A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF ME

True Lies: A week in the life of the Terminator, the candidate hiding in plain sight (Bill Bradley, AUGUST 15 - 21, 2003 , LA Weekly)

The strongest challenger was definitely not going to compete. It was obvious. Nearly everyone knew it. So the other players made their preparations accordingly. Then, just before the start of the contest, Arnold Schwarzenegger stunned nearly everyone by announcing that he was in after all.

Sounds like the 2003 California governor's race. It also happened in the 1980 Mr. Olympia contest. Schwarzenegger had been retired from competitive bodybuilding for five years before coming back to win his seventh Mr. Olympia title, a record that still stands. (The canny Schwarzenegger always emphasizes his five Mr. Universe titles now but the most prestigious world championship is Mr. Olympia, a rather, well, Aryan-sounding name.) Scheduled to be a commentator at the event, Schwarzenegger surprised the field by showing up in Australia as a competitor instead.

If you can get past the fact that this is the epitome of the worst kind of modern journalism, in which the author presents himself as at least of co-equal interest to the reader as his subject, it's pretty interesting. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 16, 2003 7:17 AM