London has Olympics mania. The newspapers are devoting more than half their pages to the games while the airwaves are dominated at all hours by coverage of Olympic events. Even cynical oldies can't avoid catching some of the fever.
The Brits were determined that no one should be able to say that the London games were a letdown after the 2008 games in Beijing. A huge effort was put into the opening ceremony on July 27, which was planned and directed by Danny Boyle.
The show managed to pack in many favorite British themes — from farming in "this green and pleasant land" through the Industrial Revolution to modern Britain, its pop culture and the National Health Service (NHS). With nurses and children dancing and pirouetting, hundreds of Mary Poppinses descended from the sky. Technically it was all "Wow!" even if some of the electronics came from China.