USATF – News – USA Track and Field – reports that BEIJING – “Dathan Ritzenhein (Eugene, Ore.) and Ryan Hall (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.) were ninth and 10th, respectively, to put two Team USA athletes in the top 10 of the Olympic men’s marathon for the first time since 1976 in competition Sunday morning. The race concludes Olympic track and field competition as Team USA won the medal race with 23 medals and seven golds.”
When the Olympics opened on 08/08/08, one of the first things that I heard was that the marathon event might be canceled due to poor air quality.  …read more

Yesterday, I read about a controversy concerning some of the fireworks displayed during the Opening Ceremonies for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. A portion of the fireworks were added in digitally. Personally, I don’t have a problem with that. It was simply special effects for the television audience members who were unable to attend.
This morning, I read about another one – Controversy Brews Over Lip-Synching – AOL Sports. The story goes something like this; Yang Pinyin, a 7-year-old Peking opera lover, was chosen to sing “Ode To the Motherland,” during the Opening Ceremonies, but was later …read more

Here is an update on the 08/08/08 wedding story; more than 300,000 couples were married in China. According to National Nine News at http://news.ninemsn.com. The actual total was 314, 224.
Wow. I bet a lot of the day was spent waiting in line.
We’ve got a touch of Olympic fever, here at my house. We’ve stayed up late every night so far, but our viewing habits will have to change shortly as we are back to school in 2 more days. That includes me, as I’m an aide at our local elementary school.
Do you …read more

Calum MacLeod, of the USA Today, reports that some 9000 Chinese couples are set to be married on August 8th, 2008, in Beijing, China. The push for so many to marry on that date comes in two parts. One, because 8 is a lucky number in China and they want to take advantage of the 08/08/08 date. The second part is that the Chinese couples want to honor the opening day of the Olympics Games, also on 08/08/08.
Couples married on Friday will be taking part in a promotional event, wherein they will sign a billboard that states, “A …read more