Cover Your Mouth! Smog!

The sky in Beijing, today, prominently featuring the color blue.

Oh, that Olympic smog. Despoiler of athletic lungs. Ruiner of journalistic palates. Pillager of touristic souls. Smogger of clean, fresh, blue-skied air.

Our early arrivers in Beijing told us to bring throat lozenges. Maybe some air masks, too. Heck, we even re-named this thing the Beijing Sports Smog. Get it, because smog rhymes with blog, and the air was gonna be so bad, the sky so hazy, the particulates so lodged in our throats that the prevailing image of these Games would be a hovering gray mist of crud.

Well, yeah. Good thinking boss. Glad that, on my first full day here, the sky was about as blue as a sky can possibly be. The Beijing Sports Smog. Heh. Might as well re-name our Redskins blog "Open Access." I'm sure this is NBC's fault somehow.

The Team Handball Venue, featuring blue skies.

Chairman Mao, accompanied by blue skies.

The Forbidden City, delightfully accented by blue skies.

The National Stadium, playfully poking into blue skies.

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Comments

You were required to post these images to maintain free access to the internet, right?

Posted by: mrlogical | August 3, 2008 10:03 AM | Report abuse

Bwahaha! That's pretty funny. Maybe they used their weather control machines upon your arrival.

Posted by: misschatter | August 3, 2008 10:45 AM | Report abuse

Dan,

That's not the sky, that's a large blue tarp held over the city by millions of peasants.

Posted by: Kim | August 3, 2008 11:05 AM | Report abuse

Though technically today (Aug 3) the pollution is at a 79 which is over the 50 WHO standard. August 2 was a 15, so you will probably notice a difference today.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7506925.stm

p.s. are you going to bring home a bunch of Rolexes to give out to your colleagues?

Posted by: PenguinSix | August 3, 2008 11:52 AM | Report abuse

Kim: we do not have any of these "peasants", only comrades. everyone is equal and enjoys the complete lack of pollution.

Posted by: brook | August 3, 2008 12:30 PM | Report abuse

Pictures of a typical day in the Glorious Peoples Republic!

Posted by: jonthefisherman | August 3, 2008 2:16 PM | Report abuse

Was this post made from your BlackBerry when it was missing?

Posted by: sitruc | August 3, 2008 2:37 PM | Report abuse

Does anyone else cringe when you hear the bill for these Olympics is $42 billion dollars only to find pictures of a venue dedicated solely to TEAM HANDBALL?

They couldn't play that in the back corner of the basketball gym or something?

Posted by: Dan Levy | August 4, 2008 5:53 AM | Report abuse

A blue sky doesn't mean there's no pollution. It's more complicated than a lack of fog. You should look for a brownish color closer to soil as an indication.

Posted by: Rakibuzzaman | August 4, 2008 7:54 AM | Report abuse

Good job with Photoshop but you forgot to take out the umbrellas in the third photo. It looks like they already got to Dan...

Posted by: Nathan | August 4, 2008 9:09 AM | Report abuse

Why am I not on the USA team?? I'm gonna drop 50 on Coach K's team when I play them next, oh wait...

Posted by: Gilbert Arenas | August 4, 2008 1:27 PM | Report abuse

Have you seen the smog today? Do you feel like an absolute idiot?

Posted by: deegs1978 | August 4, 2008 11:03 PM | Report abuse

IÂ´ve been in Beijing for the last two weeks, and you had to come in the most blue day I saw. In past days, the visibility was less than one km. Don't count that always will be like that pictures!

Posted by: Jordi | August 4, 2008 11:55 PM | Report abuse

have you looked outside today? it's horrendous.

Posted by: jc in beijing | August 4, 2008 11:56 PM | Report abuse

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