That was an interesting report from the Wall Street Journal, the piece which said the luge track for the Olympics, the one where a young man crashed to his death, the one designed to be steeper, faster and narrower than any in the past, would allow racers to reach speeds, some officials said were unsafe.

But after Nodar Kumaritashvili of the Republic of Georgia flew off the track and was fatally injured, the Olympic types said it was his fault, that he was going too fast, that he was too inexperienced to handle the conditions that were presented. But of course.

You think the Olympic big shots are going to blame themselves? Even though the Wall Street Journal story contends the officials leading up to these Olympics "made a series of decisions designed to make the icy track a commercial success after the Games but that left it faster, and ultimately more dangerous, than any competitive track before.''

They left it faster and more dangerous until Kumaritashvili's death. Then they moved the luge start farther down on the course. Then they built a plywood protective wall at the spot he was pitched out of his sled and into a steel barrier. Then they tried to go on as if nothing had happened.

These Olympics have been tended toward disaster, from the the weather, to the protesters in the streets of Vancouver -"criminal anarchists'' is what police called them, echoing the words used about the civil rights marches in the south - to the general hype and hollering.

And even the incidental parts don't seem to be working very well. Two of the Zamboni machines at the Richmond Oval broke down the the other night while resurfacing the ice. More humor than agony, but the Games have had plenty of agony.

And certainly tragedy.

In essence, the Olympics are just another attempt by NBC to improve its low viewer rating, and according to the early returns the plan seems to be working.

A network pays hundreds of millions for the program rights, it's allowed to maneuver the script, but only to a point.

If the Olympics were real sporting competition, they would be shown live in all time zones. You think anyone dare delay a Super Bowl telecast?

In the West, the Olympics are delayed. And they're being held in the West. Why anyone would watch a hockey game, or even a ski race, hours after the fact is one of the mysteries of American judgment.

It's no mystery why on the day of the Opening Ceremonies, the network ran the footage of the luge accident again and again, much to the dismay of families with young children who were subjected to the repetition when all they wanted was to see the torch lighted.

It was NBC's "Hey, Martha'' moment, and that doesn't mean Stewart. Rather an incident which brings a guy off the couch to yell "Hey, Martha, you got to see this.''

We saw it. We couldn't avoid it.

Nor was Lindsey Vonn avoidable. There she was on the cover of one Sports Illustrated in a skier's tuck position, tightly wrapped in spandex. There she was in another Sports illustrated, the swimsuit edition, not wrapped in very much except a bikini.

The ladies were angry. SI, they whined, was exploiting - or in the lingo of the times, "sexploiting'' -- poor little Lindsey instead of extolling her skiing ability. It's a complaint as old as Adam and Eve. Women are not appreciated for their skills, only their looks.

But of course. Sex sells. Hollywood figured that out when films were still being shot on celluloid. You think Marilyn Monroe was a star because of her acting?

In sport, primarily a man's domain, sex sells even more. Danica Patrick, in those commercials. Lindsey Vonn in those tight ski pants. How do you get the guys to watch those ladies? Right.

The Winter Olympics are a soap opera. Give us another sad tale or an orphan who borrowed money and an old pair of skates, then wrap it around an Oil of Olay commercial.

Figure skating is beautiful. But as a colleague pointed out, how can anyone in sequins be called an athlete? And how does a skater who falls on her behind win a medal?

The first few days, the Vancouver Olympics were falling apart. The luge accident. A lack of snow. Too much snow. Rain. The protests. Except nothing damaged the TV ratings. The worse the situation the better the audience.

To play on the title of Ralph Nader's book about cars, the Olympics are unsafe at any speed. And ridiculously successful. Other than that luge track.