I haven’t been able to watch American television coverage of the Olympics. The
words are simply too annoying, “She’s been dreaming about winning gold ever
since she was born.” It takes expertise to know that kind of thing.
For me the BBC feed and the Guardian’s correspondent Barney Ronay make up for
this.
BBC: "Vetter wins it, beating Johnson-Thompson by a nose.” [Katarina
Johnson-Thompson is a British competitor in the Heptathalon. I like the sound
of Johnson-Thompson and I suppose it reminds me of Tintin’s detectives.]
"the first heat is won by Hungary’s Gyorgyi Zsivoczky-Farkas, the second heat
is won by Latvia’s Laura Ikauniece-Admidiņa, won by 13.33.” [Imagine trying to
say that. Notice that we don’t get the units—seconds, meters, miles, hours?
The BBC assumes that if you’re interested, you'll know the details. Not so
NBC. Those poor sods have to say the same thing over and over again in case
someone went to the bathroom or just tuned in or is only now undoing the
“mute,” which he pressed to avoid the commercials. And then people on Fox
News—I found this on the web—seem to be suggesting that viewership is falling
because they’re not explaining in sufficiently simple terms.]
[Warning, don’t watch if you’re easily annoyed. I don’t have cable, so my
brief visit was to an alien world:
http://video.foxnews.com/v/5078294121001/nbc-commentators-hurting-the-olympics/?#sp=show-clip
<http://video.foxnews.com/v/5078294121001/nbc-commentators-hurting-the-olympics/?#sp=show-clip>s]
Guardian: "And the men’s 800m heats are about to start in what i can only
describe as light Lewisham-in-October drizzle.”
One final observation: Americans in the swimming get color commentary from
“Rowdy Gaines.” The British rowing commentary? Sir Steve. "Dutch supporters,
naked from the waist up, swim out to greet their heroes, who try their best not
to go arse over tit into the water. They survive. According to Sir Steve
Redgrave, that’s a tradition dating back to a club in Holland called Nereus,
who are one of the oldest and most prestigious clubs in the Netherlands. Club
blazers also get handed down from generation to generation, without getting
washed.”
In the old, old days, at Bosworth Field or thereabouts, there’d have been a Sir
Rowdy.
“Let us to it pell mell,
If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell."
Carry on.
David Ritchie,
warming towards ninety-seven degrees in
Portland, Oregon
