RINGS NOT ALLOWED

With Olympic sponsors paying up to $40 million each for the official marketing rights to the Olympic rings, torch logo and name, Atlanta organizers and the so-called “logo-cops” have been diligent in rooting out unlicensed products.

But that diligence has taken some absurd turns.

The DeKalb Farmers Market was ordered to dig up a large flower garden planted in the design of the Olympic rings, and the Varsity restaurant’s pins showing five onion rings in the shape of the Olympic rings were confiscated. Only 300 of the pins got out and are now considered collectors’ items.

Meanwhile, Ru San’s sushi restaurant had to change the name of its “Olympic rings” special to the “Atlanta 5 rings,” although it still serves the sushi rolls in the Olympic configuration.

Olympic officials even considered making a Georgia State Soccer Assn. team, the Olympics, change its name, but backed off when they realized it was a children’s team.