Fried Olympic rings with that sir?

Another weekend, another Olympics training session. Mostly consisting of memorising silly acronyms ('I DO ACT = too tedious to bore you with) while various celebs (Coe, Johnson, Cameron etc) loom out of the screen to say patronising and/or vacuous things to groans from the assorted volunteers. We did have the pleasure of a former Olympian (not a medal winner, they're too busy recording washing-up liquid and car tyre adverts) repeatedly refer to his muscles as his 'guns' a la Ron Burgundy with a touch of Alan Partridge.

But the day's big event was queuing outside an East End warehouse for three hours to collect the Official Gamesmaker's Uniform! I won't torture you with a picture of me, but here are some younger, thinner and less bitter people modelling it for us. I'm particularly taken with the epaulettes, the cuffs and the baseball cap, not at all reminiscent of the colours and shapes employed by the Burger and Supermarket Behemoths who've bought the event. Personally, I counted the fact that I've never once worn a baseball cap as a small victory for civilisation. Now I am amongst the Fallen.

By the way: I counted the number of times McBurger was mentioned or their logo was seen on screen during the two hour session. 173. As they're keen to gain recognition, I'll just mention this:

McDonalds: your marketing is only slightly more rancid, sickening and revolting than your so-called 'food'.

Let's just remind ourselves of what the judge said about McDonald's in the McLibel trial:

1. McDonalds' food is high in fat, saturated fat and salt, and low in fibre.
2. McDonald's deliberately engages in marketing to children and encourages 'pester power'.
3. Eating McDonald's products frequently will give you heart disease and increase your chances of contracting breast and bowel cancer.
4. McDonald's wages are so low that they depress wages across the entire industry.
5. McDonald's procurement practices cause animal cruelty.

The Olympic village will feature several McD outlets, one of which is the biggest in the world. It will be virtually impossible to find other food: alternatives are very limited and extremely expensive. What a celebration of sport!

People decompose, McDo doesn't.

Boing Boing told me two things today:

that Alex Chilton, of Big Star, has died aged 59. I loved Big Star - the origins of so much jangly guitar pop

and

if you leave a McDonald's Happy Meal on a shelf for a year, it looks exactly the same. That can't be good.

Well done, Iceland

All it took was national bankruptcy, but they've done it: McDonald's is quitting the country. The article describes this momentous event as a 'blow', which I don't get. They're leaving because the cost of importing all the 'food' from Germany is prohibitive due to the exchange rate and taxation - but that's just because everything is preprepared and identical rather than just sacks of onions and mince to be made in situ.

In any case, a local chain will replace it, using locally sourced ingredients. Icelanders will still be able to contract heart disease, but the economy will actually benefit from profits staying in the country and workers might even be able to join a union!

Let's make the same happen here!

Heeeeeeeeeeeeere's Voley!

Back in the office where I belong, faced with a massive pile of marking.

Yesterday's meeting in Cardiff was to inspect their halls of residence ready for the School Games. The journey down was beautiful. Deer, rabbits, buzzards and other fauna played in the spring sunshine, and the rolling hills of Gloucestershire and South Wales blazed with blackthorn blossom and wild flowers. Disembarking at Cardiff Central, the Welsh language fell on me like the softest of spring rain.

It was amazing to see their student body. Clearly more middle-class (did you know that Wolves has the most working-class intake of any UK university) and almost all white. They were all working hard - Cardiff seems to run more exams than us. The main university buildings are stunning: massive, gleaming white Edwardian architecture from the days when the cheapest bid didn't always win the tender.

If you haven't been, the city is well worth visiting. On the way back from the visit, I took the circular bus round the city. It went through Splott and all the dock areas, grey houses hunched against the environment. I saw Ninian Park (now abandoned for a new stadium across the road), and suddenly glimpsed the Welsh Assembly Building down at the front. It really is astonishing, a brown and grey hulk of bronze, stone and slate which both fits in and looks like a spaceship from that great Welsh TV show, Dr Who. Then of course there's the castle (I didn't get a chance to go in), Spillers Records - the oldest in Britain, and some bookshops.

On that subject, thanks very much to Anita. In recommending The Plan café, she neglected to mention that it's right next door to Capital Bookshop. I went in for a minute, looked through just one case, and came out with £50-worth of Welsh books. Most won't excite you much: a bibliography of Anglo-Welsh literature published between 1900-1965, a first English-language edition of Kate Roberts's A Summer Day in hardback with its dustjacket, an early edition of Alun Lewis's Raider's Dawn and Other Poems, biographies of Katherine Philips (Orinda) and Emyr Humphreys, a collection of conversations and essays by Humphreys, and Glyn Jones's wonderful The Island of Apples, a classic mid-century Welsh Bildungsroman.

I marked essays on the train. It appears that some of my students believe McDonaldization is a good thing because it means more leisure time for students, and lower staff numbers. As you can guess, that gave me a nice warm glow. Thanks to one of my commenters for linking to this, which sets out McDonald's' plan to offer academic qualifications. So while we're being McDonaldized, they're being Universitized. Or something. Shamefully, one of my American cousins 'teaches' at Hamburger University.