Okay so it's no longer "Shut Up, Dick!" season the new generation of babbling throughout the program announcers includes Shut up, Kurt Browning, Shut Up Sandra Bezic (who interjects in the middle of a program as if she's been poked with a stick and told "say something!") and the best of all Shut Up Scott.

I caught many but not all of the US National Championship figure skating performances as well as some of the "exhibition" skating (which #$%^(*^&! NBC still set up with commentary by the Shut ups (it's often vocal music and you can't hear the music OR the lyrics when they're going on about nothing).

In a year when there are Olympic Games, at least the announcers believe that national championships only exist as previews of those games. Enver mind who came in fourth of fifth as they don't count. They aren't going to be on the Olympic team so you don't care about them. We're going to rerun Evan's short program four times because why would you care about a guy who came in eighth?

So the Olympics it is. Sasha Cohen failed rather badly in her attempt to "make a comeback" and get on the Olympic team again. She's 25 and looked very good i n practice, but once again, lost her nerve, her edge or her confidence in her long program, fallilng on her butt. i adore her skating skills, her grace, her lines, but I've seen this before and it's seldom a good idea (ok, Plushenko aside)

The US women probably have no chance at Olympic medals. Most of the Japanese women can skate olympic rings (sorry) around Rachael Flatt and even Mirai Nagasu. But oh BOY was it nice to see Nagasu return. Some of her problems last year stemmed from that old demon - growing. She gained five inches in the last couple years and that means you have to relearn your body so much. She looked splendid to me. Flatt, on the other hand, oh man I want to like her I really do, but while she is super competent, i feel nothing watching her. But then that's me being weird in my oddball skating taste. I never felt any emotion watching Michelle Kwan. She left me cold. Sarah Hughes? Pretty much the same thing. I don't know why but i don't get them. The feeling, the emotion, the intensity or love or the passion - whatever it is, never came across to me.

Flatt is a very good skater. She was at Skate America when Ray and I went and she impressed me. She impresses me now. I just don't put her in my "list of favorites because once she's off the ice, i tend to forget what she just skated. Same with men's champ Jeremy Abbott. wholly competent. Very whitebread. I don't know what happened to Alissa Czisny, who was my odds-on favorite "finally she'll be up there" but it was a shame that she apparently had a horrible weekend, landing in 10th place. Huh?

We're sending two pairs to Vancouver who need work (all our pairs need work). Inoue and Baldwin rocked it on the long program, best they'd done in years, but those years are showing on them. And hey, did they ever actually get married after he proposed to her in public?) Still, she managed that throw triple for the second time in competition and he looked better than he has for a while, not just like the guy who lifts and escorts the woman around the ice. But they came in third, and won't be on the team. With favorites McLaughlin and Brubaker tanking as badly as they did (I did not see what happened) it gave slots to two pairs teams i've never seen before. But we haven't had a great memorable pair fora while have we? Sorry but Meno and Sand (and their inability to land side-by-sides?)? Ina and Whomever?

But then there's our dance champions, the only folks i see having any chance in Vancouver. I don't really care about that - go team. rah. - but I've gotten a bit worn out with Tanith and Ben (and their music and costume choices are getting very, well, awful. Did you see that thing Tanith had for the long program? It looked like pieces of three different costumes sewn together). And Meryl Davis and Charlie White - well, he lifts her in extraordinary ways with little effort. They remind me of Roca and Sur, Lang and Tchernachev. I think they get the music well and skate with it. And they make me feel stuff. They emote, they tell a story, they relate to each other. And gosh, they're sure purty.

Now if only i could get someone to take my music proposal seriously. NO SKATING WILL BE ALLOWED, FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS MINIMUM to "The Phantom of the Opera"/ Or for that matter ANY Andrew Lloyd Webber music. Or "Nessun Dorma". That one? Ten years. Or "Love Story". That one? Maybe never.

And NO ONE WILL EVER BE ALLOWED TO SKATE TO "BOLERO". EVER AGAIN. IT'S RETIRED. With it's jersey hung on the rafters of all skating venues.

Seems reasonable to moi!