I had assumed that the US Olympic committee chose the new more "sensitive" arrangement for PR purposes, to lessen the USA's image as an international bully. However, I just learned (above) that an overall international authority (IOC? Athens organizers?) had someone write arrangements for *all* the anthems. Interesting...

NBC's prime-time coverage in the US (of which I missed very little) included too many medal ceremonies and not enough sports competition for my taste. So, I got to hear the new and improved Star Spangled Banner plenty of times, plus a fair sample of other nations' anthems during ceremonies for events in which Americans placed 2d or 3d. Unfortunately, I don't recall hearing (or, at least, noticing) the rearrangement of "O Canada" mentioned above. Now I'm curious!

I had also been curious about Ireland's single medal; all I know from our local newspaper is that it was a gold. Some equestrian event, apparently-- can anyone fill me in?

Speaking of the equestrian competition: NBC gave us NO coverage of this sport at all (unless they aired some during working hours or after 1m at night). It's not a sport in which I'm ordinarily interested, but it has always been part of Olympic TV coverage here because there always seem to be one or two Americans (from the Virginia "horse country," usually) competing for medals with the European aristocrary.

Also, the final fancy show-jumping extravaganza has always been part of the final Sunday's program at the main stadium, after the marathoners finish up and before the Closing Ceremony. This time around, the marathon finish line was not located in the new Olympic Stadium, but in the antique stadium built for the 1896 Games, and the new stadium was shut down for 12-16 hours Saturday night and Sunday to set up for the Closing Ceremony. This year, apparently, the horsey set had to conduct their showplace event elsewhere, earlier in the schedule -- in greater obscurity than usual.

Sorry about the thread creep -- back to the musical subject at hand:

I have no great objection to "The Star Spangled Banner," and can usually sing it passably enough, BUT: if another tune were to be adopted as the National Anthem, I would MUCH prefer "America the Beautiful" to the recycled British anthem "My Country Tis of Thee."