To Kevin, et al.,

Subject: The good news, Joey, is that NBC will be providing 2 million hours of non-stop coverage

Not sure if it's the position of the sun or what, but my shadow looks different here. I wish I could report that it appeared more muscular, better postured and with perhaps more rhythm while dancing.

Unfortunately, my shadow here is shaped like a smiling Chinese volunteer, one of whom seems to be about two feet away from me at any given moment.

When I awoke this morning, there was no need to open my door and seek out my shadow for the day's forecast. Not sure what it looked like from the 13th floor, Kevin, but way down here on the 12th, the sky was awfully gray. It's the kind of smog you could scoop in your hand, fashion into a snowball and hurl toward toward the head of the nearest foreign journalist (probably time for a warning: xenophobia might appear from time to time in this space, masked usually as a poor attempt at humor). At any rate, there's something about a gray sky that steals the hop from my step.

What these Olympics clearly need is Joey Cheek. You remember him, right? You might recall that he won gold and silver medals in speedskating at the 2006 Winter Games. Or perhaps you'll remember that he founded Team Darfur and has been actively speaking out against China's human rights record and continued involvement in Darfur. (For the record, I remember him as the guy partying at the Holland House during the Torino Games, lacing up bright orange skates and dazzling everyone in the tiny rink constructed in the middle of a techno dance party. He's the only Olympian I saw in Italy who wore jeans tighter than The Washington Post's Mike Wise. But I'm afraid, Kevin, that's all we have left of Joey Cheek -- the memories.

Joey will not be joining us at the Beijing Games. The Chinese embassy revoked his visa, apparently not too happy that he's been so outspoken about China's track record as a global neighbor. It's a ridiculous PR move. Cheek generates bigger headlines by being kept out of China than if he was let in. (Interesting sidenote: China's governmental public information arm is actually called the propaganda department. It's an innocent -- but revealing -- 'misnomer in which quite a bit gets lost in translation. Or maybe it doesn't.)

At any rate, Cheek's message is worth hearing (again and again and again), and just because the Chinese have kept him in the U.S. doesn't mean that his mission has been grounded.

An unrelated note: "The Goonies" is playing right now on China TV. I'd have to work on this theory, but I suspect that every character archetype is represented by one of "The Goonies" characters. Which are you? (And don't say Omar Little. He's not in "The Goonies.").