The 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony, finally dawning in London Friday night, don't really open the Olympics; you could watch Olympic soccer all day on Thursday, and I've been informed by relevant parties that a lot of people did just that. But they open the Olympics—when, at 6:30 PM CDT, NBC's coverage goes up in the Midwest, it will officially be Olympics Season in the St. Louis area, and it will remain that way until the place in our hearts for archery and rhythm gymnastics and, for some people, soccer goes into hibernation for four more years.

It will also be time to talk about what we all thought of the Olympics Opening Ceremony, which at least some of us watched. This one is apparently a massive spectacle directed by Danny Boyle, and Paul McCartney is apparently going to do Hey Jude (did somebody call Ringo?) According to this story out of Salt Lake, that's just about all we know, as the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy is still taken very seriously in the United Kingdom.

As for me, I'm rooting for them—we hyperglobalized neoliberal election-having nations need to stick together, right? I'm not sure they'll be able to match the infamous Beijing 2008 introduction for sheer firepower, manpower, and geopolitical timing, but London has Paul McCartney, which would probably lead somewhere metaphorically fascinating if I were writing for The Economist. Sorry, if this correspondent were writing for The Economist.