The Winter Olympics Nostalgia Thing

I've heard this kind of thing a lot from some folks, editorials, comments, mostly. 'The Winter Olympics used to be so great because it was 'regular joes' and people who went back to their jobs at shoe stores in Minneapolis.

I am skeptical of all nostalgia for the times and how great they used to be--most of all in myself--because I think there's a sense that as complexity comes with adulthood, we naturally yearn for what used to be simpler times.

So the Olympics plaster Coca Cola everywhere. And Apollo Ohno trains year round for his events. I'm not sure what all this changes.

I think what most people are really reacting to is NBC's coverage of the games rather than the games themselves. Commercials, hype, logos everywhere. It's just a little too overwhelming. 418 hours of Olympics programming on NBC and its cable affiliates. That's just crazy talk.