Olympics Past

Well, this is the week where we can look forward to the endless Beijing Olympics coverage.

Among other things, much tv shows are airing China-related topics. Channel 13/WNET this past Saturday aired a Frontline episode on the Tiananmen Square tank man, in addition to a Great Museums episode on “China: East Meets West at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The digital PBS channel kept showing tons of Simply Ming, including one episode where he’s showing the various uses of dim sum wrappers and went to this massive Hong Kong dim sim place. (umm, I managed to catch the food show, rather than the other stuff; call me shallow, I know!).

Slate has a Olympics preview, or at least one that links to some very good stuff (including this NY Times article on a recounting of the 1984 Olympics and an articulation from US Olympics Committee Chairman (and ex-Major League Baseball Commissioner) Peter Ueberroth’s belief that China saved the 1984 Olympics, which I remembered reading and thinking had a rather interesting moral on how networking really, really succeeds).

Of all the China-related stuff that’s inundating tv (just in time for the Olympics), I’m actually looking forward to the Bob Woodruff special this Thursday on ABC. His journalism career started because he got to cover the Tiananmen Sq. story in 1989, when he was previously a lawyer and translator in China. Life’s been tough for him since he survived Iraq, but to see him return to his career after his injuries – it’s inspirational stuff. Daily News’ Richard Huff does a coverage of the Bob Woodruff special.

Some links to posted by us about the Olympics we have noted during the lifetime of triscribe:

In the category of Winter Olympics – from FC and me, stuff from Turin, Italy, including the addendum looking forward to Vancouver 2010.

The last summer Olympics actually began on Friday the 13th. Geez. And, I was so not in Athens. Athens spurred commentary. And, saying Goodbye to Athens, meant saying hello to that last round of presidential year of conventions. We’re going to go through it again, even if we’ve Obama and McCain as the candidates this time around. Hmm. The more things change, the more they stay the same?