But the skating is actually on the west coast - time zones are hard! 
Hooray Lysacek! USA in the hizzouse!
(I’m clearly too white to use the word hizzouse… no idea how to spell it…)
Pleshenko looked like he wanted to cut some judges during the medal ceremony. He creeps me out. Did you see the paranoid short NBC did on him before the short program? He kept yammering about how he was going to show his “enemies” a thing or two.
Oh, and is there some reason NBC doesn’t show what music they’re skating to when they bring up the name, country, etc.? The commentors mentioned a few, but not all of them.
I think Plushenko actually has a sense of humour - he may have been making jokes when he was talking about his “enemies” - I didn’t watch that part. I was wasting my time on “L.A. Ink” before I realized there was figure skating to be had.
Did they ever explain what the deal was with Lysacek’s costume, with the snakes? I missed the beginning where they must have explained it…
Okay, I know it’s late to be asking this, since pairs skating is over, but I’m still curious. That move many of them do, where the guy twirls the girl around at arms length while she bends in half backwards with her head almost down to the ice? IINM, that’s called the “death whirl” or “death spiral,” and I was once told that it was the most dangerous move, either in pairs skating or figure skating full stop. If that was true, is it still? Because every time one of those guys tosses his partner in the air and she spins around two or three times before he catches her, I cringe – that looks way more hazardous than the other.
While pictures like this one do seem to show the lady’s head in a vulnerable position is the hand hold is lost, there are other, apparently more dangerous, elements that are deemed too unsafe to perform.
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Since this has actually turned out to be about figure-skating, I’m moving it to the Game Room.
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I admire Plushenko’s jumping ability no end, but I’ve always found him vaguely creepy, and was glad the he took silver to Yagudin’s gold eight years ago. I was also glad Lysachek won last night – and won legitimately, with a much better skate overall. Plushenko’s jumps, which are pretty much all he has to offer (that quad-triple-triple never fails to wow, and is still amazing when it’s “only” a quad-triple-double), were not up to par last night.
Great night of skating, I was enthralled throughout.
Also nice to see Johnny Weir – a local boy, originally – skate well, though he was clearly not top tier. Does anyone know what the words in Russian in his skate are?
Random thought: As someone who’s followed skating for more than 20 years, it’s so weird to see people I remember clearly as competitors standing by the boards as coaches … Viktor Petrenko (why didn’t they mention he’s not only Zmievskaya’s asst. coach but her son-in-law?), Yuka Sato, etc.
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That’s interesting, gary - I’m sure I recall watching pairs figure skating years ago and seeing those “head banger” spins all the time - grab the girl by the leg or arm and just start whipping her around. I can imagine why it’s illegal now.
One of the moves that makes me cringe is the side-by-side camel spins after Jessica Dube’s accident. (Warning: Fairly graphic video with multiple skating injuries.) The figure skating ladies look so tiny and delicate, but they’ve got to be tough as nails to make it to Olympic level in this sport, I’m gonna say (the guys do too, of course, but they don’t look as tiny and delicate).
I see. Thank you.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who, since that luge accident, has been seeing death lurking in every corner. There was a disturbing moment in the snowboarding event last night as well.
Don’t forget about death by skate. Those things are razor sharp, and if someone looses their balance with all the kicking and spinning it would go through a neck like butter. They could be dead in a pool of frozen blood before the stretcher gets out there.
Like that hockey player - he did almost die, if I recall correctly. Caught a skate in the neck, and skated off to the bench trying to keep his blood from all jetting out.
Clint Malarchuk. Supposedly if he’s been at the other end of the ice when he was cut he would have died; the timing was that close.
IIRC, it’s always been illegal in amateur skating. It got really big in the mid-1990’s when they were still televising the professional competitions after it was famously used in “The Cutting Edge.”
Oh the irony! The I-RON-Y! 
That’s the one. Here’s the video, if anyone is curious to see just how fast all your blood can come out.
Dang it, think I got something in my eye watching Joannie Rochette skate tonight. {sniff}