As four years previously: we jump from the Olympics to the conventions. I still had some Olympics withdrawal. Oh well.
Wrap up of the Olympics:
The NY Times’ slide show on the reaction of Chinese-Americans in Flushing to the Olympics.
So the US’ NBA guys won the gold (with Duke University’s Coach K), beating the rather irritating Spanish team. And, the US Men’s Volleyball team made their inspiring victory for their coach, who experienced his family’s tragedy at the very beginning of the Olympics.
Interesting Slate article on Why Decathelon’s Not As Cool as it was way back in the day of Rafer Johnson and C.K. Yang (who was representing Republic of China – okay, Chinese Taipei aka Taiwan) or the day of even Bruce Jenner. (apparently we may blame it on a number of things – the Dan v. Dave ad campaign of the 1990’s didn’t help). At any rate, I rooted for Bryan Clay and present, as a follow up to the story of four years ago, Bryan Clay wins gold in the decathlon. He apparently wants to be on the Wheaties box. Funny thing is that if you click on the link from that post of four years ago, it leads you to the story of his current gold medal.
Larry Langowski may have competed for Mexico in wrestling (he’s half-Mexican, half-Polish), but his story is so American! Olympic dreams really do push people to big heights, whatever the result.
Josh Levin for Slate analyzes the commercials that have been on during the Olympics. Good stuff.
Closing ceremonies had lots of people, weird interpretive dance, Jackie Chan, the Brits, and lots of stuff. A bit of a spectacle. The legacy of Beijing 2008 remains to be seen.
I’m no athlete, but I think this article does raise interesting points on how 1st generation Americans – Chinese specifically, but there’s a study out there that covers Asians overall – aren’t exactly sports inclined. In light of the Olympics, it’s pretty clear that commitment and hard can make athletes amazing.
Topics on Chinese/Chinese-Americans, Asians/Asian-Americans, APA’s broadly:
Jennifer 8. Lee on introducing Chinese to fortune cookies – here in the NY Times’ City Room blog and in the Dining Section.
Second generation Asian-Americans checking out new real estate in the outer boroughs.
Thought this was an interesting article on Time.com – on APA’s and the issue of suicide and the impact and influence of the APA family – a difficult subject indeed; when one’s family is the source of both one’s strength and stress – and trying to find culturally acceptable ways of dealing with one’s problems – it’s just tough stuff. Maybe it’s not just an Asian-American thing; but I’m not surprised by the significance of this study’s findings.
Stuff not about APA’s; fascinating reading:
A great NY Times article on how a science teacher is trying to teach science – particularly evolution – to those who resist it because they feel it’s anti-religion. I don’t think science is anti-religion; the relationship between science and religion seems best summed up by the science teacher in this article: that the two topics ask different questions.
An interesting story about the last stops on the various subway lines.
Politics? —
One thought on Saturday: Biden?! Good and bad feelings arise; excited and worried – Slate’s John Dickerson sums up the good, the bad, and the ugly about Joe Biden. Well, best wishes to the new Obama/Biden ticket.
I’ve much watching of the convention (if only because the historian in me wants to check it out). I suppose I could watch the cable tv coverage, but I’ve still found the PBS coverage most interesting and comprehensive (even the boring parts).