Games

The games are over! Let the games begin.

I’m speaking of the Olympics, of course. I watched the closing ceremonies Sunday. More retrained than the opening, but that’s no problem as I have already ordered by DVD of all four hours of that extravaganza. All told, as many as a million Chinese are said to have participated in the vast “machine” that was the 29th Olympiad. The dollar cost is said to have reached $40 billion.

I had forgotten that the Greek flag is raised at each Olympic gathering as if to remind us of the ancient Greeks who “invented” the games. The tradition was no fighting during the games – unfortunately a tradition violated by the Republic of Georgia.

Tonight (Monday) the History channel did a feature on Sparta. In light of the two conventions that are to run virtually back to back over the next two weeks, I think a little more history is the most sane option. – and the one that will impart more knowledge.