The Olympics Begin - Something to Check Out
If you enjoy the Olympics every four years, check out the online streaming services offered. This way you're not stuck in some never-ending beach volleyball match, which seems to be quite popular, but, frankly, takes up too much coverage time, along with basketball - just my opinion. These services aren't anything new, but I never availed myself of them until this weekend. One offered short snips on side-by-side screens of a lot of different sports, many of which might not get coverage on the regular over-the-air or cable channels (mainly NBC and NBCSn).
The side-by-side brought foil (fencing), table tennis (ping-pong), hand-ball (not the kind you play in the park, but what looks like water polo, played on a wooden (basketball?) court - rather cool. They skip around a lot, which lets you see a lot. The downside of that approach is that you may miss a dramatic finish, which was the case in the foil: the American, seemingly hopelessly behind the Italian, came back in dramatic fashion and won his match after the service switched away - and no replays, so you didn't get to see what you missed. But overall, I liked this one.
Not that this is assured, but the Olympics seem to take place during those August/summer "market respite" weeks when light trading does stuff like push stocks up, despite their delicate, tentative current state, and when economic news like the recent jobs report screams hysterically that, yes, the U.S. economy is firing up and doing really well...really. The Olympics offer a distraction from all that silliness. And, if past patterns hold up, nothing really important or dramatic will occur in any of the major markets while the games are on.
Watch, this time will be different!
In any case, for those of us who do like the wide array of sports competition (with the exception of the return of golf to the Olympics: really?), it's a fun time. Enjoy.
The side-by-side brought foil (fencing), table tennis (ping-pong), hand-ball (not the kind you play in the park, but what looks like water polo, played on a wooden (basketball?) court - rather cool. They skip around a lot, which lets you see a lot. The downside of that approach is that you may miss a dramatic finish, which was the case in the foil: the American, seemingly hopelessly behind the Italian, came back in dramatic fashion and won his match after the service switched away - and no replays, so you didn't get to see what you missed. But overall, I liked this one.
Not that this is assured, but the Olympics seem to take place during those August/summer "market respite" weeks when light trading does stuff like push stocks up, despite their delicate, tentative current state, and when economic news like the recent jobs report screams hysterically that, yes, the U.S. economy is firing up and doing really well...really. The Olympics offer a distraction from all that silliness. And, if past patterns hold up, nothing really important or dramatic will occur in any of the major markets while the games are on.
Watch, this time will be different!
In any case, for those of us who do like the wide array of sports competition (with the exception of the return of golf to the Olympics: really?), it's a fun time. Enjoy.
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