Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Pleasant Distractions
skates

I'm in need of distractions this week, as I can't be thinking about the things I can't be thinking about.  If you know what I mean.  (Some of you do.) (And I thank you for your sweet calls/emails/prayers.)

So if you have any fun internet distractions, send them my way.  And I'll share here some of the fun things I'm finding.  Like this article from The Hairpin on Monday, entitled "The 10 Greatest Figure Skaters Who Never Won an Olympic Medal."

Amazing.  Uh-maze-ing.  I loved everything about this article.  My figure skating obsession reached it's apex in the early 90's, so this review of skaters from that era was a fun trip down memory lane.

Surya Bonaly!  Man, that girl brought the scowling drama, big jumps, and interesting eyeshadow. Rocky Marval and Calla Urbanski - they were so fun to watch and such classic underdogs (a truck driver and an aging waitress!?) to root for. Nicole Bobek - oh, poor Nicole. The article pretty much nails it in describing Nicole as only having "two settings: off and on."  But when she was 'on,' she was such a pretty skater.

And Tonya Harding - well, what more can be said?  I'll admit that, before the Nancy Kerrigan scandal, I was a Tonya fan.  Girlfriend was the first American lady to land a triple Axel in competition, and that's not nothing. But I do wonder if her 1991 performance at Nationals, set to a mash-up of "Send in the Clowns" and Tone Loc's "Wild Thing," shouldn't have perhaps clued us in that something was...disjointed about this troubled skater.

Wanna take a wild guess what my favorite part of The Hairpin article was?  Yup.  You know it was the link to this Kurt Browning video.  Heart-throbby, mullet-ed, baby-faced, pun-ny, humble, Kurt Browning.  (Am I the only one swooning?  If so, that's ok.  I'm all right with that.  I still love you, Kurt!)

In related news, I miss the Olympics.  4 months until London!


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