Mt. Lykaion, its religious significance, and its quadrennial athletic games appear with some frequency in the ancient literary sources.

There is something about those quadrennial games at Olympia that maddens even the most intelligent of the Greeks.

No, I'm not talking about the Olympics but about our own peculiar quadrennial games, the presidential election - and about the roles that certain states play, or don't play, in the outcome.

The quadrennial games are owned by Turner Broadcasting, and Mike Plant, president of the games, said Turner and his associates would decide on the site in February.

During the quadrennial regional games celebrated in Cartagena, Colombia, the 2006 Central American and Caribbean Games, she won her second consecutive gold medal, when her national team defeated the powerful Cuban team in three sets.

When these games turned out less than perfect and were overshadowed by the Exposition Universelle, the IOC supported the Greek idea by granting them a second series of quadrennial games in between the first series.

It remains to be seen if American viewers will remain glued to the quadrennial games as they unfold in a context of sights and sounds very different from those they found in Los Angeles.

Nicaraguans have taken only two Pan Am medals since the country began competing in the quadrennial games in 1951.

So Kerry is absolutely correct to take some time off, retool the message and play the quadrennial game that smart nominees play: Shaft the Left.