It wouldn't be very Canadian-like to criticize the Olympics or the coverage of the Games, so thankfully people have graciously taken up the cause - those other people being the entire Internet.
Living in B.C. and watching the London Olympics, is kind of like seeing an old flame go out with someone new. You watch from the window, through squinted eyes and hoping the date is attractive, but not too attractive, drives an OK car, but nothing fancy.
It's a flurry of conflicting emotions that is sure to make our heartbeats go up.
With such a massive event taking over an entire city for weeks at a time, the gaffes are likely and unavoidable.
In 2010, Vancouver was criticized for not having enough snow (a fair complaint), the awful death of the Georgian luger and the flame that suffered some performance anxiety at the opening ceremonies.
In London, the flubs began before the torch even was lit, but at least their torch did light.
The North Korean women's soccer team (they have such a thing?) was playing against Colombia, and when the players were announced the flag that appeared was of South Korea and not North.
Of course, according to the North, South Koreans are nothing more than American puppets, and not to be confused with the smooth-sailing ship up north.
In response, the team refused to (goose) step onto the field for more than an hour. It seems like common sense for the organizing team to be extra, super-duper careful not to anger the North Koreans.
The London organizing committee wants to take credit as being the first Olympics in the age of social media, but those who know better would all agree it was us Canucks who won the gold in that arena.
At this year's games, doping isn't the only way to get the boot out of London.
A Swiss soccer player and a Greek triple jumper were sent packing after sending racially charged tweets to their followers. And don't forget the four women's doubles badminton teams who deliberately lost their matches and were then promptly shown the door out of the athletes' village.
NBC seems to have its (peacock) feathers in some of the strangest events that have occurred in the last nine days. For instance, Guy Adams, a reporter for The Independent had his Twitter account suspended because he was criticizing NBC's coverage of the Games.
Adams, based in Los Angeles, pointed out that NBC chose not to air the opening ceremonies live, instead choosing to air the event during the prime-time advertising block.
Out of frustration, Adams urged his followers to direct their complaints to NBC president Gary Zenkel, and he included Zenkel's email address in the tweet.
After that message was sent, Twitter suspended Adams account.
It's not like he told his followers that Zenkel kept the spare key to his house in the ceramic turtle in the geraniums. It's an email address, his work email address at that.
Everyone needs to relax.
NBC has been dragged through the mud so much in the last week, that executives are hoping it becomes an exhibition sport in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
Olympic fans have gone so far as to create a Twitter hashtag, spreading the station's every bad move.
Another one of the bigger snafu's of NBC's was when it spoiled its own coverage.
During an advertisement for the Today show, a promo aired that said: "When you're 17 years old and win your first gold medal, there's nobody you'd rather share it with," along with an image of Missy Franklin holding her gold medal. The problem was NBC hadn't aired her race yet. Ooops.
In the same broadcast, the hosts were talking about the opening ceremony bit with Daniel Craig and Queen Elizabeth (yes, they were still talking about that), when they decided to get some man-on-the-street comments from tourists in front of Buckingham Palace.
The crew stops a man walking by who says that he loved the segment with Bond and the Queen's corgies.
That person happened to be Evander Holyfield, and while he was all ears to chat for a minute on-camera, it's too bad the crew didn't recognize the famous boxer.
When the flame in London goes out, all of the mistakes will go up in smoke, but until then they provide a nice break from the sports.
-- Associate news editor, Ashley MacDonald
