Let the games begin!!!!!

The Battle Royal begins today; the great contest that will unite the globe as we all root for our favorite combatants that we have been waiting years to see. You know what I'm talking about: "Alien vs. Predator". Oh yes, oh yes. Who will prevail? Whoever wins, we lose...or so I've been told.

Wait, I think that movie just might suck. Actually, I know it will suck and it sucks that they're whoring out both franchises, although that is just continuing the tradition of whoring out by making the last two "Alien" movies and that “Predator 2” thing. I wonder if Arnold is going to go see the new movie: "I could take dem boff...."

BUT REALLY - the Olympics start today!!! I LOVE the Olympics. They're so fun. I love them! I love cheering America and shouting "USA!!" I want our men and women to win every medal and I don’t care if we’re already a superpower and have so much anyway. My veins will run red, white, and blue the next two weeks. Furthermore, as in games past I just may be moved to do cartwheels around the room during commercial breaks from gymnastics’ coverage. This year, the games are back in Athens. The baby has come home all grown up.

The ancient Greeks, who brought us the tradition we use for out modern-day games, loved sports. Races, throwing stuff like discs or javelins, boxing; maybe not so much synchronized swimming or bobsledding, but I suppose those are just athletic strides we have made in the millennia. With the Greeks, anything was an excuse for games. If you've read the very good Iliad or seen the very very bad Troy you know that they even had days of games as part of the funeral process. I don't know that I'd be in the mood for that I was mourning ("Oh no, Patroclus has died! Let's strip down and wrassle!!!") but I shouldn’t judge; the Greeks were likely the most rational of all civilizations there have ever been.

I've read that with the Hellenic-Ones, love of games actually got to be too much of a problem: when on duty Greeks would rather compete in athletics amongst themselves than be disciplined soldiers, so often the commanders had to restrict games. We have similar stirrings in our society today, where many kids would rather play basketball than do their homework. On the other hand, I suppose that's a lesser evil than of another problem segment of our society – the growing numbers of obese - of whom there are some, sadly, too lazy to either play basketball or do their homework.