This post could not handle a link from the Daily Mail

May 22, 2012 3:36 AM

As a flag-waving Britain prepares for the Jubilee/Olympics (or in the words of the comedy Twenty Twelve, 'Jubilympics'), the nation seems divided between the wildly enthusiastic and those suffering from Patriotism Fatigue(link may be NSFW). James Ward (of Boring fame) does a round-up of spurious Jubilympic themed products, after consumption of which you may require a sick bag.
posted by mippy (69 comments total)

(Full disclosure: I have a Scottish boyfriend, but we're still going to enjoy the extra two days off.)
posted by mippy at 3:39 AM on May 22, 2012

The extra two days off are pretty great. I think it is more the terrible Olympics commercials, such as the Aunt Flo comes to the high jump that really make me wonder why London is hosting the Olympics. My rent in London has gone up £150 because it turns out I am living in close proximity to a direct bus to the stadiums. Frankly, the whole thing is a huge waste of money and England does not have the infrastructure or the weather for a great people moving project like this.
posted by parmanparman at 3:49 AM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Its only one extra day off isn't it? The monday is just a bank holiday that's been interfered with, no?
posted by biffa at 3:52 AM on May 22, 2012

parmanparman - why haven't you moved? I've heard horror stories along the lines of 'the landlord said either move out or commit to a permanent £500 per month increase' but I wasn't sure it was happening. Perhaps I'm complacent because my landlord isn't a dick. I work on the Central line and have a commitment on Monday evenings and I'm already worried about how that;s going to work out. TfL's suggestion is that we all either work from home (that's a great idea for the thousands of people who don't do desk jobs), walk more (that's a great idea for the disabled or the people who live in Zone 5) or stay later in the centre.
posted by mippy at 3:58 AM on May 22, 2012

Oh, b3ta ... you make the 12-year-old in me giggle every time.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:58 AM on May 22, 2012

Rev. Stuart Campbell summarises everything to be loathed about the Olympic bandwagon on his Wings Over Sealand blog.

Enjoy the torch (possibly the last spectacle invented by Adolf Hitler to still be regularly performed and celebrated), and the two weeks of the Games while they last. Try not to get sick, in either sense of the term. Try not to be alarmed if anyone sticks a missile battery on your roof (and slaps an eviction order on you for making a fuss about it or for just not being lucrative enough), or a sonic cannon, or by the bored police with machine guns hanging around your train station waiting to shoot anyone who tries to protest or take an unlicenced beverage or snack into one of the state-of-the-art stadia.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 4:10 AM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Ahem. The Marks and Spencer Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding Sandwich on Onion bread is not just a spurious themed product - this is Britain all the time.
posted by three blind mice at 4:14 AM on May 22, 2012

Olympics

Do another one.
posted by Fizz at 4:35 AM on May 22, 2012

Meanwhile, every time I see the London 2012 logo all I can see is Lisa Simpson giving a blowjob.
posted by MartinWisse at 4:39 AM on May 22, 2012 [13 favorites]

There aren't many times when I wish Oliver Cromwell's ideas had stuck.

However...
posted by Devonian at 4:40 AM on May 22, 2012

WE are Britons. While the world flutters... in a spiral of misconception and lost purpose, we stand fast and resolute in our unshakeable identity. We have Britain.
posted by subbes at 4:48 AM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

"How To Make A Union Jack Cake"

Whoah, seriously? I thought flag cakes was a purely American phenomenon. Is this a new thing, or have flag cakes been a part of Britain for a while now?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 4:50 AM on May 22, 2012

It's not patriotism fatigue, it's more to do with the whole business of the catastrophic ticket exercise, the way the thing is clearly being reserved for bankers to go along and eat foie gras while ignoring the events, the way the rest of us are apparently going to be shot at and herded around under special new laws, and those poster campaigns basically saying "Get off the fucking transport system, peasant!": but somewhat to my surprise I've gradually come to find myself hoping the Olympics crash and burn in the most humiliating way possible.

And I liked the idea to start with.
posted by Segundus at 5:05 AM on May 22, 2012 [11 favorites]

Lisa Simpson giving a blowjob.
Why did I look at your link !? Now it can never be un-seen by my eyes.
Damn you.
posted by Flood at 5:09 AM on May 22, 2012 [5 favorites]

Ten Loathsome Things About Being A Londoner Over The Olympics

1. Transport is fucked
2. Broadband and wireless spectrum - fucked (ask LOCOG/Ofcom)
3. Fucking Sport. It's bad enough in summer months, but 2,500 TV hours?
4. Fucking sports fans TELLING ME OFF for not being enthusiastic
5. You can get arrested and your house raided for wearing the wrong colour. Fuck.
6. You could NOT GET a more tasteless, more garish, more visually fucked set of logos, colours or tat if you tried really, really FUCKING hard
7. And they're EVERYWHERE. Including every FUCKING lamp-post in the city.
8. Media fucked in general.
9. Even the FUCKING RADIO HAMS have special OLYMPIC CALL SIGNS.
10. AND I'M A FUCKING RADIO HAM. FUCK THE FUCK OFF.

I'm not happy. Can you tell?
posted by Devonian at 5:10 AM on May 22, 2012 [17 favorites]

I'm dreading the whole Olympics debacle as much as the next Londoner, but please could we have a citation for this:

You can get arrested and your house raided for wearing the wrong colour. Fuck.
posted by fight or flight at 5:29 AM on May 22, 2012

You can get arrested and your house raided for wearing the wrong colour. Fuck.

I think it was a reference to this sort of heavy-handed legislation
posted by TheAlarminglySwollenFinger at 5:31 AM on May 22, 2012

It's a combination of the ambush marketing and the anti-counterfeit rules. In the past, people have been detained for wearing colours deemed to be ambush marketing, and the police have the power to arrest people and raid their houses on suspicion of possession of infringing items.

These are criminal offences.
posted by Devonian at 5:42 AM on May 22, 2012

Meanwhile, every time I see the London 2012 logo all I can see is Lisa Simpson giving a blow job.

I love pointing that out to people and watching their face.
posted by eriko at 5:44 AM on May 22, 2012

I've actually got a week-long trip to London coming up in 3 days (I fly home the first day of the Jubilee Weekend).

I scheduled things a month ago, and whenever I told people that I was going to be taking this trip a number of them frowned darkly and warned me that they hoped I'd scheduled it at a time that things wouldn't be nuts from Olympic mobs. And I would say, "well, duh."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:55 AM on May 22, 2012

So I really much prefer the Winter Olympics and don't much remember the summer games, and was curious if maybe all of this outrage was par for the host country and it's just that most of the time it's not in English so I don't notice it as much. So I went to wikipedia to find out the past few host countries of the Summer Olympics and I guess I kind of forgot entirely about Sydney and Atlanta but primarily what I gleaned from the wiki page was that the British have cancelled baseball. What's more, it's being replaced with golf and rugby. I am now full of seething American outrage! Somebody get me an eagle to cry on.
posted by Mizu at 6:16 AM on May 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

So I edit this magazine. Nothing special, just a souped up community thing. We run notices for events and whatnot between our stories, including pages here and there dedicated to Jubilee celebrations. And it's hilarious. Nobody was organizing a thing in the town for months and months, even the town council happy to let it slide by. However, the local incompetent busybody decided that this just wasn't good enough, and took it upon himself to organize the town's celebrations. So we'll have "patriotic songs" in the town square, followed by a parade which isn't allowed to parade anywhere important and has to go through the backstreets, followed by a village fete where the highlights include the Women's Institute, a pet show ("please bring vaccination certificates") and a copy of the parish plan on display. Of course, there'll will be no parking, and everybody has to walk to the site.

I wish I could go just to see how awful it was, but I would rather be at the seaside. This one fella is doing more for the Republic than you could wish for.


Olympics though, I'm actually becoming more switched on by them as the months go by. I don't live in London, so apart from a nice torch run through town, I can turn them off and on as I like.
posted by Jehan at 6:18 AM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

...what I gleaned from the wiki page was that the British have cancelled baseball.

No, it's still there, you're just looking in the wrong place. Try "r" for rounders.
posted by Jehan at 6:19 AM on May 22, 2012 [5 favorites]

They're spending £80m on opening and closing ceremonies, the centrepiece of which will be Mick Hucknall roaming the Olympic stadium tethered to an enormous mechanised arm.
posted by TheAlarminglySwollenFinger at 6:19 AM on May 22, 2012

Ooh is this where we rant about the nationalistic, money-sucking, upper class groveling, festival of incompetence that is the Jubilympics?

I've been wavering between mildly interested to mildly annoyed towards the whole hullabaloo. You can't go anywhere without your senses beign assaulted by union jacks, crowns, and horrific fonts. As a heavy London public transport user and someone who has been denied Olympics tickets not once but thrice (except when I was offered diving tickets for £300. Each. Thanks.) I anticipate my apathy will slide toward raging hot hate by mid-summer.

And I don't even know what kind of attitude to have towards the Jubilee. The whole royalty thing is downright weird. I'd say it's an excuse to drink but I've lived here long enough to learn that "Tuesday" is enough of a reason so I don't think it's that.

Mizu - they may have cancelled baseball, but they're keeping football, during the same summer as the Euros, making it one of the most useless events ever. (With close runnerups golf and tennis)
posted by like_neon at 6:27 AM on May 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

Back the fucking truck up...
9. Even the FUCKING RADIO HAMS have special OLYMPIC CALL SIGNS.
10. AND I'M A FUCKING RADIO HAM. FUCK THE FUCK OFF.

I'm SORRY? You're getting special olympic amateur radio call signs over there? The Olympics have officially jumped the shark and they haven't even started yet. WTF London?
posted by Inkoate at 6:28 AM on May 22, 2012

There's a campaign to make the Sex Pistols number one again for the Jubilee, just in case people weren't aware ...
posted by GallonOfAlan at 6:30 AM on May 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

Wait wait wait they're keeping American football as in stupid wonky brown ball or they're keeping proper football as in attractive people prone to taking their kit off running around kicking a ball with their actual feet?

I know, it's confusing. I love American baseball. I hate American football. I enjoy non-american football. (I even also like cricket and rugby but sshhh I'm busy being angry about the rugby in softball's name.) Either way you look at it it's a good excuse for me to join in on the !!outrage!! of my British friends. I think I could just be outraged on the basis of having a graphic design degree and the prospect of looking at that hideous incomprehensible logo. But baseball is the hill I will choose to die on!
posted by Mizu at 6:33 AM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Sorry sorry, football with the round ball.

The reason it's still outrageous is because it's during the same summer as the European Football Championships (which is a big sporting event in its own right) and many national teams have already said that they aren't going to put their star players in the Olympics because they're saving them for the Euros instead.

Basically having football in the Olympics is like the World Cup, but really really REALLY lame.
posted by like_neon at 6:39 AM on May 22, 2012

the British have cancelled baseball

How terribly unpatriotic of us.
posted by Quantum's Deadly Fist at 6:46 AM on May 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

Alas! I don't really understand team sports in the Olympics ever anyway. I mean, how many dang gold medals are you gonna give out? There really ought to just be one apiece, but you can't really do timeshares on it, can you. When later this summer I'm watching a bunch of amateurs bumbling around on the pitch I'll remember this and chalk another tally on the "winter olympics for the win" board. Can't wait till all the Russia controversy really starts to churn up in earnest.
posted by Mizu at 6:47 AM on May 22, 2012

The reason it's still outrageous is because it's during the same summer as the European Football Championships (which is a big sporting event in its own right) and many national teams have already said that they aren't going to put their star players in the Olympics because they're saving them for the Euros instead.

That's an extremely Eurocentric view. There's other great footballing nations in the world outside from Europe, and besides, Olympics football is essentially a youth exercise (Under 23s only with allowance for 3 overage players). There'll be plenty of top players.
posted by TheAlarminglySwollenFinger at 6:47 AM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

many national teams have already said that they aren't going to put their star players in the Olympics because they're saving them for the Euros instead.

Bear in mind that Olympic soccer is an U-23 sport, with only three overage players allowed, so there's not a total overlap. Not to mention that Spain, Switzerland, Belarus and Great Britain/England are the only European teams in the Olympics, and Belarus aren't playing at Euro 2012.

(Of course, football at the Olympics is pretty silly IMO - Olympics should be the pinnacle of a sport, and they obviously aren't for football).

But baseball is the hill I will choose to die on!

I've always had a grudge against baseball in the Olympics, for convoluted reasons: there's no women's baseball, so women's softball gets played in the Olympics. But men's softball doesn't. And it so happens that my country has completely dominated men's softball for the past three decades or so, to the point that it would basically be guaranteed to win (AND I used to work with the national team coach, so someone I know would have had a gold medal).
posted by Infinite Jest at 6:50 AM on May 22, 2012

I live a quarter mile from one of the venues. My favourite moment (of many) was the leaflet explaining that our lucky borough was to have an honest to God aircraft carrier parked outside it, and not to be alarmed by the constantly over-flying Lynx helicopters with spotlights or the armoured boats full of heavily armed Marines patrolling up and down our bit of the Thames, because there was "no specific threat." I mean, WTF, right? At least no-one's yet tried to install a surface-to-air missile launcher in my car-pad, but I'm sure that, too, is only a matter of time.
posted by Sonny Jim at 6:57 AM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

(Of course, football at the Olympics is pretty silly IMO - Olympics should be the pinnacle of a sport, and they obviously aren't for football).

Yes, this is my main gripe for football. I like watching football. I think football in the Olympics is not really good for football or the Olympics.
posted by like_neon at 6:57 AM on May 22, 2012

the British have cancelled baseball

This is the best summer Olympics news ever. Because now instead of just completely ignoring the games as I was planning to, I can TAKE UMBRAGE at something! Yay! UMBRAGE!
posted by BitterOldPunk at 6:59 AM on May 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

I am on the fence about this, because as an artist and an academic in really minor fields, who gets some government funding, it seems hypocritical to give the olympics trouble. I wish that it was actually amatuer, and obscure sports should get a place to shine, and am worried about some of the security theater though.

I think Rugby should be in the olympics.

I think the queen should fuck off.
posted by PinkMoose at 7:02 AM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

There's a campaign to make the Sex Pistols number one again for the Jubilee, just in case people weren't aware ...

Oh good, Johnny Rotten needs a few more quid. Those Country Life adverts aren't exactly rolling in any more.
posted by fight or flight at 7:02 AM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Baseball canceled at the Olympics is one thing. We still have yet to address why the American baseball finals are called the World Series when it's an entirely US/Canada affair.

Apart from that, I really have no issue with baseball being canceled, for whatever reason, even if it is an international sport. Mostly because I find the arguments about what's a "proper" sport really, really sneering and tiresome. Like, why do you care so much that there's a group of people somewhere in the world playing this sport, and they have fans who enjoy watching them? It's one of the sticking points between Americans and Brits that just seem so petty. Whatever happened to arguments about who makes the better music, or who does humor better?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 7:07 AM on May 22, 2012

There's a campaign to make the Sex Pistols number one again for the Jubilee, just in case people weren't aware

Yeah. That's unsubtle and a bit crass. You want a mass movement instead to get something random, mediocre, and generally un-missed into the charts again, to epitomise the crapness of the Jubilee and everything it stands for. Something like Cathy Dennis' "Touch Me (All Night Long", maybe.
posted by Sonny Jim at 7:11 AM on May 22, 2012

There's a campaign to make the Sex Pistols number one again for the Jubilee

If we could get Rolf Harris to do a cover version it might capture the national mood, I fancy.
posted by Segundus at 7:19 AM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Ah, the joys of being an expat Brit. I'VE ESCAPED!
posted by anadem at 7:20 AM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

There's a campaign to make the Sex Pistols number one again for the Jubilee, just in case people weren't aware ...

I think that's worse. Not that I'm a fan of novelty chart-hyping anyway, but when your irony is visible from space it isn't irony anymore. Why can't we get a protest song that speaks for now there? Although I would have got behind a riot-led movement to get Ghost Town back to No.1
posted by mippy at 7:32 AM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Fuck the Olympics, fuck the Jubilee and fuck the monarchy.

I aim to be out of the damned country for at least most of it, if I can.
posted by Decani at 7:35 AM on May 22, 2012

As a heavy London public transport user and someone who has been denied Olympics tickets not once but thrice (except when I was offered diving tickets for £300. Each. Thanks.) I anticipate my apathy will slide toward raging hot hate by mid-summer.

like_neon,
My Londoner sister was mildly perky about the games, until she finally got her event tickets - applied for & paid for ages ago. She was, I think, allowed to specify what she wanted - but the deal was you took what was available.

Her four (expensive) tickets came last week - two each "for fucking synchronized swimming and fucking handball." And so another raging hot hater is born!
posted by Jody Tresidder at 7:38 AM on May 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

This entire situation is shaping up to be a clusterfuck of absolutely epic proportions, and that's not even taking into account the nigh-inevitable terrorist attack(s).
posted by Optamystic at 7:51 AM on May 22, 2012

I get the feeling that Americans don't care quite so much about the Olympics anymore.
posted by humanfont at 7:53 AM on May 22, 2012

She was, I think, allowed to specify what she wanted - but the deal was you took what was available.

Her four (expensive) tickets came last week - two each "for fucking synchronized swimming and fucking handball." And so another raging hot hater is born!

I don't really understand how this could happen. To buy tickets, you had to list the specific events you wanted to attend, and choose what price levels of tickets you were willing to buy. Then there was a ballot, and they contacted you to let you know what tickets you had been allocated. If she didn't want expensive tickets for syncho swimming and handball, why did she apply for them?
posted by Infinite Jest at 8:03 AM on May 22, 2012

Then there was a ballot, and they contacted you to let you know what tickets you had been allocated. If she didn't want expensive tickets for syncho swimming and handball, why did she apply for them?

Infinite Jest,
My sister's husband was responsible for agreeing to the "fucking expensive total fucking crap" tickets they were allocated?

He was apparently operating under the assumption that any Olympic event tickets were better than none at all. As it turns out - now that the tickets have arrived - he was very mistaken about this assumption.
(I believe he is currently very much aware that his wife - my sister - is not happy, as I've indicated in her direct quotes, above.)
posted by Jody Tresidder at 8:15 AM on May 22, 2012

This entire situation is shaping up to be a clusterfuck of absolutely epic proportions, and that's not even taking into account the nigh-inevitable terrorist attack(s).

That's making me think of Chris Cleave's Incendiary (which had the misfortune to be published on 7/7).
posted by mippy at 8:24 AM on May 22, 2012

...for fucking synchronized swimming

Isn't that a little obscene?
posted by run"monty at 8:35 AM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

I heard (and contributed to) the same range of screaming gripes in the lead-up to the Sydney olympics in 2000. It was, without doubt, the best time of my life, despite all the pavement rip-ups and traffic snarls and redlined cynicism and inherent waste and lameness. I'm pretty sure 9 out of 10 people here went through the same hate-to-love development over a 2 month period up to, during and after the games.

Just sayin'. You may well be surprised at how happy it makes everyone. It's infectious.
posted by peacay at 8:39 AM on May 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

First of all, the Olympics suck. (Hitler was a huge asshole, and I'm sorry you guys got bombed.)

Second, you can't play football with a round ball. That's soccer.

Don't get me started about driving on the wrong side of the road, and that awful thing youse guys do with kidneys.
posted by mule98J at 8:52 AM on May 22, 2012

Money, nationalism, politics, and hype have ruined the olympics. Do not want.
posted by Daddy-O at 8:54 AM on May 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

Second, you can't play football with a round ball. That's soccer.

Allow me to correct you.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 9:04 AM on May 22, 2012 [14 favorites]

I love the Olympics.

I am not very fond of the International Olympics Committee, or the National Olympics Committee, or the lop-sided way the mulit-national events of any type happen.

But the Olympics - Athletes from all over the world gathering to compete against each other. The Olympics is something noble.

It been twisted and abused by the IOC and various gov'ts - but that is the fault of gov't, not the games.
posted by Flood at 9:04 AM on May 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

Because now instead of just completely ignoring the games as I was planning to, I can TAKE UMBRAGE at something! Yay! UMBRAGE!

Unfortunately, BOP, the whole district of Umbrage has been cordoned off as a staging area for the 12 phalanxes of riot police required to protect the athletes and VIP in neighbouring districts. I believe you can still take all the Slough and Milton Keynes you want, but that's really not the same thing, is it?
posted by gompa at 9:11 AM on May 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

I'm thinking a pork pie sandwich (I guess it's just the filling part not the crust) sounds pretty tasty.
posted by vespabelle at 10:06 AM on May 22, 2012

An amusing NYTimes article on what Olympic Sports we should add.
posted by bukvich at 10:58 AM on May 22, 2012

An amusing NYTimes article on what Olympic Sports we should add.

Tug Of War

No. Unless we want to see people getting their arms ripped off.

Dueling pistol

FUCK YE-

No actual duels were fought, alas. Rather, contestants shot at a dummy dressed in a frock coat.

Bah.

200-meter swimming obstacle race

Hell yes. Best idea on that list.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 11:19 AM on May 22, 2012

Just sayin'. You may well be surprised at how happy it makes everyone. It's infectious.

You....you don't know many English people, do you?

OK, seriously. I'm looking forward to the Games as a whole. I've got tickets for a few events - handball being one of them, along with soccer, water polo and rowing. The rowing is the only one I really wanted, and I missed out on equestrian and athletics, but it's OK. I'll get into central London for the free cycling and running events, it's going to be fun.

On the bad side: it really is going to be horribly crowded. A lot worse than Sydney, I'd imagine (the main Olympic venues in London are either central, or on one of the main commuter lines, and we're over capacity already). For me, this is made worse because my work refuses to let anyone work from home, or work flexible hours, or basically anything - we're expected to turn up as usual, even though official advice is to basically to avoid travelling to our area [Canary Wharf, for those who know London, so it's not like there's any alternative way to get there].
posted by Infinite Jest at 12:23 PM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

You'll all be eating your words as soon as the first cycling gold comes in.
posted by Summer at 12:36 PM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm not getting any days off for the Jubilee, just aggravation from not being able to use usual public transport. If I wasn't already filled with impotent rage towards the whole Jumbilypics that would probably be enough to tip me over the edge.
posted by Coobeastie at 1:27 PM on May 22, 2012

Designer Roy McCarthy's alternative Olympics brand [Pymlico Spirit] is for people who want to celebrate the Games in their homes, shops or pubs, without fear of infringing the usage laws of the official 2012 branding...
posted by zamboni at 2:11 PM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

I dunno. As a shamelessly anglophilic American (who lives in Australia), I think the idea of a pork pie sandwich is pretty fantastic. Maybe without the salad cream, though.
posted by amusebuche at 7:49 PM on May 22, 2012

I took my neffa out to Cleethorpes today. We ate a sandwich on the beach, played in the sandpit, and then I thought it best to change his nappy. I unbuttoned his trousers and pulled them down, only to find a big ass-shaped Union Jack. Thankfully, he later pooed in one, which made my day.
posted by Jehan at 10:14 AM on May 23, 2012

Just to warn almost all participants in this thread that you are in breach of various laws protecting the greatest amateur sporting event in the world, with penalties that include extraordinary rendition, and so I'd ask if the mods to distribute the following throughout the thread as appropriate:

tm tm tm tm tm tm tm tm tm tm tm (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) Sponsored by Coca-Cola tm tm tm tm tm tm tm tm tm tm tm (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) McLympics tm tm tm tm (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c)tm tm tm tm (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c)tm tm tm tm (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c).

Long live the spirit of the Games.
posted by reynir at 12:52 PM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

Living in London, when I think of the Olympics, my thoughts switch from genuine anticipation to dreading the inevitable transport chaos that will descend; and really the advice that we should all go for a few pints after works to avoid the worst of the rush hour, isn't the government also, at the same time, attempting to sate our continuing thirst for all things alcoholic.

All in all I am looking forward to it.
posted by johnnyboy at 3:58 AM on June 5, 2012

Living in London, when I think of the Olympics, my thoughts switch from genuine anticipation to dreading the inevitable transport chaos that will descend....

That's the biggest thing I was thinking a few years back when there was a push to try to bring the Olympics to New York City. It's hard enough finding a seat on the damn F train in the morning as it is...
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:50 AM on June 5, 2012