If it ain't broke . . .

Here's the first part of a post about the short dance of the 2015 United States Ice Dance Champions broken into far too many gifs and screen caps. It will be finished tomorrow, followed by posts about the other new short dances.

Yanking, pulling and dragging is the new skating, and as long as you make strong eye contact with the audience, and avoid any kind of contact with each other, you'll max out the scores. If Madison does win a U.S. gold medal in ice dance, I hope she hangs it on her left arm; it's doing all the work here.

It's a bit dispiriting to go through this, because it's not as if I have Virtue and Moir to fall back on. Ah, here's the real thing! We're going to see variations on this Chock Bates deal all over the place this season, although after breaking down the short dance I already know their predetermined victory over the Shibs is criminal.The Shibs skated better than this in 2009. But as we all see, the secret to successful ice dancing is to strip out most of the skating, and the secret to strong pcs is to skate far apart. But at least they have great lines!

Bobrova and Soliev posture is the new proper
posture.

See that straight up and down thing from Madison, dead on her flat? Lots and lots of that.

First gif:

Pulling is the new skating.

Work it, Maddy's Arm.

Lift prep. A flat and two footed in quasi snow
plow, all hands on deck. We all know how high risk
these short dance lifts can be. A real test of the skating skills.

Marina thoughts. Plus - pregnancy: do your research

Long post. When it comes to the Marina section, this may be one of those posts where my thoughts are imperfectly worked out and get sorted later in the comments section, or via editing, as my perspective becomes better organized.

On the pregnancy front, it seems to me that those who insist Tessa shows no sign of pregnancy must know that plenty of women don't show mid-way, or even most of the way. It's just that these fans have made up in their own heads that Tessa Virtue is not one of those women. A lot of comments section discussion works off stuff that only exists in people's heads. They decide something or other is not possible for the version of Tessa they, personally, have invented, and they see no reason why what they've made up shouldn't be treated as valid. I see this mentality reoccur constantly in the comments, although of course it doesn't describe everybody.

Alternatively, another reason some people might fixate on the idea that all pregnant women project a balloon shape is that's the only sort of pregnant woman these fans believe they've ever personally seen. When they've crossed paths with women who carry differently, they failed to perceive that she was pregnant, and continue believing pregnant women all look the same. As with much of this mindset, if they don't see it, it doesn't exist.

Yahoo:

Image linked by participant in comments section (thanks):

I like the above image as it's easy to see this woman is pregnant (relation of her abdomen to her pelvis, for one) but in addition to carrying small, she's got a pronounced s curve in her back that can trick the eye into thinking it's simply her posture. Due to her proportions/contour/how she's carrying it would be a cinch for her to dress as if she's not at all pregnant. She could stand differently and look even less pregnant. Tuck her butt under and she'd even be flat, you might say, because that pregnancy slope isn't just mild, it's a continuous plane - it doesn't abruptly jut forward. Look at this lady. I bet she doesn't even have the abs of an Olympic gold medalist in ice dance.

I was going to post a bunch more photos but they're all the same. If you've decided the Tessa Virtue that you've made up in your head is a woman who, if pregnant, would show stereotypically (even though there's actually no such thing as typical) a million pictures won't make that worldview shift.

*****

I was debating posting my thoughts about Marina, as I think the discussion has, at times, gotten down to disagreeing on first principles. When that happens, you just have to agree to disagree; you're not going to change someone's mind on the fundamentals. This post is not an attempt to change minds, but to express my own views, even though I'll reference contrary views. My views start here:

I think Marina/Canton remains the best training center for Tessa and Scott, and Marina the best choreographer for the team. I have thoughts about the political influences that may direct where VM train, if they do continue, and will mention that when the post reaches that point. But to start, I refer to this latest article from icenetwork.com:

icenetwork article on Marina, Canton and current teams

I think the key is fluidity and collaboration in the process of building a program. Here are excerpts that highlight why I think this is the best training center for Tessa and Scott:

"This is actually really different for me. Nikoli did all the work by himself," he said. "I think it's really great. Every coach can see one piece of program from [his or her] own view, and everyone wants to give you the best. When you skate in competition, everybody has different tastes, and I think our coaches have the same [goal] but different tastes. If you want to be a good skater, you have to feed on these different [viewpoints]."

Since her days with G&G, Marina has been a collaborative coach/choreographer, and yet some fans have decided, and, having decided, insist, that she refuses to allow outside influences, despite that fact that collaboration and proactively bringing in outside influences has been the hallmark of her training process since she became a choreographer. She encourages her skaters to do the same. To the extent Scott and Tessa are self-determined and draw upon outside resources, they are modeling Marina, not working against her or despite her. IMO they're not outliers in her program, but represent the fullest expression of Marina's style of working -  a style that can only be completely fulfilled by skaters possessing the talent, and the smarts about their talent, that Scott and Tessa possess. Everything known about Marina points to a person who gives her skaters all the tools, all the resources, to be used and understood by the skaters themselves as full collaborators/participants, responsible for themselves, and self-reliant. Of course, the more ability a skater or pair of skaters has, the better this works. Of course the skater has to be receptive.

There is so much "say the opposite" in figure skating and figure skating discussion. The fan meme that maintains Marina does the opposite of what she actually does is just part of the pattern. In that meme, Marina is too easily threatened and Virtue and Moir went to Swan against her wishes. No, this is not the position of every person who is not a Marina fan, but this is the song sung by many who have disliked her for years. This particular criticism is something they've made up, all contrary evidence dismissed. I guess mentioning this may appear to be argumentative/trying to convince, but it's more me acknowledging that, when I highlight Marina's collaborative process, there are fans who inexplicably assert that she doesn't collaborate, or only collaborates when there's no choice.

ETA - To address something I read in the comments section below the previous post: it was mentioned that D/L (think it was them) and Jeffrey Buttle don't have that much experience choreographing ice dance. To which someone else retorted, "JMB and Swan didn't either, and that turned out pretty well!"

I have to ask myself:
Is this person comparing floor dance specialists/choreographers to ice dance/figure skating coaches/choreographers as if it's the same job? If that's the case, Virtue and Moir's horizons broaden. They won't need to train at another rink. They can just get choreo/coaching from Derek Hough. What more would they need?

I get frustrated when the "ice" part of ice dance is minimized by some fans (again, not all fans, and not all fans who aren't Marina fans).

Marina is changing music for the free dance. We tried already a few different styles. That is the way she works. Every day she speaks about it a little bit different, maybe she found another idea. We have all of the elements for the free dance: lifts, spin, footwork."

That's called process.

Marina is thinking like a professor; she knows what she is doing.

I love the thinking like a professor.

When was the last time somebody invented a new turn, new step? When ice dance fans look for innovation, what do they mean? For me, Marina works better with rhythm and music than any coach around. This is subjective, but I think a lot of people aren't musical, or aren't in touch with rhythm. That is where, for my money, Marina is absolutely brilliant. Just compare her to Igor. Igor is a musical washout, as far as I'm concerned. That's why his choreography, even though he steals and reworks and repurposes like everybody, seems so clunky. There are other choreographers/coaches who put together really nice programs, but IMO they don't use rhythm as well, aren't as insightful about tension and release, anticipation/propulsion, counter motion, etc., either (by insightful I mean, what parts of the music to use when you want this to occur, and where to place it in the program).

That was something I started understanding when I originally began watching Dancing with the Stars. I saw successful singers who couldn't hear or feel music/rhythm when trying to dance. And conversely, there were contestants with almost no range of motion (like 66 year old George Hamilton in 2006) but wonderful rhythm, who were able to put it across. Anyhow, I think that's the biggest obstacle to some people appreciating Marina - the ones who don't hear/feel how she's put it together with the music. Even her work-for-hire (like her blues program for Dube/Wolfe) uses the music with movement so much better than similarly put together programs, to energize the skaters and the audience.

The musicality in Seasons didn't appear as accessible to some as Carmen, but I love this wonderful post from fan forum:

http://www.fanforum.com/74168395-post211.html

In my favorite part of this post, the author describes what she/he understood about Seasons prior to the point where her sensibility was finally affected by Seasons (an event that occurred in a later performance). Bolded parts are mine:

I was hearing the nuances in the music that Tessa and Scott play within choreographically - nuances which aren't always rhythmic but are sometimes beautifully subtle alterations in pitch. I also felt like I had a decent grasp on what they were trying to do - and project - from a movement standpoint. But as far as the overall texture of the program was concerned - that overarching sensibility it's supposed to stir - it wasn't there for me like it was with so many of their past programs (and this season's SD). And I thought, "eh, that's all right. If it's not there for you, it's not there. Doesn't change the fact that it's a gorgeous, intricate, conceptual program that is gold medal-worthy" (and of course, the skaters performing the program are feeling and connecting to it), which is what matters.

Cute Ice Princess Blog Looks at the Finnstep

It's just camera angles. From another camera
angle her left blade is actually OFF the ice.
Were it not for Meryl Davis fans, I would never
understand the importance of camera angles. From this angle,
it appears that the skater is on the ice. From that angle,
it looks like the skater is in the Kiss'n'Cry.

Thanks very much again to cuteiceprincess tumblr and to Lady B. And once again, Meryl Davis fans are invited to explain how Lady B has it all wrong.

Finnstep: DW's skating doesn't match their protocols

Okay, here we go. Let's remember that Lynn Rutherford justified VM's Finnstep levels in the Olympics by pointing out that VM had failed to get their levels in the past. That's it then. She's a figure skating "journalist", after all. Like every single mainstream figure skating journalist in existence*, her deal is, "I'm a figure skating journalist, but I'm not a technical specialist" which means "I write about figure skating but don't actually know what I'm talking about when it comes to what went on out there. I trust the judges when they produce results I support, and so should you even if you don't like the results. Should any observer deviate from the agreed upon official narrative (such as the inventor of the Finnstep disagreeing about how the Finnstep was scored), just disparage his credentials." This stuff about you need to be a technical specialist to write about the technical side (which is the damn win and lose side!) is hammered home to us fans, who are nevertheless supposed to invest ourselves in this "sport." Then there are the times a journalist gets worked up about an outcome, but, not having educated him/herself in the twenty years they've spent writing about the damn thing, makes a half-baked hash of it when attempting to challenge dubious results (looking at you, Steve Milton).

It's notable that people like Lynn Rutherford are interested enough in figure skating to work for publications dedicated to it, which means they write, tweet, attend competitions, etc., but they never manage to get interested enough to actually be able to tell what's going on for themselves. They like to tell us it's impossible to tell for yourself unless you're some sort of "specialist." Figure skating journalists have been using that one for years. Those who presumably do know technique, such as P.J. Kwong, don't talk about it when they discuss figure skating with fans and pretend to know nothing about it when a team like Davis White hijacks the Olympics from the rightful winners.

Yet mere fans, who have not spent years writing about skating, or rubbing elbows, are able to read and understand the rulebook, and evaluate a skater(s) performance vis a vis what's in the rulebook. Turns out this sport is observable. Turns out, the rules are comprehensible and applicable to real stuff. We can familiarize ourselves with the rules in whatever language we speak, and then see if the skating and the scores make sense per the rules.

The likes of Rutherford, and those in the comment booth pretend this is impossible to do. Per them, the only way to evaluate the legitimacy of a protocol is to see if the skater has been given similar protocols before. Cuteiceprincess tumblr, along with quite a few other fans (who are, of course, ignored because then the propoganda jig is up) disagrees. You can actually evaluate a protocol's legitimacy by looking at the skating. What a concept.

Here's Lady B:

The next image makes you see two keypoints that are needed to assign the level 4 to the first sequence of finnstep. To Tessa and Scott was awarded Level 3 and a Level 4 for Meryl and Charlie. Let us see for a moment

FIRST KEYPOINT: the woman must do twizzle and a half, and end on a right foot with an “outside back” edge.This edge must be CLEAR. And the foot with which he comes have to be ONE. We see clearly how Tessa comes with only one foot (the left is oriented forward as it should be to give the draw back on the right foot instead is on the outer edge) and a clear outer edge.
Meryl instead not only arrives on TWO FEET but even over a non-defined, completely flat (as is also visible in the gif).

Again, the gif.

This keypoint has been given the right to both Tessa and Meryl.

SECOND KEYPOINT: After another twizzle and half, the woman has to come with a light foot, right, forward, on a CLEARLY outside edge.
Now, let’s see how Meryl and Tessa are clearly arrived with a flat edge and not defined (not by chance that keypoint is the most difficult to reach). The blade is straight and there is a clear tilt in either of both Tessa and Meryl.

NEVERTHELESS, to Tessa is not given the keypoint, while Meryl yes.
Conclusion: Tessa, a keypoint only earned a level 3.
Meryl two keypoints not deserved, level 4.

What’s the story?
How is it that Tessa and Scott are counted at infinitesimal and Meryl and Charlie is not it?

I would like to remind you that the judges have MEGA replay of what happens during the keypoints and the keypoints that are fundamental to assign levels.

This thing happens all too often in the steps sequences, where Meryl and Charlie seem to automatically level 4 even if their blades are miles away, while Tessa and Scott struggling to get a level 3.
In any case, this is another chapter.

As usual, it seems to me that is rewarded the performance and not the difficulty and true technique. All the more reason why the Tessa and Scott shall be made a higher standard and will have to have everything perfect (all executed perfectly) to win, unfortunately.

As it turns out even when Virtue and Moir are not only better than Davis White, but as near to perfect as ice dancers can get, they're simply not allowed to win. We were all sold a bill of goods about the "storyline" of rival ice dance teams. There was no rivalry. VM were cast as foils meant to legitimize Davis White. Davis White are beating Virtue Moir! Ergo Davis White must be terrific! That's it. Virtue Moir spent the past quad propping up Davis White so Davis and White could appropriate what they did on the ice and pretend to best it. Virtue Moir were only fodder.

P.S. - Re-reading this analysis and looking at the screen caps, Meryl missed both key points in this performance, yet Davis and White got L4.

ETA: Figure skating is consciously, aggressively, perpetuating fraud not just on the ice but off the ice. It's connected. Both are tied to the current culture in the sport, with an accompanying condescension and sanctimony. Davis White are so deserving and it's disrespectful to question the outcome in Sochi. And hey, did we mention Virtue and Moir are GREAT people?

_____________________________
*As ever, excepting those figure skating journalists who write on their own web pages, or for skating-centric websites, but who do not influence how figure skating is discussed in mainstream media, on twitter, or in the comment booth.

Stop the presses. Carmen is difficult. (And a round up of other stuff)

http://www.lfpress.com/2013/02/05/local-pairs-new-routine-is-extremely-difficult

Latest gem from Ryan Pyette of lfpress. Carmen is HARD.

Better late than never, I guess.

The article doesn't spell out WHY Carmen is difficult, however. Suppose Ryan doesn't know?

How can that be? He's a figure skating journalist!

Apparently in an early iteration of this article he wrote that Davis White and Virtue Moir each have two world titles.

The article headline also calls Virtue Moir a "pair". I know they meant it as in "couple",  but "pair" has a specific figure skating meeting, especially if the topic is a team's competitive program.

What does it matter? It's figure skating!

I can't blame him for believing Davis & White already have two world titles - all of the press this season for Davis White have positioned them as without flaw and completely unbeatable and Virtue Moir more or less chasing futility. Scott Hamilton called Davis White the "Best in the world". You'd think they were defending World champs and reigning Olympic champions. But that's the memo. Davis and White are IT.

Pyette points out that Virtue and Moir haven't been able to beat Davis and White so far this year.

Does he know Virtue and Moir have competed against Davis and White only once this year?

He also brilliantly says that the difference will come down to who doesn't make mistakes.

I don't think so. I think Davis and White can make a couple of non-element mistakes or even a blink-and-you'll-miss-it twizzle error and still come away with 10s in pcs and +2 and +3 GOES and all their levels, but Virtue Moir will be held to the fire. Davis and White will get credit for apparent speed (to me it's hectic,  and Virtue Moir cover more ice per stroke and are actually just as fast) and Virtue and Moir will not get pc credit for the extreme difficulty of their program, nor will they get credit for their unison, extended blade drive, and control - or their own speed. The stunning twizzle sequence will be eh and meh - at least compared to Davis & White.

It's not that Davis & White aren't good - they are. It's that they are judged by a different standard. From many accounts by those who have seen both teams in the same competition, there's not much of a speed differential, and it's claimed by some who were at Worlds 2011 that Virtue Moir were faster. Davis & White are "busier" though. They're nonstop, they're hectic, frantic, breathless - and of course none of this says anything whatsoever about control. Varying tempo and pace (which is not the same as speed) elongating and holding some moves while demonstrating exquisite blade control says nothing about your skating skills. You know what says a lot about your skating skills? Churning through the program at a breakneck, one-note pace.

Oh well, the writing is on the wall and the momentum is on their side.

Now I'm going to once again bring up something I put in the comments section in the post below this.

Scott proclaims the greatness of Canada and Canadians while treating Canadian fans like dirt. But if fans were really the reason the sham exists, why would it be so sloppy, so schizophrenic, so unprofessional, smirking and inconsistent? Why would the amount of sham and the numbers involved consistently exceed what would be required if privacy were the purpose?

Why would Scott and Tessa stir the pot just when fans were doing what Scott and Tessa presumably want them to do - back off? And how is it that the interest of the community and the family and friends has not waned? They're always available!

You'd think they were all still in high school. Maybe they wish they still were.

It's not fans whom Scott and Tessa are managing and keeping at bay with the sham. Fans are just pretext. The ones being managed are the other hangers-on, old school friends, old family friends, skating friends, family members, the needy at Skate Canda (are any more needy than some Skate Canada directors) and the needy at home - for whom Scott and Tessa's gold medal is the validation of a lifetime or for whom their reflected glory feels like opportunity.

The sham might be easier to get your arms around when considered as a home town community expedience. It redirects the home town community's focus away from Scott and Tessa themselves, personally, while giving the community an ongoing role to play in their lives, a role that proves Scott and Tessa haven't grown beyond the community. They still need the community, and the community wants the reassurance that it's still needed.

It especially gives Tessa that buffer.

Not that I think Tessa wouldn't and doesn't adore having hundreds of people consider her family, and entitled to know and speculate on all the intimate details of her personal life and decisions with Scott, to her face or behind her back or both, regardless of their actual relationship with her.

This isn't corruption. This is an honor.
In Moirville, there is nothing more important Quinn Moir
could be doing with her first breaths. Her uncle
won a GOLD MEDAL.

(^The above photo made perfect sense. When a woman in my family gives birth, one of the first in line to hold the baby immediately after delivery is always the long-distance girlfriend of the mother's brother-in-law. Everybody wants her to display it as her profile photo immediately. There's nobody more appropriate.

^This kind of shit illustrates how grandiose the position Scott and Tessa's fame holds in the eyes and minds of Moirville. Their accomplishment is felt personally, sustaining the connection is important for the ego and personally validating; Scott and Tessa must never outgrow it. They're still the same - and as so many Ildertonians are still the same - what's more validating than the belief that the hometown heroes are as well?.

It seems very important to these Ilderton people. Who Scott and Tessa are, personally, and what they become - and who they validate -  has an importance that is disproportionate to the place it should occupy in the real lives of anyone not Scott and Tessa themselves.

To too many of them, it's about them. To quote John Lennon, it's bigger than Jesus for them. And as such, they're making themselves ridiculous.)

No doubt Scott and Tessa's little one will grow up to be as uninterested in the lives of their parents as most little kids are in the lives of their parents. I believe Michael J. Scott and his wife, Tracy Pollan, have said that their children are bored by Family Ties reruns from the time their parents first met.

It will be a thrill for neices Charlotte and Quinn to hear their names in the Kiss'n'Cry in public archival video of Scott and Tessa's competitive career, but Scott and Tessa's own little one isn't going to care that they were completely erased from the historical record of Scott and Tessa's exciting competitive career  - a history that everyone else in Ilderton has tried to put their public fingerprints on in one way or the other.

And Scott and Tessa's grandchildren won't care either.

What's really important is that the grown Moirs, the Medway and Fanshawe alumni and associations, and other connections in Ilderton and London feel validated and elevated NOW. Everybody, no matter what they're doing with their lives, is reassured that Scott and Tessa didn't become "better than". They still belong to home.

Scott and Tessa have helped them think and believe this way by giving them a role "manipulating" one of the categories of people the home crowd feels comfortably superior to - a bunch of women, a bunch of outsiders  - many of them GRAY HAIRED - who can afford to attend figure skating events or follow it on the internet.

As much as I've read from this London/Ilderton group, as congenial as they are - self-questioning they're not. Self-examination isn't their strong suit and maturity isn't either.

They walked into this with big heavy boots without ever examining some of its dubious premises and assumptions. They dug a crater sized hole with this thing that says more about their near insatiable need for validation and importance-by-association, that says more about the outsize, oversize role figure skating plays in their world, than it does about the reality of Scott and Tessa's "relationship" with fans or the role figure skating celebrities play in the world of figure skating fans.

What sets Scott and Tessa apart from other famous skaters? Their community. And who are the only ones with the outsized, ridiculous, absurdist, egocentric and puerile fan relationship schemes that have no link whatsoever to either privacy needs or basic logic? Scott and Tessa. This is all emotion and ego-based. It's neediness.

There's a connection. The sham does reflect the community.

Even though Ilderton's got farming roots, I think that community could use a little fresh air and its denizens could do with getting out more. Out of the skating world, out of a complacent mindset. At least before they decide it's perfectly fine to fuck over people who've done nothing to them, when there's no need for it. All to gratify their personal need to feel important by proxy.

If any of these people actually do hold a low opinion of fans, fan expectations and fan behavior, all we have to do is look at THEIR expectations and behavior, and their need to be included and involved, and wonder how much they're projecting onto fans. They're needy enough themselves. But of course, in their own estimation, they're a lot better than fans. Fans must be WORSE.

I bet fans are not. I bet what fans want from Tessa and Scott - Scott, especially - is a whole lot more reasonable than what these people expect from him. It must a nightmare - people who actually know you, equipped with a fan's greediness for validation, entitlement to access and a belief that they're due the details.

And that certainly does put Scott in a unique position among currently competing figure skaters, particularly his training mates who hail from slightly more diversified home towns such as Ann Arbor and New York.

The Cassandra/Scott photos have all been sitting (or one sitting, the other standing).
Or the "party pictures" - cut off at the waist and in at least one Hilborn bent at the waist.
Was Scott standing on a crate? Is Cassandra sitting higher up on something or standing
on a box up there? Let's see full body Scott and Cassandra side by side.

P.S. - down below in the comments someone mentioned how profilic a girlfriend Cassandra is being on twitter - she's giving Jessica a run for her money with the swoony chatter about Scott and vacations after worlds and missing him and how she loves and adores him  - all stuff most people twitter about to their besties. Especially when your pals live in the same city. Why text when you can twitter in front of strangers? Scott likes the type - Jessica had the same habits.

The comments also mention that Tessa's presumed boyfriends are less prolific. Well, yeah. They shoot out an instagram or one of their pals feeds them an easy one about Tessa, and then they're out of material. And why is that? They lack an audience. If Tessa decided to annoint one of those Medway boys as her new boyfriend, twitter would see a whole lot more activity, because none of it is really for us. It's to give the folks at home something to do.

I remember with Jessica. She'd have up a profile picture of just herself. She'd be posting deathless status updates about Starbucks or Cafe Presse. Facebook would languish like this weeks on end. Scott has dinner with the Queen of England - not a peep from Jessica or any of her pals. Scott who?

Suddenly - the bell rings and she'd bolt from the gate. She'd start posting all over the place - most of all on Ildertonian & Co. facebooks. At times you'd see her losing focus - substituting exclamation points for content, but it was all happening in one manic spurt. She'd be here, there and everywhere. Someone in Ilderton would sneeze and Jessica God bless you'd.

And why was she all over Moirville? Because they were waiting. It was to.give.them.something.to.do.

When you're trying to give people MATERIAL, quantity matters. You can't have half of Medway descending on the same status update or comment. You've got to post something on your own wall for Carol, Cara and/or Alma and maybe a couple of others, then you have to go running around all over Facebookland planting opportunities for everyone else to weigh in. If she slacked off, she'd hear from the Moir Matriarchs, you can be sure, so she ran it like her hair was on fire. Then,  just as abruptly as it all started  - silence.

Tessa - she had Fedor. I don't think the people around Fedor really gave a shit about using Fedor's sham connection with Tessa to claim some turf for themselves alongside the exciting Moir Virtue ascension road to figure skating royalty. Fedor had friends in US skating mostly, he had friends in Europe, he had peer friends and not as many older people up in his business, and he had car friends. So a twitpic and a passing mention of Tessa sufficed. He was just lip servicing with his end of the sham. He wasn't trying to feed multitudes. Unlike Scott. And the Virtue side of the family wasn't looking to get in on Tessa's sham action. Her stuff was just to balance out Scott's end, and Scott's end created activities for those from his community who felt proprietary. Tessa's end of things didn't have that mandate.

Same with Ryan Semple. Clearly a little personal publicity and a slightly heightened public profile was all he was seeking. He wasn't trying to serve all of the Semples plus the Canadian alpine skiing community with his Tessa sham.

P.S. it's fascinating how Scott, who takes every opportunity to remind us all that he's not on the internet, has had two girlfriends who, once involved with him, break with all their past practices and loudly proclaim their love for him and plans with him in front of strangers on social media, while ostensibly just chatting it up with friends. But their friends never return the favor and chat up their love lives on facebook or twitter. When it was Jessica, her friends Julie, Sarah, Adrienne and Vanessa, and her sister Veronique didn't use facebook to blast Jtaimes to their boyfriend, talk about how they missed their man, or run around tagging their boyfriend with hearts and winks, even though their boyfriends were on facebook. They all chatted it up with Jessica though, about Scott.  Hell, Jessica gabbed more about Scott than Anabelle did about Cody.

And now Cassandra and her friends and family. Are the girls responding in kind, sharing their love for their boyfriends incessently by name on twitter, in front of strangers? Sharing plans? Or is it all Scott's girlfriend? Cause that's how it goes with private, internet-shunning guys like Scott who are famous in their field. They always want their private lives and lovey dovey chit chat regularly paraded on the web.