Jessica Dube Loves Scott Moir

GOE changes.

If a judge or team of judges is going to give a mediocre (or even poorly executed or barely executed) move a +3, there will be no problem awarding the same move by the same skater(s) a +5. As everyone has already remarked. It's cosmetic b.s. that won't affect the rankings.

Alina Zagitova.

I enjoyed this. I think only Russia can produce figure skaters who win the Olympics but come back with the drive of a runner up. She's not skating as if she won, she's skating as if she pep talked herself all summer and this time, damn it, she can do it. She's got more power and speed. War horse music and then some in both programs, but Carmen is fantastic figure skating music, and the music is supposed to support the skater, not vice versa. Phantom of the Opera I'm meh about but in a women's short with lots of cuts, it's fine.

Ok.

I've read all the comments over the past couple of years that report what is really going on here (above, and by here, I mean Zachary Donohue and Madison Hubbell), but I have no first hand information. If the comments are correct, then I just can't.

I saw this when it was first published, obviously, but who took the picture 
or was Meryl's right hand holding a selfie stick?

IMO (and obviously this is not a unique position) just about everything has devolved into the lowest common denominator of self-promotion.

Fedor. Red carpet appearance. His lovely bride
to be is out of frame to his right. No point in showing
her because it's the same facial expression she has worn
99.7% of the time she has been in front of a camera lens.
She is one of the mysteries of my time.

I think this year Hubbell & Donohoe will win most of the silver medals in competitions shared with Papadakis and Cizeron and the rest of it will be P&C's uninterrupted march toward 2022 gold. Of all the ice dancers in ice dance history, this is the one the ice dance decided should be as unchallenged as Grishok Platov in their day, while ice dancers with actual talent, Virtue and Moir, were treated as disruptive and a problem. It's because of this we have the Shibs and W&P sitting things out. There is no point. The Shibs have already won all the silvers.

It's never going to happen. There will always be something to promote. They're going to be on the public stage the rest of their lives, and at that point what with all the doubling down and raising the ante, they'll consider the price of coming clean too overwhelming and, as with most people who double down on something wrong or are on the losing end of a sunk cost fallacy, they'll become more convinced the initial lie was right. Maybe if we have WW III they'll decide it's ok but I'd bet that they wouldn't want to distract from world events.

About lies, I've been watching a bunch of youtube on how to spot a liar (it's a super popular topic these days along with analyzing narcissism). The body language info that was most interesting made the point that stress is much easier to spot than deception, and if you see signs of stress when someone is speaking, that can be a tell. Well, actually, you will see signs of controlling stress. Self-touching, exhalation, lip biting, rubbing one's arms or legs. And blocking - arm crossing, eyes averting. Virtue and Moir, when really lying, between the fixed eye contact and faint smiles (Tessa), and the strenuous self-pacifying we see from Scott, were almost a parody of lying tells. I used to wonder if they were trolling on that basis alone ("We're pretending to be terrible liars.")

Dr. Phil comes along, however, and is not a huge fan of body language tells. He believes there is one major thing that will tip you off - someone telling you shit you never asked. Too much detail. Going on and on. Explaining why and how what you say is true.

On that basis:

Tessa and Scott. The W Network
Case closed.*

*I read a 1930s movie star's autobiography. Towards the very end, she goes on for paragraphs explaining to us why she and her long time leading man and close friend never slept together. They loved each other dearly, she explained. From time to time he'd have a crush on her or she'd have a crush on him and the other one would keep it in check. Why is it so hard for people to understand that the closest, most intimate, most beloved friends who sync together effortlessly can have the tenderest feelings of love but not do the deed? This was a duo where nobody (in the show biz media or show biz history, or among fans) has ever insinuated they DID sleep together, but she throws this in. It raised a whole bunch of flags to me but I didn't know why. Now after hearing Dr. Phil, I know what it is.