July 27, 1996
These Atlanta Olympic games aren't all bad
By TERRY JONES -- Edmonton Sun
MYLANTA -- It can't all be bad at the Glitch Games. Can it?
You know about the busses and the IBM results system and the heat and everything else that is wrong with these Olympics.
But whoa. Enough already.
My assignment today, and I couldn't choose to refuse, was to make a list of the things I like about Atlanta and the Games of the XXVI Olympiad:
* I like the fact that all 193 flags are flying right side up.
* I like every venue I've been to which isn't in Atlanta. It's therapeutic to get away to where everything is well organized and everybody is happy.
* I like the little red piece of paper we were given at the start of the Games, which you insert into the dollar-bill slot of Coke machines. It makes a light come on saying `Free'. I like that about 10 times a day.
* I like the volunteer who saw six runners from Comores (don't ask me to find it on a map) running in shower sandals and went out and bought them track shoes.
* I like that I have not once sighted -- and neither has anybody else I know -- that stupid Games mascot.
* I like beach volleyball.
* I like how these Games seem to have cured (temporarily, I'm sure) American arrogance.
* I like the salad bar at the main press centre.
* I like all the bars in Buckhead.
* I like the P.A. announcer at softball, who is major-league and multi-lingual, but signs off each night by saying, "Y'all come back now, hear?"
* I like grits.
* I like the new scoring system in boxing, which keeps everyone informed of how the bout is going from punch to punch.
* I like watching the USA women's softball team and writing about the Canadian women's softball team.
* I like Marnie McBean.
* I like Morton's Steak House.
* I like the way Canadian swim coach Dave Johnson didn't oversell his squad going in, so the medals Curtis Myden and Marianne Limpert won were considered accomplishments rather than disappointments.
* I like beach volleyball.
* I like the bus driver who agreed to pull over and stop so we could buy some beer for the 21Ú2-hour bus ride back from softball at Columbus because, as he said, "You fellas look like you could use a beer."
* I like American gymnast Kerri Strug.
* I like the fact a vendor who was trying to sell a bottle of water for $3 early on has brought his price down to 75 cents.
* I like the Athletes' Village.
* I like the reaction of little kids here when you give them an Olympic pin.
* I like the fact that everywhere I've been the stands have been full and they seem to be having the experience of a lifetime.
* I like Curt Harnett.
* I like the Atlanta Fish Market.
* I like beach volleyball.
* I like the education Atlanta residents are getting about the rest of the world and how, when this is over, they might know something about some country other than their own.
* I like Bechir Manuabi, the scribe from Tunisia who covers these Olympics wearing an outfit decorated from head to toe with pins from the nine Olympics and six World Cups of soccer he has covered.
* I like watching photographers with thousands of dollars of cameras, lenses and equipment battling each other to get on the first bus to get prime positions at their venues.
* I like the fact Team Sun Olympic coach Bob Elliott finally confessed to stealing all the towels from my room the other day.
* I like the shirts the Olympic volunteers wear here. Unfortunately, so does everybody else. They're getting offers of $300 a shirt and a guy with my size wanted $500.
* I like the Molson in the Canadian Olympic Association press office.
* I really like beach volleyball.
