No, Jenex, that would be me, too.
Plus, WHAT was with that glowing pregnant belly? I almost bust my own (nonglowing) gut laughing when that sucker lit up.

And who else shouted out the teams from Uruguay and Argentina?

Man, I've become such a TAR geek I astonish even myself.

And what the hell is that thing? The Olympic Death Ray? I thought it was going to zap the whole field of athletes for a second there!

I would bet most TARflies would know where every one of the Olympic Team countries were without having to be told by Bob Costas and Jane Pauley. What I found humrous was that they had to study their crib sheets beforehand even though the two of them have done several Olympic opening ceremonies between them (winter and summer).

Any of our resident math whizzes here have any idea how difficult it would be to make a rotating double helix out of beams of light? That seemed to be an incredibly impressive bit of lighting design and geometry to me.

That was seriously weird. Fascinating, and very cool, but weird. I kept wondering whether she was going to give birth to something right there in the arena.

Overall, with the exception of Bob Costas (shut up, Bob!), I loved the opening ceremonies. Best ever, imo. Made me wish every summer Olympics were held in Greece. Oh, and don't hate Bob Costas... just sometimes. I loved when he refered to Archimedes and Pythagoras as Greek math all-stars. Too funny.

What I found particularly cringeworthy was that several times, immediately after the announcer had said the names of countries perfectly pronounced, they would mispronounce the same country name as only flat Americans with an "I don't need to learn no steenking foreign language" attitude can mispronounce something.

A funny Olympic story: My son went to a Montessori preschool, and when he was three years old, watching the winter Olympics, he was able to name every single country marching in solely by their flag! Too bad it didn't stick with him; this is also the same kid who in sixth grade confused Panama and Paraguay. We're still teasing him about that Paraguay Canal. :-)

On the Charley front, for those who have friends/family down in that area, I just got this update from a friend whose whole family is scattered about the area:

Other than that, it's the usual hit and miss report, some places came through just fine, albeit soggy; others got well and truly hammered.

Our thoughts are with you (I think that this is probably one time it's safe to speak for others in the group...)

I got in touch with my godmother. She's safe (WHEW!) and relieved the worst is over. I'm extremely thankful! And I'm grateful for everyone's good wishes. Now here's hoping Hexele and the others in that area are OK too!

For one thing, I bet the folks in Belize would be surprised to find out that theirs is an "island nation." I mean, it is a nation with islands, but somehow, I'm pretty sure that's not what Bob "I'm just reading the cards" Costas meant.

And now, for something completely different, the Los Angeles Times on-line version has an interactive electoral college map; you can see latest poll results on a state-by-state basis and you can play political analyst by changing the map to see any number of possible outcomes.

I was screaming at the TV when he said that. Costas thinks he's so smart but he doesn't know a country just to the south of us? Dumbass. I had to turn the ceremonies off because I could not put up with the inane banter between him and Katie Couric.

My parents surrived Charley. I feel bad for Punta Gorda, but I'm very glad it made that sharp right turn and missed Tampa.

I didn't watch the opening ceremony, because it's never been all that interesting to me.

That being said? I love Tivo more than ever.

I went to the NBC Olympics website, did a search for all broadcasts of Olympic fencing events, and set my Tivo to grab them.

I woke up this afternoon, turned on my TV, and had half an hour of Men's Sabre bouts to watch. It's so great to watch such a high level of competition in a sport that usually doesn't get much airtime.

For those of you with Tivo/DVR devices and interest in less-popular sports, I recommend doing the same thing - find a few sports you'd like to watch, have your DVR grab them, and enjoy the games. It's nice to have the option to watch events other than the same few they always show in primetime.

I rememberd that whole "Child of Light" thing from the Salt Lake City Olympics, and thought this was another incarnation of that.

Of course, I made the mistake of mentioning this outloud to my family, and got much groaning from them...

Katie Couric drives me crazier than Bob Costas.

The entire Summer Olympics has always been a bore for me. Which is odd, because I'm a big sports nut, and during the Winter Olympics I tend to watch like 12 hours of tv a day. But the Summer Olympics? Meh. No interest.

That being said, it's not going to disrupt TAR is it?

It shouldn't. TAR is on CBS, and the Olympics are on NBC.

Katie Couric definitely bugs. The other day on the Today show, she and Nia Vardalos did a shopping in Athens segment. I'm sure the producers wanted to highlight Greek culture in terms of the various shopping options in Athens. Instead, we were treated to a Katie Couric home movie, 'Don't I Look Cute During My Summer Vacation in Athens?' Bitch always makes it all about her. Grrr.

Skipped the Olympic opening ceremonies. Can't stand to hear commentators who make way too much money not even bother to pronounce country names right. And the time differences will be a problem for anyone in the US who doesn't want to know who won major events before seeing them on TV. MSNBC already posted the winner of the mens swimming today. Grrr.

Lawdog, the NY Times has an interactive map very similar to the one you referenced that's also loads of fun.

My thoughts go out to any and everyone who lives in the affected areas in Florida or has family out there. I hope the casualty prediction in Punta Gorda isn't as bad as they fear it will be. I mean, do hurricanes and tornados just make a beeline for mobile home parks???

I'm skipping a family cookout with tons of food just because I missed TAR on Tuesday. How pathetic am I?

One of the things that bugged me (well, in addition to all the things mentioned above) was that the more "non-Western" an competitor's outfit was, they referred to it as a "costume" - whereas the outfits that looked more "Western" were labeled as outfits.

HA! Even Hurricane Charley and my own stupidity combined can't keep me off the Web for a whole day! (Charley may have shut off the power, but I messed up my Linux gateway all by myself.)

Many of us in Orlando had no power; a few still don't. My house was apparently the center of a micro-tornado; we were sitting in the "safe" room listening to the shingles come off the roof. Sounded like the boxes in the attic were getting dragged around. Scary. We appear to be the worst affected on the block.

The nicest thing was the way my whole family helped out. My wife went out for building supplies while I cleaned up the yard; every kid helped out, even the 2-year-old. When Microbert got tired of that, Minibert and Littlebert took turns watching her and helping me. We didn't stop till lunchtime. No complaints from anybody.

Then my dad and sister came all the way from Deland (about 70 miles), just because they couldn't contact me. With their help, and the supplies Wifey (finally!) brought back, we got the exposed wood of the roof covered up just before the next storm.

Of course, it's not fixed or anything. I'm typing with leak lines above me. Minor, but... I still want them fixed, soon. Time for a new roof.

Oh, yeah, I've done the leave-'em-behind thing, too. Strangely, it varies from kid to kid: Littlebert only has to be threatened, whereas the younger Minibert will actually get out and walk until she's too tired to go any further. She's difficult to discipline.

I love diving, and have never been able to stand the diving analyst's voice. She knows what she's talking about, but she is the summer Bonnie Blair. Nails on the chalkboard. And her job isn't to predict the scores, it's to explain them. Second guessing the outliers in the scoring is one thing, but when four judges score it the same way, I'd think it isn't an injustice. I turned off the women's synch diving to avoid her.

The tough thing is I wanted to see volleyball and fencing and one was on MSNBC and the other on Bravo, so i ended up with volleyball. And seeing Germany beat Cuba was huge. (My little bro used to be a volleyball official. And both bros played men's B. So we are a bit v-ball wild in the family. But not that beach stuff.)

I was amazed that folks in a trailer park would have tried to ride out a storm, even if he'd been a 2-3 like projected that's pretty risky. Since he was a 4?

Glad you and the family are all safe, judebert.

It's my understanding that the storm turned suddenly enough that the trailer park folks were caught unprepared for evacuation, and there were so many downed power lines that they couldn't clear a path for them in time. Or at least that's what Papa Tiger was telling me, while he was telling me his uncle recently moved into a trailer park in that area -- which one he doesn't know -- so now we're very worried about him, obviously.

I would think the same phone rule applies after a hurricane as after a big earthquake: Don't try to call in, let people call out. Or, if you are able to email someone in the affected area, have them make calls -- the local circuits are far less busy than the long-distance circuits. I was living in LA during the Northridge quake, and for a week afterwards friends from all over the country were having me call friends and relations to verify that everyone was okay since I only lost power for a few hours so was back online before the day was out. (Hey, what's important?)

Re: Bob "put a sock in it" Costas and Katie "ick, ptoo" Couric and their blather over the opening cermonies: was I the only one who chucked something at the TV when Saudi Arabia was entering and he said something about team members in traditional costumes and she piped up, "Those aren't traditional, they're still worn today!"?

Leaving the kids behind: Mom did that to me once, but it wasn't even on the road. She said to get ready so we could go to the store for milk and eggs and I dawdled, and she left me home, because I wasn't ready. I remember looking out the picture window as she and Rabrab'sSis pulled out and thinking I had really pulled something off, until they continued on down the road and didn't come right back for me. Oh, then the tears started -- I was so scared that I'd really messed up. They weren't gone long; 10 minutes, I think; and I was old enough to not get into trouble alone at home, but boy-howdy, that put the fear of God in me.

Glad to hear that you've got things under control, Judebert.

That's what I understand, too, Mama Tiger I got an e-mail this morning from another friend who's in Sarasota. He was battened in for a Cat2 and 10 foot surges, and when Charley was upgraded to Cat4 and the surges were predicted to be at 18 feet, it was too late to for him get out. He expected to be toast, and would have been if the storm hadn't turn south to Charlotte Harbor.

I really don't know how to interpret this since you've always loved Bob Costas. Are you now carrying a torch for Katie? Cuz that would be weird...

Carrying a torch? Taking Olympic humor to the extreme, dawsnzchck?

Yes, I admit I think Bob Costas is great. Katie? Not so much. Or not at all really...

Gee, I wonder why this set of "statues" was shown from the waist up only on US TV?

Glad to hear some Florida people are hanging in there. The stories on the news just sound awful.

I'm running on local channels only, and NBC transmission is just terrible down here. So I got satellite, local channels only. And of course Charlie put an end to that; they were broadcasting emergency info on NBC, so they moved the opening ceremonies to another local channel that -- of course -- is not included on my satellite or broadcast.

Sigh. All that work for nothing.

Personally, I can't stand the announcers at all. I watch with the mute on. The mantra is: the announcers are absolutely, 100%, perfectly correct... unless it's something you happen to know about.

Then they're usually way off the mark. I've come to the conclusion that anchors, announcers, and even investigative reporters usually have no idea what they're talking about; they just read the script. And when they try to ad-lib at the Olympics, I feel like I'm listening to the inane babble of the insane.

I dream of a world where I can download the Olympics, watch everything that interests me, and click for more information whenever I actually want it. I'm tired of being spoon-fed.

Oh, and if you need me to call anybody, just let me know.

Okay, I give. After all the Tubey hype, I decided to watch part of tonight's episode so I could say I tried it. Damn it, now I'm hooked. I guess I need to read the recaps of the previous episodes to catch up now.

gotcha!

Welcome to the club, gnbhull

Well that was anti-climatic. I've cleaned up after Bertha and Floyd and went smack through the middle of Fran, so this wasn't my first hurricane, but it was the first time I've lived close enough to the water to be evacuated. Boarded up the house, lifted everything possible up off the floor, loaded baby stuff and dog stuff and valuable stuff and stuff stuff in the cars and took off -- inland! -- closer to the path than we were to begin with!

Lucky for the Tampa, St. Pete, Clearwater area that it turned. Not so lucky for Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda and the like. They didn't have nearly the warning we did so they were terrifically unprepared, which accounts for the death toll I suppose. (The Clearwater area pretty much got nothing. We get bigger weather during a normal afternoon storm.) And by the way, there are lots of trailer parks down here, for the snowbirds and retirees, so hitting one wouldn't require great aim by any given storm. Half of Europe is spending its August vacation month in either Sarasota or Orlando -- welcome to the US, you will get wet; you may get soaked!

We had to spend today taking down the boards and putting things back to rights, hopefully not just in time for Earl. I figure with a name like Earl, he'll be heading for the Redneck Riviera and will hit Panama City.

Hope everyone's family made it through okay!

Suzikins, superb dress, and elope your heart out. MIL got ahold of my wedding and...suffice to say towards the end I was like "Do whatever you want. I don't care."

Thanks for checking back in with the All Clear, Hexele! After worrying about a friend who did not evacuate during Andrew, I'm always concerned for folks in the direct path of a big storm. I gather you had no damage? Best possible result.

We just put all new windows in our house this year, so this will probably be the year a hurricane hits New Orleans dead on just to prove how puny our efforts at fixing up our house are.

Has anyone more local got details on exactly how bad Port Charlotte got it? I just heard from a heart-sister whose Dad and stepmom live on Bayview Street, right on the channel. She's worried sick because she hasn't heard from them since yesterday at 4pm--they didn't get out in time. She said the background noise on the phone call was like "a dozen teakettles all going off at once."

Glad you're OK, Hexele.

Bonnie Blair is the most famous graduate of the high school I graduated from. Whenever she won gold at Albertville or Lillehammer, they would interrupt classes to announce that she had won. She came back to give a speech, and I distinctly remember my fellow classmates from the urban areas of Champaign -- speed skating meccas that they are -- being more concerned about where she got her jacket than her accomplishments.

And, on every Olympic telecast, they would mention that Bonnie was from Champaign about as often as Lana Lang whines about being an orphan -- or as often as Mirna complains that nobody is helping them.

So I found a cool book at Costco yesterday called "1,000 Places To See Before You Die." And among those thousand places include the locations for all six pit stops so far in a race around the world. It's an awesome book -- even if I've only been to less than twenty of the thousand places so far.

Zivra if you're still curious about the double helix, you might want to go here. The first two posts in the thread offer a couple of conjectures as to how it was done. Personally, I think the second guy is closer to right.

Absolutely. I've inadvertantly been doing it all day. Olympic fever seems to have struck me fast and hard.

And sorry for calling you out TPorter2, just keeping you honest. :)

I met Bonnie Blair once, her neice went to elementary school with me so she came to speak about following your dreams and all that.

I also liked this comment in one of those posts about the helix:

"I thought the "Olympic Cauldron" looked like something that eats its own
young."

Hee!

Something like this happened to me once. I was at my friend Matt's house, who lived just behind me. It was winter, and I was supposed to be at his house for a couple of hours. (I was about 5 at the time.) Anyways, I got mad and stormed home because I got hit in the face with a snowball, only to find that my dad wasn't home. I started crying, because he was supposed be at home. So I called my Nana, but she wasn't home. I then looked up the phone number for the local restaurant and asked for Nana (heh, my town's so small they knew who I was and who I was looking for). Luckily she was there and she came right over. My dad got home a few minutes later, as he had only been out running a few errands.

That reminds me of another incident I've been in that I don't remember because I was only about two or three. I managed to unlock our door and leave the house while my dad was sleeping and my mom was hanging clothes on the line. One of my dad's friend's found me at the ball diamond about two blocks away. Apparently I said I went there to see my dad, but I guess I knew that he was sleeping. Either way, I got in a lot of shit for that one and I never did it again.

Phone service is very limited there, so maybe give it another day before worrying seriously. News and rescue groups all over the place, so no one is cut off from civilization. Hope you hear from them soon.

And thanks for all the good wishes, y'all.

Thanks Rabrab. It’s a little disappointing though- I thought it was all done with projected beams in the mist.
It is still incredibly cool, but I feel like a little kid who just found out that the magic tricks aren’t real.

Well, that makes me feel better. I thought it looked like a giant doobie.

My first thought was that it looked like the giant Olympic Death Ray, aimed at the infield to take out all the athletes in one Krispy Kreme moment. Weird, weird, weird design!

Hey, Judebert, it's good to hear from someone from Orlando, and I'm glad you and the assorted berts are okay (you, too, Hexele. My brother lives in Orlando, too. He runs a small nursing home, and when we talked on Friday he was already relying on his emergency generator and had everyone in the "safe" room. Turns out everyone is fine, the house is fine, and the yard is a mess. One of his residents is a middle-aged guy with MS, who's become pretty good friends with my brother. They watch the Simpsons together, like the same sports teams, hate the same politicians, etc. So while my brother was cleaning the yard yesterday, this resident was in a chair on the back porch, "supervising" and otherwise kidding my brother while he worked. At least everyone is in a good mood.

Oh, I love Bonnie Blair, just not as an announcer. People with voices that are the audio version of a laser should be seen speedskating and not heard commenting.

Ah, Dutch volleyballers. Yum. I think my affinity for Dutch sports comes from the orange. Flyers fans can dig the orange.

I do wish the crummy (suddenly) Phils had scheduled a road trip for the two weeks of Olympic action. I have to squeeze too much Olympic action into too few hours. Fortunately, TiVo is in its glory. Unfortunately, the Rus v Ned game went over and I must satisfy myself with a text account of the last points (if I can find it). ETA: bless TiVo. It picked up the broadcast continuation. Wish lists. Who knew?! I'm sure my infatuation will soon turn to a mature love and I'll be less giddy.

My mother helped my oldest sister pack to run away (sis was 3). But she didn't get far. She wasn't allowed to cross the street, so she did a circuit of the block.

My entire family left on vacation without me when I was 2 (I was apparently too young for the Ozarks). I was left baking cookies with the sitter in the kitchen while they (all six of them) snuck away. I still have desertion issues!

Almond Eyes, the one difference with the LA Times map is that it includes recent polling data. And, it will even cue up "Hail to the Chief" when you color the clinching state for your favorite candidate.

I mean, from the still soulless city that gives you LAX, we're grasping at straws here.

A friend of mine was left behind at 3 while everyone else went to Montreal for Expo 67. (Boy am I aging myself there). Her older sister and I still like to remind her of it from time to time. She still has issues 37 years later.

BoDiva



TiVo and I have been together for 8 months now, and our love still makes me giddy. I've even programmed it to call at the same time everyday, so if I find out I'm working late and want him to record a show I normally just watch live, I can go online and program it before 4, and I know he'll get it for me. I heart TiVo!

Plus all my friends that I record TAR for love it because I edit out the commercials for them while I'm rewatching it.

Hey, that exact thing happened to me at the same age - glad to know I wasn't the only one! I don't think I have issues though.

I got to go at the ripe old age of 2 (there was no one to desert me with!), and as far as I can remember it was one great, big diaper rash - no one was paying enough attention to that aspect of my life, and I was too well trained to complain.

Wow, I'm glad I was old enough for the Expo 67 trip. Although the only parts I remember are not getting to go the Czech exhibition to see the film with three endings and the French sailors who stood under an open-riser staircase to look up girls' skirts.

That happened to me a lot the summer I worked in a paper mill's maintenance office, which was up a flight of stairs off the mill floor, and back in the days when "young ladies" (ha!) still had to wear skirts to work. It was also the era of micro-minis.

Fortunately, I realized quickly why there was a crowd of men standing there gazing up at me as I walked upstairs, and had to go up and down clutching my skirt as tightly to me as I could for the rest of the summer. I guess I could have let them have a free show; it's not like my undies were anything special. But I was young and shy.

Yeesh, not even my mom is that reliable.

This is the same experience I had all four years of high school. There were three floors and there was always a bunch of punks hanging out on the landings to see if they could catch a peek as us girls went up the stairs.

If anyone’s still got Egypt fever (as well as unanswered questions from the Great Slave Debate of the episode thread), PBS has a series called Secrets of the Pharaohs. Episode Two (my PBS affiliate is running this next Sunday night) is supposed to be about the city of Giza and debunking the myths about who really did all the work of building the pyramids. Check your local listings, the first episode was great!

ETA: Awww. And I’m a bad, bad mommy. I just yelled at my widdle doggie because he was banging into furniture and whining in the other room. I go in there to see what’s up and I find that I had left all his toys up on a table after I vacuumed. I’m so mean.

(Sorry about the schmoopies, but I baby-talk to animals and speak to human infants in complete sentences. I don’t know why)