Oy

I can only surmise that there is something fundamentally wrong with my psychological makeup, some deep and abiding flaw that puts me on the same level as serial killers and pamphlet writers.

I can't stand it when they show "family reaction shots" during sporting events. There, I said it. I revealed my inhumanity. I showed off my thickened, crusty psychological scar.

But really, honestly, I can't stand that shit.

I haven't watched much Olympics in the last ten or fifteen years, and none at all of the current Olympics, but last night as I struggled with foot cramps and a headache and general gleefus, I flipped to a channel carrying the Olympics. Almost immediately I was forced to watch the mother and sister (wife? I confess I had the sound turned off) of Famous Swimmer Person twitching and gyrating while he swam.

It's not that I dislike them, but I really don't want to watch them either. Let them enjoy their Olympics in peace, without a camera trained on them, and let me "enjoy" the Olympics in peace without having to watch what amounts to random people in the stands. It's a bit like having to put up with news about Britney Spears's sister just because she's Britney Spear's sister - even one degree of separation is enough to make me not care.

Somehow the Olympics don't seem as interesting to me as they used to. I don't think it has anything to do with commercialization in general, or with Chinese pretensions in this case in particular. They just don't interest me as much. "Oh look, some people running their asses off. Oh look, more people running their asses off. Here's something new; it's a bunch of people running their asses off. Whee."

Ho-hum. When do the fairly novel sports get TV coverage? Things like fencing or kayaking or the equestrian stuff? Because frankly I've already had all the running, swimming and beach volleyball I can stand. And moms and families in the stands hopeful during the event and exultant afterwards; I've had enough of that too.