On the hot road to this village in the deepest south of France, we passed the forbidding, barren mountain where Lance Armstrong, the cyclist, took a giant step toward becoming Lance Armstrong, the sporting myth.
On any other day and in any other situation, the Tibetan exiles who gathered excitedly in groups next to Buckingham Palace would never have come to cheer for an athlete wearing the colors of China, a country they regard as their oppressor, a country that invaded and has governed their Himalayan homeland with an iron fist for six decades.
The queen and James Bond gave the London Olympics a royal entrance like no other Friday in an opening ceremony that rolled to the rock of the Beatles, the Stones and The Who.
Britain greeted the world Friday with an extravagant celebration that included Bond, the Bard and a Beatle — and a formal welcome from no less a figure than its jubilee queen.
By cruel irony, the day upon which France vaunted its footballing mediocrity by losing to Spain at Euro 2012 also happened to be the 40th birthday of Zinedine Zidane.
It is tempting to say that the most entertaining moment in the women’s French Open final was when the stadium announcer fluffed her lines during the trophy presentation and mistakenly introduced the winner, Maria Sharapova, as the runner-up. Ho-ho, how the crowd laughed.
The Wimbledon champion’s journey to joyfully eating the Centre Court grass started with the ugliest of haircuts.
