I don't watch the Today, so I'm not subject to the mystical power that Katie Couric seems to exude over the American public, but watching (and listening) to her in action during the Olympic Opening Ceremonies was excruciating. Even Bob Costas was particularly inane. There were so many stupid or downright incorrect or inappropriate comments and some awful mispronunciations. And both of them were talking over Bjork's performance like they were covering some kind of parade. I t made me really wish I could have watched the coverage of the BBC, the CBC, or the ABC.

That said, I really enjoyed the ceremonies. I almost always do. They only thing I can ever remember not liking was the pickup truck business at the redneck games in Atlanta. I love the pageantry, the color, the symbolism. I always look forward to the parade of nations, as it's almost the only time we get to see athletes from the majority of the countries that will not only never win a medal, but won't even come close (including, for example, Samoa). I don't care about that. I still want to see them. And I do expect Katie Couric to do some damn homework so she can pronounce Lesotho and Paradorn Srichaphan.

I thought the stadium designed by Santiago Calatrava was an architectural marvel. It's really spectacular. The parade that demonstrated the history of Greece with living statues was impressive and beautiful. And the lighting of the torch was novel and memorable even if not lit by the Greek 200m Olympic champion Konstantinos Kenteris, because he's in a little spot of trouble with the IOC for missing a drug test.

Personally, I've never bought into NBC being the Olympic network. For my money, it's got to be ABC. The coverage has been dumped down since the coverage changed hands from one network to another. Bob Costas will never stack up to Jim Mckay. Since I don't think NBC is ever going to remove Couric. So my only hope is that ABC can someday wrest the Olympics back from the peacock network.