Is everyone enjoying the Olympics as much as I am? I particularly enjoyed the opening ceremony. It is absolutely amazing the number of countries that participate. God is good and made beautiful wonderful people throughout the world. I wish I were sitting in the hot Athens son today. Also, I had no idea of the African diaspora. Did you know there were Africans participating for the Palestinians?

-- Anonymous, August 19, 2004

Answers

I apologize for the typo. It should read as follows: "I wish I were sitting in the hot Athens sun today."

-- Anonymous, August 19, 2004

Correction appreciated since there is a difference between sitting in the hot Athens 'son vs sun' :-) As far as the 2004 Olympics I have little interest in the 1st week of events and judging by the number of empty seats in Athens so do a lot of other sports fans. I am not a fan of gymnastics because the atheletes don't determine the outcome only the subjective opinions of judges. I am not a fan of swimming events and especially events like synchonized swimming. Any event where you have to put on make-up is NOT a sport!!! Much of the disinterest is a result of the doping scandal of star track atheletes, the disappointing performance of men's basketball and like Sydney in the 2000 Games, NBC showing the events on a tape delay due to time zone. By the time I get home I have already heard the outcome of most events and that greatly diminishes my interest in viewing the contest since I know the outcome. My interest will pick up more in the second week when we have track and boxing (pure sports). I sure do miss the competitive rivalry of sports when we lived during the Cold War era. The fall of the Soviet Empire meant the US no longer has a country to root against. QED

-- Anonymous, August 19, 2004

Mary as one who has spent a summer in Athens in august, believe me you do not want to be there!!! The humidity is extremely high. Now Bill, Robert and Jerryl who are used to high humidity would have a ball;-)

I love gymnastics and watching Paul Hamm do his final exercise to when the gold medal last night was unbelievable. It has been fun to see the improvement in the Japaneese team.

But the olympics don't seem as exciting as usual. I love the winter olympics the best. And my other favorite sport is weight lifting.

-- Anonymous, August 19, 2004

At 93 degrees, we'd have a ball and probably not even break a sweat. :-). We had a cold front bow through Houston the other day - didnt get over 85!

As for this week, it's an important one for the Payne Family. All of my kids are swimmers. My middle son is all-state (Texas), and led his summer league ionthe 50 freestyle. He's keeping his eye ont he times and the competition, and thinking about Beiging.

As for Hoops, well....

Bring on the track! (for my baby) :-)

-- Anonymous, August 19, 2004

Rev. Rogers,

I also enjoyed watching Paul Hamm last night. To go to 12th place and then work his way to the gold was indeed an impressive feat. I am enjoying the swimmers and the floor exercises as well, and am especially looking forward to the track meets. I am disappointed in the American basketball team. I refuse to call it the Dream Team as it seems more of a nightmare to me. I wish they would go back to using college players. After this year they may be forced to if the NBA players keep backing out. I cannot believe they have no outside shooters. What was the American Olympic organization thinking of?

-- Anonymous, August 19, 2004

Mary, can you believe the U.S. basket ball team lost to puerto rico? Wow!!

Jerryl congrats to your children and do encourage them to shoot for the olympics. I also commend you and Rev. Payne for supporting your children. Swimming is an expensive support and it usually means traveling long distances for coaching and olympic size pools.

Please keep us posted of their progress and Jerryl, 85 is a cold in texas? I have never been to texas. Is there ever a time when it isn't hot? Alas, I love my winters, and snow and mountains;-)

Does any one know if an ame has ever won an olympic medal?

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2004

Jerryl -

Remeber, it's easier to spell 'Peking' than 'Beijing' :-) QED

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2004

Bill, um.

Tru dat, tru dat. :-)

It's easier to spell when I learn to type, too.:-)

Rev. Rogers,

Yes, we have winters. Why we had winter in 2003. It fell on a Thrusday that year, and I had to bring th e plants in, but thankfully, it did not get cold enough to freeze my banana trees.

This year it got down - to 40.

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2004

Jerryl you made me laugh when you said you had winter on a thursday in 2003. For those of us in Montana our favorite sport in winter is laughing when their is 4 inches of snow somewhere in the country and everything closes. I live in a ski resort town in the rocky mountains. We have one ski resort 15 minutes from where I live and two others 45 minutes from where I live. So we have tourists all year round, in the summer they come and visit yellowstone national park and in the winter they ski.

I have to admit january is the coldest month for us. We also get a 2 week arctic cold snap and it will be 35 below zero.

By the way Jerryl have you been watching the olympics?

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2004

Just to set the record straight, Houston has snow too. We had 15 minutes of flurries on December 22, 1989, and 4 minutes of flurries on Feb. 14, 1994.

Yes, I have been watching the Olympics. I think it's worth another thread on the commitment to excellence of some of our (profesional) athletes (or lack thereof).

My son would porbably be interested in Gary Hall, Jr.'s medal. We'll see how he develops.

-- Anonymous, August 25, 2004

Jerryl and Mary I read an article on the BBC newswire (we have the BBC news on the ame herald web page. The BBc is published in england and has comprehensive news coverage) but in the article it focused on many of the african athletes. I was deeply saddened for the article talked about how countries in Africa did not have the proper equipment, or the athletes could not come weeks ahead of time to acclamate themselves to the altitude and climate, especially the humidity.

Also the athletes have to spend their own money to come to games for they do not have government support. They also cannot aford to pay the high salaries for coaches.

After I read the article, it soured my appetite for the olympics, for it is not an even playing field. Yet they can spend billions on building the complex for the olympics.

Now that I have the information, it makes me even prouder of our african athletes!

-- Anonymous, August 25, 2004