The New York Times’s coverage of London’s victory strikes me as very odd.

First, the headline. “Corners turn upward on stiff upper lip.” Leave aside the awkwardness of upward and upper. Who in London has a stiff upper lip anymore? That’s a hackneyed phrase that has very little reflection in reality.

And then, this paragraph:

The announcement also provides an enormous lift to the fragile national ego, which deep down has never really recovered from Britain’s loss of its empire after World War II. Lately, Britain has been under attack from fellow members of the European Union about its support for the Iraq war and the amount of money it receives from the European Union budget. So the Olympics decision is a welcome moment to indulge in some self-congratulation.

I don’t think there’s a person in Britain who feels fragile about the attacks from other members of the European Union. Perhaps they should, but they don’t. And it may be that Britain’s national ego doesn’t compare to the American one, but I think in a global perspective it’s not one of the more fragile ones.