goddess of clarity: a blog about politics, culture, and serenity

Archive: August 11 - August 23, 2004

August 20, 2004 — 15:58 EDT

Not a banner day for Brunei's own Jimmy Anak Ahar, I'm afraid. He came in last in his opening heat in the men's 1500 meters this afternoon in Athens (unless you count the guy who didn't show up; maybe there was a separate knob for the radio alarm).

Oh well. I hope Jimmy's enjoyed his time in Athens at least. Maybe he's been hanging out in the athletes village, finding out who all the good party countries are, swapping his colorful Bruneian trinkets for a Canadian Roots hat. Rock on, Jimmy!

—lori.

August 20, 2004 — 09:40 EDT

They say it's your birthday! It's my birthday too, yeah! Hey, what a coincidence. It IS my birthday, too! Happy Birthday!

Having reached the age of 33, I am now older than Jesus, which I view as an accomplishment. So far, I'm enjoying being my age. I had a bit of a hard time with turing 30, though that had more to do with the fact that I quit my job, left Seattle, drove across country to upstate New York, and then turned 30, all in the same couple of weeks. Things are much less insane now. And I certainly wouldn't want to be 25 or 21 or — God forbid — 18 again. To the extent that I am a grownup — which is the extent to which anyone who still lives in an apartment, buys all their furniture from Ikea, and waits in line to buy the latest Harry Potter book the night it comes out can be called a grownup — I must say I'm enjoying it!

My darling Mr. Goddess woke me up this morning with a birthday cupcake and a pile of pressies! My birthday booty included the first two series of Sex and the City on DVD (I'm one of the 11 women in America who never really watched the series, due to my sporadic access to HBO at the time), a big book on collectible cameras, and a book of color photographs taken by the Farm Service Agency during the Great Depression (very cool!). And I am guessing there will be beer in my immediate future. Ahh, life is good...

—lori.

August 19, 2004 — 09:13 EDT

I guess I owe NBC's gymnastics announcer Al Trautwig an apology. During last night's men's all-around final, when American favorite Paul Hamm landed on his bum after his vault, Trautwig almost immediately began pumping up the prospects of a miraculous Hamm comeback. "With only two rotations left, Hamm has to really turn it on if he has any chance of fulfilling his golden dreams." (Or words to that effect; Trautwig says "dreams" a lot.) When the score showed that the disastrous vault had plummeted Hamm from first to twelfth place, Tim Dagget pronounced, "He's done. There's no way you recover from a mistake like that in the all-around." Al was indefatigable, talking about miracles and dreams and Wisconsin barns. I was with Tim.

But I guess nobody told Hamm. Or the Chinese gymnast Yang Wei, now in first place, who then fell off the high bar. After nailing his high bar routine, Hamm looked endearingly stunned when his coaches informed him that he had in fact won the gold. Sorry I doubted you, Al.

Jimmy Anak Ahar races tomorrow. I'm guessing there will be no breathless NBC profile of the lone athlete from Brunei. But you never know, I could be wrong.

—lori.

August 17, 2004 — 21:05 EDT

I've adopted myself an Olympic athlete. His name is Jimmy Anak Ahar, and he is the only athlete at the games representing Brunei, which is the only delegation to have sent just one athlete. He is running only one event: the men's 1500 meters. And the heats are on Friday, which just happens to be my birthday.

Go Jimmy, go!

—lori.

August 16, 2004 — 8:30 EDT

Meanwhile, back in the other wild world of sports, my Phillies can't seem to buy a win lately. After getting swept by the Giants this weekend, the Phils are now in third place in the NL East. It all seemed to be going so well for so long this year; it was bound to crap out at some point.

On a side note, I've always wondered why, on the national stage, the Phillies and their long-suffering fans don't have the same loveable loser cache that the Cubs and the Red Sox have. The Phillies are one of the oldest teams in the major leagues, and our record of underperforming is just as impressive as either of those teams. What gives? We suck too, you know.

Wow, seems I have an inferiority complex about the chip on my shoulder.

—lori.

August 14, 2004 — 10:50 EDT

I thought last night's opening ceremony was pretty darn awesome, and bits of it were simply beautiful. When the primitive, abstract sculpture of a head broke apart into examples of the more classic Greek sculptural forms we're all familiar with, and then those became representations of the Greek islands floating on the stadium's own sea? Fantastic. And I can't imagine an American opening ceremony featuring a pregnant woman with an exposed, illuminated belly; or a pair of lovers frolicking in the sea. I think Katie Couric had to take a moment to recover from that one.

And speaking of the Perky One, she and Bob Costas provided some (unintentionally) hilarious moments of commentary, most of them stemming from their belief that they had to provide an American reference for everything that was happening. My personal favorite was when Katie compared the Parthenon that was suspended over the crowd to Dorothy's house in The Wizard of Oz. But Bob could play this game too, as when he mentioned "The Rumble in the Jungle" boxing match when the delegation from the Congo marched in (because nothing else has ever happened in the Congo, has is?) or when he bemoaned the fact that most Indonesians don't have cable TV, and therefore can't watch The Sopranos.

And of course, what opening ceremony would be complete without an accounting of the good, the bad, and the ugly in the uniforms on display during the parade of nations. First, the good:

• Brazil — loved the striped skirts and green jackets (no sooner had I mentioned this, then Katie said she liked the jackets as well. Are we becoming strangely simpatico?)
• Canada — they always look good, those darn Canadians
• USA — a surprise, until I notice their duds are from the Canadian outfitter Roots
• Greece — nice, expensive-looking purses for the ladies (before the words were out of my mouth, Katie starts up a commentary on the Greek leather industry and the lovely purses the athletes are carrying. What's the deal? I wasn't feeling particularly perky today.)

And skipping the bad and going right to the ugly:

• Germany — the men's jackets can only be described as "poo-colored"
• Ireland — were apparently under the impression that the Olympics were being held inside an 1930s gangster movie
• Romania — made the very daring choice of putting bulls-eyes on their jackets. The Romanians are either very brave or very fast.

—lori.

August 13, 2004 — 14:10 EDT

I admit it; I'm a bit of an Olympic junkie. But while I am looking forward to ordering some Indian food, opening a bottle of wine, and watching tonight's opening ceremonies, I also admit that I'm not as jazzed this year as I have been for Olympiads past. The whole event kinda snuck up on me this time, and if pressed I think I could only name a couple American athletes.

Then a piece in Slate got me nostalgic for my time in Seattle, when I was able to watch the Sydney games, and the Winter games in Lillehammer and Nagano, courtesy of those hardworking folks at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The hours and hours of live — yes, I said LIVE, Bob Costas! — CBC coverage were just the ticket for an admitted Olympic junkie. I remember watching the inaugural Olympic triathalon — the whole triathalon! — live, and I remember jumping up and down alone in my apartment on that Saturday morning as Canadian Simon Whitfield won the gold. I remember how practically any time of the day or night, you could turn on the TV and there would be something on — opening heats of swimming or track, or more obscure sports like judo and badminton. And the maddeningly frustrating thing is, living now in Rochester, NY, I'm actually geographically closer to Canada than I was in Seattle!

So close, and yet so far away. Curse you, Time Warner Cable.

—lori.

August 12, 2004 — 09:48 EDT

The latest issue of Columbia Journalism Review has a usefully direct article by Spinsanity.org's Bryan Keefer about the weakness of the old-school "objective" journalism model in covering modern political campaigns. To wit:

Many of the problems of political journalism are driven by the expectation that reporters must avoid making explicit judgements about the truth of what candidates say. ... Striving for fairness and balance does not mean we can't adjudicate the facts. When the truth is knowable, the press should not hesitate to point it out. ...every time a candidate says something misleading, the press corps should report it and debunk it — within their stories, and in their own voices. No leaving it to "news analysis" pieces...

Keefer goes on to offer a practical suggestion as to how reporters can do just that:

One way to do that would be to create some newsroom mechanism to untangle the various strands of spin and deception coming from campaigns. A small team of reporters back at headquarters could provide expertise and context to reporters in the field.

Yes, a truth squad! A real truth squad, not like the RNC's so-called truth squad.

To quote Fox Mulder, "The truth is out there." Unfortunately, so are the lies. Now if we could just get the mainstream media to help us figure out which is which.

—lori.

August 11, 2004 — 15:31 EDT

This is my first blog entry.

Hello.

I've created this blog for myself really, as a way of making some sense of the jumble of thoughts that passes as my brain. I may already be overreaching.

The "goddess of clarity" moniker stems from my days as an editor and technical writer, when I garnered a reputation for taking the mumbo-jumbo of technical specifications and training manuals and condensing it into simple—some might even say elegant—prose.

But as a result of so much time spent editing and clarifying other people's ideas, I never had to bother much about expressing any of my own. That's where this blog comes in.

Rather than tearing down the hard work of others, it's time to put myself on the line for a change. To create rather than destroy. To use my powers for good, never for evil. With great power comes great responsibility!

Like I said, I may be overreaching.

—lori.