The Olympics Sap-o-Meter, and a drinking game variant

I wish they had some way of monitoring updates (and posting a bot on the blog for updates) for this long-overdue little item. From Slate,

We all know that, come Olympics time, NBC goes way overboard with the heartwarming tales of diseases conquered, hardship overcome, and human spirits uplifted. Yet there's never been a tool to determine, scientifically, just how saccharine NBC's coverage really is. Until now. Welcome to Slate's Olympics Sap-o-Meter!

Here's how it works. After slogging through Olympic broadcasts of yore, we drew up a list of 33 syrupy words that NBC has chronically overused: adversity, battled, cancer, challenges, courage, cry, death, dedication, determination, dream, emotion, glory, golden, hardship, heart, hero, inspiration, inspire, journey, magic, memory, miracle, mom, mother, Olympic-sized, overcome, passion, proud, sacrifice, spirit, tears, tragedy, triumph. While these 33 words are by no means an unabridged collection of schmaltzy nouns, adjectives, and verbs, they're a good sampling of NBC's bathos. Think of them as the Dow Jones of sap.

Here's a possible variant: You and your friends can make up 5x5 grids (like bingo cards) and write one word in each square. Then play bingo (drinking games or otherwise), keeping track of the all the schmaltz.

Update: Sparky sent me the link another bingo game: Sportscaster Thoughts Bingo. To see the game itself scroll waayyyy down to just before the comments.