Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Infrastructure week. at last.

Not all heroes wear capes.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Olympics Open Thread: Early Reviews

Olympics Open Thread: Early Reviews

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Anybody got a link (yes I am lazy) where I can watch the opening ceremonies on line?

NYMag has some nice clips of “What You Missed at the 2016 Rio Olympics Opening Ceremony” — and also a rant from a media reviewer:

Can anything be done to get the Olympics out of NBC’s clutches?

The network’s coverage of the opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro was typically clueless and counterintuitive, cutting away to a commercial every few minutes, inserting “expert” commentary in a window in the lower left-hand corner, interrupting the spectacle to show us images of the US athletes preparing to enter next-door for the parade of nations (as if we didn’t already know that we were going to see American athletes if we stuck around). The entire thing was delayed, as is tradition whenever the games appear in another time zone — an increasingly ridiculous practice in the age of social media, which makes it possible to at least partially follow events live even if television does not deign to cover them that way…

The opening itself was rich enough and unusual enough to have stood on its own, without any verbal commentary. Never in my lifetime has one of these things done anything but glorify the country posting the games and repeat its national myths while downplaying any hint of drama or strife. This one was shockingly honest. It started with the creation of the water, then continued with the formation of the land and the jungle, the rise of indigenous people, the appearance of European colonists, the rise and fall of the slave trade, and the gradual subjugation of the countryside to roads and cities. The latter was conveyed very cleverly via the ceremony’s elaborate and colorful video projections, which cut white paths through green “forests,” carved the jungle into a patchwork of trapezoids suggesting farmland, then finally covered the stage with multilayered, boxlike high-rise apartments reminiscent of the dollhouse-style city sets in films by French director Jacques Tati.

The portrait painted was one of incredible creativity and industry arising out of racial and political strife. At one point the entire production paused to consider Brazil’s complicity in the global tragedy of climate change, using animated maps to show rising waterlines submerging coastal cities.

The whole thing might’ve been much more effective with subtitles giving us contextual bits of information, such as the fact that Brazil abolished the slave trade in 1888, or the population and demographic makeup of São Paulo at different points in its history, instead of having the narrators chime in with whatever insipid factoids the producers were reciting into their earpieces while reading Wikipedia in the control room. But this would require NBC, or whatever network eventually supplants them, to treat the opening ceremony as a news event and an artistic and political statement, rather than as the stuff that happens to appear between commercials. And it would require respect for the self-images of countries besides the United States. Based on NBC’s decades of condescension and disrespect, it’s hard to imagine such a thing ever happening…

Reader Interactions

113Comments

  2. 2.

    Emma

    Main reason why I stopped watching. Screaming “shut the fuck up!” every four minutes was sending my blood pressure skyrocketing. And I don’t mean this one. Haven’t watched in more than 20 years.

  4. 4.

    germy

    Leslie Jones has been live-tweeting the olympics.
    NBC actually invited her to Rio after seeing her tweets.

  5. 5.

    Yutsano

    In more positive news, Vietnam won its first gold medal ever. No link right now but that’s a nice thing.

  6. 6.

    lamh36

    It was ridiculous. I mean I had Canadians mocking US twitter, with cries of “oh wait. ya’ll still showing that”.

    Hell, I knew who was lighting the cauldron almost 2 hrs prior to NBC’s broadcast.

    I’ll be honest and say, I don’t mind it so much with the actual events, cause unlike some folks, I dont’ really enjoy the nail biting bits of watching…I don’t mind knowing the winners before watching actual performances

    But the darn opening ceremony, should have as limited commercials as fuqn’ possible

  9. 9.

    divF

    Every time I see one of the high-altitude shots of the Olympic stadium, I can’t help thinking of Cole’s description of the flea infestation on Walter.

  11. 11.

    Miss Bianca

    It just speaks to a fundamental contempt for the games themselves. It reminds me of when I was a kid and watching Wimbledon, which I loved, but couldn’t stand the inane chatter of the TV hosts. Then for some reason one time the channel flipped over to the British commentary for a while. There would be nothing but the volleys and then some distant voice intoning, when the point had been scored, “Love…fifteen”.

    I couldn’t believe it. I could actually focus on the game! Just made me realize at an early age how much I hate watching sports on American TV…the damn sportscasters just WON’T SHUT UP.

  12. 12.

    Joel

    NBC webpage just won’t stream on my media center. OTA not working either (brick house).

  15. 15.

    Baud

    @raven: Yeah, it’s the same as it has been every year.

    I thought they were streaming every game without the commentary. What happened to all the Internet savvy people?

  16. 16.

    Percysowner

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): I suspect they were talking about this guy Who was executed today. If I follow the story, he came to America and divulged information about Iran’s nuclear program, possibly for money. Then he decided to go back to Iran, without the money, possibly because his family was being threatened by Iran. He was originally welcomed home as a hero, then arrested as a spy. As far as I can see, the only think Hillary had to do with it is that she was Secretary of State when he gave us the information and then went back home. She seems to have referred to him in one of the emails on her server, but only as “our friend” and “the gentleman”. They are going to blame Hillary no matter what, but again there doesn’t appear to be anything there.

  18. 18.

    Tokyokie

    Back in the days when having a satellite dish meant you were able to snatch unencrypted feeds out of the air, I watched some of the Olympics coverage on the CBC. It was so much better than the jingoistic crap on NBC, that I haven’t watched the Olympics since (even on the CBC). Last go-round, during the closing ceremonies for the London Olympiad, NBC failed to show Ray Davies arriving onstage in a London cab, then performing “Waterloo Sunset,” probably the best pop song ever written about London. Davies’ performance was wonderful, bittersweet, yet defiant, but NBC decided to cut him so it could show more acts that have already been forgotten but had a couple of hits a few years ago. So screw the NBC Olympics. Like I care about beach volleyball anyway.

  19. 19.

    ? Martin

    This year seems worse. They can’t even keep track of what delay they have going in what market. I keep seeing cutaways to some live highlight for an event I watched 2 hours ago. I don’t recall them constantly making that mistake in the past. I just saw an interview with an athlete wearing their medal from an event I’m pretty sure comes on in the next hour.

  20. 20.

    lamh36

    Honestly, I just hate watching things on the computer…literally the only reason I stream is if I absolutely CAN’T get in on the tv.

    I don’t even care much about the commentary, I just ignore it. But the mess with the opening ceremony is ridiculous!

  21. 21.

    Baud

    @lamh36: You should get Chromecast. Works great from connecting your computer to the TV via wifi. Easy to use, and inexpensive.

  23. 23.

    ? Martin

    @lamh36: We tend to watch streams from apps pushed to our TV. It was great during the World Cup and pretty good here as well. Less or no commentary and you can pick the sport you want to watch without them jumping all over the place.

  24. 24.

    Amir Khalid

    @Miss Bianca:
    This was probably the result of some proto-MBA type among the network suits deciding that sportscasters needed to add “value” to the broadcast by talking all over it.

  26. 26.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): I haven’t closely followed the story but Iran executed a nuclear scientist who gave info about their programs to the US, so the fever swamps now think (for lack of a better word) that it was in HRC’s emails

    Josh Rogin ‏@ joshrogin 8h8 hours ago
    Clinton’s emails didn’t reveal name of the Iranian scientist. His story was well known. I wrote about it in 2010:

  29. 29.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Everything, but everything, the US mass media does is about revenue generation.

    There is nothing else important, and they’ll flirt with disaster to insert another pricey commercial into it.

    Burn it down and start over.

  31. 31.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Geeze, what if it could be proven that this dead scientist was part of Valerie Plame’s Iranian intel network that Dick fuckin’ Cheney exposed in order to get back at her husband for blowing the whistle on the outright lie of yellowcake for Saddam?

  33. 33.

    lamh36

    Well damn…a full body length ahead and Kathy Ledecky wins Gold AND breaks the World AND Olympic records in 400M Ladies Freestyles

  35. 35.

    Roger Moore

    @PsiFighter37:

    Tom Cotton is an asshat. I have no idea why he’s treated as a rising star

    Because “asshat” is exactly what Republican voters are looking for in a candidate. Being the illustration for asshat in the dictionary makes you a Republican rock star.

  37. 37.

    Helen

    The lady interviewing the swimmers when they get out of the pool is awful. She can’t come up with anything deeper than “What does it feel like to win?” Damn.

  41. 41.

    geg6

    Anybody catch the HBO Real Sports special on the Olympics? Makes it hard to watch the Games, even more so than the idiotic NBC commentators.

  42. 42.

    Mike E

    @gwangung: He’ll get $5,000 from his govt, which had years ago put up an official cash prize for the (eventual) gold medal winner

  43. 43.

    lamh36

    Ledecky broke her OWN world record!

    And without any doping….like them darn cheating Russians…

  44. 44.

    Ceci n'est pas mon nym

    I’m having very good experience watching on BBC, and I’m pretty sure the opening ceremonies are on their site. I just figured out tonight where to find the playback (same schedule screen that has the live coverage, any event marked “completed”) so I’m very happy.

    To see the Beebe, I downloaded Strong VPN (small fee) and used it to go through a UK server.

  45. 45.

    JosieJ (not Josie)

    @Helen:

    The woman interviewing the tennis players is equally bad. She asked Juan Martin Del Potro the same thing after his emotional match–he was literally in tears and had to collect himself before he could try to answer her inane question.

  47. 47.

    Roger Moore

    @Amir Khalid:
    I think it comes from American sports broadcasting having started on radio and never given up the need to describe everything as it’s happening. Some broadcasters- Vin Scully being the exemplar of the type- can get away with it, which makes everyone else want to copy it.

  50. 50.

    J R in WV

    I gave up watching the NBC Olympic Commercials a long time ago.

    And the talkers they hire for the brief intermissions between the commercials (which are extra special for the occasion BAD) are even worse than the commercials.

    ABC, didn’t they do Olympics and switch to Terrorist attack coverage in, like, 10 seconds? Just like they did the earthquake in the middle of the World Series?

    Does anyone in their wildest fantasy think NBC could pull that off if something happened more serious than an athletic injury? No. No, we don’t.

  52. 52.

    Mike E

    @lamh36: did you catch the American breaststroke champ talking about her Russian rival in the upcoming final? No love…athletes are hating the doping cloud

  53. 53.

    lamh36

    @Mike E: yes I did. The announcer (Rowdy Gaines I think…former Olympic swimmer long time announcer) said he ABSOLUTELY did not think that Russian swimmer should have be allowed to compete… and you could hear his disdain for the IOC for allowing her to compete.

  55. 55.

    geg6

    @lamh36:

    Yep. He’s going to get a talking to after the event. Can’t criticize the IOC! I’m telling you, watch the Real Sports special. Sickening.

  56. 56.

    Schlemazel

    @Helen:
    Michelle Tafoya – she was a rising star on the local CBS affiliate years ago when the big leagues called. She was not this bad so I assume she is coached for this sort of vapidity.

  57. 57.

    lamh36

    So NBC is putting a medical show about a Chicago hospital on Thursday night…hmmm…why does it seem a familiar move?

  58. 58.

    Schlemazel

    @lamh36:
    OBJECTION! Assuming facts not in evidence.

    The worst part of all the doping uncovered in nearly every sport is that everyone is tainted. We know PEDs do improve performance, if they didn’t they would not be so popular. When someone wins there will always be questions. Its a crime against any clean participant.

  59. 59.

    Schlemazel

    @lamh36:
    I also noticed an ad for what looks like a romantic sit-com with 2 obese characters . . . that sounds familiar.

  61. 61.

    Mike E

    @Schlemazel: that ambush role after a race can’t be fun for anybody–not the out of breath athlete, nor the reporter. I imagine she feels extra pressure to get a “scoop” but it comes off a bit rude nonetheless

  62. 62.

    Gex

    @Miss Bianca: Same! My favorite is watching a match that Americans don’t care about on Tennis channel because you get the Brit commentators. They will talk a little during a point, mostly discussing the tactics and such, but they otherwise let the tennis speak for itself. It’s the best.

  63. 63.

    Feathers

    My sister and family are having a great time in Rio. Got into a water polo game. Mostly hanging out at the Olympic Park and the beach (but not going in the water.)

    Turns out Ginny Thrasher was on my nephew’s high school shooting team. Nephew would come home complaining about the tiny redhead sophomore who was a shooting newbie and kicked everybody’s ass. He is glad to know that she has kicked everybody in the world’s ass, not just his. My brother reminded him then and everyone now that women tend to be better than men at precision shooting and to learn from that.

    My other nephew, my sister’s son, was on the track team with Noah Lyles, who just missed making the Rio team. He wore his high school jersey while competing at the Olympic trials. (TC Williams, the school from Remember the Titans – Go Titans!) He would have been only the fifth high schooler to make the team.

    I am of course at home watching, wondering whether to ditch knitting group Tuesday night to watch gymnastics.

  65. 65.

    Schlemazel

    @Mike E:
    There really are not many useful questions that could be asked I guess. The worst sort of this thing I have seen is from hard news reporters who show up after a disaster & ask great questions like “How did you feel watching your entire family being burned to death in your house?” Those guys should be shot. It is all about getting the cry shot

  68. 68.

    Mike E

    @Helen: love how France tried to draft close to the leader’s wake…cool tactic. You can see disappointment in a swimmer’s face when they barely make the final in one of the outside lanes

  69. 69.

    geg6

    @Gex:

    The sad thing is that sports journalism, with the exception of television broadcast, is one of the few types of journalism in America that is pretty consistently good. I’m not talking commentary but the actual reporting. Facts matter. Math matters. Statistics can’t be gamed easily. Explanations of tactics, philosophy, history and goals and plans on how to reach them matter. They aren’t perfect but they actually fulfill the job of journalist. Can’t say the same about 90% of broadcast journalists of any stripe.

  70. 70.

    p.a.

    @SiubhanDuinne: sad, because in the past (and I admit I haven’t paid attention for years), Trautwig was among the least bombastic, least homerific, around. Pretty good straight reporter, IIRC.

  72. 72.

    NotMax

    @M. Bouffant

    15-inch computer monitor? Well past the time to send that baby to e-cycling and upgrade.

    However, one can always (even temporarily) run an HDMI cable from computer to the giant TV (if your PC does not have an HDMI outlet, it is truly ancient and likely on its last legs). Have a 12-foot HDMI cable here that I use once in a while, which cost less then ten bucks.

  73. 73.

    Ronnie Pudding

    But this would require NBC, or whatever network eventually supplants them, to treat the opening ceremony as a news event and an artistic and political statement

    You want them to treat it as a news event, then don’t charge them billions for the TV rights. Honestly, what do you expect?

  74. 74.

    Mike E

    @SiubhanDuinne: what a weird hill for him to die on, especially on the same night NBC features their story about how Mr Biles stepped in when his daughter (Simone’s birth mom) lost custody due to addiction. Wow.

  75. 75.

    lamh36

    I love Gabby, but I feel bad that they didn’t allow Laurie Hernandez to compete for the All Around…she’s been way more consistent than Gabby to be honest.

    But that’s okay…Laurie’s only 16 so in theory…she could have another Olympics in her future

  76. 76.

    Lyrebird

    @M. Bouffant: Thank you, that was fun! I’m not sure the CBC was the source, though, more like the CCCP. (The announcers are speaking Russian.)

  77. 77.

    Mike E

    @lamh36: Simone and Aly are crushing it, so it’ll have to be the’20 games for Laurie…kind of an embarrassment of riches, this team seems well poised to dominate

  78. 78.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Let me just say that Rugby Sevens is an abomination as an Olympic sport. I’ve played sevens; it’s fun. It isn’t Rugby.

  80. 80.

    NotMax

    @Schlemazel

    There was an almost certainly apocryphal tale told about TV news (back in the Bronze Age when attending journalism and mass communication courses) which served to illustrate the mindset in the corner offices

    The scene: producer of a newscast being called on the carpet.

    Higher-up: “On the video channel 8 showed of the burning orphanage, the flames were much higher than what you aired.”

    Producer: “But our nuns were crying!”

  81. 81.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Tokyokie:

    . . . I watched some of the Olympics coverage on the CBC. It was so much better than the jingoistic crap on NBC . . .

    This is the Summer Games. During the Winter Olympics, they’re just as bad as NBC. The real difference is that there aren’t enough Canadians with medal hopes to fill all of their airtime, so there are a lot more competitions in which they don’t have a vested interest.

  83. 83.

    lamh36

    Gabby did as well as she could have…but the new rule is only top 2…and unfortunately she had some deductions in the earlier apparatus…

  84. 84.

    Exurban Mom

    @germy: Follow @lesdogg on Twitter for Leslie Jones’ awesome, over the top livetweeting. Way more entertaining than any lame NBC commentator.

  86. 86.

    Brachiator

    @Amir Khalid:

    . ..This was probably the result of some proto-MBA type among the network suits deciding that sportscasters needed to add “value” to the broadcast by talking all over it.

    The producers still think of TV as “visual radio.” A radio station can never have long periods of dead air. The fear is that the listener will switch channels if the announcers stop talking.

  89. 89.

    Gex

    @Brachiator: Which of course is counter to what actually happens. Announcers are often the thing that will make me switch the channel off of sports.

  91. 91.

    Pete Downunder

    It’s not just the U.S, coverage that’s woeful. Australia is having the same complaints:
    ETA: Can’t get link to work. It’s in Sydney Morning Herald

  92. 92.

    NotMax

    @Villago Delenda Est

    Hey now, there’s snow skiing in Hawaii during winter.

    Maybe not world class, but honest to goodness real snow nonetheless.

    Actually, was just being lighthearted in pointing out that it is oxymoronic (and hemispherecentric) to schedule summer games to take place during winter.

  93. 93.

    Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA

    @SiubhanDuinne: Oh, Christ. I’m adopted, and sometimes I wish I could spend one day not having been adopted — not because adoption is so traumatic, but because I would genuinely love to know what goes through the heads of non-adoptees and makes some of them think “parent and adopted child” =/= “parent and child.”

    Also, it looks like he deleted that tweet. Too late.

  94. 94.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Just pay for a month’s VPN (but not Tunnelbear, it’s known and blocked) and pick a nation’s broadcaster with streams or highlights: CBC, BBC, NOS in the Netherlands, ARD in Germany.

    (I deleted the reference to Seven in Australia if it’s being shit. Commercial vs public broadcasters…)

    I especially like broadcasts when the big live events happen in the middle of the night, because the presenters are looser and the experience is more intimate — hey, crazy people watching at 4am back home, we acknowledge you!

  95. 95.

    Brachiator

    @Schlemazel:

    We know PEDs do improve performance, if they didn’t they would not be so popular.

    I wonder if this is always the case. I wonder how rigorously these drugs are tested to verify how well they actually work, and which kinds of competitions deliver the best results.

    And there is lots of money to be made from gullible trainers and athletes who are unlikely to fess up if they think they have been duped.

    When someone wins there will always be questions. Its a crime against any clean participant.

    Yeah. I also hate that there are fans who just want to see wins and records broken and don’t care what their favorite competitors do to get it done.

    And I think it sad and almost perverse that you also have a PED problem among Paralympics competitors.

  96. 96.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @Brachiator:

    I wonder how rigorously these drugs are tested to verify how well they actually work, and which kinds of competitions deliver the best results.

    The stories from whistleblowers who worked on cycling teams make it clear that they’re tested on… junior riders. You want your place on the team, you’re getting the latest cocktail of god-knows-what before we give it to the stars. The rigorous scientific method is mostly deployed towards establishing metabolite breakdowns and beating the tests; the performance-enhancing stuff has large amounts of woo. Some of the thinking is not that far off the fuckers who think that powdered bits of endangered animals will give them strength and potency: freeze-dried velvet deer antler was a big thing for a while. The attitude to meldonium in a lot of cases was “everybody else is taking it so I guess I have to.”

    This is one reason why “let them all take all the drugs” is a bullshit argument. Doing so will lead to young people killing themselves with combinations of stuff because they read about it on the internet and the perceived alternative would be never to succeed.

  98. 98.

    grrljock

    @Omnes Omnibus: Spoken like a true forward. True, 7s and 15s are different beasts, but I love them both.

    This Olympics I can actually watch more sports because of streaming options (via Roku). And the sports-specific commentators are actually knowledgable. The streaming can be glitchy though; we got an entertaining example this morning when the US vs AUS women’s rugby match cut off, then resumed with Spanish instead of English commentary.

  101. 101.

    Earl

    @pseudonymous in nc: That’s wrong. If you can take drugs, we know the drugs that work well. All the innovation is around beating tests. See classic powerlifting/bodybuilding stacks such as Deca (detection time: 1.5 years), Tren (detection time: 5 mos) which are both safer and relatively well understood: effects, how to recover test production, etc.

  104. 104.

    Brachiator

    @pseudonymous in nc:

    …The rigorous scientific method is mostly deployed towards establishing metabolite breakdowns and beating the tests; the performance-enhancing stuff has large amounts of woo.

    I don’t follow this stuff closely at all, but might I have read somewhere that competitors have to give blood samples that might be used with a test in the future, so even if they beat current detection methods, they may not be in the clear?

    Also, I think I read somewhere that a PED that supposedly helped baseball batters did not help pitchers.

    In any event, there seems to also be a kind of arms race at play here with respect to attempts to hide PED use vs detection efforts.

  106. 106.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA:

    They’re probably the same jackasses who can’t understand why I refer to my stepbrothers as my brothers and they call me their sister. Do I really need a matching DNA test before I can call someone part of my family? It’s bizarre.

  107. 107.

    cckids

    @geg6:

    I’m telling you, watch the Real Sports special.

    I watched that last week. It made me sick, and vaguely ashamed to ever have enjoyed the Olympics. The IOC needs to DIAF and start over from scratch.

  108. 108.

    Earl

    @Brachiator: Yup. Some of the russian weightlifters got popped via their 2008 b tests. eg Marina Shainova (sp?) for turinabol

    The frustrating thing is I can promise there’s not a weightlifter on the podium or near it who’s clean. Good lifters are hitting 95%+ pulls nearly every day to maintain the form. That’s not possible unaided.

  109. 109.

    Anne Laurie

    @lamh36:

    So NBC is putting a medical show about a Chicago hospital on Thursday night…hmmm…why does it seem a familiar move?

    Heh… I watched the first season, and Chicago Med is a perfectly okay medical drama, but it’s no ER.

    Code Black is the one whose return I’m waiting for… I’ll miss the dropped characters but as long as Marcia Gay Harden (Dr. Rorish) and Luis Guzman (Nurse Sallander) are still holding strong…

  111. 111.

    bluefoot

    @Miss Bianca: I am totally with you. I grew up near the IS/Canada border, so pretty much any sports that were watchable on CBC, I watched on CBC. Plus, actual live events (Olympics, Tour de France, etc…)! Non-American coverage is how I got into car racing. I was living in CA, the Montreal Grand Prix was on tv in the background as i was doing some work and somehow the CBS (I think) feed cut out. They switched to the CBC feed and got completely sucked in – I could see the team strategy, the contests for position not just the lead. It was amazing. 20 years on, I continue to love racing, but absolutely cannot stand American broadcasts.

  112. 112.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @NotMax:

    Being held in what is mid-winter in Brazil.

    Puh-leeze. Average August high of 78° and low of 66° in Rio, according to Wikipedia.

  113. 113.

    bluefish

    It’s really too bad that coverage of the opening ceremonies was just as awful as it was. To allow the country to attempt to express a message so important right about now would’ve been, at a minimum, simple politeness. We have so many problems that need to be fully acknowledged and addressed, countless decades of denial in place on any number of fronts. I say this not only as a Brasilian but as a carioca, a native of Rio. And, of course, recent political events brought to the surface all the unhappiness, confusion, and anxiety associated with the coup of 1964. For the city to be able to pull this off so far without any disasters taking place is a big deal for us. End of whining.

    On the bright side, we have Walter! Walter is a very common name in Brasil — pronounced with a V. In my day there were also many boys and men named Washington and Jefferson. A long time ago.

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