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Aargh, I'm in NBC hell.


The phenomenon you're describing is what NBC calls "plausibly live." Whatever genius came up with this idea should be dropped from the top of the Olympic stadium in Greece and have shotputs and javelins thrown at him as he's falling through the air. They leave things out to give you the impression that it's live... So apparently, they think that Americans are much better at Olympic events than they are at, oh, looking at a clock, or looking outside and seeing night when it's daytime on TV.

Anyway, it is a ridiculous concept. The good news is that a good portion of the Olympics will be broadcast live on CNBC, MSNBC, USA, Bravo, and even Telemundo (GOOOOAAAALLLLL!) So if you want live events, you should be able to catch them.

As for the commercials themselves, I don't plan on them bothering me much, as my ReplayTV units happily skip over them. Which is good, because I'm an absolute junkie when it comes to the Olympics, so I'll probably be spending a lot of time watching stuff recorded from the cable networks in the wee hours of the morning.

And, yes, Bob Costas and Katie Couric are dreadful. Not only in *what* they say, but also in their wooden delivery of canned one-liners, and their complete lack of conversational chemistry when they're ostensibly ad-libbing. I found myself looking for the "Mute" button that would just mute the two of them out, but apparently TV technology isn't quite there yet.

All that aside, the opening ceremonies were spectacular, the best I've ever seen by far. The Greeks really went the extra 26 miles on this one, and I hope they're rewarded by an enjoyable, memorable, and most of all peaceful Olympiad in the next 16 days.



Oh, yeah... almost forgot... USA!!! USA!!! USA!!!
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- Tony C
my empeg stuff