General

Your Dose of Depressing Olympics News

Jul 11, 2008, 3:30 PM UTC

â†µNo Dog For You!
â†µThose of you who were hoping to sample someâ†µof Beijing’s famous canine-based cuisine while you’re at the Olympicsâ†µthis year, forget about it. There’s a widespread campaign by theâ†µChinese powers that be (senior leaders and such) to get dog off the menuâ†µin Beijing’s hotels and restaurants for the duration of the Games. Thisâ†µanti-dog-meat campaign is having some immediate effects. The linkedâ†µarticle cites a local restaurant that has been prevented from servingâ†µits signature dish, Huajiang Dog, which is evidently good for peopleâ†µsuffering from high blood pressure and frequent night-time urination.â†µ

â†µâ†µYou, uh, you can make your own jokes on this one. I think I’m just going to puke. â†µ

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The Senior Leader Talks Bull$%* and Walksâ†µ
â†µNews has come over the wires today that a “senior leader” assured total media freedom at the Beijing Olympics next month during his inspection of the new Beijing International Media Center. Evidently, if during the course of the Games a journalist, any journalist, feels that his journalistic freedom is being impeded, he can report directly to the head of the Beijing Olympics organizing committee. â†µâ†µMy feelings on this are ... look dude. Over here in the good old U.S. of A., we in the journalistic pursuits mostly went to an American high school, at least for a little while. And that means that a large percentage of us have read “1984” (at least some of it, the non-boring parts with the sex and the rats). So don’t try to fox us with your old-school totalitarian hustle. We know what happens when the Senior Leader tells us we’re free to report our complaints to a different Senior Leader, you feel me? Next thing you know it’s all 2+2=5 and Oceania Forever and a fast train to Lobotomy Cove.â†µ

â†µâ†µThere’s Enough Depression to Go Around
â†µJust so you don’t think I’m being a virulent anti-Beijingian here, let’s turn our attention to London, where the anticipation of hosting the 2012 Games seems to be provoking a lot of ... dread and disgust and all-around accusation. A recent BBC5 live radio debate involving the head of London’s organizing committee, Lord (that’s “Lord” to you) Sebastian Coe, revealed that most of the folks over in Blighty hate the idea of hosting the Olympics and think it’s a big waste of money. Yeah cheers. Oddly, none of the irate callers who phoned in to berate Coe was named “Steve Ovett.” â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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