Sighinide

Well, the games are drawing to a close… again, lol. One more weekend. I’ll be watching the closing ceremony.

Overall takeaways:

We’re all human. Regardless of background or… anything, that one fact defines us. I do realize how curated the games’ experiences have been, but I was still very surprised at this nonetheless. I mean, we ARE different- but- fundamentally, there is a common humanity that unites us and makes our lives worth more than what they would be, individually.

The Olympics seems to bring “This”, whatever this is, out, better than anything I’ve ever seen. It really seems to stand apart. It’s fascinating. It’s some kind of vibration, I suppose. “It’s Your Vibe”. and all that. But yes, it really is. And I know I’m struggling here, but I’m trying to describe something that is fundamentally elevated above our common perception.

In a way, this elevation allows us to look down on ourselves and see ourselves for what we are, to understand our humanness with a better angle. For all the Olympics’ huge financial and logistical expense, they allow us to see very small moments and emotional parts of humanity that are otherwise impossible to witness on any other television program.

There really is nothing else like them. No Super Bowl will ever compare to Team USA getting the gold in the Team Event in figure skating. Certainly no scripted “Reality TV” will ever show a struggle as real as an underdog athlete digging deep into his soul to try to finish a 50 kilometer Cross Country skiing race.

And the Paralympics- they are absolutely astonishing and inspiring. Truly incredible. They shame utterly all of the stupid bullshit that clogs network television- the so-called “Reality” TV, the “News”, dramas, just… everything. I mean, they are like… real drama, right? With real people, facing real struggles, people that have overcome absolutely tremendous obstacles and thrived. People facing unique challenges, that are driving society forward without complaint, and often without thanks. Very impressive people.

Honestly, being me, in the situations that I have been in, I can relate. I can feel in them a kind of kinship. They are unique in ways that mirror my own uniqueness. Some of them verge on being transhuman. Well, I’ve crossed that boundary years ago, but… it’s amazing, what they’ve created.

I don’t want to get too far off topic here.

Well, in the Paralympics this time around I’ve seen sports like visually impaired downhill skiing, which is bafflingly incredible. I’ve seen people with cerebral palsy compete in snowboard cross. Seen people without legs compete in biathlon. All of this is unreal, and seriously puts into perspective many of the insignificant problems that I see people constantly bitch about in day to day life.

For real tho.

Well, as far as these games go for messages delivered to me personally, I will be taking them all to heart. There was a special few that I got from Mikaela Shiffrin that I know I will need to run with, immediately, like as soon as everything is over.

And I want to see that press conference with Lindsey Vonn, if it’s still up on Peacock, after this is finished. I’m a curious man. We’ve had kind of a weird history and… well… no, that’s not for this post.

Other takeaways… I love the whipping sound that the big air athletes make as they do their spins in the air. Amazing, what new tech can bring.

I was amused at the universality of the word “Fuck”. EVERYONE uses it. Especially, it seems, alpine skiers taking an unfortunate tumble down a mountain. It’s truly a global word. The athlete in question could be a veteran podium prospect in the Olympics, or a first timer in the Paralympics, a he, or a she, an American, a Chinese, an Italian, a Norwegian, a Haitian, a teenager, a 50- something, handicapped physically or mentally or not, and if they happen to run awkwardly over an errantly placed snowball and take a headfirst tumble down the mountain, the inevitable “FUCK. Fuuuuucccckkkkkk!!!!!” is soon to follow. I admit that I laughed a little too hard at this when I heard it, but srsly, I mean, what the fuck lol.

Alright, well. Time for bed lol.

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Ok, after verrrrry considerable thought, I believe that I *might* have a bit of a crush on Alysa Liu.

This is after taking a look at my insta and realizing that my recent likes are like… 97-99% Alysa Liu related.

I mean we’re talking like a 10000 to 1 ratio here people.

Of course I *COULD* be wrong about my predilections. I mean… I’m just extrapolating, here.

BUT. But… but- I believe, with the evidence at hand, that I do seem to have a strong indication of a slight infatuation with Alysa, if I’m not being overwhelmingly parsimonious with my affections, which, let’s be honest with ourselves, I seriously, indisputably am, because like… OMG.

SHE’S JUST SO FUCKING COOL, OH MY FUCKING GOD

It’s like I keep waiting for her slip up and do something wrong but she never does and it’s just like I can’t take it anymore OMG HOW CAN SOMEONE BE SO FUCKING PERFECT SHE’S SO GOD DAMN PRETTY HOLY FUCK YO

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

You know, I KNEW this would happen. I walked into this Olympics thinking… nope. Not going to take the bait.

I knew it, I knew it. I knew it, I knew it as soon as Tara Lipinski started talking about “Golden Retriever Energy” on the ice. I could tell it was coming, with those fucking commercials she did, and those carefully chosen routines I saw, and I STILL fell for it, like some stone age neanderthal blundering into some tar pit.

I tried to avoid it by following not Alysa Liu on Instagram, but Anna Shcherbakova, instead. And I did that just to… well, I don’t know why I did that, honestly. But it’s what I did.

But I STILL wound up following Alysa as well. FUCK.

Well… TBH I’m kinda daydreaming at this point.

So… things to think about.

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Saw Wheelchair Curling today. Was fun, will presumably watch more. Not sure what the schedule is yet.

Other stuff… I checked Starz for some reason, I guess for something else to do. I noticed the “Ants in Space” movie was back, but with the error I noted earlier on here corrected- Starz added the cast and such to the details tab. See, THAT is why I sometimes don’t mention stuff. Because… I don’t want my fun ruined, lol.

I’m going to watch that… Zombies Locker thing with Freya Skye on Disney+, I guess, for something different. Like, just to do it. It’s not sports, lol. Before tomorrow, you know?

Other stuff… belated congrats Oriol Cardona Coll for winning the first Winter Gold for his country in over 50 years. Nice moment fr.

Ok… *Yawn*. Kinda tired tonight lol.

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Been watching stuff here and there for fun. It still is.

Will be watching the Paralympics Opening Ceremony.

Things I learned:

Dual Moguls is my fucking jam. Goddamn, that is my fucking SPORT. Pure, unhinged insanity on the slopes. Love it!

The captions continue to be enlightening. During the Medal Ceremony for Women’s Freeski Big Air, when Eileen Gu was standing on the podium, the captions helpfully provided me with info about an upcoming event called “Frisky Big Air”. Obviously, this would not be in this Olympics, so I’m assuming it will be featured in 2030. Man, I can’t WAIT for that! Not sure what it is, but with a name like “Frisky Big Air”, I might be interested enough to buy a ticket and see it in person!

I have chosen my own name for the Blade Angels, A.K.A. the Team USA Skating Squadron. I shall henceforth and forevermore refer to them as “The Skatelets”. Ask me not why, or for what reason; for I shall not tell thee. It is a secret. And secrets are uh, secret-ive.

I missed the John Williams Theme. The Fanfare one. Google tells me it was written for the LA Olympics in 1984. Now- I swear to fucking God that if this tune is not used during the 2028 LA games I will personally be cracking some fucking heads over at some committee or whatever, whomever it is that organizes the music for these things. For reals. You already have the greatest tune EVER WRITTEN for the subject at hand- USE IT. Put it in the Opening Ceremony, seriously! Don’t fuck this up, people! NBC- are you listening?

Reddit tells me the IOC is considering dropping Snowboard Parallel Slalom, I suppose in response to my post. See, THIS is why I hesitate to post, sometimes. I remarked something about the ages of the athletes as being a bit older than would be expected, and, if Reddit is correct (and, who knows, it’s fucking Reddit, lol), the IOC is considering dropping it. Alright, let’s google, see if I can find something.

Ok, I’m back. It seems the rumors about IOC dropping it date back to last year, but still, this would be terrible, I mean Who TF cares? It looks very fun and not at all dangerous, which might be the reason for the extreme longevity for the athletes, let’s be honest. I say keep it. I mean there are plenty of curlers in their 40s and nobody cares about that, lots of equestrians in their 40s, nobody cares, so… yeah, just keep it.

In non-sports news I’m not going to comment on the war in the Middle East nonsense. THAT I know is in response to this blog and all of this stuff; there is no way it isn’t. Trump is constantly trying to ride my energetic wave, which is part of the reason why I try to remain so measured here. It’s unfortunate, but there you go.

Regardless, not going to comment on the nonsense coming out of the Middle East. That entire area, American presence and all, just appears at times to be a giant children’s playground. It would be absurd if it weren’t so depressing.

Back to sports- This time around, I am going to make it a point to try to watch “Other” sports, meaning, likely, Non-Olympic Games Olympic sports. I do not believe it will be humanly possible for me to follow on a regular basis stuff anything remotely like the NFL. Regardless of the merits of the sport, that league is a Goddamn religion, it’s a fucking way of life, with a Sunday mass and all sorts of other ludicrous bullshit. I’ve described my problems with the NFL before on this blog, I’m not going to detail them yet again. But holy shit, the way that league consumes peoples’ lives is just horrifying. And I have similar sentiments regarding the rest of the ‘Murican sports.

People these days talk about the evils about social media and how it has consumed the attention spans and time of people, about streaming services and video games and other similar things, but I’ve seen very few talk about the problems stemming from sports fandom addiction, and that is I believe a problem that predates all of the things I just listed. I mean it can hardly not.

Well, I am going WAY off topic here. I guess I needed to get a few things off my chest before the Paralympics begin in a few days.

So… See you in Milano Cortina!

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The skating gala was funsies. Pandas FTW.

Boo to Peacock for being a fuckhead and removing the skating replays so quickly from their platform. Seriously guys, don’t be asshats. I think they removed the Opening Ceremony, too. Not that I was planning on watching it again, but still. I hope the rest of the stuff stays up at least a little while.

I saw the Mixed Relays for SkiMo. … Wut? Seriously, wow. I’m actually at a loss for words, I’m not even sure what I even saw. I’m more than vaguely confused, honestly. Even the athletes seemed confused about basic principles at times, which one team doing transitions clearly outside a “transition zone”. Not that the confusion wasn’t entertaining. I got good laughs out of the moment when a weird asterisk appeared next to one of the team’s names on the scoreboard and the announcers collectively shit themselves trying to explain WTF that actually meant. They clearly had no fucking idea but it made for great TV. Hot mic mistakes, rule misunderstandings, and the general chaos of things made for a fun time. I loved the anarchy. WTF do all those yellow cards mean, anyways? Are those penalties? Disqualifications? What KIND of penalties? WHY are those teams getting them? Who the fuck knows? I loved the part at the end when the announcers cut to an “Interview with Team USA”, which apparently consisted of a camera trained on the audience bleachers for a solid two minutes. Absolute quality! I approve.

In all seriousness, that sport looks grueling AF tho.

BTW, I did notice in the Skating Gala, thanks to Peacock’s captions, that Ilia Malinin’s name isn’t actually Ilia. It is in fact Helium. Someone should tell him; I’ll bet he will be surprised. He may welcome the correction. Perhaps we have found the secret to his jumping prowess.

Also, Kaori Sakamoto’s first name is in fact “Cavalry”.

Alright, I’m off to bed. There’s going to be a get together tomorrow, so might not make the hockey game, but whatever, we’ll see.

No time to proof this one.

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One additional thought, before bed:

After the games are done, I believe changes will need to be made. What changes, specifically? Well… I offer no specifics here, I need not, but suffice to say, some things that have remained undone will need to be accomplished. Challenges will need to be undertaken, and obstacles overcome. New roads will need to be traveled.

And- some wrongs must be righted. I speak rarely of proverbs and platitudes here, but one of my favorites is, appropriately enough for the times, one oft attributed to Sicily, and particularly to the Cosa Nostra: “If I die, I forgive you; if I live, we shall see”.

The future will be interesting.

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Well, on THAT rather ominous note, lol, I’m off to bed. A new day awaits! A beautiful day! What fun I’m having. Seriously, this is like the greatest thing ever. Olympics FTW!!!!

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A few random thoughts:

1. I may have, in the course of recent history, composed an original song titled Alysa Liu, Where Are You? set to the tune of Scooby Doo, Where Are You?. Before anyone mentions it, no, this song bears no resemblance to the song Eileen Gu, Where Are You? that I may or may not have written the other day.
2. I was wondering, naturally, while watching women’s, um, Two-Woman Bobsled… why is this not called, uhm, “Duobob”? I mean, think about it. One man Bobsled is definitely “Monobob”, right? I mean it says so right there on Peacock. So why is Two, uh, person Bobsled not Duobob? And 4 person not Quadobob? Seriously tho, don’t laugh. It would be A) Consistent, and B) It would clear up the naming shenanigans. I mean… just think about it. Monobob, Duobob… Quadobob. Right. Women’s Duobob. Men’s Quadobob. NOT Women’s Two-Man Bobsled. See?
3. Hot Dog Hanz FTW. If you get it, you get it. ‘Nuf said.
4. Short Track athletes are some hardcore motherfuckers. Goddamn, it’s like Roller Derby with literal knives on actual ice out there. Remind me to never talk shit to a skinny short Dutchman, he’ll shiv a bitch.
5. I’m going to need wake up fucking early to watch the hockey game on Sunday. I have NEVER EVER done this particular thing; in fact I have never dreamed I would ever type or even think that specific thought, ever, but here we are. All right, bitchez. If you’re going to bring it I’ll be ready for ya’ll.
6. Yeah I’m going to spreeaaaaad out these games, I will have to, I fully intend to watch the Paralympics, besides, the Olympic Games are the only fucking thing on television that my parents will permit themselves to watch that is not the fucking TV news. Ye Gods, their devotion to partisan bullshit is just sickening. I do enjoy talking to them about something that is not politically oriented.
7. The sliding sports are alllll about the helmets, and, to a lesser extent, the sleds. Some of those paint jobs are just beautiful.

Alright, well, yeah. I think that’s enough for this one.

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Well!

Some more thoughts, in a semi-random order:

I think today’s basket of ideas just re-enforce the things I was thunking earlier.

1. Sports have a definite element of randomness to them; and
2. The media does I believe try to play up some divisions sometimes; and
3. This is one epic vacation!

Regarding 1), I saw Michaela Shiffrin’s win in Slalom, she was fantastic ofc. I’m glad she got the fantasy closure that she needed(?). Well, I’m glad she got the fantasy closure the media said that she needed, lol. I did notice something interesting when watching the other skiers, though- I saw not one, nor two, but three other athletes get disqualified for missing the first gate! Yes forreals. In the Olympics. I mean I’m not judging them personally; I’m just using this as evidence to point out the randomness of athletic competition. Sometimes, you can be the best out there and… stuff just happens.

I saw as well Jordan Stolz’s race today, the 1500 meters. He got in second. Not because of anything he did that was wrong, he just got beat. So he exits with two golds and a silver. It happens. Another racer pulled a perfect race out of nowhere, annihilated the OR before Stolz hit the ice and that was that. I saw Stolz’s two other races before this one and I was rooting for him, but even I could tell that when that time was posted that it was going to be impossible for anyone to beat it. It was fun to watch tho. It’s stuff like that that makes the Olympics worth watching. So much fun.

So before the Women’s Free Skate, I checked out the backstage training / warm up session on Peacock Premium. It was kinda… voyeuristic? Also performative, on the part of the athletes. It’s not at all what it pretended to be, a free, open behind-the-scenes look at a performer’s life. Some thoughts:

1. It was vaguely creepy how the skaters didn’t look at the camera. All except, of course, for the ones in the far off corners, who would occasionally cast fleeting nervous glances directly at the camera lens. It was in those moments that I got a minorly creeped-out voyeuristic vibe from the whole show.
2. I did admire Skating Barbie’s (Amber Glenn, *ahem*) efforts to not look at the camera or at the camera human when the camera was pointed directly at her, or when the camera human was LITERALLY ON TOP OF HER. Nah, the linoleum floor is much more interesting; we’ll look at that instead.
3. Amber Glenn’s workout routine is bonkers BTW. I took note of some of her stuff, some of it I know I can incorporate in my barre routine. Thnx Amber!
4. The skaters obviously knew each other very well and were very comfortable in each others’ spaces. NBC et al. likes to paint stuff like The Olympics as some kind of bloodsport or gladiatorial combat but that is obviously not the case IRL. I mean of course there is competition, but not… that much. I’ve criticized TV in general for this before, and here it is again.
5. Back to the camera people- One funny moment occurred when the picture slid too far to the right, catching an actual cameraman in-frame. He was an overweight, middle-aged Italian man in a scruffy black baseball cap, with a bored expression on his face, sitting on a chair by the door. This was apparently NOT ALLOWED, because the picture quickly jerked backed to the left, putting him out of frame.
6. A different camera dude found his way in frame, behind Skating Barbie when she was doing one of her performative workouts. He was another Italian, very tall and very fat, who was trying in vain to hide his frame behind a TV showing Jordan Stolz’s skating event. Oddly, his camera looked like one of those packs from “Ghostbusters”. To say that he looked out of place amidst the sea of tiny, lithe, teenaged waifs in bedazzled outfits practicing their twizzles was an understatement. There’s something to be said here about the media, but I’ve not sure what, yet.
7. All of the athletes seemed to be “on”. And it seemed to be so natural to them that I wonder if they, having been raised in the age of social media, even know what “off” is. A scary thought, and one that just occurred to me. Of course, I of all people should not complain, and I’m not. I’m just… thinking.

Well- to the performances- There’s not much to say, it’s all on streaming. Props to Amber Glenn for holding out so long in first. Perhaps barre really is the key. I enjoyed myself immensely. It was so much fun. I mean I can’t even imagine having a better time doing anything else. And I mean that exactly as I typed it; I cannot imagine a better experience. Seriously, like… I can’t even fathom what one could possibly even be. I mean, I was having fun with the athletes, the announcers, and anchors, the crowd, I mean, it was just incredible, a stupendous, mind-blowing, beautiful experience. Doing a “mind-sync” with Alysa Liu during the final part of the Free Skate-including the medal ceremony-was a breathtaking, awe-inspiring thing to behold. I cannot imagine anything on Earth that could compare.

So that’s it, lol. It’s the pinnacle, there, of human experience. Once you’ve felt that, experienced that, channeled that, allowed that energy to flow through you and connected to that kind of… vibration, everything else seems less than.

I buoyed her with my power and she allowed me to feel her experience. Pretty awesome stuff.

You know- for a moment- a brief moment- during the free skate, I felt a twinge of regret. A small twinge, but it was there. It had to do with Ekaterina Kurakova’s performance to a medley of Moulin Rouge. See, one of my girlfriends, the erstwhile Meg Donnelly, is on Broadway finishing up her run on that particular musical, and before the Olympics I was wondering… should I be watching that, instead?

Now, I can say: No, lol. Sorry, Meg, sorry, everyone else, but there really is nothing that compares to this experience. It truly is superior to everything I can think of.

I mean, we’ll see what the future holds, but Goddamn, lol.

Alysa Liu and her F-bombs FTW!

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A few more random thoughts:

I may have, in the course of flipping through events, composed an original song titled Eileen Gu, Where Are You? set to the music of Scooby Doo, Where Are You?. I’m not saying I necessarily DID, mind you, but….. I’m not saying I DIDN’T, either.

*Ahem*.

There has been some hullaballoo on the internet, and, presumably, in other places, about stuff like certain people not performing up to expectations, etc. There’s been a lot of talk. Personally, I monitor sites like Reddit for stuff like this. There, analyses abound. Pressures of this, circumstances of that. Honestly- speaking as someone that has played a lot of sports in my day- sometimes you just lose. That’s the nature of athletics. Nobody wins 100% of their matches. Nobody. EVER. No matter how great, no matter how dominant, wins 100% of the time. That’s reality.

TBH- consistently winning over 50% of your matches / games in a professional setting must put you somewhere near superhuman territory. I mean even that is virtually impossible.

I think that a lot of the internet chatter is coming from people that don’t have much personal experience playing sports or competing themselves. I could be wrong, but that is what I would bet.

In my own life, I’ve played quite a few sports. Obviously, none were professional level, but I’ve played on organized baseball, basketball, soccer, football, TaeKwonDo, Karate, wrestling and other teams. Mostly high school-ish level but a couple above that.

Sometimes you can come in the favorite, prepare perfectly and do everything to the best of your ability and still lose. It happens. It happens a lot in sports, all the way from kids playing T-Ball to the Olympics. It’s life.

So I choose not to involve myself in Reddit discussions and the like.

Other stuff- there’s a lot I’ve missed, obvii. Will need to watch, and will do so, in the coming weeks and such. And I believe I will catch the Paralympics as well. So there will be more of these coming.

One more random thought- Huh, wow. Been watching Snowboard Parallel Slalom- Woah, a handful of athletes there in their mid 40’s, and at least one in her 50’s! Wow! Hmmn, interesting.

Been watching YT videos about certain people not aging as fast as they should, or at least as they used to (mostly celebrities, natch). Not going to cue up the lecture here about myself and my creepily youthful appearance, but… hmmn.

Food for thought.

Back in the 80’s, an Olympian in her 50’s in any capacity would have been an impossibility. I mean I’m saying this without googling, but… wow. And, really, snowboarding isn’t curling! I know there are curlers that are older, but snowboarders? Wow.

And she made the finals! I mean she qualified, knocking off a bunch of twenty five year olds! I haven’t seen it all the way through yet, I just started but man, that is… kind of unreal.

The number one qualifier in the finals was a 45 year old on the Men’s side. Hmmn.

Weird stuff, but very very cool and so interesting.

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Not too much to say with this one, but I suppose I’ll title it “Birthday Edition” for dramatic effect. I mean, I’ll probably hit “post” very slightly in the a.m., so technically… lol.

I guess wanted to say in a general way that the modern Olympics experience is nice because it seems to be a vacation in a self-contained living room, or even bedroom, experience. Or even better- a vacation without the hassles or expense of travel.

This thought struck me even before everything. It hit me during the Pre-Show Show, The Opening Ceremony Ceremony, that odd little Red Carpet thing in the museum with Shaun White, Marisa Tomei and Jeff Goldblum, as well as my always-slightly-out-of-place Gracie Gold. It seemed awfully… packaged. During the festivities indoors I noticed out of the corner of my eye a doorman move out of place of the cameras who had to be hurriedly shooed into the correct position, amusingly. He walked outside to greet someone too early. He had to be walked back in so then he could walk back out all natural like for a different camera angle from the outside of the museum.

The guards standing outside the museum seemed almost painfully photogenic, too. They looked almost catwalk model-like, and decidedly not like typical rent-a-cops. The guests arrived one at a time, interestingly. It was all very… paced. Not of it was impromptu, even the “casual” conversation picked up by the cameras.

Well, I guess that’s to be expected ofc.

I did get a laugh out of the Gargoyles-esque street toughs that were let in as a group.

When I noticed Stanley Tucci I perked up a bit at the confirmed Italian theme and kept my eyes peeled for any wandering Maranos in the vicinity. Alas, ’twas not to be, although they did have two impersonators. The real Princess Laura was however playacting Italian café on Insta around the time, tho, if that means anything.

Well… I’m really off track here.

Ok, back to the thing… it’s a vacation, right? Best seat in the house, always, every event, all the time. You get to see EVERYTHING, every piece of whatever you want, I mean you get to see even the training rooms for fuck’s sake! You can see the skaters for example do their warm up routines, see them do their stretches, jog around, see them ride exercise bikes- a month’s subscription to Peacock Prime or whatever they call it will give you a better viewing experience than any all access pass that the Olympics itself can give you, I mean if that is even offered. You get up close during the medal ceremonies, you can interact with the crowd, I mean I literally am having telepathic fun with the athletes during their practice sessions on the ice! Starbucks even made a commercial out of it! So fucking cool.

This is a far far better experience than ANY conventional two week vacation than I can possibly imagine.

There is no way, no chance anything on God’s Earth could possibly compare to this.

Besides, this is something that I can do with my family that does NOT involve politics, which is immensely refreshing. I really despised NBC cutting into the Olympics coverage with that 10 minutes of stupidity involving some “Breaking News” of some “Lead” in some such nonsense or other. How ludicrous.

I’m not going to comment too much on the Ice Dancing result; I am not a good judge of that sport for a myriad of reasons, the most important of which is that I have never done it myself. I thought all three teams who medaled were good. I loved the Canadian duo very much. Something there really moved me. I loved the Americans. In both cases you could feel the experience they shared together as a team. I thought the French were very good technically but lacking in some kind of emotional chemistry.

But I am not a judge, take that as it is.

I’m not going to comment further. It’s after midnight and I need to sleep.

Ah yes- one more thing- it is very nice indeed seeing Italy do so well in these games! Well done guys!

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