Watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics was a great geography refresher. If there was a country that wasn’t familiar, all I did was run to my keyboard and viola. I now know where Kiribati is. 
My two fellow viewers were quite impatient with the parade of nations. Oh my god, it’s only at ‘C’?! Why is Netherlands Antilles even there?! Where is St Kitts and Nevis??

In the Caribbean, I confidently said. I knew that because of People magazine.

Flipping through channels covering different sport events, I’m at a loss at why Dressage is an Olympic sport. First of all, most of the work is done by the horse. Second, who thinks of ballet-dancing for horses. And third, why is it EVEN a sport. On a side note, apparently Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s wife is part-owner of a horse that qualified for the elite Olympic event and he’s avoiding any connection to it so as not to be pictured as out of touch with the ordinary American. U.S. elections are democratic that way. Reminds me of when Democrat John Kerry was ridiculed because he windsurfed and spoke French. Really. The key to being the leader of the free world is to be the lowest common denominator.

On the gymnastics side, I’m also wondering about the pommel horse. How does this apply in the real world? If tradition is the only reason it’s there, I think a lot of people would agree that traditions aren’t always a good thing. Maybe time to move on with the millennium. And why is it only for men.

And then there’s synchronized swimming. May as well include ballroom dancing in the future. Enough said.

And for the record, Kiribati is a group of 30-some atolls in the central Pacific Ocean with a total population of 100,000. Give global warming a decade or so and we may just have a shorter Olympic parade of nations to look forward to.