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In any case, logistical questions are getting more attention than moral ones now. As the visiting spectators began to arrive last week, regular commuters were so good about avoiding what the traffic people charmingly call the "impact zones" that some fear that Los Angeles drivers (those who have not fled town) may be shortly lulled into resuming their ordinary ways. They could even come to the Games. Local newspapers burst with ads for tickets of every stripe, not all placed by overambitious travel agents or venal speculators. Not a few poor fans misunderstood the system or unstrategically overordered and have landed them selves in the ticket-brokering business on a big scale. A brisk market also developed in team pins, something of an Olympic tradition. "It's not like just a football game or something," said Cathy Fresh water, a supermarket checker and souvenir canvasser. "I'm going to be late for work but it's worth it."
Those who have not been downtown recently will find even it has been spruced up. At the Midnight Mission on Los Angeles Street, the stubbly men are listing with great formality. A rental shop donated about 200 out-of-fashion tuxedos to the image of the city. If nothing else, foreign visitors must concede, no where in the world are the bums better dressed.
—By Tom Callahan