Olympic Mythology

Well, I stayed up to watch the opening ceremonies last night, not so much because I wanted to, but because my wife wanted to.  I don't mind them, it's just that I was tired last night and would have rather gone to bed.  However, I didn't mind too much, as the opening ceremonies always have something pretty neat in them.

Like the queen of England parachuting in with James Bond himself.

And that really cool image of the forging of the Olympic rings.

So too, the amount of detail that was given to the volunteers (actual doctors, nurses, and children from the GOSH children's hospital and the line of construction workers that actually built the place).

But I was surprised by a few things.  Mind you , I am not criticizing.  The ceremonies were amazing and the amount of work to pull it off has to be incredible.  The first thing that surprised me was that so much time was spent on celebrating England's role in the Industrial Revolution and not more on people like Shakespeare.  He got one quote in there.  Winehouse got more recognition than he did.

The mythology buff in me was surprised that King Arthur didn't make an appearance or at least the sword in the stone.  We had a hundred Mary Poppins but not one Excalibur.  Just struck me as odd to ignore the country's most famous legendary figure.

However, the ceremonies were still neat and I can't wait to watch the events.  I like watching all the events, but as a former swimmer, those events will be my favorite.  You only get to watch swimming once every four years on TV, so I'm ready!