Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
Triathlon Truth be told, the most interesting thing about this event was taking in all of the tourist sites along the very scenic route where it was staged – from the Serpentine Lake, around Hyde Park, along Constitution Hill, to the Queen Victoria Memorial and Buckingham Palace. I felt no affinity with any of the competitors… Read more.
Weightlifting Not since the Montreal Games in 1976, when larger-than-life Vasiliy Ivanovich Alekseyev of the Soviet Union commanded rock-star attention, has there been so much interest in Olympic weightlifting. Unfortunately, the person generating that kind of interest at the London Games is not even competing. Instead, the media have turned NFL player Nick Mangold’s absurd… Read more.
Synchronized Swimming All I can say is that pole dancers have nothing on synchronized swimmers when it comes to displaying remarkable athleticism in titillating fashion. And how thoughtful of NBC to enhance our viewing pleasure by giving us shots of their rhythmic gyrations above and under water, simultaneously. This might be the only sport where… Read more.
Swimming As much as I hate to, I feel obliged to begin the last of my Swimming commentaries on a sour note: I led the chorus of those questioning the remarkable improvement that enabled 16-year-old Chinese Ye Shiwen to blow away the field in the women’s 400m individual medley on Day 1. In the interest… Read more.
Archery Today was the final day of competition in this sport, which turned out to be far more thrilling to watch than I ever imagined. Only four medals were awarded but every qualifying round provided excitement and suspense worthy of The Hunger Games. Apropos of which, I actually saw Khatuna Lorig – the archer who famously… Read more.
Basketball I appreciate inquiries about why I’m not commenting on the way the USA men and women’s Basketball teams are routing their opponents. But, truth be told, I simply cannot get too excited about sports like Basketball and Tennis at the Olympics that enjoy perennial popularity. In fact, I rather like the Olympian reordering of things,… Read more.
I interrupt my commentaries on the London Olympics to share this one on the death of Gore Vidal. He was that important. Indeed, to give you a sense of just how important, mere hours before the New York Times posted his obituary yesterday, I was bonding with a tech-support woman over our mutual fondness for… Read more.
Badminton Can somebody explain the appeal of Badminton, which seems to defy gravity by having players use what looks like a squash racket to swat at what looks like a cluster of chicken feathers over what looks like a mini Volleyball net? (“London Olympics: Day 1,” The iPINIONS Journal, July 28, 2012) I was actually… Read more.
