dropping the baton

I would vote Bob Costas into any office in this country. Small and intelligent, the man is loosening up gloriously as the Olympics continue. When both the men and women of Team America lost the 4x100 relay, Costas welcomed us back into the womb-like NBC studio by announcing that USA Track had "laid an egg in the Bird's Nest." Like most of the Thousands staff, I care about puns more than my physical safety.

But the Olympics are also hilarious not-on-purpose: "Cuban Athlete Is Barred for Kicking Referee in the Face".

You'll be flabbergasted to know that I am not the only person in and around the internet making Olympic jokes: in their current issue, the New Yorker's Nancy Franklin bemoans Misty May and Tall One's "Victoria's Ill-Kept- Secret" outfits, and the masterful Anthony Lane draws terrifying comparisons with the fascistic foreplay of the 1936 Berlin Games.

I am going to be drafted by Google into the war against Ruso-China.

Below, the assembling of a Denver installation called "I See What You Mean" by Lawrence Argent. I love the title, in all likelihood because it smacks of LOLcats.



Can you blame him? The bear just wants to hang out. "Give me art and companionship!" he seems to say. The bare blue necessities.

(Photo credit: the City of Denver, I think.)

BROlympics Coverage

I wonder how the American Gymnasts feel about the current investigative efforts being conducted by the IOC in attempts extract correct ages of the Chinese Gymnasts.

Sure, they must be aggravated that "cheating" occurred. That the Chinese team employed an unfair advantage by entering their lighter more flexible capri-sun-drinking no-fear-having middle schoolers. But what must really piss them off is that it was in fact these baby-teeth-havers who beat their very well defined asses. They got beat by little girls. Really little girls. Really little tiny people with hello kitty backpacks. Simply put, that realization must suck. But probably not as much as the concurrent realization of these young Chinese gymnasts, that at age whatever, they have probably already had the most rewarding experience of their lives.They do have big shiny medals now though (Medals that I personally hope they get to keep), and I bet they'd make great spies.

That said, who wants to train for the 2012 trampoline team with me? I'm thinking we should probably go for the gold.

(Photograph from Telegraph.co.uk)