one more olympics post for the night:

[fox]

okay, it was weird enough when before the opening ceremonies, in the yay greek history olympic montage thing with narration by (?) james earl jones had music from jurassic park (which, i had to think pretty hard to come up with what movie it was from, and google it to find an mp3 so i could be sure).

but now here's the "tomorrow on the various NBC channels" stuff about what events a person can see tomorrow -- and the music is the Exciting Chase Music from pirates of the caribbean. the hell is up with the movie soundtracks?

one of these days i'll have my contribution to the ongoing discussion of what "counts" as a "sport" and why, what should be included as an olympic medal event, and what requires a hell of a lot of athleticism even if it falls in neither of these categories. (note: olympic games, not olympic sports, right?) with unscientific opinions about curling, running, equestrian events, beach volleyball, poker, chess, and men's gymnastics! (well, maybe not all of those things. but lots of things.)

Comments

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

The Icelandic word for 'sport,' íthrótt (only with a thorn), really translates better as 'accomplishment' or 'skill,' and it includes chess, I know. One of my professors at Iowa had a story about going jogging in Reykjavík on the indoor track at the main gym, where they had portraits hanging of prominent Icelandic íthróttamenn-- mostly weight lifters and chess masters. It was an odd juxtaposition.