Like millions of others, the last two weeks of peak athleticism that is the Olympics have inspired us to that Olympic ideal, sitting on the couch and watching it on TV. Ironic, isn’t it?

Adelaine gets bored with TV pretty quick. Ellie, however, is a born couch potato. Since her earliest days she has always been mesmerized by a TV. During the Olympics she would ask at all times of the day to have the TV on so she could watch. Who knows what was going through her head as she watched these various sports, but every once in a while, she would announce to us that “Someday when I get big I want to do dat.” This was usually said while watching the bike races, gymnastics, diving or swimming. Hopefully she never wants to do race walking.. I don’t think I could handle the embarrassment.

Despite her great interest in the sports, I think her Olympic technique is more in line with the professional spectator than the athlete.

_______________

The Chinese government did put on a good show for the rest of the world. It’s amazing what you can do with a controlled economy, total central authority, and a fearful populace. The Opening Ceremonies had many dazzling images that will be impressed in our collective minds for decades to come. But it all falls flat compared to the arguably the best Olympic Opening Ceremonies: Albertville.

Ok, so maybe no one is going to argue for France’s 1992 Winter Albertville Olympics had the best opening ceremony, but it is certainly more memorable than the Bejing one. I was in university at the time and was awestruck at the spectacle. It was just so… bizarre.

Imagine Cirque du Soleil running the Olympics, but weirder, combined with Dr. Seuss on drugs. This over-the-top, freakish cirque nouveau show was perhaps the strangest, most inexplicable thing I have ever seen on TV. The walking snow globes, the suspended drummers and spider dancers, the crazy, acid-trip costumes. Good grief, what were they thinking?

Maybe this is why France hasn’t been allowed to host an Olympics since..