Glad That's Over

Well, the hoo-rah of the Olympics has finally passed, and we can all now be spared overly earnest references to the "sacred" Olympic spirit and flame and world unity, the Chinese government's sometimes desperate and over-eager attempts to make sure everything went right, and tired cliche's about China's "coming out party." Sports can go back to being about sports, and not some strange stand-in for international politics.

Even better, it looks like the London Games might actually turn out to be fun . At least, they will be if London Mayor Boris Johnson is in charge. His joy that Ping-Pong, "invented on the dining tables of England," where it was first called "whiff whaff," is coming home understandably got lots of attention. I was more impressed by his pledge to try to bring back the pankration,

"whose chief exponent was Milo of Croton, whose signature performance involved carrying an ox the length of the stadium, killing it with his bare hands and then eating it on the same day."

Now that sounds like a good time.

As Anne Applebaum pointed out in the Washington Post today, that approach - laughter, not overpowered awe - is a much better take on the Olympic spirit.