Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Bark louder, little dog.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

This fight is for everything.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

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

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Second rate reporter says what?

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

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

Olympics Open Thread

by | 113 Comments

This post is in: 

I was going to post something about politics but all I really have is fuck Trump, so that will have to suffice.

I am officially over August, too. This heat and humidity just blows goats. I would actually like a really snowy winter this year. Have not had one for a long while, and I’m due for some surgical care.

Reader Interactions

113Comments

  4. 4.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    August cures me of my longing for summer. I’ve spent most of my life in New England and August and its desultory heat, even though it’s a big birthday celebratory month in my family, gets me longing for those fall days of clear blue skies and the air that brings tidings from the snow fields of the distant north. My father was Canadian and my mother was from North Dakota. Both of them hated the oppressive heat. I get it.

  8. 8.

    philadelphialawyer

    Just wanted to say I LOVE the Olympics. I don’t get people who say, “I can’t get into THESE Olympics…” The Olympics are always cool. And now the coverage kicks ass. Half a dozen or more channels. Every sport, practically every event, gets lots of airtime. They’ve even cut back on the human interest bullshit during primetime. Love all the obscure sports. Love the diversity of the US team. The stereotypes being broken. Love all the positive energy. The competition. The smorgsaborg/abbundanza aspect of it. The whole fucking thing.

  10. 10.

    raven

    @Baud: Nah, it’s normal. Clear liquid all day and then a split bomb, one at 6m and then up at 2am for the second half gallon!

  14. 14.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    Olympic athletes are next level. It’s an honor to watch them compete. They’re specimens of the best of our species.

  18. 18.

    rikyrah

    Luvvie weighs in as only she can:

    The Simones Sprinkled Black Girl Gold Dust at the Olympics
    Awesomely Luvvie
    August 12, 2016

    It is a good time to be named “Simone.” Yesterday, Simone Biles and Simone Manuel won gold medals in their respective competitions at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. They both made history while doing it too and I was ready to lose my voice as I hollered last night.

    First Simone B. won the gold medal in all-around gymnastics, which basically means she’s the real MVP of those mats. She’s the chief executive officer of tumbling and the chair of the board of bars. This made her the first woman in 20 years to win back-to-back world and Olympic all around titles.

    All I know is that Simone Biles went to the Olympics and annihilated her opponents with grace. The girl did some gravity-defying moves with her body that made me think gravity was just like “I’m on break” whenever she was performing. My goodness! I tried to do two cartwheels in a row and fell into my closet. Meanwhile, Simone was in Rio catching air and I wondered if she was wearing an invisible jet pack. Wonders shall never cease. There are superheroes who live amongst us.

    ………………………………..

    And just when we thought the name “Simone” couldn’t get any more shine, here comes Simone Manuel, from the American swimming team. Unlike Biles, she had been really slept on. She was not the one who has been getting attention as one to watch.

    Simone Manuel decided she wanted to blow folks outta the water on the stage that mattered the most. And the stone that was rejected became the chief cornerstone when the girl from Sugar Land, Texas, tied to win the gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle. She also broke an Olympics record while doing it, getting a time of 52.70 with Canadian swimmer Penny Oleksiak.

    When she touched the wall and looked back, and saw the number 1 next to her name, the look on her face is THE BEST.

    …………………………..

    And Simone Manuel won the gold medal at the Olympics. I cried watching her cry during the medal ceremony. I cannot imagine how overwhelmed she must have felt. But she got the significance

    …………………………..

    I told y’all it’s the BLACKEST YEAR EVER. It is hella onyx. It is peak noir. The Simones went to Rio to the Olympics to sprinkle Black Girl pixie dust all over the place in Ancestral August and I’M HERE FOR IT. I’m about to start telling people that my 4th middle name is Simone.

  20. 20.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I really didn’t want to be interested in these Olympics, but they are turning out to be pretty compelling in spite of my grumpy self.

  23. 23.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:

    Memorial Day is my favorite weekend of the year. Summer is coming! July 4th weekend is peak summer, then it gets too hot, my flowers get eaten by bugs and start getting leggy, my electricity bill soars because of the AC, my summer vacation week is too short, all the things I wanted to do this summer have to be curtailed for one reason or another, and then the days start getting shorter and with the cool air comes the relief from the oppressive heat, accompanied by the melancholy of another approaching long winter. Sad!

  24. 24.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @TaMara (HFG):

    The plums look much nicer on the patio table than that footed mug did.

    Did Bixby end up trying one? He does seem extremely interested.

  27. 27.

    gwangung

    @rikyrah: Simone Manuel is a Stanford student.

    Man, she’s gonna have some great stories to tell at the “what I did over summer” intros at the dorm…..

  28. 28.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    This summer has been awful in Detroit. Over 90 every day. We got rain today after a long drought. I want to wish it was over but a wise friend once cautioned me not to wish my life away.
    Make something out of every day even if it’s just rest and enjoying family indoors.

  29. 29.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @rikyrah:

    I really think this year has been a tipping point for black girl magic. I’m an old white woman, and for the first time in my life, I feel it. I love it. I really do. They’re the obverse of white male rage, and the antidote to it. Black women are going to save this country from itself, and are establishing the beachhead of this country’s future. I’m all in with it. ALL IN. I’m a believer. Michelle Obama planted the flag.

  31. 31.

    raven

    @gwangung: I was explaining to my bride last night, none of this is much of a big deal at Stanford. Andrew Luck was setting the world on fire as their QB and he said no one much paid attention, they were busy being geniuses.

  35. 35.

    Brachiator

    Listening to an interview with two Irish rowers, a HuffPo story. It sounded like one guy said that he hadn’t had a boy teat. He hadn’t had a bite to eat.

    Funny interview. Fun Olympics.

  40. 40.

    Gvg

    I hate winter. I hate being cold. There is a reason my family moved to Florida a couple of generations ago. The heat has been enough to complain about but not THAT terrible. Parents have a pool. This reminds me to go use it. We are so unfond of cold that dad got a pool heater two years ago and it’s wonderful. I will say that growing lots of big oak trees moderates the climate a lot. Gainesville has a reputation of having lots of regulations about tree cutting and it’s much nicer in summer than Orlando was with endless concrete and roads that caught the sun heat. If you are hot, grow more trees. Shade is 10 degrees cooler.

  44. 44.

    satby

    It’s been the most uncomfortable, hot, humid summer for the last several years, because it’s the first summer in 3 years I even put in my window air conditioners. And the mosquitoes have been at “extreme or very high” levels for the last two months, so you can’t even go outside to catch a cool breeze at night without getting eaten alive. I guess since the cool night breezes have been scarce, that’s ok.
    But I’m longing for the first frost, and have been since the end of June. I’m not a hot weather fan even during normal summers.

  45. 45.

    CaseyL

    Damn, y’all are making me sad I haven’t watched any of the Olympics. I’ll just decide my watching would have jinxed everything and feel better :)

    Today was Too Bloody Hot in Seattle, and it’s going to be Too Bloody Hot tomorrow, and all next week. A friend stood me up on a walk in a local park (she had a very good reason, and is forgiven) and I was relieved to not have to slog through the sunshine.

    Autumn can’t get here soon enough.

    Oh, and John? You are NOT “due for some surgical care.” You’ve had quite enough of that. Please don’t use snow, or wind, or rain, or dark of night as an excuse to earn more ER Frequent Visit points, mkay?

  47. 47.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @redshirt:

    I opened my coat closet today and looked at my North Face down coat that I paid a lot of money for because it’s so warm, with a little bit of longing. That’s when I realized I prefer the cold. My electricity bill is so high because I want the AC to be around 70. If it never got over 70 outside, I’d be totally fine with it. I’d rather put on a sweater.

  52. 52.

    satby

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: In the winter, I keep my house at 65 degrees. My air conditioners, running on high, get the humidity down, but the house never goes lower than 76, and in the afternoon sun, 78.
    I’m barely alive after weeks of this shit.
    First world problems.

  53. 53.

    rikyrah

    This University’s Athletes Are Dominating the U.S. Olympic Team

    by Polina Marinova @polina_marinova
    AUGUST 9, 2016, 10:00 AM EDT

    Olympic gold-medalist Katie Ledecky has been called “a speed demon,” “the most dominant swimmer in the pool,” and even “the greatest athlete in the world today.”

    But the 19-year-old will have another title when she returns from the Olympic Games this fall – Stanford University freshman.

    Joining her in Rio will be 30 other current and former Stanford athletes – among them, swimmers Lia Neal, Simone Manuel and Maya DiRado.

    Stanford students and alumni will participate in swimming, diving, water polo, sailing, rowing, soccer, tennis, volleyball, equestrian, rugby, and fencing events this year, according to information provided by the U.S. Olympic Committee. The university has produced at least one medalist in every Olympics in which the U.S. has competed since 1912. Bernard Muir, Stanford’s athletic director, says this achievement is “synonymous with Stanford Athletics’ reputation as the nation’s most successful athletics program.”

  58. 58.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:

    I really think this year has been a tipping point for black girl magic. I’m an old white woman, and for the first time in my life, I feel it. I love it. I really do. They’re the obverse of white male rage, and the antidote to it. Black women are going to save this country from itself, and are establishing the beachhead of this country’s future. I’m all in with it. ALL IN. I’m a believer. Michelle Obama planted the flag.

    This entire comment needs to be reposted and quoted for truth, so I will. This, every word of it.

  59. 59.

    max

    I would actually like a really snowy winter this year.

    Four feet of snow this winter. No. Fuck that.

    max
    [‘Pass.’]

  62. 62.

    Ajabu

    Well, I’m currently living in the states (supposedly for another 5 years if I can survive it) and then back home to the Caribbean
    You guys can have your 100º summers and your 20º winters. I have no tolerance for either extreme.
    I never realized till I returned stateside how much I’d miss our weather in the islands. I used to complain about the monotony. Never again!
    85º days and 70º nights are my norm and I miss the hell out of it.

  63. 63.

    raven

    @Kristine: Especially when you have been sober for 23 years! Now the hernia surgery in 2 weeks, we’ll see! I am on a 2 year rotation since they picked up some polyps last time. I think it’s part of getting old.

  64. 64.

    stinger

    I just finished The Hunt for Vulcan. It deserves awards for lots of things, like being a great read, and providing a clear explanation of not only how the hunt for Vulcan took place but also how Science is done. It drew a great moral, brought in a great Einstein quote, and wrapped with a great last line.

    But what will stay with me longest may be something quite different. The story told here was almost exclusively about men. Yet, by using “she” and “her” in his everyday examples, Mr. Levenson lets the girl or young woman reading his book put herself into the story, see herself as a trainspotter or eclipse watcher, as an astronomer or mathematician or theoretical physicist — as a scientist. Well done, and thanks.

  65. 65.

    redshirt

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: After a lifetime of trying to be warm, this past winter I realized I don’t do well in it at all. So I kept my heat at 62 and loved it. I barely wore jackets and I loved it. And now, having to walk around Boston with a heavy backpack and a suitcase in 90 degree temps, I’m dying.

    I have a geothermal system at my house which means a fantastic and cheap AC. Even on a 90 degree day I can keep my house at 65. And I do. And when it’s colder I keep it down at 60. Love it.

    PS: I am literally made of fire.

  68. 68.

    philadelphialawyer

    @raven: I actually think this is true. The version does sound a little sad, and maybe, to me, a little tinny too. The anthem should be all brassy and belted out and triumphalistic, at least in this setting!

  69. 69.

    divF

    Out here I can have as much or as little summer as I want. I had to run an errand in Concord this afternoon. It was 102 degrees there. I drove back, through the Caldecott tunnel, and by the time I hit Berkeley, it was 72 degrees. All this over a 20 minute drive.

    We have amazing microclimates on the NorCal coast.

  70. 70.

    japa21

    @raven: Good luck. Mine is Wednesday. Only problem is it is 3 PM which means I have all day Tuesday plus a good share of Wednesday before I can eat again.

  71. 71.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven:

    I didn’t see that (interesting article, thanks) and with no TV I have not heard any renditions of any anthem. I just see little clips of the sporting events without sound.

    I don’t know what tempo they’re using in Rio, but my biggest complaint ALWAYS about the SSB is that it’s usually played at a funereal pace. The tune started life as a drinking song, for heaven’s sake! I want a nice up-tempo performance, and then we can talk about major=happy, minor=sad.

  72. 72.

    philadelphialawyer

    @redshirt: I am SO jealous. It has been 90 plus here for days. We are in a heat warning. And my weaky window AC, even with a high powered fan blowing the supposedly cooled air right on me, just ain’t cutting it.

  74. 74.

    philadelphialawyer

    @divF:

    New England: Don’t like the weather? Wait five minutes.

    No Cal: Don’t like the weather? Move five miles.

  75. 75.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Ajabu:

    You guys can have your 100º summers and your 20º winters. I have no tolerance for either extreme.

    Yeah. I realized a long time ago that I don’t like either of the extreme seasons. Maybe one week of temps in the 90°s in the summer and one week of ice and snow and sub-freezing temps in the winter, just so I’ll appreciate everything else. The rest of the time, I’d be thrilled with 50 weeks a year of the nice transitional seasons.

  76. 76.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @satby:

    Trees are totally overrated. I lived with really tall pines outside my house, which dropped widow makers after every big wind storm. They make a huge mess every season- the maples with their millions of helicopters that insist on rooting, the pines with their needles and cones and twisted ugly limbs, the oaks with their strings of pollen and their ugly brown dead leaves that stayed on all winter. They just keep getting bigger and more dangerous. Not a tree fan, at all.

  78. 78.

    philadelphialawyer

    @SiubhanDuinne: Don’t think tempo is a problem in Rio. They don’t want the anthem to take too long…schedules are tight at the Olympics. And they know the US anthem will be played a lot! Years ago I remember some controversy as there was actually an abridged version of the anthem used at an Olympics.

  79. 79.

    SFAW

    Don’t know if it was mentioned in some other thread, but: Congratulations to Gevvie Stone for her Silver in the Women’s 1x. She was outstanding! (Not forgetting the Women’s 8, but it was pretty much expected they’d win.)

  80. 80.

    Betty Cracker

    The great Michael Phelps has weird little Shrek ears.

    @Gvg: You’re so right about trees moderating the beastly heat down here. Hubby and I have been looking at houses since we think we have one more move left in us. Definitely leaning toward heavily treed environments.

  81. 81.

    satby

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I’d be thrilled with 50 weeks a year of the nice transitional seasons.

    so would I. Humdog suggested around Eureka, CA.

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: I loved my beautiful sugar maple. Cool underneath even on the hottest day, gorgeous fall colors… and then it crunched my house. I’m going to miss that beautiful tree; the house, not so much.

  82. 82.

    Gin & Tonic

    @efgoldman:

    At least nowadays you’re usually asleep for the procedure.

    Actually, you’re not asleep. You’re sort of awake and can respond to commands, but the drug they use wipes your memory of the event.

  83. 83.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:

    Carmen Dragon, man, now there are some memories.

    Trivia: he was the father of Daryl Dragon, the eponymous Captain of “The Captain and Tennille” pop duo of the ’70s.

  84. 84.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:

    Zippidee doo dah, get ‘er done!

    Remind me sometime to share with you my father’s tribute to Paderewski as set to the tune of the SSB.

  85. 85.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @philadelphialawyer:

    there was actually an abridged version of the anthem used at an Olympics.

    That rings a faint, far-off bell. Can’t remember at all which Games it was, but I do have a recollection of the controversy.

    If they’d only play it at a decent tempo, they wouldn’t have to abridge it. Fools.

  87. 87.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    At hockey games, I am strongly of the opinion that the SSB should be completed within 70 seconds or the home team starts with a two minute minor for delay of game.

    Edit: This is for aesthetic reasons, but the fact that North Dakota would start every home game shorthanded would be a nice bonus.

  89. 89.

    CaseyL

    @Gin & Tonic: Really? I honestly didn’t know that; I’m out before the procedure even begins. At least, so far as I know. (And wake up feeling like I’ve had the best nap ever.) (Whatever they use is really good stuff.)

    But anesthesia’s a funny thing. One of my Mom’s surgeries – can’t remember what it was for, or what kind of knockout they used – the doctors told her afterward that she sang opera during the procedure. She didn’t remember that at all.

  90. 90.

    Larkspur

    @Gin & Tonic: The last colonoscopy I had I was actually alert for the whole thing. I was medicated, sure, and no pain, but I was listening to the chatter and watching the monitor. My doc had a hard time locating my cecum (turns out I have “tortuous” extra-loopy bowels – which actually explains a lot) so I said “Hey, now you cecum, now you don’t” and the whole procedure staff burst out laughing, and that made me feel good, although in retrospect it wasn’t all that funny. Plus: no suspicious nodes or polyps. So all in all, a fun day.

  95. 95.

    gwangung

    @raven: Ah, but as an alum, I know you’re allowed one moment of “SQUEE!”* and then it’s back to the lab and the books. Remember, it’s beginning of the year.

    *Personal experience. Tony Award winner.

  96. 96.

    burnspbesq

    BTW, the US picked up bronze in the women’s team sabre competition. Congrats to Ibtihaj Muhammad, Mariel Zagunis, and Dagmara Wozniak.

  97. 97.

    Betsy

    @japa21: @raven: Golly gee. And mine is Thursday. Nice to have some company here on the old BJ. Sort of a plumbing festival, I suppose. Here’s hoping for good results for all!

  98. 98.

    Roger Moore

    @efgoldman:

    Don’t do very well in New England.

    There’s your problem. I guess avocado and dragonfruit don’t do very well there, either. You could probably get away with pomme or stone fruit, though. Maybe walnuts.

  103. 103.

    Brachiator

    @raven:

    .

    The Star-Spangled ‘Blah’-ner: Musicians criticize ‘sad’ and ‘ambivalent’ version of the U.S. national anthem being played in Rio

    It’s Rio. Why not a samba version?

  105. 105.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Roger Moore:

    You’re just used to the wrong kind. You need useful trees, like citrus.

    Or the ones that are all the right height, as in Michigan.

    /Romney

  106. 106.

    frosty

    @SiubhanDuinne: Nah, he’s from Baltimore. The anthem was born here. And we all holler “O!” For the Orioles on the last line. His friends did it in Rio and cracked him up during the medal ceremony.

  107. 107.

    Brachiator

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    . Trivia: he was the father of Daryl Dragon, the eponymous Captain of “The Captain and Tennille” pop duo of the ’70s.

    Tenille recently published a memoir of life with the Captain. Seems quite sad. Behind the happy songs, a Captain who did not like to be hugged or touched.

  108. 108.

    J R in WV

    @rikyrah:

    Yeah, that Simone swimming for another gold with the team was so sweet, and all of them hugging on each other, and then singing with the national anthem at their gold medal ceremony. Sweet girls, all of them, and gifted.

    I’m 65, I get to call them girls if they’re under 50.

    So proud for them and of them. And the little woman wearing the hijab and fencing, she won a gold team medal too, or some kind of medal, which was great, like you said, so many different kinds of great Americans.

    Then the evening CBS news had 5000 new citizens, and they were all getting registered to vote right there, after their ceremony, from all over the world, 142 different countries.

    Pretty good TV this weekend, innit?!!!

  109. 109.

    J R in WV

    @p.a.:

    Not old enough. BiP was a retired postal worker, union leader type guy, had to be in his upper 50s, if he told any truth at all.

  110. 110.

    Cleosmom

    I am officially over August, too.

    I was over summer itself as soon as I was old enough to notice weather: we lived in south Florida and I even had mixed feelings about summer vacation. On one hand, we were out of school (and this was before the War On Childhood) but it was summer and the weather was hot. Ugh.

    Fast forward to my mid-60s (not in Florida), and winters aren’t much harder for me than when I was in my 20s; summer gets harder every year.

    Apparently whatever extreme of temperature you’re sensitive to is a permanent thing. (And no, it’s NOT A “BEAUTIFUL DAY” OUTSIDE JUST BECAUSE IT’S NOT RAINING.)

  111. 111.

    Chris

    I was going to post something about politics but all I really have is fuck Trump, so that will have to suffice.

    That’s increasingly all I have to say, too, substituting “conservatives” for “Trump” (the problem will sadly persist after he’s gone). Kind of depressing, really.

    I am officially over August, too. This heat and humidity just blows goats. I would actually like a really snowy winter this year. Have not had one for a long while, and I’m due for some surgical care.

    I was so thrilled last January when, after 3 1/2 years in Florida, I came home to DC just in time for the Snowpocalypse. Mother Nature’s way of welcoming me back to the world as it should be, and making up for three missed winters.

  112. 112.

    Miss Bianca

    Our August has been quite cool, so far, particularly the last couple of days. And we’ve had quite a bit of rain the last couple weeks, so the Hayden Pass fire, which consumed some 16,000 acres, is mostly dead. So, yay for that!

  113. 113.

    Eric U.

    it has been really hot here in Central Pennsylvania for the last week, but the high humidity makes up for it. And it there has been at least one thunderstorm per day, usually after work so I can’t go ride my bike. Sleeping without air conditioning wasn’t easy last night. Hopefully getting new heat and air conditioning sometime in the next year.
    Went mountain biking yesterday, the temperature of the rocks was lower than the dew point. Then there was a thunderstorm. Left home with blue skies, 30 minutes later it was thundering and then it poured

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