Ticket Bagel

Madeleine at the national Olympics swimming facility in Bath, June 2005.

I finally learn our 2012 Olympic tickets allocation : Men's and women's final football; a football qualifying round and one morning session for swimming. No athletics nor Bolt 100 meters WR. No Phelps vs. Thorp 200-meter freestyle final. Ditto gymnastics and women's volley ball. Still, we are happy given that two-thirds of ticket bidders got a bagel including London Mayor Boris Johnson.

London learned from Athens when many events failed to sell-out embarrassing the host country before a global audience. So... the organisers harnessed the hype by forcing an application period while withholding tickets for later rounds or insiders. In short : over-bidding, frustration and even anger but .. the venues sell out. More galling to us citizens paying for the games : better odds to get tx outside of Britain via resellers. Oh well.

Eitan, doing homework: "Would you say the moon is about the size of Africa?"

Me:

Eitan: "How long do you think it would take me to run around the moon?"

Me: "You mean hypothetically?"

Eitan: "Yeah, whatever, just how long would it take?"

Me: "Well, it depends on the variables."

Eitan:

Me: "Like, how big is the moon? How fast can you run?"

Eitan: "Just guess."

Me: "Not scientific, dude.

Eitan: "It would take a week."

Me: "How did you get to there?"

Eitan: "I estimate that the moon is one-tenth the size of earth. And I can run 6 minute miles."

Me: "No way."

Eitan: "Yes, way. I did that 5-mile race in 38 minutes and there were hills and stuff. I could have easily done 6 minute miles."

Me: "For seven days straight?"

Eitan: "Yeah, but I'm just saying if I ran it at the same pace."

Me: "I can live with that."