> It so weird that you got all over me and Dave and gremlinn for being baseball fans and then you get all worked up about the single most boring athletic exhibition in creation. ;-)

I got all over you for baseball? I probably did, but I don't remember. I am bored to the point of anguish by pretty much all the "standard" sports, although I'm more apt to tolerate baseball than any of the others.

But the Olympics is far superior and the only sporting event I even come close to a passing interest in. Why? A few reasons. One, it's not one game, it's a bunch of games. Always something different going on. Two, it's on twice every four years, not for several months in a row every year. Three, most of the events are purer tests of particular skills than traditional sports are, which are really just games with skilled elements (there's little more boring than watching *other* people play games). Four, it's WORLD WAR. I fail to comprehend why anyone gives a flying flip whether one U.S. city beats another U.S. city in something or not, especially if you only live near the city and not in it (I'm technically supposed to root for those fruitcakes in Boston? Bah!), but pit whole nations against each other, and that's something. And the totally unique convergence of wildly different cultures to cooperate on a such a massive event is sociologically interesting, if nothing else. Does such a huge cross-section of the world's cultures cooperate on ANYTHING else better?

This is an explanation of my interest in the Olympics and not really a defense of it. Because, ultimately, I still only follow the Olympics in passing, when they're on.