quote of the day(s) (August 21-22, 2008)

The 2008 Olympics are about to come to an end after two full weeks of excellent competition. By all accounts, the Games have run very smoothly, with the Chinese people acting as excellent, accommodating hosts. The money-grubbing International Olympic Committee and the Chinese government? Not nearly as impressive...

In Sally Jenkins' article in yesterday's Washington Post, she writes a first-person article in the guise of IOC president Jacques Rogge in which she highlights the hypocrisy that has come to mark every Olympics:

"For years now I have worked tirelessly to fashion the Olympics into an event in which it's possible to completely avoid ethical responsibility. I've used my skills as a yachtsman, member of the Belgian knighthood, and an impeccable wearer of blazers and boat shoes, to avoid a principled stand on any subject. It therefore grieves me to say that 10 days into the Beijing Games, I have met with a matter of the utmost seriousness: the unfortunate expressions of joy by Jamaican runner Usain Bolt, after winning the 100- and 200-meter dashes. This is truly an Olympic crisis.

It's one thing for the Chinese government to jail dissidents, to forge the passports of underage gymnasts, and to set up official protest zones and then arrest anyone who applied to use them. These are matters that I met with disciplined silence, or as I so adroitly put it, with "quiet diplomacy." But I cannot ignore Bolt's disturbing spontaneity. Him, I feel compelled to rebuke."

Great stuff.

When athletes celebrate gold medals and world records, the terrorists truly have won.

On a sillier note, Slate.com has been running a Sap-o-Meter, a running count of all of the maudlin descriptions used by NBC during their coverage of the Olympics. From the website, on their methodology:

"Here's how it works. After slogging through Olympic broadcasts of yore, we drew up a list of 33 syrupy words that NBC has chronically overused: adversity, battled, cancer, challenges, courage, cry, death, dedication, determination, dream, emotion, glory, golden, hardship, heart, hero, inspiration, inspire, journey, magic, memory, miracle, mom, mother, Olympic-sized, overcome, passion, proud, sacrifice, spirit, tears, tragedy, triumph. While these 33 words are by no means an unabridged collection of schmaltzy nouns, adjectives, and verbs, they're a good sampling of NBC's bathos. Think of them as the Dow Jones of sap."

The daily updates have been hysterical, with a special listing of the "pinnacle of treacle", for each given night. My favorite of their choices came from Tuesday, August 19:

August 19 Slate.com Sappiest Line of the Day: "And now begins Shawn Johnson's dream sequence. She looks like a kid on the best of Christmas mornings."—NBC's Al Trautwig, describing the American gymnast's walk to the medal stand after clinching gold on the balance beam.

I'm embedding the Sap-o-Meter widget here for your enjoyment. It's always good times here at QOTD, as we bring you entertainment you can only get on 55 million other blogs.