This is the 40th anniversary of the massacre at the
Munich Olympics. I was ten years old that summer, and can still vividly
remember watching the events unfold on TV. Announcer Jim McKay gave regular
updates, and then his final announcement that the terrorists and Israeli
Olympians they’d captured were all dead. I remember the pictures of a
helicopter that had been destroyed by hand grenades. At ten years old, I’d seen
the Viet Nam war coverage every night of
my life on the evening news, but the horror in Munich seemed to me like a brand
new kind of different heinousness.
It was.
I’ve seen a couple
of mentions of the 1972 atrocity in the coverage leading up to this Olympics,
but not enough, it seems.
We humans sure do
learn hard.
Some
Observations of the 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremonies Telecast Extravaganza
· Matt
Lauer’s “Olympics Opening Ceremony for Dummies” narration was beyond annoying. I
think Meredith Vieira walked out about 40 minutes into the
telecast in embarrassment and disgust.
· I
predict that the expression “Across the Pond”will be retired after this
Olympics.
· The
designs of the flags for several nations appeared to be thrown together. One
had what looked like a ghost from Ms. PAC-Man standing next to a cow.
· It
seemed like some of the countries represented were invented just for the show.
I doubt that Gorgonzola and Fartfovia are really countries.
· The
Queen clearly hates the Olympics.
· American
Samoa’s team looked really scary and hungry. It is cool that there’s an
American Samoa. I’m not sure if there’s also a “Regular” Samoa. If there isn’t,
I think American Samoa should just be called Samoa.
· I
bet that a lot of the beautiful women who marched in the parade of nations
aren’t treated very well in their own countries. It was kind of hard to watch
the parade with that in mind.
·
The Burundi team snuck
back into the parade of nations after Senegal and marched past the cameras
again. They were laughing so hard.
· The
show should have had more Mr. Bean.
· Paul
McCartney probably should not sing “Hey Jude” at the 2016 Olympics.
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