The Post about the Olympics Feb 27th

I stopped at my parents' house tonight to pay my respects. As expected they offered me a bag of groceries from their cupboard (they often confuse my rotund appearance with the symptoms of starvation. Not that I mind; they buy much yummier food than we can on our budget).

I was also, by sheer lack of timing on my part, subjected to the evening news.

Now I detest television news: national and local, cable and broadcast. Every cliché on the subject is dead on - from the stilted banter and thirty-second in-depth analysis, to the hysterical weathermen who want this overweight smoker to buy into the idea that a thunderstorm may just be my undoing. I'll stick to the newspaper and the 'net, thank you.

[Of course, on the plus side, some of the local anchors are hot.]

But my parent's are addicted to the stuff, so there I sat. And wouldn't you know it, right after the 'special investigation' into whether those work-at-home emails are a scam (surprise, they are!) I actually learned something.

It seems the US is pushing hard to host the Olympics again, this time in New York City.

For a good minute I was filled with pride. I was ten years old when the Olympics hit Los Angeles and I remember what a big deal it was - the majesty, the patriotism, and the boatload of free food McDonald's had to give out as prizes when the Soviets backed out and ceded the playing field to us.

Then I thought about it, and now I'm left half-hoping we aren't awarded the 2012 games.

If I were a New Yorker, I'd be hard-pressed to see the economic value to my city. Say it is well-organized and does well, which is no sure thing. Is that enough to offset the cost of building an 80,000 seat arena in Brooklyn - a building that has to be built if New York has any shot at all of winning the bid?

Add in years of additional traffic congestion and the fact that building these projects means evicting and leveling countless businesses and residences, and I don't see how this adds up as manna from heaven.

Let's not even bring up the subject of security . . .

But I'm not a New Yorker, and so my opinion, rightly, means as much to them as their opinion on foam cheese heads does to me.

But as an American, go back to what I said about the magic I felt watching the '84 Olympics. It seemed like a rare and special event, something that may not be repeated in my lifetime, an athletic Haley's comet.

So much for that.

In the last twenty-five years we've hosted one version or another of the Olympics on four occasions. Add New York to the list and,I'll have seen five Olympics on American soil before my fortieth birthday.

By that time, the Olympics will seem about as special as a rerun of Home Improvement.

Wile I normally hold the admirably Americentric view that the rest of the wold can take a flying leap, I wouldn't blame folks overseas if they looked upon us as a monopoly, ready and willing to outspend everyone for the honor.

That's not the Olympic image I want to cultivate.

I'm sure most people disagree with me; so be it.

One last parting shot though - if one of my kids ever makes the Olympics, I'm sure the trip of a lifetime would be all the more special for them if it didn't begin and end at someplace serviced by Greyhound.