Sapped OutSlate's Sap-o-Meter team takes readers' questions about NBC's schmaltzy Olympics coverage.

(Continued from page 1)

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Fort Worth, Texas: Love your work, guys. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on NBC's coverage of the games. Better or worse than the Triplecast?

Josh Levin: My grandfather was one of the eight people in America who ordered the Triplecast. We've come a long way since then ... the Septuplecast now comes standard on all cable systems. As far as the sap quotient goes, though, it seems pretty much the same.

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Baton Rouge, La.: For the 2012 London Games, how about the Sapometer TripleCast?

Josh Levin: That's a great idea! Also, as we wrote in the award-winning Sap-o-Meter introductory text: "We've also yet to develop technology that automatically detects sappy violin music. We hope to roll out that feature in time for the 2012 Games."

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Olympic type question: What were your emotions when you invented the Sap Meter?

Josh Levin: I was pretty stone-faced, but my mom started crying and waving a small American flag.

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Washington, DC: I don't recall any mother getting as much tv coverage as Michael Phelps's mom. Am I not remembering someone?

I think if you listed the amount of air time every athlete in the games has received thus far, Mama Phelps's air time would be top 10.

Derek Thompson: I absolutely agree. I think Debbie Phelps challenged Bob Costas for screen time during the first week. And when Chris Collinsworth sat next to her to hold her hand? It was like a perfect storm for sap.

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New York, NY: Would it be politically incorrect to apply the Sap-o-Meter to the Special Olympics?

Josh Levin: I think it probably would be. I'm going to leave it at that.

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New York, NY: What Olympic sport or athlete isn't getting enough sap from NBC? Whose hard-knock story is going untold unfairly?

Josh Levin: Definitely Kobe Bryant.

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Washington, D.C.: Where would you rank the little vignette NBC did with Sanya Richards and her husband, the Giants corner back, lining up to race each other? Where they had her finishing the lap in fast-forward before he gets off the blocks?

Chris Wilson: I'd say that was less sappy than it was plain old lame. And I quote Aaron Ross from that segment: "Enough of all the lovey-dovey stuff. I thought we were out here to race."

Here's hoping those two get their own show—on NBC, of course.

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New York, NY: Has NBC produced any sap-inspired neologisms? I recall broadcasters in some other sports have occasionally invoked "stick-to-it-ive-ness" (sp).

Derek Thompson: That's a great question! I haven't caught a particularly memorable new phrase. I will say that I was overjoyed to hear the word "Olympic-sized" finally uttered two nights ago. That was a small moral victory for our fledgling team of sap words. My favorite moments, rhetorically, are when the commentators are at a loss for words because it usually means something really awesome just happened and I don't want NBC negate the "magic" of the moment by using the word "magic" incessantly.

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Anonymous: If not the Special Olympics, how about the political conventions?

Derek Thompson: Like a Pander-o-Meter? Perhaps the Hope-o-Meter? Or just Obameter for number of fawning mentions? Hey, we're not promising anything. But yeah, it could be fun.

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Arlington, Va.: Whenever a broadcaster mentioned that Dara Torres was 41, I took to responding, "Also, Jerome Bettis is from Detroit."

Josh Levin: Every time any interviewer would ask Dara Torres what message she wanted to give America, she would say: "You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." Thanks for the advice, Dara. Also, a Zen question: If my dream is to put an age-limit on Dara Torres' dreams, who wins?

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