I didn't have a chance to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics last night. People in South Florida were more interested in the Weather Channel, to be honest. So I cannot comment on the following letter from a reader, which was -- for lack of a better location -- sent to the comments page on the coven and state commentary. It's worth pulling out front, because we are interested in what readers see in the media -- really, really interested. You guys have more eyes and mice than we do.
As a bias disclaimer, I must note that I am a major fan of Bob Costas. I have cruised the WWW a bit this morning and have found no other references to the possibility of religious ghosts in the Athens rites. I would post a link to the Dallas Morning News review of the broadcast, but I am on a Mac right now and the Dallas site is very Apple-phobic, or at least the browser Safari. I wonder what that is all about. (I got a different browser running and got that Dallas link.)
I digress. Here is the letter. By the way, the nickname is "tmatt." Gotta watch those case-sensitive style issues.
TMatt -- I'm putting this here for lack of anywhere else i can think of to put it, along with your meme of "ghosts": i may be overreacting, but on the Olympic opening ceremonies broadcast, there was not a single odd bit of trivia Bob Costas did not share, nor an attention getting variation from the US norm that did not earn his explanation (it's still going on in the living room, as i type this).
But when all the "Saint Blank" countries came first in the alphabet, no note of why that would be; in the parade of the millenia, his only significant silence was during the delightful live action ikons as they passed -- he muttered, to Katie's counterpoint, something about the Byzantine era, and may have mumbled the word "church" once (i'd have to see a transcript).
Small items, but glaring to me in how Bob seems to assume that the only trivia too trivial to tell is faith-oriented, and the only gods worth mentioning are carved in marble with colonnades around them. Or maybe i just can't stand Costas' commentary.
Peace. And enjoy the Olympics! (And i'll keep watching for Terry's ghosts!)
Posted by: Jeff | August 13, 2004 09:59 PM
I will keep looking around a see if I can catch some kind of replay in the next day or so. Please use this post as a chance to share what you are seeing, or not seeing. If there is a show transcript out there, please nab the URL for us.
UPDATE: Did anyone else hear the reference to Athena as the "patron saint" of Athens?