The Athens Olympics Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremonies for the 2004 Olympics in Athens are on as I write, and they've been pretty interesting. They had a very theatrical yet subtle presentation of Greek civilization and culture. The cool part was a replica of an ancient, preclassical Greek bust that broke up and revealed different classical sculpture replicas, complimented by a groovy light show. I thought the parade of living statues marking the passage of Greek history was a little overdone, though. :-D

The Greek team traditionally enters first in the parade of nations, followed by the national teams in alphabetical order, with the host nation last. This time, Greece is the host nation. How did they solve this problem? Simple - the Greek flag bearer entered alone, and the rest of the team will bring up the rear. The order of nations is different from usual for the parade of national teams, owing to the differences in the Hellenic (Greek) alphabet. Thus we see Denmark after Germany, Vietnam right after Bermuda, Albania after Angola, and El Salvador between the Domincan Republic and Switzerland (which is followed by Eritrea). The United States is between the United Arab Emirates and Japan. Quirky, no?