Volleyball coach returns
BEIJING – U.S. men’s volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon rejoined his team today after missing the team’s first three games because of an attack on his in-laws at a popular tourist site in Beijing.
McCutcheon’s father-in-law, Todd Bachman, was fatally stabbed one week ago. His mother-in-law, Barbara Bachman, was badly wounded. Barbara Bachman was airlifted from Beijing to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where she is listed in fair condition. Officials said she was alert, talking and had good memory function.
The Bachmans are the parents of McCutcheon’s wife, former volleyball Olympian Elisabeth “Wiz” Bachman McCutcheon.
“We are indebted to the physicians and caregivers at Peking Union Medical College Hospital who have done such a wonderful job providing Barbara with the medical care she needed,” Hugh McCutcheon said in a statement. “We are also extremely appreciative of the support we have received from people here in Beijing, the United States, New Zealand and around the world.”
Easy for you to say
In the shadow of Olympic venues, Brian Williams has anchored NBC’s “Nightly News” this week in a city he calls Bay-jing.
Yet Bob Costas, Meredith Vieira and many of NBC’s sports announcers seem to be working in a different, more exotic place: Bay-zhing.
So which is it?
Williams is right, if you talk to experts in the Chinese language. He’s even recorded something about the pronunciation puzzle for NBC’s Web site.
“It’s been annoying me for quite a while, honestly,” said S. Robert Ramsey, a college professor and author of “The Language of China.”
He’s not alone, and it isn’t just NBC at fault.
“For you mousse-coiffed, Mr. Gravitas TV anchor types and you sotto voce public radio types, please oh please stop saying “Bay-zheeng,” wrote Kaiser Kuo, who works for a China-based ad agency and wrote an online guide for journalists covering the Olympics. “The pronunciation of the city’s name couldn’t be easier.”
Don’t air the air
The International Olympic Committee reached an agreement with Chinese authorities that it would not publish air-quality data it received during the Summer Games, according to the chairman of the IOC’s medical commission, Arne Ljungqvist.
Ljungqvist said Chinese officials did not demand that the information be kept private, but both parties agreed it should be considered “an interior affair for the purpose of rescheduling competitions.”