Tonga, Tonga, Tonga.

Opening ceremony will be less wordy: "With the advantage of taped coverage, NBC will try to show each national delegation. But because they'll enter according to the order of the Greek alphabet — the USA will come between the United Arab Emirates and Japan — NBC also will use a continuous graphic explaining who's on tap. And rather than having co-hosts Bob Costas and Katie Couric rattle off nuggets about each country, says NBC executive vice president David Neal, viewers will get that via 'pop-up' graphics. Says Neal: 'That way, Bob and Katie aren't put in a position to just be in a big download.'

Well, Katie and Bob's nuggets of information were cringe inducing. But then I realized it was one of the few chances most viewers, including NYT daily readers like myself, would ever have to hear ANYTHING about countries with names such as Tonga.

It took Kitchenbeard, L and I a few guesses to figure out the order the countries were coming out. We were at a bar and the TV sound was off, OK?

By the time Bjork ("A tiny Icelandic singer wearing an ocean of a dress") commited another fashion event, Kitchenbeard had gone off to his adventures and L and I had already bought cupcakes...

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