moguls
Unfortunately I inadvertently saw the results for how this event turns out already. Heck, even if I hadn't, the fact the announcers wonder at the top if it'll be the Canadian or the Norwegian winning would've tipped me off to something.

Jillian does okay--announcers give no sense of how this stacks up against the field, though, so it could've been amazing, or with usual hyperbole just okay. Another American, Shannon--announcer says an "incredible" run. Oh? His partner says it doesn't seem like she thought it was enough to win; so the first guy is now criticizing her run....

Gosh, this editing is like Steven Spielberg editing. Look here, I'm about to show you something, now see it, now did you see it?

Idiot comparison of distance from earth to Saturn, to distance from top of run to bottom. Okay... wow, Norwegian is pretty good. Announcers say they've seen her ski better, not sure how good it is. Heh, heh, what do they know. Big score, so now announcers will back off their comments of just a few seconds ago.

Another American, Michelle... I liked her in qualifying, just went for it. Oooh, in trouble, bobbling. But fast. Bad last jump, didn't seem that tough. She's not as enthused as she was after her qualifying run, so I'm sure her score won't be that great. And she's in third, at the moment. How many more to come? Three.

Of course, when the next skier knocks Michelle outof the bronze, the announcers don't mention it. Yo--if you're gonna focus on Americans, do it right.

Last up--the Canadian, Heil. She looks totally focused. A seemingly good run--how does it compare? We'll just have to wait for the scores; the announcers don't know nuttin either.

Heil wins!

Practicing going downhill
This is prime time? Training runs? The usual idiot announcers, just making things up to focus on and say good things about the Americans. And the usual constant yelling.

Hmm, second time Bode Miller's had a bad training run. I don't think this guy's gonna do well. Darron Rahlves is looking like more of a realistic medal contender, he apparently won the last time the circuit raced on this course. Announcer just said even the Austrians were studying Rahlves' line, since he'd nailed it.

Interracial pairs
Interview with Baldwin and Inoue; he talks about 'shoving it in the judge's face' with their big jump... considering same judges will mark the long program, seems like a dumb comment.

Marcie Hinzmann and Aaron Parchem... two Americans who will do poorly. He's in maroon/black, she white. Nice music; skating slow, weak lift. Hmmm, surprisingly nice throw. He falls on easy unison double jump. So typical. Not quite in sync on slow side-by-side steps. Hmm, he's black--first since Debi Thomas I've seen for U.S. They're actually not bad; nice flow to their routine. If they move to Russia and devote the next four years to training, they could be contenders. I liked watching them skate.

Hour Three
Rest of the world
Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, third Chinese team; same black with gold outfits. Hmm--this is interesting! Led Zepplin, fast and interesting moves. Nice big throw, too--although a bit too set-up. They seem to biff a bit on some of the small things; now music is classical, this is a fun routine. Button says okay but not inspiring--not sure I agree, crowd seems to really like them too. Kindof an anti-climactic end.

Husband and wife Polish team of Dorota Zagorska and Mariuz Siudek, she dressed as a flapper, he as a gentleman out for a night on the town, dance to old-style American music. They were comfortable to watch, as one of the commentators said; some bobbles here and there, and also not so terribly exciting.

I do wish the broadcast would include identifying information about the music. Pairs at its best is edge-of-the-seat exciting and passionate--but most of the time, it's simply nice to watch, and a few pop-up facts about song and outfits would fit just fine.

Men's 5,0000M
You can tell based on the time an event airs whether an American wins or not. The closer to the top or the bottom of the hour an American shows up, the more likely he or she wins gold. In this case, my best guess is Chad Hedrick doesn't win gold; but who knows.

Ahh... speed skating. I love watching it; colorful outfits against the smooth ice. Right now it's two members of the powerful Dutch team going head to head, orange vs. orange. I think NBC is using a new graphic, of two oval icons representing the position of the skaters--odd, why not just show the skaters live. Again, it'd be nice to have little factoids on screen--or from the announcers, imagine that!--about the background of these competitors.

The two Dutchmen just finished first/second, by a lot, over two Norwegians. Up next: the Exception.

Ugh, he just spit on the ice.... First, they run the compulsory bio clip--with Cash's Walk the Line in the background, CH is apparently from Texas. He's a lot smaller than the Dutchmen (who on average are the tallest men in the world). Laura Bush is in the stands, looking plastic as always. Oh-oh, CH was crying before, the anniversary of the death of his grandmother. Good luck... don't fall!

He looks good, but not sure why he's two-time world champ... seems so normal. Maybe that's part of it, he looks totally relaxed, at ease out there. Wow, he's really doing well, 1.5 seconds faster. Now nearly 2 seconds faster; mouth open though. No fast partner to draft off of. Great camera angle, scooting around rink right in front of him.

Wow, tongue totally hanging out, he's really digging deep now. He's struggling openly, but still pushing; lead is now 2.5 seconds faster. Down to 1.72 faster at the finish, 6:14:68. With just four guys left, he's pretty much guaranteed a medal. Hmm, a black American looks to be up next.

Shani Davis--how come we haven't heard more about him?! Vs. some Canadian guy. Davis is going out strong; he's competed in short track, so it'll be interesting to see if he can stay fast. He's fading already.... Wish the announcers would give us some perspective on how good Hedrick's time is. Wow, Davis is really falling off the pace--but that may just be an indication of how good Hedrick was.

Oh, hey, it's Dan Jansen commentating! Cool; I hope they got Bonnie Blair too. Looking at the time, it looks like Hedricks may be the gold medal winner, with one pair left this event should finish right around the magic hour mark. They really should also tell us how everyone's been doing during the World Cup season, though--no idea how good the last two are.

Am noticing I'm a lot more cognizant of how tv shows are edited, after watching all those reality shows where it's all about editing. I don't mind that much--I really like Harry Potter books, after all, despite being able to see the strings being pulled.

Hmmm, doesn't seem like the Norwegian guy's that great; the Italian guy could be a threat, he's won twice on the World Cup circuit. Wow, both are slower right off the bat though. I think, especially if you're at home, you need to come out strong--after two laps, I don't think either guy will catch him, both are nearly two seconds off--and the crowd isn't going nuts for the Italian guy like you'd think. Odd; there's no sense of urgency with these two, like they didn't think they could do it from the get-go--it's over, they're almost 4 seconds slower.

The U.S. has really improved their Winter Olympic team over the last few Olympics; it used to be surprising when we won a gold, now it's almost expected in quite a few of the events. The Italian guy is starting to feed off the crowd, picking up time, going for the bronze--wow, he gets it!

But Hedrick's your gold medal winner. Awesome; he seems like a nice guy, big smile, running out on the ice. Four years after watching from Vegas as Derek Parra grabs silver, he's on top himself. Now he can go for history, try and tie Eric Heiden's five golds.

Good post-game interview; appropriately emotional and open about the importance of the moment, especially since it's 13 years to the day since his grandmother's death.

Pairs return
Gold medal Russian favorites Tatiana Marinina and Maxim Marinin show up in teal outfits. Wow, they look very fast and smooth. Good classical music too. Judges keep nattering about the new scoring system; shut up please, and let's just watch. Effortless throw. Wow, side-by-side triple toe loops, perfectly done. Such speed, and ice coverage.

Perfectly timed throw to the music; such fun to watch. And the music's good too; not sure why so many skaters pick aesthetically bad music. It's just the short program, but these guys look nigh unbeatable. Wonder what the Chinese will do (really, did). It's hard; the Russian guy is so big and powerful, everything they do looks great.

'Brilliant' says one of the commentators; 'unmatched,' 'in a class by themselves', 'mistake free program', 'they just don't mess up.'

And they're well out in front in first--they've pretty much wrapped up the gold already. There's such a sense of speed, of heart-in-the-throat, when Russian pairs skate, their coaching system still has a lock on this event.

Ugh, now Germans--skating to trance music or something, dressed all in sleek black with white stripes down the sides. Athletic, but no grace. Music is really horrible--and she falls off a throw.

Pairs has been one of my favorite events for the past few Olympics, ever since tiny Ekaterina Gordeeva and powerful Sergei Grinkov reinvented the sport at Calgary in 1988, and won gold again at the next Olympics they competed in, Lillehammer in 1994. Then he died of a heart attack....

There's no way T/M will match their story, but hopefully they'll skate well in the long program (although it'd be nice to see one of the Chinese pairs, in 2nd and 4th and 5th between the two Russian pairs right now, pull off an upset; I doubt they will, though).

Michelle
Hmmm, she apparently had a rough practice session today, and her groin seems to be bothering her again. People are billing it as she may pull out based on some of her comments at the press conference. Watching the clips on NBC, I don't think so, I think she's just very straightforward and being honest. She's got 10 days before the short program; she'll be fine. Just has to do her best, not everyone else's.

HOUR FOUR.5
Ski jumping--normal hill
It's just qualifying; but I really got into this sport four years ago. Really young Swiss guy, Japanese team--good competition in SLC. Announcers, Jeff Hastings and Matt Vasgersian are loud, per usual. Has shrillness and lack of art just taken over broadcasting? Don't these guys get trained? Anyone explain how a microphone works? Any audio engineers on the job?

Jim Denney, American--will do nothing, U.S. is very bad in this event. Sure enough, a short jump. Next, Alan Alborn. Does NBC think we just wanna watch any American? Gosh, do some work--find the best stories, show people from other countries besides the top competitors. Alborn is better than Denney, but still does nothing.

A Canadian... Hastings isn't that bad aside from his grating loudness, he gives analysis and mentions technique at least. Now, an Italian. These guys are just flashing past, each jump is only seconds long. Everyone's landing around the same distance, 96M mark. A Slovenian; not a great jump. He yanked his body up into the air too quickly. His fluorescent bodysuit pulses on the screen.

A Japanese jumper, fifth Olympics both announcers say within seconds of each other--a good jump, best so far. Noriaki Kasai. Simon Ammann--the Swiss phenom and gold medalist from 2002. Not a good jump.

Good jump from a Polish guy; Norwegian up, good jump too, didn't start out looking good but he has good body control. In first at this point, by quite a bit. First of the powerful Austrians; this late night stuff is great, they would never show all this in prime time, Norway still leads.

To break. I always like watching Pat O'Brian wrap up the day. He's a little weird, but his humor works this late. Plus they generally have good music, and fun highlights; plus interesting little off-beat reports. And, of course, bonus coverage of the 'minor' sports.

Back, another Austrian--not a bad jump, kindof not great technique. A lot of these guys are under 20.... German, solid jump. Turns out he's 'pre-qualified'--how about explaining that?

Good jump, a very happy Swiss guy. And the famed Finn, Janne Ahonen; strong jump. Czech republic guy, current World Cup points leader... not a great jump, 21st place. And that's it. The 'Harry Potter' of ski jumping, Ammann, is funny in post-race interview--will need 'full power' tomorrow he says. Very Euro in his answers, got that yaa cadence going on.

Lights out
Hmm, looks like it's Jim Lampley replacing Pat late at night. That sucks; Lamp is like the opposite of Pat, he's very stiff, and seems a bit full of himself. Feature recapping pairs; is okay. Scott Hamilton, despite his top of the lungs pitch, is still the best skating analyst, he tells you things and isn't afraid to be blunt. These Canadian ex-pairs skaters with Tom Hammonds, the infamous Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, seem to have a hard time just speaking English. I guess he's French Canadian; they struck me four years ago as a little holier than thou and not that likeable, despite being in an eminently sympathetic position.

And I wasn't so sure that they were better than the Russians in the final long program--cleaner, yes, but also a little too careful, they didn't seem to have left it all out there. Although I may be misremembering, it was four years ago!

So they show a medals ceremony, for the German who won the biathalon. Funny, just read today in a biography about Beethoven that Joseph Haydn wrote the piece that's now Germany's anthem. Interesting that Germany and Italy have been countries for less time than the U.S. has.

Hmm, Bob Costas is talking to Chad Hedrick; on the interview set he seems a lot more stilted. Let's see if Bob loosens him up. Yeah, he already seems to be warming up. So much prominent Nike air time--swoosh on his red cap, on his blue warm-up.... Why's he wearing a hat indoors, anyway. Interesting, he just said Eric Heiden's his doctor.

At break, idiot Apprentice commercial. There's a contestant they're billing as 'the genius'--yet he says "I'm in the top two percent of IQs in the world." Top two percent is not genius--unless you think there are 7 million geniuses in the world. Sheesh.

Jim wraps up; it's like he's an actor, playing a journalist. Ugh. Andreas Botticelli sings us out--over nothing, think they'd at least run some highlights.

How good is this American team? Can it win more medals that at Salt Lake? Right now, I'm thinking not. It was a disappointing first day in some ways; momentum, destiny--these things play a role, and doubt right now the Americans are feeling it. They need someone to come out of nowhere on day two, to get everyone excited and trying to keep it going, surfing the wave of the team, instead of getting all caught up in themselves.

Photo of Chad Hedrick after his gold-medal skate in the men's 5,000 meters by Vincent Laforet for The New York Times.

Photo of Rena Inoue and John Baldwin as they became the first pairs team to land a throw triple axel in world or Olympic competition by Vincent Laforet for The New York Times.

Torino Winter Olympics--Opening Ceremonies

HOUR ONE
Opening
I love the Olympics. I'm gonna try to watch as much of it as I can, either 'live' or on tape... figure it's a good chance to practice my blogging skills. I'm typing as I'm watching, and revising/editing during commercials breaks.

Wow, what beautiful color and cinematography in the opening. NBC, though, does seem intent on turning Italy/Roman empire into U.S.; odd, Rome was imperialistic and expansionistic; we really aren't,

I hope Bode Miller doesn't become the face of these games; much rather it be Michelle. I also hope these silly X Games events don't get the same coverage as the real sports.

Interesting, the opening ceremonies stadium was built by Mussolini--wonder if we'll see any pieces on facism. This is why I like Bob Costas, he seems like one of the only sports journalists who'd raise this angle in a story meeting.

Michelle Kwan
I hope they mention in this interview of Michelle that she herself was bumped off her first Olympics team in 1994 (by Nancy Kerrigan, who was attacked by Tanya)... they didn't... but at least they did say her fourth place finish at last year's World's is what got the U.S. three spots at the Olympics, instead of just two.

Michelle Tafoya's an earnest, professional interviewer. Kwan seems like a really good, if conflicted, person, and has a good attitude and perspective on things.

I'm not sure she's gonna win the gold, but then again figure skating, more than a lot of sports, seems to turn on pure emotion and a lot of times the favorites get overtaken by someone who peaks, for whatever reason, at the right moment. If Kwan wins, it would be one of those Dan Jansen-type moments.

I wish part of the opening was a look back at the last Winter Games and even others before that, to remind us all of why we watch the world's greatest sporting--and one of its greatest cultural--event.

Downhill skiing practice
Tim Ryan's voice is always stuck at the same high pitch of excitement; this is gonna get tiring over two weeks; plus his partner's an idiot. Hmm, don't remember the downhill course being marked in thick blue paint... kindof destroys the natural beauty. Sports commentators really should learn something about journalism; there's so much great material to work with, no reason for them to be corporate shills.

Bode Miller
Oh god, that dumb Jim Lampley just called him the 'cover boy' of these games. In which universe?!

Miller's an idiot; he tells 60 Minutes that he and other skiers ski drunk, than gets mad at the media for covering it... and he wonders why he and other skiers don't get any respect. What is it about this sport that attracts all the knuckleheads--Alberta Tomba is supposedly in the running to be the final torchbearer, hope Italy picks someone other than that chowderhead.

At least they have Jimmy "Bob Jr." Roberts doing the interview, he's usually pretty good. Ugh... Miller doesn't often "grant interview"--wow, hope Roberts doesn't see this as an honor.

Wait--Miller lives in a camper?! Hmmm.

Miller's apology is to his family, friends and supporters--what about his sport?! His fellow athletes?! He does make a good point that people would rather wallow in someone else's stuff than their own lives--but he's a big boy, how could he be surprised by that?

I gotta say, he's coming across pretty well in this interview... even if JR looks like a lumberjack. This is turning out to be a worth watching; JR asks real questions, and Bode's answering them. Miller says he manipulates the press just as he's manipulated institutions and everyone else in his life--the difference though is the press is full of smart people.

"He's a different kind of cat" says JR....

Oh no, up next--the halfpipe. Yaay--before that, a preview for Eight Below, which looks cool--dogs, humans, and extreme snow, what could be better.

Halfpipe
"What is it that Shawn White is doing that's so right?" Well, for one thing, he's not a goofy halfpipe commentator (yet). So... this is that tomato dude all the kids are atwitter about.

Ah, the Finns--I remember they did really well in Salt Lake. Kindof messes with your image of Scandinavians that they excel at this oh-so Southern Californian event. This halfpipe thing is interesting; it's sortof fun to watch, although with the militant music it's probably best in short durations.

What is it about these announcing teams--they're all so shrill, and hard on the ears. Plus they talk like they're aware at every single second that they're on television--no conversational style at all. Makes it hard to listen to.

"We're embarking on a technological milestone" says Jim as we go to break--it's all being broadcast in HD. Makes me laugh, the networks fought HD for as long as they could, now you'd think they invented it. They didn't, of course, it was the Japanese. I remember for years there was an HD set in the Museum of American History in DC, playing a loop that included sumo wrestlers.

HOUR TWO
Opening Ceremonies kick off
The Olympics have officially begun--Bob Costas goes on the air, 8:55 p.m. EST. He's already in his opening paragraph set the stage for these Olympics better than the entire first hour did--history, sport, everything's there, appropriate and eloquent as always.

And here's Brian Williams, billing himself as 'a news guy'--what's Bob, chopped liver? Oddly enough, BW looks like a priest in his getup. He's okay, possibly a little too conscious of I'm the anchor, this is a big event because I'm here, let me elevate it by talking about world politics.

But you know, this is Bob's show. He's so good, everything a sports or any anchor should be.

Ah, those goofy Roots caps again... looking maybe a little more streamlined this year. Wow--this first guy they're talking to [Chad Hedrick] has only been a speed skater for 4 years, was watching the last Games on tv (just like me!) Of course, he previously was already a roller blading champ--but still, to have a shot at five speedskating golds a few years after taking up a sport with the pedigree of speedskating is amazing. He seems appropriately humble, though.

Now Andrea Joyce with another speed skater, Chris Whitty--the flag-bearer. Looking very red. She looks kindof like a grad student, but I remember liking her in Salt Lake, just a focused, dedicated athlete with none of the nonsense others bring. Joyce asks her if she's worried about the flag being heavy to carry... Whitty responds, well I work out, so I'm not too worried.

Pagentry starts
Yaay, another euro-art opening ceremony. Looking forward to lotsof bizarreness, things that make you go what?!

Wow, a man standing before an anvil, dressed like a blacksmith, hitting it and generating a flame... BC tells us he's known in Italy as the lord of the rings. Nice camerawork--stadium floor is now covered with ridges of some sort, and women are geometrically placed, dancing in unison. Everything is in red, with some gold; lotsof fire. And fake speed skaters. Wonder what the real ones are thinking.

More goofy 'dancing'; a sea of just legs churning; and Bob's suave voice, appropriately explaining, otherwise letting it flow. Lotsof flailing, sinuous limbs; now a guy on skates busts up the heart-shaped formation, he's got a rocket pack... looks like he's the skater of the future. This actually all feels a little like the opening ceremonies in Albertville.

The Alps
Now guys with those big Alps horns; and the 'tree-men', dressed up in shingy giant green garbage bag/umbrella-like getups. Riiicoooolaaah.... Yup, there's mooing, and cows on ice, for real (fiberglass, being pulled on wood); and ice dancers dressed up in black and white cow-patterns; and Alpine men and women.

Half of the Winter Games in history have taken place in the Alps BC says... wow. That's ridiculous.

Protocol
We're back, suddenly everyone's wearing elegant Armani clothes--BC tells us it's the first of several required protocal parts of the ceremony. Classical music; and BW chiming in, this will be an emotional moment for the Italians in the crowd... Why? Doesn't say.

Now one of those female announcer voices--everything overly emphasized, sounding very disembodied. First French, then the woman in English, finally Italian gets the crowd clapping for the ceremonial president of Italy--wait, prime minister Berlusconi isn't in attendence? What?! How can he miss this? What could he possibly be doing that's more important.

BW--we're also thinking aobut the Italian Americans who are watching tonight, which oddly leads into mention of American troops in WWII, then just as weirdly BW says we should also mention Italy's the 3rd-largest coalition partner in Iraq. Boy, BW really doesn't know how to do this.

Little 9-year-old girl all by herself in the middle of the stadium sings Italy's anthem in a very pure voice. Have never heard this before; it's actually lyrical... whoops, there's the usual militaristic part.

Hmm, these commercial breaks are coming fast and furious, three already between 9 and 9:20.

At least they're short breaks... now people running out from beneath the center stage area; reminds me of miners, with little lights on top. Ah, Bob gives the appropriate emphasis/frisson, stadium constructed under Mussolini in 1923. There should never be an Olympics without Bob.

Color scheme is now mostly gold and white. BC: A giant double-X is being formed, signifying the 20th winter Olympic Games--and a great aerial view. And now--fake skiers, like five to a ski. Very odd. We're all joined?

Capes in blue and green and red are broken out; some sort of formation, can't quite make out what... overhead view--a giant... person?! Skier! Wow, it's like North Korea.

Now the people are moving, so the giant skier sort of is in motion too. Oops, hand's a little behind the rest of the body, there's been a terrible accident! Now, he's breaking up! No, just crouching down, he's a ski jumper! Too bad NBC missed the shot of him flying up in the air, camera was zoomed too close. Now it's dark, and he's outlined in light. Hmm, maybe this'll replace claymation?

Yes, I realize for the next couple of weeks this blog's gonna read a lot better in real-time, than after the fact.....

There's Bode in the crowd of American Olympians.

Parade of Nations
More oddly-costumed performers, apparently cutting-edge art is a lot like cirque du soleil. Some sortof strechy, shiny fabric, everyone's arrayed around a giant metal rig. Sortof like opera of the future. They really should've just stage it as a giant opera, bring in the best singers--enough with trying to be cutting-edge.

Now the rig flips up, circles become the Olympic rings. BW says, like he's breaking news, at least one color in the rings appears in the flag of every nation in the world. If I ever start my city state, I'm breaking that rule.

The athletes are coming! The athletes are coming! I love watching this, always so interesting to see how different nations still are. (And their outfits). Greece in first, of course.... Shot of Athens Olympic's wonderwoman organizer.

Albania... just 1 guy, an Alpine skier. Next, Algeria! 2 athletes. Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria to come, the scroll tells us. As always, it'll be fun to see which countries are deemed too unimportant to show. Hey--Costas says we won't miss a single country this year, even when they break for commericals they'll come back! This is a change--and great news. No more angry letters from the Cypriots!

Armenia... 3 million people, 5 athletes. Wow, the placard bearers are wearing poofy dresses, the bottom of which look like the Alps.

Wow, snazzy music--I Will Survive! This is a very interesting parade of nations. Ah, the Aussies... yes, indeed, they will survive. As long as they can keep attracting immigrants.

Austria--4th leading Winter Olympics medal winner of all time says BC, Norway, Russians, and us only ones with more. That's amazing.

Back from break--Azerbaijan, Belguim, Bermuda, Belarus, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Brazil. Very odd, 70s disco music to march by.

Bermuda with one athlete, a white guy competing in Skeleton. BC says he lives in Tokyo, essentially an American, but was born in Bermuda. Belarus--flag-bearer is a coach?!

BW talks about Sarajevo, of course, as Bosnia goes by... it's odd how quickly the world can change. Brazil! Big country, rich in resources, bad government.

The Reds
Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, and then Chile. And then... China! The summer games there are gonna be world-changing; China's coming-out party. A reminder that most of the world never gets talked about, even though things have--finally--been happening there that will impact our lives, in some cases even determine some aspects of how we live.

Canadians are wearing goofy hats, beige and oddly unpatterned... hmm, forgot Vancouver is next Winter Games, interesting that they're trying to boost their medal count before then, so unCanadian somehow. Let's see if they mention Gretzky's gambling scandal at some point.

Back from break--Chile, and then the big red machine's up. Followed by Cyprus, 'Koreas', Costa Rica, Croastia, and Denmark. Hmm, China's listed at only 1.3 billion in population, with just 76 athletes [CIA World factbook also says 1.3, I had thought slightly more... also, world's only got 6.46B, I was thinking closer to 7B]. BW goes on a spiel about them--so much to say on this front he says. BC mentions their big push for supremacy in 2008. And, as usual, great transition--large Chinese delegation followed by the tiny Cyprus one (1) says Bob.

40 South Koreans, 6 from the North. It's so weird; the North wants to kill the South, yet the South wants to march with them. There's some sort of Stockholm syndrome going on there. Too bad Sweden's not next, that'd be a funny transition. Talks in the works for them to compete as one in 2008?! Nuts.

Coming up: Estonia, Ethiopia, Macedonia, Finland. They should explain at some point that the countries march in the order of their names in the host country's alphabet.

The Danes
Ah, Denmark--purveyor of blasphemous cartoons. BW mentions it, BC brings in the security concerns--only $125M spent on security here, vs. $1B plus in Athens. And BC says Torino has the largest Muslim population in Italy--why? Maybe he said one of the largest--probably, actually, something to do with Fiat being located there.

And Bob mentions march order. Here's Finland--I've always liked them, for some reason. They had a great, young ski jumper four years ago.

France, Georgia, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, Hong Kong. Some powerhouses here. Yaay, mention of Jean Claude Killy--who's always seemed the personification of sportsmanship. Music is still all American pop, by the way.

Also, I'd thought Germany would be at the top for medals, I guess since East/West was split for many years it isn't. BC reminds us they beat us at our own Olympics in SLC. Interesting fluorescent green sleeves and orange vests outfits. Hackl--going for a gold at his 6th Olympics?! Japan only won 2 medals in 2002? That's shameful.

Coming up--India, and Iran. Hmm, what will they mention for Iran.... Great Britain--and Cherrie Blair in a ratty-looking fur, next to Laura Bush. This shouldn't be the way Laura is first introduced. Athletes in natty top hats. Cut to commercial, as announcers says "Hong Kong Chine". Why do they still march separately? They're part of China.

HOUR THREE
Nations keep marching
10:05 on the East Coast. Ireland, Iceland, Virgina Islands. Apparently Hong Kong's athletes train in northeastern China. Wow--India's got 1.08B people, and four athletes?! BC says they share training with the Chinese--who apparently themselves choose to train with the Russians.

BW just said the president of Iran is perhaps the world's most controversial leader--I'd say Bush has got him beat by a lot. Ireland--never won a medal at the Winter Olympics. Seems like these countries would just spend a ton of money to try and get that monkey off their back.

BW: But you know about Reykjavik. BC: Of course I do! Next up: Israel (whose leader is probably world's second most controversial), Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgystan, Latvia, Lebanon.

BW mentions Spielberg's film on the 1972 Olympics as Israel (still medal-less at the WO)--and that's it. Do the young kids know why the film was made, and what it's about?!

I remember this Kenyan cross-country skier--didn't know he named his first-born son after the awesome Norweigian skier Bjorn Dahlie, who stuck around to greet the Kenyan four years ago at the finish line--even though it took the Kenyan took twice as long to finish the race as Bjorn did.

Coming up, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, and--Madagascar?!

BW makes an odd comment about how the outfits of the athletes are made to look good on tv. I think that's been a consideration for a while, Brian.

Songs to march by
Good music in the background, think it's some European singing in English. I wish they'd identify the music; like at a fashion show, it's a big part of the proceedings.

Back from break, BW makes mention of Madagascar the film, he must have kids. Sweet Dreams plays in the background as NBC shows Mitt Romney, plastic Ken-doll governor of Massachusetts and BW mentions his presidential ambitions. A dream is all it is.

No Mexico! But Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Nepal, Norway, New Zealand. What are the Mexicans thinking?! Are they a serious nation, or not?

Video Killed the Radio Star, as BW talks about Mongolia and Bush's visit there. Now, two of my favorite countries--the nice Norwegians and New Zealanders. Norway has 44 more golds, at 261, than any other country?! Wow!

BC talks about how close the Norway/Italy cross-country relay races have been, with the two 1-2 at the last three Olympics, by fractions of seconds each time.

Now, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia.... Love is in the Air is in the background. Ah, the Dutch and their speed skaters... one of the best sports to watch.

BW mentions Pope John Paul II was a skier; BC mentions the random 80s American pop tunes playing in the background, then mentions some obscure (to me) tune; I want him on my Trivial Pursuit team.

The real Cold War
San Marino, Senegal, Serbia/Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia. The Russians... BW talks about how it used to be the dark states, brooding athletes. Funny, their knit hats have RUSSIA outlined in red thread in front, in English. If you've been in a time capsule since 1950 and wanna know who won the cold war, that image right there is all you need.

Back from break, the "most serene republic" of San Marino, claims to be world's oldest republic, founded in 301 AD. Hmm, how come Bob knows that, and I don't? Seems like we all should, if it's true.

Spain, then--the U.S. I think it'd be funny if they played some Italian song as the Americans walk in. Really, it's so weird to me that all the music so far has been American. I thought the Italians did pretty well at that Eurostar thing--my gosh, Serbia walks in as YMCA plays in the background, this is so bizarre! I wonder what Vlade Divac is thinking right now. He's probably forming the letters.

And, of course, BC mentions the song in the background. Wow, Slovenia, with these natty green scarfs. There's a word for that shade of green, but I can't remember it. You'd think after spending the week at Fashion Week....

Music coordinator: Hugo Chavez
Okay, it's almost here--the Americans. To be greeted by a roar of applause?! Whistling? Ah, who cares--they like us, they really like us, the soundtrack is saying. Costas says we get a "very warm reception on a chilly night"--what's playing in the background for us and Laura Bush? Freedom, Freedom.... If only George W. were here.

There's Michelle! NFL-wanna-be Jeremy Bloom! Bode; Shaun White--hmm, seems like we've seen these guys before somewhere. And the guy with the best nickname so far--the "Exception", Chad Hedricks.

After us--ah, who cares, we're going to break after us. Gives me a chance to look up the lyrics to the Aretha Franklin song the Italians played for us:
Think (think) think (think) think (think)
think (think) think (think) think (think)

You better think (think) think about what you're trying to do to me
Yeah, think (think, think), let your mind go, let yourself be free

Let's go back, let's go back, let's go way on back when
I didn't even know you, you came to me and too much you wouldn't take
I ain't no psychiatrist, I ain't no doctor with degree
It don't take too much high IQ's to see what you're doing to me

You better think (think) think about what you're trying to do to me
Yeah, think (think, think), let your mind go, let yourself be free

Oh freedom (freedom), freedom (freedom), freedom, yeah freedom
Freedom (freedom), freedom (freedom), freedom, ooh freedom

There ain't nothing you could ask I could answer you but I won't (I won't)
I was gonna change, but I'm not, to keep doing things I don't

You better think (think) think about what you're trying to do to me
Yeah, think (think, think), let your mind go, let yourself be free

People walking around everyday, playing games that they can score
And I ain't gonna be the loser my way, ah, be careful you don't lose yours

You better think (think) think about what you're trying to do to me
Yeah, think (think, think), let your mind go, let yourself be free

You need me (need me) and I need you (don't you know)
Without each other there ain't nothing people can do.

Hmm, I guess these songs aren't so random after all--now I really feel for the Serbians.

The rest
South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajkistan, Chinese Taipei, Thailand. Followed by Turkey, Ukraine, and Hungary, then Venezuela, then the Italians.

Taiwan, with 1 athlete, and a special, non-real flag. Yeah, as Bob says, will be interesting to see what the Chinese let them do in 2008. Uzbekistan, Venezuela coming; Thailand's flag bearer and sole athlete is an engineering professor at Drexel, in his 40s.

A short segment, break already. Another commercial for this mid-season young prosecutors show, Conviction.

As we return and Ukraine walks, Bob mentions Oksana Baiul, claiming some may not remember she won the gold at the Kerrigan/Harding Olympics. Yeah, right--anyone who watched it remembers Oksana in her swan-like pink outfit and her amazingly fluid, beautiful performance.

What will they play for the Italians.... If I knew my pop songs better I could come up with something smart. All I can think is it should be something cheesy. The crowd's getting ready... and... here... they... come!

Name said first in French, then English, then Italian. In shiny, michelin-manish foil coats. I guess that's the fashionable look this season? Don't recognize the song--probably some homegrown mishmash.

Enter Mary, exit Brian
Back from break--the torch is coming, the torch is coming! And so is Mary Carillo, who I really like, and who apparently spent some time in Italy as a kid. Where has she been--she actually speaks Italian, and knows stuff about the country.

Choreographed waving of the flags of the world by costumed men. Like color guard, but waaay cooler. MC: This could be where rhythmic gymnastics began. Silence on the part of the Bs, stunned by her knowledge.

I gotta tell you, her and John McEnroe remain one of the most inspired announcing pairings of all time, with Dick Ebersol in between to (barely) keep the peace.

Czech supermodel Eva Herzigova recreates Botticelli's Birth of Venus--MC is just taking right over, is BW gone? He hasn't said a thing. Bob makes more back-and-forth comments with Mary in the first few minutes than he made with BW their whole time together. BC and MC are a good team, their styles mesh. Now, balloons with painted faces on them, flying people aloft. The Winter Olympics, as choreographed by Leonardo da Vinci.

I think BW really is gone--yaay. They didn't even say goodbye?! This balloon thing is probably my favorite artistic portion of the evening so far. The red hair of one of the heads from the back looks like Jupiter. And there's Michelle looking on.

Some fireworks; overhead shot of the stage on the stadium floor, it's like a giant undulating U. Bob says from the Renaissance to the future... this should be good.

Yup, it's weird. Lotsof flames; some guy dancing in a mask. Ah, it's about futurism, the art movement, not the future, per se. Makes more sense now, thanks MC. Wow, guy takes off his hat--rainbow mohawk. Takes off his clothes--flesh-colored outfit, complete with veiny markings, and a 'heart'. 'The speed of modern life' says Mary. Techno music plays, it all seems very jerky, disorienting.

Ah, BW speaks! After 10 minutes of blessed silence. Weird, he was totally ignored by MC and BC.

HOUR FOUR
Europeans take back over
No break, straight into Formula One homage. Complete with pit crew and a real Ferrari F1 racing car, in red with Olympic rings on the rear spoiler. Kindof sputtering across the stage---ah, now doing donuts, in the shape of the Olympic rings I'll bet. Very cool!

Back from break, and the speeches start. Some minor Italian pol, who's the head of their Olympic Committee. Tells us 80 nations are here, seems like NBC should've said that already. People chatter as he speaks in English. I feel bad for the rest of the world, every time they have to make these speeches in English they're reminded of their place in the world.

Next, Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee and someone I like, in contrast to Juan Antonio Samarach, the fascist Spaniard. Rogge ask the athletes to compete without doping--so sad it's come to this. No real athlete would ever cheat, it's like a declaration of no confidence in yourself, so you become the first victim. Then, if you win, how bittersweet, always wondering if you could've won without cheating. They should just hold everyone's blood forever, the knowledge that one day if you cheat the drug will be detected would be some sort of deterrent--if nothing else, the rest of us will know.

Italian president next, declares the games officially open.

Break--and a commercial for the da Vinci Code movie, with a puffy-faced Tom Hanks. Hopefully with Hanks and Ron Howard as director it won't be as stupid as the book.

Alfie, Igby, and Louise
Back, the Olympic flag's carried in. Costas says the flag bearers are eight 'women of distinction', with each continent represented. So they are:
Sophia Loren, Italy, actress
Isabel Allende, Chile, author
Nawal El Moutawakel, Morocco, hurdles winner in 1984
Wangari Matthai, Kenya, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner
Manuela Di Centa, Italy, Cross-country Olympic medalist
Maria Mutola, Mozambique, 800m gold medalist
Somaly Mam, Cambodia, activist

Quite a distinguished and interesting group. And so who represents the U.S./North America? Susan Sarandon.

Are you kidding me? Are the Italians pulling our leg? It's ridiculous; in this group, it's embarassing to call her a woman of distinction. Heck, if you really want someone anti-Iraq war, invite Cindy Sherman. What a bush-league thing for the Italians to do; it'd be like us inviting Inspector Clouseau to represent Europe.

Internet Movie Database shows she played Mussolini's wife in a made-for-tv movie called The Decline and Fall of Il Duce; now that's irony for you.

This part of the ceremony goes on for many minutes, it takes a while to walk the flag around the stadium. Now they're hoisting the flag.

Back from break, singing of Tornino Winter Games anthem by a big choral group and orchestra. Italian slalom skier Giorgio Rocca takes the oath on behalf of all the athletes.

Said the spider to the fly
A bunch of acrobats go climbing up a netting in some weird choreographed routine; music behind it is nice, and actually this is pretty cool--they move like spiders, movements are interesting. Now they pair up and do these pivots around each other. At the end they form a white dove shape, it's actually pretty darn cool. Sometimes these weird modern art things turn out okay.

Oh-oh, Yoko Ono. Imagine--not sung, but recited by Yoko. Weirdly enough, she doesn't seem to know the words by heart, reads it haltingly off a sheet of paper in a strong accent; it's not that great. Even though I heard recently that she actually is a pretty creative and original artist, this performance--all dressed up in white with shades and a big floppy white beatnik hat--is more in line with my image of her as flaky and odd.

Much better--Peter Gabriel singing Imagine. Though his smooth black knit cap makes him look like a burglar. Maybe he's hoping the song will steal into our hearts.

Lennon, in my opinion, was a talented musician--not much more, nothing less. If he'd lived maybe he'd have continued evolving into something more interesting; but I don't know, he wasn't as thoughtful or prescient in his own time as Bob Dylan, who for all he is isn't exactly in line for the Nobel. People lionize Lennon because he was deeper than most rock stars--but unlike people like Bono and Muhammad Ali, he did nothing in the real world that is politics.

Fade to fire
Nearing the end of what, as always, has been a great show. Here comes the torch! Good, Tomba brings it in, that means he can't finish. A playboy is still a playboy. Not that much applause, either. Next, the four-member cross-country '94 gold-medal winning team, that won in Lillehammer. Next, Piero Gros, slalom gold medalist '76, then a mayor. Seems like a nice guy. Next, Deborah Compagnoni, skier; MC tells us she's the only Alpine skier ever to win a gold in three consecutive games.

Finally, Stefania Belmondo, four-time Olympian, 10 medals (!) in cross-country skiing, lights the flame. Very interesting way, she lit the flame on the stadium floor, then choreographed flames lit up around the stadium edge, finally the cauldron itself was lit. No direct lighting, then.

And it ends with opera. Pavarotti in a black cape, looking very vampireish. But sounding divine, of course, finishing with Puccini's "Turandot".

Fireworks fly up into the black night sky; flashbulbs pop; and another Olympics opens.

But not before NBC comes back with their thoughts on the world. MC: Glad women played a big role tonight. BW: something about the world. BC: Good night, look forward to the next two weeks.

And Andrea Bocelli sings sweetly over highlights from the Opening Ceremony. Wow, NBC really took advantage of the six-hour time difference to do some nice editing.

It was a good opening ceremony. Not as slick as Salt Lake City, not as pretty as Nagano, not as warm as Lillehammer, not as weird as Albertville. As for the Games themselves, I have high hopes, but am pretty sure it won't be as magical as Lillehammer was and Nagano nearly was.

But who knows--that's why we watch!

Photo of Eleonora Benetti singing the Italian national anthem at the Opening Ceremony of the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games by Pool/Getty Images; all images via Yahoo's Olympic slideshow.

Photo of fireworks lighting up the Olympic stadium during the Opening Ceremony by Clive Rose/ Getty Images.

Photo of the town of Sestiere, location of the opening ceremony, by Clive Mason/Getty Images prior to the opening,

No Solitaire for you!

Solitaire Costs Man His City Job After Bloomberg Sees Computer

The Times: Edward Greenwood IX was fired Jan. 30 from his job as an assistant in the city's lobbying office in Albany, not long after the mayor spied the game on his computer screen during a Jan. 4 visit to the state capital.

Mr. Greenwood, 39, said he was dismissed with no notice, and no severance pay, after working there for six years. He earned about $27,000 a year for duties that included sending legislative bills to city agencies and copying and circulating office memos.

Mr. Bloomberg confirmed yesterday that Mr. Greenwood's firing offense was the game of solitaire, saying that city employees were not paid to play at the workplace. The firing was first reported yesterday by The New York Post.

"I expect all city workers — including myself — to work hard," Mayor Bloomberg said during a news conference in Midtown Manhattan. "There's nothing wrong with taking a break but during the business day at your desk, that's not appropriate behavior."

In response to a reporter's question, Mr. Bloomberg, who built his own financial information empire, added that his own lack of computer skills had probably kept him from using his work computer for anything else.

Mr. Greenwood said yesterday that he always finished his work in a timely fashion, and that he played solitaire only when there was nothing else left to do, usually a few times a week or during lunch breaks.

"Any and all work I had to do, I did with a passion," he said. "If I have a stack of things to be done, I'm not the kind of guy to put it off."

You know, I really liked Mayor Bloomberg during his first term. He got things done, brought a good management philsophy to City Hall, and generally seemed to be someone with a good heart who had his priorities in the right order.

But starting with his oddly angry and unprofessional demeanor during the transit strike, it seems like Mike's been drifting a little in his second term. He seems increasingly to be feeling his oats--like he has nothing left to live up to and can throw his weight around.

Which he can; his electoral mandate gives him the right to impose his will on the city for the next four years. But I'm pretty sure the voters of this city would rather he use this new-found confidence and edge to get the city more education funding or to clamp down on handguns or to fix your broken ACS department. Rather than taking his wrath out on $27,000 a year employees who you catch with solitaire on their computers. Why not just give the guy a warning, put the fear of God into him?

I guess that wouldn't have given him a chance to grandstand a little, to stress the sober work ethic that's made him a billionaire, to signal it's no longer business as usual. But it's like hunting rabbits with an elephant gun--it makes you look bush league, and is a waste of everyone's time and energy.

And it just enhances a growing suspicion in many people that this mayor's a bully.

Image of Mayor Michael Bloomberg by Antony Zito.

Fan-tastic

Some funny excerpts from Patrick Hruby's ESPN.com article on grown men reliving their youth, via old-style electric tabletop football games.

In Electric Company

... "He's gonna take over," he says. "People think this is just guys running in circles. But you do this six, seven hours a day, and you learn how it works."

Revels devotes an entire spare bedroom to the hobby. He's in there five hours a night, sometimes 'till 2 a.m., drawing up counter-gap plays. No one else is allowed in the room. Not Valerie, not his kids. Al Davis is less paranoid. ...

"It's tighter than Area 51," Revels says with a grin. "I'm serious, dude."
Like Revels, Redmond once treated the game like a part-time job; now, he's down to five or six hours of play a week. His secret? An index card flipper, thick with formations and game plans.


"I used to keep it all up here," Redmond says, pointing to his head. "Now, I play smarter."

Redmond can relate. His basement is a veritable shrine, the Santiago de Compostela of electric football. Think Astroturf carpet. Walls painted Denver Broncos orange and blue. Framed pictures of Rod Smith and John Elway. NFL mini-helmets. NFL wrapping paper. Fifteen championship trophies. Fifteen thousand figurines, including Redmond's retired teams.

Yep. Retired teams.

"Once a team wins a tournament, I retire them," he says. "I don't want to tarnish their legacy."

Electric fans were the lost tribe of football gaming. How many were still out there, wandering in the desert? Landsman didn't know. He did have a mailing list, the names and addresses of everyone still ordering figurines and game boards. So in the fall of 1994, he sent out a letter. We're holding a convention. Come join us.

The next January, Landsman rented out the main room at Michael Jordan's Restaurant in Chicago. He put up a banner for his company, Miggle Toys. Called it the Super Bowl of electric football. Landsman hoped to attract two dozen fans. Two hundred and fifty people showed up, all sharing the same slack-jawed sentiment.

I thought I was the only one left.

Revels tells a typical story. He sells comic books and baseball cards for a living, and once owned his own store. eBay made that part of the business obsolete. In June of 2003, he was online, putting some Roger Staubach rookie cards up for auction. On a lark, he decided to search for electric football.

Goosebumps. Revels ran around his house, hooting and hollering.


"Dad. Dad, what's wrong?"

"Go look at the computer screen! Go look at the screen!"

"The Internet saved our life," Landsman says. "If not for it, I don't know where we'd be."

Game image in various places online.

Our new friend Martin

The Whirlwinds of Revolt: 'At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68,' By Taylor Branch

Anthony Lewis in the Times Book Review: We have had nothing like it in this country in living memory: a commanding moral voice, attached to no political party or public office, that moved governments and changed social institutions. That was Martin Luther King Jr.

He was despised by many. His ideas were sometimes rejected. He failed as well as succeeded. But he would not retreat from attacking what he came to believe were the three great afflictions of mankind: racism, war and poverty. In little more than a dozen years — from Dec. 5, 1955, when he set the Montgomery bus boycott on its way, to April 4, 1968, when he was murdered — he changed the face of America.

It's so easy to forget how different this country was not so very long ago. It's hard to imagine the nation dependent on larger than life figures like Dr. King--and Lyndon Johnson--just to make it through each day.

And it's worth remembering how MLK was villified by most Americans in most parts of the country--his sainted image is one that revisionist history and whites with something to hide have bestowed, and grudgingly at that. Just read the Times' sidebar of contemporary articles on Dr. King and the civil rights movement.

There's also an element of nervous political correctness that wraps Dr. King in the mantles of sainthood in order to avoid grappling with what he really said and stood for.

Johnson, race and Vietnam were preoccupations in tandem. In the same month as the march from Selma to Montgomery, March 1965, the first American combat units went ashore at Da Nang. King had had a good relationship with the president, but it broke down over the issue that Johnson rightly feared would overwhelm his reputation on social justice.

Branch's picture of Dr. King on Vietnam is of a man coming slowly, reluctantly, but irresistibly to embrace the issue — against the advice of many supporters. Finally, at Riverside Church in New York on April 4, 1967, he called for the United States to "set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva Agreement."

The Riverside speech drew heavy criticism. John Roche, a Brandeis University professor who was then on the White House staff, said King had "thrown in with the Commies." He told the president that King was "inordinately ambitious and quite stupid (a bad combination)." A Washington Post editorial said, "Many who have listened to him with respect will never again accord him the same confidence." But King did not give way. He told a church audience that the press had been "so noble in its praise" when he preached nonviolence toward white oppressors but inconsistently "will curse you and damn you when you say be nonviolent toward little brown Vietnamese children."

Racism in America was not — and is not — confined to the South. Branch reminds us of that in small ways and large. In 1965, he notes, Mary Travers of the trio Peter, Paul and Mary kissed Harry Belafonte on the cheek at a rally. CBS television, which was showing the rally, was besieged by protesting callers, and took the rally off the air for 90 minutes.

We're not that far removed from the 50s and 60s in this country. You can hear many echoes of the way 'negroes' were once portrayed and condescended to in the media's coverage of immigrants--the same sense that somehow 'these people' aren't full citizens, are inherently foreign, that they stand apart from the mainstream, that their actions and statements are offered up to be judged and deemed acceptable or not, tolerated or not--that if they don't watch themselves and what they say, and I mean boy like now, they might have to pay the price in these times of turmoil.

Maybe one day King's idea that people are who they say they are, regardless of skin color, will trickle through to the Times and make them stop identifying Americans born and raised here as 'Asian' when they mean Asian American.

Maybe one day the Times will stop telling a black girl born in Sweden that she can't possibly be Swedish.

"I'm Swedish," says one Somali girl. "And I'm proud to be Swedish. I'm born here."

Photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Lyndon Baines Johnson from Hulton Archive/Getty Images via the New York Times.

Duck, duck, goose... duck!

The Nation's Dual Political Dynasties Are Growing Closer Than Arm's Length

The Times: When the Bushes and Clintons held hands before 15,000 mourners at Coretta Scott King's funeral on Tuesday, it looked like a prayerful moment in the life of the nation. But as almost anyone watching America's two leading political families knew, underneath the tranquil image was a drama of ambition, rivalry, love and alliance that could shape the 2008 presidential election.

The scene, a riveting tableau in the six-hour celebration of Mrs. King's life and the political power of black America, offered complex layers of interconnecting relationships: father and son, husband and wife, president and former president, adversary turned ally and first lady turned senator turned probable presidential candidate.

It was one of the most public manifestations to date of the odd friendship and mutual need of two dynasties that, on the surface at least, have almost nothing in common. But as President Bush put it in an interview with CBS News last month, "Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton." Mr. Bush made the remark in a telling exchange with Bob Schieffer, who said, "Well, you know, if Senator Clinton becomes president."

"There we go," Mr. Bush said.

"Maybe we'll see a day," Mr. Schieffer continued.

"Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton," Mr. Bush responded.

It's a fascinating piece, that goes on to detail exactly how deep the terribly unlikely friendship between Bush Senior and Clinton Senior has grown.

It's heartening to read about--definitely a throwback to an earlier time in Washington, where after office hours Democrats and Republicans retired to the Georgetown parties and salons of the city to talk and socialize, building ties that often grew into policy.

Nowadays, the lobbyists seem to have helped poisoned the well, along with intractable interest groups like the Christian Right. It's a sad state of affairs when John McCain is celebrated for actually having friends across the aisle.

So here's to Bush I and Clinton I (?)--two decent people, men who love politics and seem to bring out the wonk in each other.

In the meantime, associates of former President Bush and Mr. Clinton say that the two have moved beyond their road show for tsunami and hurricane relief into a genuine friendship and that they have told members of each of their parties to stop complaining about the bond.

In June, Mr. Clinton stayed with Mr. Bush at the former president's retreat in Kennebunkport, Me., where they played golf and raced in Mr. Bush's speedboat. They have also gotten together about a dozen times in the past year for meetings, television tapings and private meals.

The former President Bush has also told friends how much he appreciates Mr. Clinton's deference to him. Last year, when the two men were headed for a four-day trip to the tsunami area, Mr. Clinton, now 59, insisted that Mr. Bush, now 81, take the bedroom on the Air Force plane on the flight over.

"I said, 'No, come on, you go in there, and I'll take the next leg,' " Mr. Bush told Time magazine in December. " 'No, no,' he said. I guess he wanted to play cards all night. But nevertheless, that means something to me. I'm older, and it was a very great courtesy. So the relationship is fun for me. And you have this feeling of doing something important, doing something bigger than ourselves."

May, 2004 photo of Bush and Clinton at Washington's World War II Memorial by Doug Mills in The New York Times; click here for this and other photos.

Idolwood

So after the first Hollywood cuts, at least four of my five favorite contestants so far--Paris Bennett, Kelly Pickler, Garet Johnson, and Taylor Hicks are still alive; and they're all still my favorites. (No word on Mecca Madison). I found three more contestants I really like:


-Chris Daugherty, 25, first caught my eye during the audition phase when his wife broke down talking about what a good person he is--he apparently married her and became the father of her two kids. He's got a gravelly rocker's voice, and just a good presence.

-Patrick Hall, 28--he's got a good look for the show, a good voice, and seems likeable.

-Lisa Tucker, 16, a little girl with a big voice who apparently has been on a number of other similar shows.

American Idol image from FOX, via MSNBC.com.

Fantasy TV

Down With Torture! Gimme Torture!

Sarah Vowell in the Times: Whenever I hear the president mention, oh, every 12 minutes, that his greatest responsibility is "to protect the American people," the insufferable civics robot inside my head mutters: "Actually, sir, your oath, the one with the Bible and the chief justice and the Jumbotron, is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. For the American people are not mere flesh whose greatest hope is to keep our personal greasy molecules intact; we, sir, are a body politic — with ideals."

If the civics robot is feeling particularly nostalgic for that time in America when the word "rendition" was usually followed by the words, "of 'Louie, Louie,' " it continues to nitpick about what some of those ideals entail: Congressional oversight, due process and treating prisoners of war according to ye olde golden rule. Not only because we would hope our captive soldiers would be treated with reciprocal human decency, or because the information gleaned from torture usually turns out to be a Saddam's-in-league-with-Al-Qaeda sham, but mostly, Americans reject torture because we are not satanic monster scum.

I've always liked Sarah Vowell--I remember listening to her years ago on NPR talk about how she enjoyed taking time on vacations to visit the site of presidential assassinations (somehow her voice, cadence, choice of words and obvious interest in American history helped it come across as interesting rather than weird).

Then, a friend dragged a group of us to go hear her and David Sedaris "in concert" in DC, and I found she played well in person, too. And now, thanks to the Times, it turns out she can crystalize in two paragraphs what a lot of commentators have been unable or unwilling to articulate about what bothers so many of us about the Bush administration's stance on terrorism.

There are some things more important than preventing every madman from killing innocent people. Otherwise, we'd ban all guns, and require all unmarried men under the age of 65 to register with the police.

Living in society with others brings us great benefits; it also brings risks that can never be eliminated, nor should they be if the price is the unraveling of our Constitution. Has Bush excised from his Bible the line "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

Vowell, however, does go astray in my opinion when she goes on to gush about Fox's 24:

Except, of course, the moment we pick up our TV remote controls. That's when even my inner civics robot cracks open a ginger ale, stares at Kiefer Sutherland on the beloved "24" and cheers: "Yeah, Jack Bauer! Break into that interrogation room and shoot that suspect in the leg!" There is a jarring disconnect between what I want my real-life intelligence officers to be doing versus what I want my fake TV intelligence officers to be doing. On my two favorite shows, "Alias" and "24," the protagonists Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) and the aforementioned Jack Bauer bend and break the laws of the land in the name of national security with such speed and frequency, even Donald Rumsfeld himself might be outraged enough to utter a "my goodness gracious" tsk, tsk.

In "Alias," Sydney, a C.I.A. agent, will lie to senators, break into the Vatican without authorization or hitch rides on off-the-books cargo planes probably paid for by dipping into the several million dollars in questionable cash her scary, fellow-spy father keeps locked up in his storage unit somewhere in the You Can't Handle the Truth neighborhood of Los Angeles.

One thing that happens on "Alias" that I hope doesn't happen with the actual C.I.A. involves interior design. Specifically, the sleek look of Sydney's office. Her workplace is so white and chic and mod that the Web site televisionwithoutpity.com has nicknamed it "the Apple Store." That red leather ottoman alone looks as though it was imported from Milan for at least three grand. For the record, I don't think my tax dollars should be financing fancy footstools. As a New Yorker haunted by that August 2001 intelligence memo entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.," it seems like real-life intelligence analysts have put up their feet enough.

In last week's "24," Jack Bauer is tracking down a shipment of nerve gas. Trying to pry information out of a presidential aide in league with terrorists, Bauer jabs a pointy knife at the aide's face, hissing: "The first thing I'm going to do is, I'm going to take out your right eye. I'll move over and take out your left." The others in the room, including the horrified and totally unrealistically incompetent president, all give the aide a look that says, "Dude, he's not kidding."

Sitting on my couch, under the watchful stare of no fewer than six busts of Lincoln, while wearing a sweatshirt given to volunteers at a children's tutoring center, as Bauer's knife was poised to break the man's skin, what I was thinking was: Do it. Because, if you ask me, there aren't enough detached eyeballs in prime time.

I did feel a little less guilty about the contradiction of using the same credit card to give money to Amnesty International and to buy the DVD's of "24" when I heard that Senator John McCain is such a fan of the show he will be making a cameo in tomorrow's episode. Even the man who once suffered in North Vietnamese captivity, who sponsored an antitorture amendment, is bully for potential eye stabbings on TV. On TV being the point. Unconstitutional fantasies are normal (I hope), and on TV dramas they can be entertaining and cathartic. Let's just keep them off the TV news.

I think 24 is a white man's fantasy--it plays squarely into the idea that when the chips are down, white males come to the rescue. Since the real world is changing rapidly, I think a certain segment of our population takes comfort in watching Jack Bauer set things right. It's no coincidence that the show runs on FOX.

It does bother me that even an avowed liberal like Vowell so easily cuddles up to Jack. She, and we, don't need angry white men with guns to run our world--nor did the Founding Fathers, who regulated militias and placed their trust in laws and our common ideals.

Screen grab of Jack Bauer, torturer from Fox's 24 via fan site.

Kabil and Habil

Getting Real With Hamas

Nathan J. Brown, in Foreign Policy: Accommodating a Hamas-led government and keeping international aid flowing may be more effective—but only if it supports the long-term goal of peace. Is that possible? Or is the group’s agenda simply too extreme? Hamas, after all, rejects a two-state solution and maintains a right to resistance—and the group’s definition of resistance includes murderous attacks on civilian targets.

Therefore, conditioning aid is a sound approach. Still, presenting demands for immediate change in stark and aggressive terms will likely elicit only resistance. Hamas is a movement that prides itself on its principles and is unlikely to abandon them easily. Even if some of its leaders wanted to shift positions, the movement’s ponderous decision-making structures would make it difficult to do so in the face of outside pressure. Any change in Hamas will likely be gradual.

As much as possible, the West should allow pressures from within the Arab and Muslim world to work. It’s important to recognize that the Palestinians themselves may demand a more moderate approach to Israel. Hamas is extremely sensitive to Palestinian public opinion and recognizes that the majority of voters actually favored parties supporting a two-state solution. (Hamas’s electoral campaign avoided mention of its hard-line position on Israel.)

Hmm, interesting. So maybe Hamas' win was less about down with Israel, and more due to Fatah's corruption and the desire of the Palestinians to go with a party that could deliver social services and economic growth.

And Hamas sensitive to public opinion?! This is sounding more and more like what happened in Ireland when the emergence of the IRA's "political arm" Sein Fein paved the way for an end to decades of violence.

Of course, the British negotiated with the terrorist IRA. Israel refuses to talk to Hamas, at least officially.

It's weird--Israel, which has long touted its status as the only democracy in the Middle East, so far seems determined to avoid talking to what is now its sister democracy.

For better or for worse, the Israelis and the Palestinians are joined at the hip. Imagine if the Palestinians start getting their house in order--will their neighbors react accordingly? I guess we'll find out how much of of Israeli identity is built around its founding ethos of a nation besieged by enemies.

As for Hamas, whose identity has been forged by terrorism, perhaps they can take heart in how as times changed the Stern gang put down their bombs and eventually produced a prime minister of Israel.

Image of Titian's 1576 painting Cain and Abel from Hope College.

Fahrenheit 32

Out of all the heat surrounding the cartoons controversy, some perspective from one of the Times' Paris correspondents.

Adding Newsprint to the Fire

Craig S. Smith: Europeans hoisted the banner of press freedom last week in response to Muslim anger over a dozen Danish cartoons, some of them mocking the Prophet Muhammad. But something deeper and more complex was also at work: The fracas grew out of, and then fed, a war of polemics between Europe's anti-immigrant nationalists and the fundamentalist Muslims among its immigrants.

"One extreme triggers the other," said Jonas Gahr Store, Norway's foreign minister, arguing that both sides want to polarize the debate at the expense of the moderate majority. "These issues are dangerous because they give the extremes fertile ground."

How did it begin? Oddly, with a decision by a Danish newspaper to commission, and then print, cartoons portraying the Prophet Muhammad in whatever light cartoonists chose to put him.

The newspaper's culture editor, Fleming Rose, says he intended simply to test cartoonists to see if they were self-censoring their work, out of fear of violence from Islamic radicals. ...

Hostile feelings have been growing between Denmark's immigrants and a government supported by the right-wing Danish People's Party, which has pushed anti-immigrant policies. And stereotyping in cartoons has a notorious history in Europe, where anti-Semitic caricatures fed the Holocaust, just as they feed anti-Israeli propaganda in the Middle East today.

In the current climate, some experts on mass communications suggest, the exercise was no more benign than commissioning caricatures of African-Americans would have been during the 1960's civil rights struggle. "You have to ask what was the intent of these cartoons, bearing in mind the recent history of tension in Denmark with the Muslim community," said David Welch, head of the Center for the Study of Propaganda and War at the University of Kent in Britain. Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia Journalism School, put it this way: "He knew what he was doing."

Photo of women burning an Israeli flag at a shrine in Qum, Iran by Lynsey Addario for the Times.

Sins of his fathers

"Evening News" Turns An Eye On The Press

CBS News' in-house blogger Vaughn Ververs: Friday was “media day” for the CBS “Evening News,” as the broadcast focused on “the state of the media” in the last part of a week-long series and unveiled a new weekly feature, “Assignment America” (more about that later). And CBS released the results of a poll on the media with some rather surprising results, not all of which made Friday’s show.

In introducing correspondent Anthony Mason’s package on the media, anchor Bob Schieffer mentioned some of the findings of the poll, namely that 63% of respondents had “at least some confidence” in the stories reported by the press while 69% generally believe stories to be accurate. That’s a pretty high number, but maybe I’m just jaded from reading all the criticism the media has gotten lately. Here are some other findings of that poll:
-The numbers of respondents who said they felt stories reported by the media are accurate match exactly results from a 1994 CBS News poll. In both cases, 69% said they believed the media was generally accurate while 22% said inaccurate.

-When asked, in general, how often the media tells the truth, 59% said all or most of the time while 40% said some of the time or hardly ever. When the same question was asked about members the Bush Administration, 39% said they tell the truth all or most of the time while 58% said they told the truth some of the time or hardly ever.

I'm not sure what to make of Vaughn Ververs' post. He finds it surprisingly good news that a majority of the public has some confidence in the news, and finds it more or less accurate? He's okay that 40% of Americans think the media hardly ever--or never--tells the truth?

There's a huge disconnect between the reality of journalism, and what the public seems to think of it. Part of it is sloppiness on the part of reporters--some silly errors in VV's post doesn't exactly inspire confidence in his employer.

But a lot of it is the public doesn't wanna hear the truth sometimes, and when it does, it's easier to chalk it up to media bias or lies than to take a hard look at the issue or yourself and--horrors!--change your mind.

And for a CBS employee to talk about the public's skewed perception of journalism and not even mention the shameful way his employer used a manufactured crisis about Dan Rather's ethics to run him out of town is either gross incompetence or ignorance, or spinelessness.

Classic CBS logo found in various places online.

All-American Idol

Why Hold the Superlatives? 'American Idol' Is Ascendant

The Times: On the morning of Jan. 18, both [Simon] Fuller and [Peter] Liguori called for the overnight ratings of the "Idol" premiere as soon as they could. What they heard startled them almost into silence, a state surpassed only by the shock at networks competing with Fox.

"American Idol," already top-rated, was up an astonishing 15 percent among the 18-to-49-year-old viewers that Fox most sought to reach. It was up almost 10 percent among all viewers, at 35.5 million, the second-largest audience ever for an entertainment show on Fox.

And the figures for the second week were mind-boggling. Last Tuesday's show was up 25 percent both in total viewers and in the 18-to-49 group from the corresponding week a year earlier. ...

Nothing any other network puts on approaches the popularity of "American Idol." Tuesday's two-hour edition averaged a 37 share among 18-to-49-year-old viewers. That was more than double the share of the three other networks combined from 8 to 10 p.m.

Among teenage girls, the show had an extraordinary 49 share — meaning that of every girl in the country watching television for those two hours, with about 100 channels to choose from in most homes, half were watching Fox. Probably nothing on television since the heyday of "The Cosby Show" has regularly posted numbers like that.

It's odd for me to think about AI in terms of the Cosby Show, which is the seminal show of my youth (along with Family Ties)--but it's definitely been a long time since I've watched a show without fail every week, and I actually don't remember--aside from the Olympics and select other sporting events--being as excited in anticipation before, as happy in enjoyment during, and as pleased afterwards as I've been every Tuesday and Wednesday at 8.

It's a great show. If I wanted a foreigner to understand America and could only show them one show, this would be the one. It may have been invented in England, but it's reached its apothesis here (although I do think Fox should have another worldwide Idol-off, it's still odd to me that Kelly Clarkson lost to that hobbit from Norway). AI embodies all the elements of America at the start of the 21st century--it rewards hard work and talent, is open to all, shows our obsession with celebrity, has a voyeuristic tinge, moves quickly, and showcases the best (nice, respectful, humble and confident) and the worst (rude, crude, ignorant and oblivious) of Americans.

So far this season, through the general audition round in Chicago/Denver/Greensboro, North Carolina/San Francisco/Las Vegas/Austin, here are my favorite moments:


-Paris Bennett, 17, and the granddaughter of Ann Nesby (who Randy termed one of the best singers "in the known world). Man, her Billie Holiday-esque performance of "Take Five" sent chills down my spine, even after I had watched it three times. The singing, and her genuine crying on the floor reaction to going to Hollywood was one of the my favorite moments ever on the show actually, right up there with Nadia Turner sashaying out in a green dress and that golden hair to sing "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me", Jon Peter Lewis' crazily enthusiastic Elvis "A Little Less Conversation" dance, George Huff's wide-eyed smiles of disbelief.... I think Paris will be there at the end; she's a great combination of talent and genuineness--and her speaking voice is super-cute.

-Kelly Pickler, 19, whose father is in jail and despite what seems like a difficult upbringing seemed so sweet and excited, and has a surprisingly good voice. In the words of Simon she's a nice girl--there's something about her that's just so likeable, it makes you want her to have some happy things happen to her. Hopefully she does well so she doesn't have to keep falling down in her rollerskating waitress job; if this slick fan site has anything to do with it, she'll get picked.

-Garet Johnson, 19, a cowboy from Wyoming who really is just a decent, good guy who can't believe he's going to Hollywood. He's not a great singer, but has an open, natural style--he says his only audience so far has been a turkey, so it'll be interesting to see how he does in front of an auditorium of his peers. He's got the same likeability factor that Clay did, but comes across as more down-to-earth and less sharp.

-Mecca Madison, 18, who's a belly dancer and has a different vibe to her than most of the other contestants. I think she has some depth; look forward to hearing more from her both on and off-stage. She came out of the Las Vegas round, which is where I guess that nutty but interesting before she got to be too much Mikalah Gordon came outof last year--hope she doesn't go the same way.

-Taylor Hicks, 28 (now 29); I like the guy with the gray hair, he's another one with a surprisingly good voice, in his case sounding like someone three times his age outof Alabama. And also a good vibe--but will the girls vote for him?

-Ryan Seacrest cheering with the families outside the audition room. He's cheesy and I hate all those promos Fox makes him do going into commercial breaks--but his good nature (except when talking about his arch-enemy Simon) is infectious.

Can Internet Search Queries Predict American Idol Winner chart from Hitwise, via Kan de blogosfeer de toekomst voorspellen?

Hooray for Hollywood

The Great Delegator

Adrian Wooldridge in The Times Book Review: On the afternoon before the opening of the Group of 7 summit meeting in 1983, James Baker, the White House chief of staff, dropped in on Ronald Reagan to deliver a briefing book. The United States was the host of the conference, the only one held on American soil during the Reagan presidency; the administration had pre-emptively billed the meeting as a triumph; and Baker, worried about his boss's lack of preparation and aware that "Reaganomics" wasn't universally popular, had taken a lot of trouble compiling the briefings, which were both concise and comprehensive. On returning the next morning, Baker was furious to discover that the book lay exactly where he had left it - and confronted his boss with his failure to do his prep. Reagan's unflustered reply: "Well, Jim, 'The Sound of Music' was on last night."

Hmm, since the VCR was invented in the 70s, you'd think the leader of the free world would've had access to one. Oh well; at least he had good taste.

I'm not among those who wanna chisel Reagan onto Mount Rushmore--I remember the 80s, and essentially all he did was walk tall in a way the country wanted, and probably needed, after Jimmy Carter's self-effacing four years. Along the way he institutionalized huge budget deficits with a tax policy borrowed from the back of a napkin, tried to close the departments of Education and Environment, added 'welfare queen' to the national lexicon, cut and run out of Lebanon, gutted federal regulations in every field....

Aside from his policies, Reagan, like Carter, was a decent man. Unlike Carter, the people around Reagan weren't. His force of personality though was so great that the fellow conservatives he brought into power for the most part kept a lid on their worst impulses while he was around.

But after eight years Reagan rode off back into the California sunset, leaving his conservatives behind. And the longer they stayed in or near power, the more their most venal attributes came to the forefront.

And now under G.W. Bush, the inmates are running the institution; without someone who they really respect at the head of the table, they do whatever they want.

Until they're indicted, or thrown out of office.

Screen grab of Christopher Plummer's Captain Von Trapp and his kids from The Sound of Music, found on various websites.

Stranger in our land

On the Road Avec M. Lévy

Garrison Keillor in the The Times Book Review: Any American with a big urge to write a book explaining France to the French should read this book first, to get a sense of the hazards involved. Bernard-Henri Lévy is a French writer with a spatter-paint prose style and the grandiosity of a college sophomore; he rambled around this country at the behest of The Atlantic Monthly and now has worked up his notes into a sort of book. It is the classic Freaks, Fatties, Fanatics & Faux Culture Excursion beloved of European journalists for the past 50 years....

In more than 300 pages, nobody tells a joke. Nobody does much work. Nobody sits and eats and enjoys their food. You've lived all your life in America, never attended a megachurch or a brothel, don't own guns, are non-Amish, and it dawns on you that this is a book about the French. There's no reason for it to exist in English, except as evidence that travel need not be broadening and one should be wary of books with Tocqueville in the title. ...

America is changing, he concludes, but America will endure. "I still don't think there's reason to despair of this country. No matter how many derangements, dysfunctions, driftings there may be . . . no matter how fragmented the political and social space may be; despite this nihilist hypertrophy of petty antiquarian memory; despite this hyperobesity - increasingly less metaphorical - of the great social bodies that form the invisible edifice of the country; despite the utter misery of the ghettos . . . I can't manage to convince myself of the collapse, heralded in Europe, of the American model."

Thanks, pal. I don't imagine France collapsing anytime soon either. Thanks for coming. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. For your next book, tell us about those riots in France, the cars burning in the suburbs of Paris. What was that all about? Were fat people involved?

Sometimes it's just too easy.

Garrison Keillor's great. If aliens ever come and want each country to send one ambassador, he's on the short list of people I'd want to represent all Americans. (Along with John McCain, Yo Yo Ma, Ellen DeGeneres, David Letterman, Warren Buffet... all people who get being American, and seem decent.)

The Times, for once, made an inspired choice in its book reviewer. Who better to prick the oh-so-French philosopher/author/celebrity Lévy than this man from Minnesota.

Lévy, like most Europeans, will never get America because they can't grasp the breadth of this country. They'll never understand why the same country that produced Jefferson and Elvis can be at least as proud of the King as the slave-holder. They don't get our careless confidence, our wide-eyed optimism, our self-absorption that co-exists with a genuine desire to do good in the world. They don't get why we haven't collapsed under the force of our contradictions and our diversity--why we've yet to choke on what we've bitten off. And they definitely don't get why we don't care what some philosopher prince from France think about us.

Unless, of course, Oprah picks him for her book club.

Photo by Peter Foley/European Pressphoto in the New York Times.

Hodge-podge

Repeating itself
In 'Little History,' a scholar revealed

The Times: 'The history of the world is, sadly, not a pretty poem," the art historian E.H. Gombrich wrote in his first book, a history primer for children, published in German in 1936. "It offers little variety, and it is nearly always the unpleasant things that are repeated, over and over again."

Soon after its German publication, "A Little History" was banned by the Nazis for being "too pacifist." By then Gombrich had fled to England, where he worked for the BBC monitoring service during World War II and went on to a distinguished art history career, writing many scholarly books and heading up the exiled Warburg Institute at the University of London.

Ah, Germany. Timeless struggle between the heights of civilization and the depths of barbarism. Whereas England seems to be the saucer that cools the tea.

Who's sliming who?
Nick's Cultural Revolution

The Times: When Nickelodeon's popular "Kids' Choice Awards" program came to China last month, the producers were forced to make some serious modifications. There would be no voting on favorite burp. Nor would children judge which movie character was the best at breaking wind.

There was, however, sliming, a highlight of the American version of the show, which involves dumping, squirting and otherwise propelling green gooey stuff at people. And adults repeatedly were whacked by children - with balloon bats, of course - just to give the Chinese a taste of the freedoms afforded to children in the United States.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the show's national television broadcast was that children in China seemed to think that even this much kinder, gentler version of the program was wonderfully, outrageously transgressive.

"This is just so much fun," said Wang Yinong, a shy 12-year-old girl who watched the show at home with her parents in Shanghai. "I'd really like to go there and do the same thing: slime people."

Sliming remains a novelty in China. While every American industry that comes here faces its own obstacles, the bar that exporters of children's television programming must vault is particularly high: a traditional culture of respect for parents and authority reinforced by decades of Communist discipline and the ruthless competitiveness of an educational system that favors rigor over imagination. ...

But with television programming in China entirely state-controlled, Western media companies must negotiate every nuance of programming. And experts say that parents here may be even more restrictive than the government, viewing American-style television as too unruly.

"It wouldn't be surprising if the government said no to programs like these," says Lei Weizhen, who teaches about television at People's University in Beijing. "The public may question whether or not these shows are good for Chinese children."

In the cutthroat competition of contemporary Chinese society, parents invest heavily in what is often their only child. Urban children especially may attend school from 7 a.m. till 4 p.m., followed by hours of homework, music lessons and other enrichment courses. Deviating from this rigorous program is not encouraged.

"We don't allow him to watch too much TV," Qiu Yi, a 41-year-old advertising salesman in Shanghai, said of his 11-year-old son. "I'm not against cartoons. But I try to encourage him to watch documentaries on dinosaurs and the Second World War. These programs are useful to his study."

What's on television in China seems to be not all too dissimilar from what's happening in the classroom. Youth programming in China tends to be dry, conservative and pedantic. It consists mostly of quiz shows, team competitions and endless lineups of youngsters, dressed uniformly, standing at attention and answering questions like Boy and Girl Scouts. ...

The names of children's programs here often reveal their content: "Seeking Answers to 100 Questions," "Reading Books," "Visiting Schools," "Chess Boy" and "Studying the Arts."

"The Big Windmill," a nationally broadcast program on China Central Television, recently featured a typical skit. It involved a couple of people who opened a new hotel and then overcharged travelers for their stay. Two of these travelers turned out to be government investigators, looking into just such crimes. The message of this show, which is intended for children 3 to 14? "Don't lie or cheat customers! And beware of undercover authorities!" ...

"A lot of children's programming is really bad in China," said Li Yifei, managing director of MTV Networks China and considered one of the most powerful women in Chinese television. "It's condescending and more about lecturing to children. Fun - that's what's desperately needed."

The article is the Time's usual 'look, how exotic' take on China; per usual, it's condescending and more about lecturing about the Chinese.

I wonder how long until the Times grows up in its coverage of a country five times our size and stops using America as the norm, with all deviations breathlessly reported as weird or strange. Heck, there are a lot of people in this country who think what's on our airwaves is insane.

What would Jesus do?
Greece Bars Commercial

The Times: A Greek media watchdog has turned a cold eye on a proposed Amnesty International commercial that pokes fun at the war on terrorism by announcing the arrest of Father Christmas and the Magi, classifying the three wise men as ''men of Arab origin transporting chemical substances of unknown nature.''

Going on to say that the four suspects were then taken to the American detention camp at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, Amnesty International calls for fair treatment of terrorism suspects. This and two other Amnesty International advertisements were denied a free showing by the Greek national council for radio and television, a spokesman for Amnesty International told Agence France-Presse.

The council said that the ads carried no social message and only dealt with what it called foreign policy matters. Costis Papaioannou, a spokesman for the Greek branch of Amnesty International, said Amnesty did not accept any state funding, and so it could not pay for the broadcasts.

I wonder if Amnesty tried to air this commercial in the U.S....

Free for the taking
That Tear-Down Could Be a Haul-Away

The Times: When Kingman Ho, a physician, bought a 1,000-square-foot 1960's house in Seattle's Mount Baker neighborhood in May, the sellers figured he would tear it down. But Dr. Ho was so intrigued by some of the house's quirky features, like a child's playpen that converts to a conversation pit for grown-ups, that he devised a way to try to save it.

Dr. Ho is offering the house for $1 to anyone who is willing to remove it by February, when he plans to start construction on a new house. (So far, there have been no takers.)

What do people in other countries think when they see articles like this? Gosh, the U.S. sure does care about its (limited) history... jeez, they really do throw everything away.

Image from "A Little History of the World" via Yale University Press.

Nickelodeon photo of Michelle Kwan slimed in China via U.S. Figure Skating.

Vilmos Perlrott Csaba's 1914 oil painting Adoration of the Magi via Fine Arts in Hungary.

Photos of Kingman Ho and his son and house by Annie Marie Musselman in the New York Times.