This is all about me, and all about journalism. So it’s not entirely world-wide, no. But I am seriously impressed by the system Beijing organizers have come up with for handling security for credentialed journalists. What had become a tiresome and time-consuming hassle, since Munich and, especially, since 9/11 … has been streamlined quite cleverly […]

[Read more →]

The swimmers finally came through, racking up seven of a possible eight medals in four finals this morning, and for a moment the Yanks are back ahead in the medals chase. Someone wanted to know, in our previous “China Will Bury Us” post, how we could characterize the U.S. performance here as spotty. Well, consider […]

[Read more →]

That’s right. This is not an Olympics post. The Los Angeles Galaxy fired Alexi Lalas and accepted coach Ruud Gullit’s resignation in a major shakeup of the struggling Major League Soccer team today. Can’t say the moves were without merit; the Galaxy hasn’t won in seven matches, and that’s with David Beckham and Landon Donovan […]

[Read more →]

It was Nikita Khruschev, former premier of the Soviet Union, who is credited with saying, “We will bury you!” to a group of Western ambassadors, in 1956. The idea being that the Soviet system — communism, in general — would out-perform the Western democracies and, eventually, “win” them over to socialism. Well, that burial didn’t […]

[Read more →]

China apparently is the spitting capital of the world. The expectoration citadel. Or was, anyway. If a guy (especially) had something in his throat he didn’t want to swallow … he just let it fly. It was a topic widely discussed by tourists in China. “Hey, those dudes spit more than baseball players!” When the […]

[Read more →]

Maybe it’s a function of the economy. Perhaps it’s about the availability, via the Web, of competition from seemingly any moment at any venue at the Beijing Olympics. Maybe it’s about family dynamics, or the ages of the competitors and their children, siblings or friends. But I have done stories on consecutive days on adult […]

[Read more →]

So, I’m walking out of the press seating area in the arena to go fetch my computer in the work room … when this really preppy guy in a dark blue blazer walks right up to me and says .. “Are there any American reporters in here?!?” Like, with some urgency. (And why did he […]

[Read more →]

Judo! I thought I had, in some prior life. Knocking out a “hometowner” for some paper in the sprawling Gannett News Service empire, at a previous Olympics. Then they started competing in the gym at the Beijing University of Science and Technology … and I know for a fact I have never seen this. No […]

[Read more →]

A little farther down on this blog I was trying to recall sports I’ve never covered, and was struggling. I suggested badminton, but now I’m thinking I may have done some of that at the Sydney Olympics. Just dropped by to watch the shuttlecocks fly. I don’t remember for sure. But here are two sports […]

[Read more →]

Went to a different sports circus. Saw the elephant. Don’t feel a pressing need to go back. It was interesting, though. On several levels.

[Read more →]