London's Going To Be Cool -- Like, Really, Is It Going To Be Hot There?

"Go home. Your dad wouldn't even break my skateboard for me."

How often do you hear a kid in the neighborhood tell that to your kid?

Well, it happened this week. Seriously.

Anyway ...




* I know the Olympics are done, and they did whatever overblown ceremony to signal it, but I can't help but go out again on the porch and watch the men's volleyball team (the last event) win gold on the primetime replay.

* It's depressing. They just flash backed to the Jason Lezak relay split.

* I guess China wins because we heard the Chinese national anthem more than ours. We had more Americans on the medal stand, though. Not bad considering they've got about 500 gazillion more people and teach their children how to flip on a balance beam at age 3.

* How is it that John Williams composes every bad-ass song for every bad-ass visual spectacle?

* The basketball team won gold against Spain, thank goodness. They did it right -- and with as much humility as you can expect from guys who can do what they do. And Kobe has finally turned the corner in the hearts and minds of old, crotchety white guys who think all NBA players are criminals.

* I heard the gold medal game was one of the best international basketball games ever. I wouldn't know, because it started at 2:30 a.m. over here and I could only last the first half.

* Jeremy Wariner got a gold medal. But he couldn't do it without his archrival who beat him individually. It's interesting to watch individuals in such an individualistic, egocentric sport work together as a team. Watching the 400m relay is kind of awkward while at the same time compelling.

* Remember when we were so scared of the Russians, at least those of us who were born before the internet? Whatever happened to those guys?

* Oh, that's right. Sonya Richards chased down the Russian in the last leg of the 400m relay. There's nothing like watching an American haul ass past a former superpower.

* The table tennis guys are sweating. And using the paddles as fans. Who knew?

* I got to see a pole-vaulter for about a minute. And a high-jumper for about two minutes. Somehow I managed to miss every second of the long jump. When I was 10, how was it that I saw Carl Lewis and every single spec of dust? Maybe because it was in Los Angeles.

* When I watch diving, all I can really judge is whether there was a little splash or a big splash. Greg Louganis kind of hooked me 20 years ago when he cracked his head open on one of the diving platforms in Seoul. I'm not rooting for it to happen, but I keep wondering if it will.

* Bob Costas did a great job, no matter how goofy he might seem to be. And I enjoyed the sardonic moments, with the subversive double entendre -- like when he had to segue from a featurette on China's "Temple of Heaven."

"They say no nail was used to build the temple ... and I'm in no place to argue with them."

* The Chinese had a real '70s kind of color and design thing going on in every venue. I'm sure it was supposed to symbolize something, but I kept having flashbacks to the old Houston Astros jerseys.

* It's been real, China. Hope you get your shit together.