Dear Dara Torres,

Thank you.

While I realize Michael Phelps dominated the swimming headlines last week (and I can’t imagine you would begrudge him one minute of his coverage—what he did was extraordinary), you were the person in the pool who inspired me the most.

You’re probably tired of hearing that you are the oldest swimmer ever in Olympic history…but there’s no getting around that fact. You’re 41. In a culture that worships youth, you are a startling reminder that life doesn’t end at 35. Your lively personality, your grace under pressure, your perspective on what it means to compete (how many other swimmers would have asked the referees to hold up the heat because a fellow competitor had torn her swimsuit?), and your passion to go after something even though, at first glance, it probably looked ridiculous (a 41-year-old competitive swimmer!) personified the Olympic spirit.

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I miss the “Up Close and Personal” segments on the Olympic broadcasts.

Remember those? Where we’d be told the story behind the athlete—who they were, how they got there, what made them tick. Sometimes the stories were sad. Sometimes they were funny. Sometimes they were beautifully unique. Sometimes they told the story of a lot of us (well, except for the fact that we didn’t make it to the Olympics).

And they were always inspiring.

NBC doesn’t seem to be investing in these kinds of pieces this time around. Although, as one friend pointed out, with 3600 broadcast hours, it is quite possible the “Up Close and Personal” segments are being broadcast—on the USA network at 3 a.m. I’ve probably not looked hard enough. And yes, yes, yes, I imagine I could find something at NBCOlympics.com like this, but it’s not the same as watching it during the evening broadcast.

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Amidst all the eye-popping grandeur in the Olympic opening ceremonies, one quiet moment stood out.   The adorable Lin Miaoke sang a stirring “Hymn to the Motherland.”   Of course, we could tell she was lipsynching.  Pavarotti did the same thing.   But it turns out she was swapped in for the seven-year-old whose voice echoed through the stadium, Yang Peiyi.  Evidently Yang’s rounder face and buckteeth got her swept aside at the dress rehearsal.  Imagine the heartbreak that accompanied the most famous musical fakery since Milli Vanilli.   As a seasoned pro from television commercials, 9 year-old Lin Miaoke put her charming pigtails to work.  The musical director for the opening ceremonies, Chen Qigang told Beijing Radio, “The audience will understand that it’s in the national interest.”

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I am an Olympics junkie.

I’ve been glued to my tv every morning already, watching Matt Lauer walk through the Forbidden City and paddleboat at the Summer Palace.

A girl’s gotta prepare for Friday’s Opening Ceremonies!

And I enjoy the Games old school—no checking on the Internet for live reporting on who won what or how the medal count currently stands. Nope! I watch the Olympics as they were meant to be watched—delayed broadcast on a national network in the evenings.

Seriously, I don’t want to know ahead of watching the broadcast how Michael Phelps did or if Team USA has overtaken the Brits in the equestrian events. For me, the Olympics are more than just stats on a web page—I want the drama. I want to watch events unfold, and I want to worry and wonder about the outcome until I see it happen. I want to tear up during the medal ceremony because I actually saw what it took for that athlete to get on the podium.

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Okay, I realize the “official” start of summer happened in June.

But for me, summer doesn’t get into full swing until…

(1)    I’ve had a catastrophe with tan-in-a-bottle.

(2) My summer tv shows are back! (Well, unless a show was unceremoniously canceled during the winter…which did happen to one of my summer shows this year…sigh…)

Suffice it to say, item # 1 has been accomplished. And with the arrival of Eureka this week, it’s now officially summer in my household. My other fav summer show, Burn Notice, showed up a couple of weeks ago (and if you haven’t checked this one out—rent Season 1 on DVD. As one critic said, the show is so “freakin’ cool”).

And the poor summer show that didn’t get to come back this year? The 4400. Okay, I’ll admit, it wasn’t always the brightest crayon in the box, but that show had such an interesting premise (4400 people had disappeared through the decades, only to reappear all together—in Seattle, mind you!--without having aged a day and now possessing special abilities) and sometimes how that premise played out (the mystery of the disappearances, government reaction, political maneuverings, the mal-adjustment of those who had returned, the question of destiny) made for provocative and entertaining television.

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One of the byproducts of the recent writers' strike is a website called Strike.TV. The site is a new network for web series, run entirely by the creatives of big Hollywood productions. Or as the site describes itself, "a full-blown community of talented visionaries." Writers from "The Office," "The Daily Show," "Friends," even Die Hard have apparently contributed to the mass of creative product that will soon be unleashed upon us, the eagerly-awaiting public.

One glance at Strike.TV's website and "sizzle reel" though, and one is immediately forced to ask: is this is the best that Hollywood's "top talent" can produce? Certainly, I can't tell too much from the empty website and the generic reel of new content—but one thing is certain, none of it looks good. It's always a bad sign when a preview has to tell you what you're watching ("we have action"—cue a punch to the face. "We have comedy"—cue a talking knife. "And drama"—cue man saying "I still love you" and woman saying "...I don't!"). Ugh.

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Do you ever wake up some mornings and wonder if the world went crazy during the night?

Yesterday morning on the Today Show, there was a report about a mentally ill woman dying on the waiting room floor of a psychiatric emergency room in New York City. The last hour of her life was caught on the security videotape. Two security guards, a doctor, and a nurse are all seen on the videotape doing nothing to help that woman.

As one commentator on the story stated, “It’s not like she was in a bus terminal. She was in a place where you expect to get help when you need it.”

Today I watched a report on a spree murderer getting caught in the Midwest (8 victims—all seemingly random) and another of a mother being stabbed and killed when she wouldn’t give her keys to a carjacker (her baby was in the car). Two of her children (along with her ex-husband) appeared live on the show, and we were all in tears at the end of that interview—including Meredith Vieira.

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Every once in a while, I run across an imported tv show that just makes me happy.

I enjoy seeing the world through another country’s eyes (okay, I have yet to get outside Western, English-speaking countries in this regard, but I’m not sure there’s a lot of other television available from the international community at the moment). The humor is different. The storytelling is different. How characters look and act is different.

So, I thought I’d share my current favs when it comes to not being made in America…

Slings & Arrows (2003-2006, all seasons available on DVD). O, Canada! I gotta love you for this one. Two things got me to rent this series from NetFlix: (1) I read a really smart review of it in Entertainment Weekly when the third season became available on DVD, and (2) I’ve been enamored with Paul Gross since his Due South days. Set in the New Burbage Theater Festival in a smallish Canadian town, this dramedy follows a resident theater company and its new artistic director (played by Paul Gross) through the ups and downs of producing its theater season. I know…doesn’t sound all that great, but trust me. Along with managing to assemble some of the best comedic and dramatic talent Canada has to offer, this show is quick, merciless in its wit, sometimes surprisingly moving, and can be, at times, quite grown up in its themes (warning to sensitive viewers: if they were going to broadcast this show in America, it would have to be on HBO or Showtime). If you’re a fan of The Bard and/or live theater (as I am), well, you are never going to find another show like it. Oh, and did I mention there’s a ghost?

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I’m the tv doldrums.

My regular season shows (like Lost, Pushing Daisies, Chuck ) have all wrapped up and won’t be back until fall.

The fun summer shows I like (Monk, Eureka, Burn Notice) haven’t started up yet.

And I find I’m totally missing American Idol. What I wouldn’t give for a little David and David right about now.

Honestly, I’m not quite sure what to do with myself.

I miss summer reruns. I grew up before VCRs, tv on DVD, DVRs, so the summer rerun was my one shot to see a favorite episode again. But even better than that, the summer rerun was my opportunity to watch a show I hadn’t watched during the regular season because another show was on at the same time. Very exciting!

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If you were to look at my profile on facebook, you'd see that I have only three TV shows that I watch: The Simpsons, The Office, and Meet the Press. For the past 10 years, I'd developed a Sunday morning routine which consisted of waking up, brewing a French Press carafe of good coffee, and watching "Meet the Press" at 6AM. But yesterday Tim Russert, the show's moderator, died of a sudden coronary failure at the young age of 58. I'll surely watch the show tomorrow morning, but it will be like going to a funeral, as journalists and politicians remember Tim's life.

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