Team GB

I'm sure many of you have noticed that the Olympics are going on. However, I'm not sure how much attention has been paid stateside to which little country is in third place in the medals table. Go on, fathom a guess. That's right, it's the UK! Or as they are commonly referred to 'team GB' (don't get my started on the UK/GB situation, it constantly perplexes me that they don't know the name of their own, um, land).

This little team GB has managed to amass 16 gold medals, the most in apparently a century, and an additional 10 silvers and 10 bronzes or so (the tally is constantly changing mind you). While they haven't pulled a Phelps and the most golds that can be attributed to one person is 3 (I think, maybe 2), they are certainly specialized in a small number of categories. These categories are cycling, sailing, rowing, and a bit of swimming and track & field. The Australians, who are bitter about being behind UK in the medals table, like to point out that team GB only wins when they are sitting down. I say heck, can you blame them? Why stand when you can sit? Now I think the UK also is historically quite strong in equestrian events (sitting!), but don't think they're squeezed a gold out of it this year. Let's blame Zara Phillips, who pulled out after her horsey got a boo-boo.

Speaking of female types, I must say that an overwhelming percentage of team GB golds have been won by women. Becky Addlington won two swimming gold medals (to everyone's surprise), they won the gold in the women's 400m run, plus they managed to pull in some cycling and sailing golds for good measure. Good for you, British women!

The word on the street is that the UK government has been pumping extra money into Olympic sports, to try and ensure they don't make fools of themselves when hosting the games in 2012. For example, a British source tells me they spent £1 million developing a tire that would let the cyclists go just a weeny bit faster. How this is a legitimate use of such a sum is beyond me, but they certainly have been cleaning up in cycling events so apparently it's working.

So things are looking good for 2012! There's been limited speculation about how they're going to try and top Beijing's opening ceremony. My favorite suggestion so far has been to have 2,000 Morris dancers. And after consulting to find out what exactly Morris dancing involves (it involves sticks!!), I must say I'm all for their inclusion.