Insurance pirates...

Okay, so this was kind of spammed to an email list I am on. It is:

1) hysterical
2) too true
3) about a critical problem here in the US.

My family is very fortunate that we have good healthcare (my husband is military and they have comprehensive healthcare), but I am often concerned about others I know who do not. Many of my friends have no insurance. My own brother had none and ended up with $20K in medical bills in the last year alone. This is something that simply HAS to change and the vested interests will not allow it. Enjoy the video, it's an amusing take on a very serious subject.

Figure Skating Frozen in Time

I love YouTube. I really do. I love how you can finds all kinds of video from all kinds of time periods, from all over the world. So I am starting a little video series. From time to time, I am going to post videos of figure skaters, famous and not. Sometimes, when there's time, I'll do some commentary and other times, you'll just have to cope.

So, to kick this off, here are two very interesting videos of Dorothy Hamill. Dorothy is known for her flow, her exquisite edging, her quiet power and serenity. But this is a Dorothy of a later age. The Dorothy of 1976 was a choppy Dorothy, an athletic Dorothy, not a very graceful Dorothy--a jock. Her spins travel badly, rotate slowly, and are generally poor--except for her layback which was quite impressive and lovely. Her program was packed with footwork and action--reminded me of a CoP program in that regard--even though she never did anything more difficult than a double jump. She was dynamic--and FAST--and very enjoyable to watch. But the deep edges? The quiet flow? The serenity? M.I.A.

1976 US Nationals


Even the Dorothy of 1980 was far less of the Dorothy we have come to know, and more the jock. Her spins improved markedly, though they still travel. She still had her speed. This program is an exhibition, so it's a bit emptier, more stroking, less footwork, but all the jumps are there. There are beginnings of the smooth-as-cream stroking and the deep edges.

1980 Olympics Exhibition


Despite the jarring fall in the middle of this program, this is the Dorothy we have come to know and love. Her edges and stroking are breathtaking. She does a lovely pivot move in the program of a sort you really don't see anymore--no time for stuff like that. She had, by this time, lost many if not all of her jumps. She would later regain them. There are hints--just hints--of the athletic young girl she once was as well as the maturity of many years gone. Dorothy is a national treasure.

What a Wonderful World (1995)

Smooth figure skating

It's about time for an "ob skating" post. For those of you not on SkateFans, that's an obligatory mention of figure skating in an otherwise totally off topic post. And this blog has not much been about skating lately. My bad, I've been so busy that I watched Nationals in reruns and only parts of worlds.

One thing I did catch though was the fluffy Latin on Ice. At least, I saw part of it. When Rob Thomas and Santana first did Smooth, I imagined it as an ice dance. I was livid when Kristy Y. mangled it that first season. I just wanted to shake her by her skinny little shoulders--and I LIKE Kristy's skating most of the time.

It needed someone who really understood and internalized latins. Someone who could breathe Latin. I never saw Peter Tchernyshev in the main role (though he is 101 reasons to think pervy things), mainly because I felt that he never really got Latins. Smooth is a cha-cha, a very latiny latin. Porny Peter has the great, sweeping swooshes of smooths (waltz, foxtrot, quickstep etc) down cold. His technique makes my toes curl. He also had a certain eastern European rock-and-roll sensibility about him that is far more Metallica than it is Elvis. More speed metal than rockabilly. So I never saw him doing justice to Smooth. He just doesn't get Latins. But this is actually pretty good.

Okay, who am I fooling, the main highlight of this program is that Peter does it almost shirtless. And oh, BABY, is he cut. You don't even notice that he has no Latin hip motion to speak of (something that is, granted, very hard to do on ice). When you can look away from Porny Peter, you notice that Naomi actually gets the cha at least a little bit.

Anyway, this is for a reader who never saw this particular piece of on ice fluff.

Sport: the power to inspire

A friend of mine posted this video about Dick and Rick Hoyt. Due to lack of oxygen at birth, Rick is almost completely physically disabled—but he's still "in there" with a great sense of humor and a passion for sports. He and his father Dick compete in marathons and triathlons, with Dick pulling, pushing, and carrying Rick throughout the competition. I watched this video of them and literally sobbed. There's a triumph of the human spirit here. I wanted to share it with all of you. It's not about skating, but it says something about skating—and the transcendence and power of sport.

For Cathy, Who is Purple-3

ARGH. Damned laptop shut down AGAIN for no reason and I lost my WHOLE blog post. I HATE that. Worse yet, for some stupid reason, FireFox didn't keep the session information for the thirty five windows I had open. Argh and double argh. Let's see, where was I?

Oh yes.

I'm very fond of the poem "When I am old, I shall wear purple/with a red hat that does not become me." It reminds me of my friend Cathy, who a couple years ago decided not to turn 50. Instead, she turned "purple" and she is now "purple-3." Being orange-6 (<grin>, 36, actually, and not phased by the numbers) myself, I kind of understand her refusal to surrender not so much to age and its indignities, but to society's ideas about who and what older women are and should be.

It occurred to me last night when I was reading this article about a 64-year-old grandmother who appeared (tastefully) naked on a billboard for Dove's Real Women advertising campaign. I thought it was great until the end when she says, "age is but a number, and real beauty—at whatever age—comes from feeling young and thinking young." I know our society identifies youth with beauty to the exclusion of beauty after youth, but this quote bothers me. It endorses youth=beauty in the midst of a campaign that SAYS it means exactly the opposite. Are we really beautiful in all our sizes, shapes and ages, or is beauty, fashion, and self-esteem only for the young, the thin, the fair? Dove can say one thing, but even its models seem to think another. And if we all do, who are we really fooling?

So this morning, I was reading Crooks and Liars, and came across this video by Gogol Bordello. The band plays what they call "Gypsy Punk." And it's got the infectious, driving beat you expect from tradition gypsy music. And the lyrics are delightfully silly. The song is "Start Wearing Purple." And though I have not deciphered all the lyrics yet, it seems to be saying, "Don't be shy about looking your age. I love you and I think you are beautiful even if you aren't 20 anymore." How empowering!

And I thought of you, Cathy.