Thursday, August 19, 2004

I shot an arrow in the air, it fell to Earth I know not where Among the events in today's MSNBC Olympic broadcast was archery, held within the classical Greek architectural confines of Panathinaiko Stadium in front of a crowd conspicuous by its absence. Even allowing for the relative unpopularity of archery compared to such action sports as swimming and gymnastics, the attendance was pathetic (the adjective derived from the Greek noun pathos). Perhaps the archery sponsorship of Archer Daniels Midland would have helped. Some Greek bureaucrat, interviewed on NPR yesterday, maintained that the events had all been sold out, and that large blocks of corporate no-shows accounted for all the empty seats that TV viewers can't help but notice. I speak good Berlitz phrase book Greek, but my vocabulary doesn't include the appropriate response to this: "Bullshit"  (odd, since profanity is usually the first thing one learns in a foreign language).  No doubt Arianna Huffington could enlighten me on this point. As a spectator at both the 1984 Los Angeles and 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, I can attest to the full arenas even at some relatively obscure (to Americans, anyway) events as field hockey. There's plenty of blame to go around for the looming financial fiasco in Athens.  The archers should redirect a few of their arrows toward the Greek marketing and p.r. apparatus for their failure to publicize the games -- the worldwide media for their persistent doomsaying about the late construction of the facilities -- the terror pundits for their endless scaremongering and ratcheting up of security costs -- and the International Olympic Committee, for constantly adding new sports that require construction of ever more facilities. By the time of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, we can expect to be thrilled by dynamic new events like chess, poker, and an international spelling bee.  Given the current fractious state of world affairs, that last event would have to be conducted in Esperanto. 1:35:05 PM