bigmc

After four weeks of this:

I can’t wait to have this:

Here’s to a speedy recovery for #8.

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/columnists/view/2008_08_20_Carl_Yastrzemski_founder_of_this_Nation/srvc=sports&position=0

I’ve posted new pics to my web photo gallery.  Check them out – http://picasaweb.google.com/ShawnMcB9

Venue concessions at the Beijing Olympic Games leave much to be desired in terms of service and product, but the price is right. The most expensive item is a box lunch for 20 yuan, or approximately $3. Or you can get an egg — I’m not sure what type of egg — for 2 yuan, or less than 30 cents. “Warm” beer is 5 yuan (less than $1). At first I ordered a sausage, thinking it might be a hot dog, but they handed me something round and yellow in shrink wrap. Needless to say, I handed it right back.The box lunch was very interesting. It was a rice dish that came in various flavors, but you didn’t get a choice of which flavor, just whatever they pulled out from storage. The box lunch was also packaged for self-heating, but for most people figuring that out required assistance. Once you pull a cord to initiate the heating system, the steam that’s produced is so hot that I saw some people get burned. I doubt this type of system would ever be allowed in the U.S. for legal reasons.

Most of the product was stored in the same boxes in which it was delivered and placed on the floor of the concession stand. When you asked for something, they simply pulled an item out of the box. In my case, they had to pull out each item until the right one was found. I wanted a Snickers bar, but when something like Oreo cookies came up, I decided to stop the hunt and bought those.  And, at the USA-China men’s basketball game last week much of the concession food was sold out before the event even started!   Food aside, the biggest challenge is even getting to the counter to place your order.  The Chinese don’t seem to understand the concept of standing in lines.  Much was made of how they had practice drills to teach the Chinese people the concept of waiting in line.  Well, it didn’t work.  Because it’s like a mad dash/scrum/free for all anytime you would think a line would be appropriate – at concessions stands, going into bathrooms, heading into a stadium.  Adding to the fun, is the fact that they seem to tend to bathe only once or twice a week.

Not surprising that SI decided to recreate the Mark Spitz cover for Michael Phelps – after all, it is the Michael Phelps Olympics – http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/la-sp-briefing18-2008aug18,0,7333294.story

There’s been a lot of coverage over the last couple of days about report that got leaked that was written by the Chinese government and give to state journalists re: coverage guidelines for the Beijing Olympic Games.

In all, there were 21 ‘guidelines” and some of them were pretty incredible:
-No reporting on the pro-Tibet independence movement.
-No interviews allowed at the three protest parks.
-No negative comments about the opening ceremony.
-No reporting on the cancer-causing mineral water
-Properly handle coverage of the China Olympic team: don’t overhype gold medals or issue predictions on medal numbers, keep a cool head on the team’s performance.
-Refrain from publishing opinion pieces at odds with the official propaganda line of the Chinese delegation.

Of course the existence of the report was denies by BOCOG, but yesterday all news reports of the faked opening ceremony song involving the little girl in a red dress were blacked out within China yesterday as Olympic officials staunchly defended the duplicitous act as an artistic decision.

And in what probably isn’t a coincidence, the day after the report broke, reporters showed up at the Main Press Center to find a Chinese tank stationed outside – and it’s been there ever since.  That is one way to control the media that the Patriots and Bill Belichick haven’t event thought of (yet).

-I’m not sure the ages of all those Chinese pixie gymnasts together add up to 16. I think half of them traded their gold medals for a lollypop.

-You know who struck out the side in the ninth to close out Canada‘s 10-0 triumph over China? Rheal Cormier. Yup, the pride of CCRI is now 40 and an Olympic debutant. You never know. Reggie Cleveland might be activated before it’s all over.

-Had to laugh when I read in the English language Singapore paper that many people were extremely upset when they bought tickets in Hong Kong for Dressage and found out what it was. They were totally bored, and there was a stampede out of there after an hour. One guy was angry with his wife, who had bought the tickets. He thought he was going to a horse race.

-I think the only way to make it to 70 in this country is to stay in the house 24/7, or, at least, never cross a street. A green light for spectators means nothing to either the people turning left or the people going right on red. From the other direction. And these intersections are longer than the left field line at Fenway.

-One thing no one in this country could never say with a clear conscience: “We don’t have enough people to do the job.” A clear maiifestation of having 1.3 billion people at your disposal is that every task has someone, plus a back-up, plus a back-up to the back-up. There are people everywhere. I was making printouts in the the other day when the machine ran out of paper. Seconds later, I heard the patter of feet. A young lady had sprinted from wherever to re-stock the paper. And I’m sure someone was watching her watch me. -Cabs can be very interesting. Had a cabby on Monday who was happily watching a Sylvester Stallone movie on the TV set mounted over the front passenger’s seat. That’s right; I said front seat. We motioned to him as we were waiting in traffic that we woild appreciate it if he kept his eyes on the road. He laughed, nodded and said yes. Fortunately, we were soon getting out. -The surprise team of the men’s basketball competition has been Croatia, which appears to have reloaded after a long drought with some kids who can really shoot. They absolutely bombarded the dazed Aussies with threes and then they knocked off Russia the second night… -There is no point to London (host of the 2012 Games) even trying to duplicate the spectacular opening ceremony we saw a few nights ago. My advice is for England to stick to things it has proven it does well. They should simply put on a production of “Macbeth” and then send everyone off to a pub. -They tell me that yellow thing we saw up in the sky for a spell today was something called the sun.  It was truly an exciting day…

To follow up on my post yesterday about “jingoism”, the Spanish basketball team is under fire here for an ad they did pre-Games in which they are making slit-eyed gestures. The advert for a courier company, which is an official sponsor of the Spanish Basketball Federation, occupied a full page in the sports daily Marca, the country’s best-selling newspaper.

The advert features two large photographs, one of the men’s basketball team, and one of the women’s team. Both squads pose in full Olympic kit on a basketball court decorated with a picture of a Chinese dragon. Every single player appears pulling back the skin on either side of their eyes. The advert carries the symbol of the sport’s governing body.No one involved in the advert appears to have considered it inappropriate nor contemplated the manner in which it could be interpreted in China and elsewhere.

A fairly heated debate over whether the ad is racist has been going on in various places online. I think the answer is fairly obvious…

In this country, there is only one Chairman, and it ain’t Sinatra…

We have George Washingtons, Abe Lincolns, the famed “Benjamins,” and so on. Here it’s the Maos, the Maos and nothing but the Maos. His slightly smiling countenance (I’d call it a modified Mona Lisa look) is on the one, the five, the ten, the twenty, the fifty and the hundred yuan …

Had my first subway experience the other day. Throughout the 20th century, the American standard of reference concerning crowded subways was the Tokyo subway, where they actually employ people to push people into the cars. I believe Beijing will be the standard of reference for the 21st century.

Of course, it was 8:30 a.m., height of rush hour. The first car arrives and I have never seen anything so crammed with humanity. I watch with interest and astonishment as a young woman attempts to exit the car. People here are not good about ceding space. No one made any attempt to help her leave. And she didn’t. The door closed, and off she went. She may still be going.

Seconds later, a second car arrived. Again there was no possibility of gaining entry. I decide I will make my move on the next one, and so I did, managing to squeeze in. I was hoping there might be a key stop, a Park Street equivalent, where many people would exit, and so there was, about three stops along. Whew. Now it was just crowded.

Their subway car etiquette aside, the people here have been exceedingly friendly and helpful. We attempted to find a popular Western restaurant the other night, and at least 10 different people tried to help. Two phone calls were made for directions. Of course, we still couldn’t find it, but the thought was there.

At last, there is a place where the dollar goes somewhere. My client and I were stuck in a cab for an hour and 20 minutes trying to get from Point A to Point B the other night. The total cost: 66 yuan, or between six and seven dollars. I don’t think you’d get off that cheaply in Boston…

I’ve posted some new photos to my photopage – http://picasaweb.google.com/ShawnMcB9