Greetings from the real Greektown.
It will take me a few more days here to get it straight that the sign marked MIIAP means “bar” and ANOIXTO means “open,” while all I can tell you about Greece’s word for “exit” is that it seems to include a pyramid, a Pac-Man and something that looks like the signal used by Gotham City to contact Batman.
As best I can make out, the Greek alphabet goes like this: A, B, a hangman, a pyramid, E, Z, H, the Bat Signal, I, K, a pup tent, M, N, a set of false teeth, O, a phone booth, P, a Pac-Man, T, Y, a TiVo logo, X, a candelabra and a set of Sony stereo headphones.
But apart from being one mixed-up alpha male, I cannot begin to describe how excited this Illinois boy is to be here in Olympia’s fields.
Oh, not as excited as 19-year-old American swim sensation Michael Phelps, the amphibian from Baltimore who broke a centuries-old Olympics record Wednesday for usage of the word “excited” in a single news conference.
Phelps said either “I’m definitely excited” or “this is definitely exciting” as part of his answer to practically every question for the better part of an hour.
If somebody had asked him on his way out the door what time it was, Phelps would have looked at his wristwatch and said: “Twelve noon. I’m definitely excited.”
But who could blame him?
It isn’t every day that 202 nations send thousands of athletes, 21,500 journalists, assorted kings, peasants, presidents, residents and Lord knows how many terrorists and anti-terrorists to a single recreational event. This one could make Greece’s previous Olympics look no more disorderly than a frat-house toga party.
Phelps said he was definitely excited because to come to an Olympic Games was definitely exciting, particularly “being here where it all started, wow, 100 years ago or whatever, it’s definitely an exciting time.”
He added that he was excited “to wear the red, white and blue and the stars and stripes,” which is a lot for a guy in a Speedo to wear, but we get the idea.
Meanwhile, I am delighted–no, definitely excited–to report that my first impression of Athens upon arriving is that of a city fully prepared to put on a great show, in contrast to previous speculation that even though the Greeks spent $7.2 billion, they might not be properly equipped to find a Zippo to light the torch.
American athletes couldn’t wait to get to Athens and find out for themselves if Greece’s pools would have water and its boxing rings would have ropes, little things like that.
“I was here in 2001, and to be honest, I didn’t think they’d be ready,” said Jim Gruenwald, a wrestler from Colorado Springs. “But then you get here, they’re fine, they’ve done what they needed to do to get the Games rolling. We got to the [athletes] village and it looks great. The cafeteria was unbelievable. At least they got the food ready.”
Hey, definitely exciting.
“I think Athens is nicer than we expected it to be,” said Stacey Nuveman, a softball catcher from La Verne, Calif. “The reports back home were that the venues weren’t finished and there was construction everywhere. Actually, it’s been very smooth.”
Her conclusion?
“Greece is a country that works well at the last minute.”
It must be. Everything appears to be A-OK–no, we do not mean Alpha Omega Kappa–as the start of the Games draws near.
The head of the organizing committee, Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, attended a rehearsal for the Opening Ceremonies and gushed Wednesday that it went so well, well: “I was ready to cry. It is so strong. There’s a culmination, a crescendo and a diminuendo . . . all of it. I could talk for hours about how I feel.”
That is pretty much Greek to me, but we get the idea.
Even better, the artistic director of Friday’s spectacle, one Dimitris Papaioannou, revealed of the show: “We conclude with an image inspired by the Greek islands and there we pay a minute’s tribute to the ancient Greek mythological god of Eros, the god of erotic attraction.”
Hey, definitely exciting.
