And Moscow Games Make Me Sing and Shout . . .

Two more comments on the 1980 Olympic boycott I couldn't resist . . ..

NBC had paid $87 million - a lot of money in the late seventies and early eighties - to broadcast the 1980 Moscow Games and instead ended up having to show crappy TV movies, summer reruns, and, of all things, a lousy summer variety show starring the talentless Japanese singing duo Pink Lady and smarmy comedian Jeff Altman (which was worse than it sounds!). This blow couldn't have come at a worse time for the Peacock Network, whose overall programming (this was before "Cheers") was so awful and did so poorly in the ratings, NBC stood for Not Broadcasting Competently. Anyway, NBC - which has broadcast every Summer Olympiad since 1980 except the 1984 Los Angeles Games - never lets anyone forget how they were robbed. A commentator will always say something like, "The United States has always won a medal in such-and-such or so-and-so in every Summer Olympiad except, of course, 1980, when the U.S. boycotted . . .." Personal note to NBC - Give it a rest, guys. Your current Olympics coverage is doing just fine - in terms of ratings, anyway. ;-)

At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Jimmy Carter attended the opening ceremonies as President Clinton's guest. I was completely repelled by this. I know Jimmy Carter is from Georgia, and he had been the state's governor and all that, but the fact is, he had a lot of nerve showing up at those ceremonies. He practically destroyed the Olympic movement when he boycotted the Moscow Olympics; he should have boycotted the Atlanta Olympics, too. :-(