Fireworks

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

BEIJING -- Hu Jintao, president of the People’s Republic of China, and Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, arrived in the Bird’s Nest together. So it was time for fireworks.

This is Rogge’s second Summer Olympics as IOC president, but he still seems like just the orthopedic surgeon from Belgium that he is. There is nothing particularly presidential, and certainly nothing regal, about the way he carries himself. He has not adopted that Juan Antonio Samaranch air. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing.

We were told upfront that there wouldn’t be a lot of Chinese cliches in the ceremony, you know, like dragons and rickshaws. But the first quote uttered was one from Confucius.

‘Friends have come from afar, how happy we are.’’

Not one of his more profound, I think, but it worked for this occasion.

-- Randy Harvey

Photo added at 9:27 a.m. Friday