The Lighter Side

So after so many serious blogs I felt it time to lighten the mood. Here are some unrelated but humorous observations and occurrences from Beijing.

Olympic reporting: The other night I connected a unilateral that featured Al Jazeera television interviewing...Craig Sager, the NBA sideline reporter, who is working here for NBC. I’ve always wondered what the quality of other nations sports reporting was. When they are speaking in another language they sound very put together and very intelligent. When you get the opportunity to actually here the questions in English, one quickly realizes the rest of the world is not setting the pace for intelligent journalism. It started with the commentator and having to look at Sager’s name badge to remember his name, accompanied by Sager actually whispering it into his ear. Then the guy turns to Craig and says “Mr. Sager, you saw the game tonight. Why was it so exciting?” Sager, trying not to laugh, and looking like he was rethinking his agreement to the interview began to try and actually give basketball analysis to the game. Instead of just saying China playing Spain is a big matchup, and there are some great stars out on the court, he tried to get into the strengths and weaknesses of Spain and China. Next question: “China was winning, why did they not win?” Sager, chuckles, then tries to explain that the guards for Spain are NBA caliber and begin to play better defense in the fourth and that the Chinese big men weren’t setup defensively the right way...etc. It all finishes and Sager quickly exits, while the reporter is saying off air thanks Craig Sager, thanks Craig Sager. At the time I thought I was the only one taking this magical journalistic moment in. A guy in the department next door came in said “Did you see that!” We both burst out laughing. Only the Olympics can feature Craig Sager doing post game analysis for Al Jazeera Sports Television.

I’d be willing to make a bet that several weeks after the Games we might be in for controversy when its revealed that some of the Chinese gymnasts weren’t 16, the age limit for competing. There are enough investigative journalists over here that I’m sure are working on that as we speak. They might not come up with anything because the government will produce whatever doctored paperwork is needed to show proof, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Female weightlifters from every nation share one thing in common. They all fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.

Table Tennis and Badminton are sports that they really shouldn’t even compete in. Just hand over the gold and silver to the Chinese in each sport. Professional Table Tennis is what is on in primetime here. Turn on the CCTV sports channel and night and many times its a table tennis tournament. You can see kids playing badminton in the streets whenever you walk around at night. No net needed. They just bat it around. You actually see a lot of moms and daughters playing.

One of our new favorite sports to watch here is handball. Handball isn’t new but us watching it is. You have a limited amount you can run with a little soccer ball before either dribbling it or passing it. Then you throw it in a net past a goalie. Its played on an indoor court about the size of a basketball floor. The perfect game for any church youth group with a gym. Pass and throw. We haven’t quite figured out the fouling rules yet, but some of the athletic double pump throws the competitors make are pretty impressive. Final scores are usually in the upper 20s and low 30s. Apparently, they play this a lot recreationally in Australia. At least that’s what Lincoln tells me.

I was happy to see that the American south contributed to the Olympic effort. New Olympic record in trap shooting by a guy that looks like he was from Alabama or Mississippi. Hopefully he gets some nice endorsements from John Deere and Stihl after this.

I would love to know the U.S. Gymnastics budget for medical tape and wraps. It has to be absurd.

There is now a Chinese military tank parked outside the IBC. As if we needed any more reasons not to try anything. People have certainly enjoyed taking pictures of it.

I’m really glad the U.S. is good at basketball again. Its a lot easier to talk smack about slamming a ball in a guys grill than talking trash about how much faster our guys can row a boat.

Amazing occurrences: The U.S. Women’s soccer team explodes for 4 goals, the Norwegian team gets taken behind the woodshed by Japan, and the U.S. wins the group on goal differential. This might be a team of destiny, because the way the pool play finished was nuts. Now the draw is Canada instead of Brazil. Nice trade.

Members of the European media should be banned from receiving liver transplants. When I get off my shift at midnight and get back to the media village I have to walk through a common outdoor area with tables and chairs. Every night the European broadcasters and journalists have enough empty beer bottles to cover the entire table surfaces. Its crazy how much alcohol they consume...every night! They all smoke as well. Americans will die from heart attacks and diabetes, but Europeans will be right there with us keeling over from liver failure and lung cancer.