Jenn Martinelli Blogging in Boston

Quote just now on the score a Chinese gymnast received for her balance beam routine:

That's a high score, higher than her qualification score. Too high.

Apparently that's it though. Everyone just moves on, the Chinese gymnasts keep magically always getting "too high" scores and that's fine.

I think our next Olympics should be in Russia and the non-Russian competitors can show up all bruised and beat up and insist "nothing happened" to them.

Why do I care? Because I really hate cheating.

Seriously, have you listened to his commentary on the Olympics so far?

Lucky for me, fair readers, I have also suffered through years and years of his commentary on the televised coverage of the Tour de France.

He was making me murderously angry last night during the gymnastics coverage we were watching. It could have even been Tivo'd, I'm not actually sure when it was on, but it was during the tie-breaker controversy with Liukin and He Kexin.

First of all, we'll ignore the fact that all the Chinese women's gymnasts except for one are about 11 years old. Very fair China. Thanks for hosting this great event in your wonderful country and being so hospitable and also CHEATING.

Anyway, Al was going on and on about how complicated the tie-breaking procedure is. He wouldn't stop. Turns out the "complicated" process is that the next lowest score is dropped from each contestant's scores. Sounds pretty simple, Al.

One of the commentators who knows what the fuck he was talking about was trying to make a more useful point and Al jumped in, interrupting him to blather about tie-breaking some more. I wanted to stab my eardrums with a pen.

Dear Albert,

You should first learn how to use a computer. This will help you when your "screen goes black". It will also help you realize how to do things like monitor your credit card accounts online and also use Expedia's site correctly.

Then, after you're sure you can handle these tasks, you can try booking tickets again online. But if your "screen goes black" again, I would just recommend putting the computer in the garbage and driving to the airport and walking up to the counter to buy your tickets. This seems like the best solution for you.

Sincerely,
Jenn