Mental Doodlings - Really? In celebrating Britian's vast history, the National Health Service (NHS) is a cultural pearl for the Olympics opening? - Granite Grok

Mental Doodlings – Really? In celebrating Britian’s vast history, the National Health Service (NHS) is a cultural pearl for the Olympics opening?

NHS Dancing Nurses Bed jumping kidsFor whatever reason, I am just not “into” the Olympics this year – but TMEW is.  In fact, the cable box DVR is getting an upgrade to a multi-room simply for being able to store more HD content AND the ability to record more than two channels at once (as multiple outlets are reporting on different sports).

She made a big deal of having to watch all of the currently recorded content to clear the disk for the Olympic shows, especially last night’s opening of the Games.  For me, it was a waste of time – a mishmashed jumbled of ideas that just didn’t flow well together – this from an Academy Award winning director?  Dennis Boyle had to have been on some strange stuff to dream up this disaster.  Worse, TMEW agreed with me.

I look at the rich history, the culture of the Brits, and go “What, a 70 year old rocker who choked on his opening line is a highlight (even if it was Sir John McCarthy)?  Nice touch with Branaugh quoting Shakespeare (a true cultural pearl).  Doing the agrarian to the Industrial age certainly represented an important historical reference for what Britain was – the world’s superpower via its commerce – but extremely tedious and long.

But to use Children’s Literature, especially the modern era, as THE marker for the height of what was once the British Empire?  Or the National Health Service (NHS) which seemingly has horror stories of abuse, neglect, and dangerous conditions on a weekly (if not daily) basis?

I have to wonder – what yahoo forgot what the Brits REALLY gave to the world that forever changed the world  – British common law, the idea of the Rule of Law, Rights codified in the Magna Carta that limited the “Strong  Man” (Royalty), the idea of a more democratic fashion of governance, the Latin Bible translated to English (the King James version), the first viable steam engine, world wide oceanic navigation with accurate chronometers and sextants  – am quite sure that there are more examples than socialized medicine and puppets based on Lord Voldemort.

No, if last night’s “extravaganza” was to spotlight British gifts to the world, a much better selection than pop culture tunes and patient care could have been chosen.

A summary?  Boring and a waste of time.  Not even the Queen teaming up with a parachuting James Bond could save that disaster.

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