There was an ad on TV about an hour ago. It showed a whole lot of people turning up at a big-screen-TV-owner’s place to watch the Olympic games. As this was happening, a voice over informed viewers that…

For the first time in history, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games is being filmed in high definition.

I immediately thought “Oh, as opposed to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games of 27 years ago that were filmed in low definition”.

Of course, this is the first 2008 Beijing Olympics in history. I dare say it will be the only 2008 Beijing Olympic games in history, unless they’re planning on doing it again sometime in late November if this one goes well.

Beijing may host the Games again, in 2136 for argument’s sake. But then it won’t be the 2008 Olympics anymore; it’ll be the 2136 Olympics.

The mistake here is to interchange the generic with the specific. It’s the first time in history the Olympic Games have been televised in HD, meaning that all previous Olympic Games weren’t. But there have been no previous 2008 Beijing Olympics.

When every date occurs only once in history, everything you do on that date is a historical first.

For me, this is the first time in history I’ve written a blog post on 13 August 2008.

This year, for the first time in history, I turned 36.

For the first time in history, the jar of mayonnaise in my fridge reached its best-before date.

You might as well say that ‘For the first time in history, it’s now’.