Indifferent to the Olympics... but feeling only sort of guilty about it

(Brewster Rockit comic found at Gocomics.com. Click to enlarge.)

I gather that a lot of people are enthralled with the Olympics, not just in the United States, but around the world.

But not me.

I appreciate that these are superb and dedicated athletes... but they're mostly engaged in sports that I don't follow, don't understand, and won't see again for four years even if I suddenly got interested. Let's face it: Does anyone really understand the gymnastics scoring system? Do the gymnasts?

Some guy named Phelps may break the record of seven gold medals won by Mark Spitz at the 1972 Munich Olympics. I hope he does. Spitz got a Wheaties box, as I recall. Phelps will probably get much more... and probably deserve all of it.

But I just can't get worked up about it.

Neil Steinberg writes in this morning's Sun-Times that the "best thing that can be said about the Olympics is that it's better than war. But the underlying principle -- my country beats yours -- is the same."

That reminds me -- has NBC done a feature on how the Georgian athletes are getting on with the Russian athletes in the Beijing Olympic Village these days?

Still, I don't want to sound too mean-spirited or snarky about the Olympics.... I'm from Chicago and Chicago is, as you may know, one of the four finalist "candidate cities" for the 2016 Olympics.

I'm not certain whether I'm enthusiastic about the bid either. But it certainly would be interesting if Chicago gets the nod. A lot of people will make a lot of money off of it, that much is certain. Who knows? Maybe the trough will be so full the some crumbs will spill down to the rest of us here....

In fact, following the money trail would be an Olympic sport about which I could become truly enthused....