Olympians

Of course we are watching the Olympics. Well actually we are watching wall-to-wall advertising interspersed with the occasional 100 meter breast (that's how the commentator says it - "100 meter breast" - made me look up from my magazine, I can tell you). Since much of the advertising is political in nature - after all those November elections are just around the corner - it gets painful quickly so we have to switch off. So we haven't seen much Olympics! I don't understand how beach volleyball made it as an Olympic sport - shoot, you may as well have Olympic frisbee. And I see there's basketball, soccer, baseball, tennis - but no cricket! Come on, why not Olympic cricket, for goodness sake!

The Olympics is more than a spectator sport, it's vicarious viewing. I'd never heard of Michael Phelps until last week, though he's clearly been training for this moment since moments after birth, but now we cheering him on as one of us, an American athletic hero going for gold! Well, good for him, and he is amazing to watch, but at the end of the day I think it's his medal clutch, not ours!

Floralities

I would like to add 2 words to the dictionary:

weed. Indigenous flora that grows rampantly, impervious to long periods of heat, requiring little water and certainly no human intervention. Typically ugly.

flower. Flora that may grow provided humans intervene by planting them in exactly the right spot, providing soil enhancers and water, and ensuring no contamination by weeds (q.v.). Given adequate tending skills of the gardener, flowers will bloom and look very pretty.

How come we didn't evolve to appreciate weeds as beautiful and flowers as ugly? Would have saved me a lot of yard-work!

England

We are into our second day of continual rain here in Denver, which is highly unusual for mid-August. In fact it's highly unusual in Colorado any time of year. Not so in England, where the weather is quite happy to provide rain any time, particularly when you try to pick a time you think it least likely. Fortunately, we were able to sneak in some rainless time on the Isle of Wight, and so drink in some of the absorbing Wight sights, such as the village that contains a model of itself. On our second day there, the rain forced us indoors to watch - why water, what else?! in the form of the Waltzing Waters.

The last 20 years have seen the ascendancy of the local brewer, brew-pubs and a wide choice of "real Ales" in the US and Denver especially. Some of the offerings are really very good, but walk into any pub in England and sample what they have on draught and it's head and shoulders better - like Michael Phelps compared with other swimmers (sorry, another water reference). Why is that?