OLYMPIC NOTEBOOK From Athens, Greece

New zinger: Call it the Olympic kennel. The strays of Athens will finally get a roof over their head just in time for the games under a government plan to round up the hounds and give them temporary housing. Municipalities around the country, especially those that will host Olympics events, will share $4.8 million for animal shelters. The program calls for strays to be picked up -- especially around the venues -- vaccinated, neutered and tagged. The animals will be held for 45 days before they are released. Government officials have asked police and municipal officials to show particular vigilance in protecting strays from poisoning. Hundreds of Athens strays have been poisoned over the past few months. Someone even gave tainted seeds to 250 pigeons in central Athens.
Fresh antiquities: The National Archaeological Museum opened its doors Friday after a 20-month hiatus for a massive restoration of the building and its artifacts. But its only a partial return. Visitors to the revamped 113-year-old neoclassical museum will find on display 8,500 items including precious kouros statues, 1,000 sculptures and stunning gold pieces from the Mycenaean era. More than $6.6 million was spent just to clean the decades of pollution that had accumulated on the statutes. "All the artifacts were taken off their stands and cleaned up ... It's a real accomplishment that all this work was done in the time we had," said the museum's director, Nikolaos Kaltsas. Elbow grease was used to scrub and polish museum walls that revealed original wall hues and mosaic floors in the 32 opened exhibition halls. Now museum officials, like many workers around the city, are scrambling to put the finishing touches on an Olympics-related exhibit scheduled to begin July 15. Bureaucratic foot-dragging delayed the restoration project, which museum officials say should be completed by the end of the year.
Say that again: The phrase "Greek bahalo"-- meaning Greek screw-up in polite terms -- had barely rolled off the lips of Greece's church leader before it landed on everyone's else. Unorthodox as it sounds, the outspoken head of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Christodoulos, used the tag to describe the Greek tendency to carelessly pull things together. Christodoulos was referring to Athens' last-minute preparations for the Aug. 13-29 Olympics. But the quip could become a household expression for all sorts of headaches from traffic jams to the cumbersome bureaucracy.
Bargain travel: A $12 weekly pass that can be used on all of Athens' public transport system is likely to become the bargain of the Summer Games. It's a deal in a city where a cup of coffee could cost more than $5.50 -- provoking Bank of Greece officials to call for a 10 percent price reduction on goods and services during the games. Looks like the Ministry of Transportation listened. The weekly pass will be valid on buses, trolleys, electric rail and brand new transport links from the suburban rail to the subway, which can be taken all the way to the airport. It can also be used on the new tram that travels to Olympic venues and beaches south of the city center.
Source: Associated Press
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