Let Me Say This About That

Be it noted that although Scott Moir was "unable" to post a single thank you on his fan page for the CNE or his birthday well wishes, and so had to shut it down, he is "able" to be very chatty on his "m'ovember" team fund raising page. And lo - his family is there as well! They all have time to type a post or two! So does Scott! How did his schedule manage to clear? 

Love the crotch block from Scott and the holding hands
almost but basically not. And, as ever, the eye contact.

This photo was found via a link posted on fan forum by the same fan who claims to have been "accidentally" left on Scott's facebook friends' list, the same fan who claimed to be mortified and betrayed when her flickr account, storing images like these:

was found by the blog. At the time the blog said that, it was no accident that the link to this "private" account got passed around til it reached the blog. Team VM wanted the blog to publish these photos. It was right after Scott had done something "nice". As many have noticed, when he's nice or gracious, he's setting people up. Has he EVER done anything nice on social media EVER that didn't come with a poison pill?

Turns out, this includes charity. Is he giving that money to charity - to men's health? Sure. But why not stick some sham on as a sidecar. Never leave something uncorrupted, that's them.

The fan who was so mortified over her flickr account being "exposed" had no compunction about paying a quick visit to fanforum to share a link that would set fans on the trail to locating a public facebook account that again exposes Scott's private life to the public and to the enemy. OMG! This poor fan must be mortified eleventy times over now! She's all internet thumbs, this fan.

Just remember Jessica had a profile pic up for her birthday with her sibs' significant others tagged, and in two seconds the fandom had located the album of Jessica's birthday party hosted on the facebook of her brother's girlfriend. 

Team Virtue Moir are not internet geniuses with the big picture but they know fans can click through an easy trail.

I'm always happy to do their work for them.

So when a fan who had "private" photos stored on her flickr rolls in and drops a link to the m'ovember page, with just a quick "Great stuff!" or similar, slaps down a smiley, and then goes poof, fans click the link right away. There's Captain Scott raising money for m'ovember. Scott's on the web! Talking to friends and family, in public, joking around! Let's look at the list that's right there and see who is donating to his team. Looks like mostly friends. Whose name is at the very top of his donor list with an impressive $50.00? I recognize some of the other names, but hers is new. Wonder if she's on facebook like a lot of his other buddies. Tap tap - let's see. Oh, she is! And look at her profile picture, put up less than 24 hours ago and JUST in time for CoR.*

And now it's gone. Mission accomplished. How they think - or at least, the veneer they're putting up goes like this: if it were b.s., like everything these people do, would it have been hidden right after the blog published the photo? Of course not! Some evil blog published her private photo and it's a private facebook and right away she hid it. I wonder if she's embarrassed! Whatever, this whole incident is proof everything is private and real.

Just ignore that fans were busy dropping links, laying a trail of little arrows and post-its directing fans to the m'ovember site, and Team VM counted on this. In furtherance of keeping m'ovember on fans' minds, Moirwise (hi Charlotte), the m'ovember site is turned into an active chat-and-banter site among Moirs and friends so visitors will stick around awhile, check things out.

With this one, they're shit stirring. They're throwing bait out there, knowing fans will sniff it out in five seconds (which they did) - but as there are a couple of layers of separation, fans can't think this was set up intentionally! There's a layer of deniability. It's their idea of subtle. It's like when Barb dropped Craig Buntin's wedding guest list on icenetwork. This time, the trail ended at facebook but started somewhere else - how could it be them pushing people towards that facebook?

And here it is on the blog - because I aim to please.

 I'm not going after these people - they want this stuff here. It's the only place left that justifies what they have done and do. They want to stir fans up, use the blog to do it, so they can point to the agitation and say "See - this is what we need to protect ourselves from!" Things were too quiet, fans too accepting, everybody was focused on Carmen, and the season ahead, which is how you'd think they'd want it. Only a few of the usual suspects on Addicted were analyzing body language, and expressing their thoughts, which is Scott and Tessa's business  - how?

So, it was looking like Scott and Tessa have been jerking fans around all this time for nothing and maybe they should just be grateful things were settling down. Maybe leave well enough alone and focus on the skating part of the season ahead.

God fucking forbid.

I have a few thoughts:

How the photo reached fans (and since the blog started, the blog) is exactly how all the Jessica stuff reached fans prior to the post-Olympic sham blasts - via the underground railroad of social media, as that keeps Scott and Tessa's oh so clean hands clean.

The Moir family and some Scott buddies, so reticent on the facebook side of social media of late, are active all over the m'ovember page. Boy - they care a lot about men's health!

The blog went through a whole discussion in a recent post about Tessa versus Jessica and how Tesssa crushes Jessica in most basic appeal departments and now that Scott has pretty much announced Tessa's no innocent, please explain how Jessica could have the upper hand?

Cue the upgrade! A way more conventionally glam and confident gal steps into the recently vacated slot!

Here she is on a bunch of rocks - the location looks familiar.

She's from London. She knows the fam.

Still, while Scott doesn't appear to radiate the same degree of aversion he did with Jessica in the photo with Cassandra, it's still as if they each occupy their separate planes and kind of gingerly line up sideways  (are they squatting, sitting, or leaning?) and even the lowered eyes look past each other, and Scott is sporting his weak "sensitive" smile that he has been practicing since the last few months of his sham with Jessica. And look at that upper body body language and Scott's crotch hand.

Scott and Tessa must be innocent in this one. They're minding their business! Is it their fault fans traced this profile pic? Who could have anticipated that? All that happened is a fan notorious for pushing the sham, notorious for boasting what she could see on Scott's personal fan page, a fan Scott "accidentally" kept on his facebook, a fan who caused "private" photos of Scott's "personal life" she was storing on her private, secret flickr account to suddenly and (also accidentally) become public at a very coincidental time, abruptly makes a cameo appearance on the only remaining VM forum with any traffic. She drops a fun link, says nothing more, and disappears, and when fans follow the link and nose around, and start using the search engine as they always do  - voila! Private life exposed again!! And just like Cassandra's facebook is suddenly poof! - the flickr account also went bye bye. You'd think this fan would learn.  Poor thing. Her face must be so red.

Who could have expected that when fans follow a link leading to something the Moir family has made very clear they're VERY interested in and VERY eager to share with the public, fans find a page crawling with remarks from Scott's family and friends, and some from his buddies. Will they stick around to explore?

Is the sky blue? There's more activity there in a week than on Scott's "fan" facebook in two years.

Oh look at Scott's donee list - who is that? BAM!

CoR is this weekend, btw.

They are so instinctively malicious, I don't think they can even tell when they're doing it. This is just like that other time.

That other time being when Scott's personal facebook, with thousands of fans on its list of friends, reached 5,000 (after weeks of working hard to reach 5,000). Scott announces that he's reached his limit and, as he doesn't want to leave anyone out, he's going to "shut this one down" and open a fan facebook. This blog has talked about that many times.

Then he wholesale deletes fans from his personal facebook, doesn't shut it down, and opens a fan page that he ignores.

The fans he selects to keep on his personal facebook aren't shy about letting others know they can still see everything on his facebook. The fans on his fan page mostly get to enjoy links to public stuff they've already linked themselves - hell, some of them uploaded it themselves! So special.

What Scott did was like cancelling a huge party to which you've invited hundreds of people, pleading that you will have another gathering at another time and place. Come the night of the cancelled party, the lights in Scott's home are blazing, the music is thumping, laughter is ringing, and cars are blocking everyone's driveway. Scott even staggers onto the porch to holler at a friend that it's about time this dude showed up for one of Scott's parties! All the neighbors who were disinvited watch this and are like .... :(  - but they rally, swallow their disappointment and try to understand. Maybe it's family and friends and Scott had reasons he can't share.

Meanwhile, from time to time one of the party guests stumbles by accident onto their lawn and belches that there's a hell of a party going on at Scott's house.

The disinvited wait for the consolation gathering and Scott forgets all about it.

That's how he handled his facebook/fan facebook transition.

But then the fan facebook becomes too much to manage as well. Okay, he's busy. He's a champion figure skater. He's "unable" to maintain his fan facebook as we deserve, he announces, so THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU and he's shutting it down.

This is a guy who was unable to keyboard "thank you" all summer - not for CNE, not for jack shit. Not his birthday either.

From appearances, he does shut it down. Cannot his family, his friends - anyone - pitch in to keep it up in even a rudimentary way? Alas, not. They're all busy. However, not to worry: Scott tells us the season is just around the corner so stay tuned to www.virtuemoir.com for updates and new photos.

www.virtuemoir.com

PICTURE OF THE MONTH

August

September

October

November

We are up to the second Grand Prix of the season, Scott and Tessa are interviewing their heads off, so is Marina, and not a single update, Scott. When do we think the next one might be?

The funny part is when I "saved as" this photo, it could be seen that the person who uploaded it to www.virtuemoir.com had named it pic-of-week2.

Okay, this just means they have good intentions, but they're busy. Busy, busy busy. Don't like social media, and busy. Can't come out and say they're just not social media people - better to lead people on and stand them up. That's the nicer way.

Go to the public m'ovember page - the Moirs are having a party there. So are their friends! Their virtual presence is lively, they're back-and-forthing and ha-ha-ing. If you followed the link to that page you'd be all - goodness, look at all these folks, haven't seen them in a long time. What are they up to? Let's look around, since it's all public and everything.

Bazoom! Cassandra Hilborn and Scott Moir limply holding hands (or his hand limply on her wrist - or maybe just his fingers, and could actually be read as him trying to get her to keep her hands to herself.)!!!

So it's not even charity they care about, is it? All this m'ovember shit, what is it about? Is it about the whatever money they've raised (Can't remember the exact amount but it would cover about one of Tessa's dresses so - good fund raising there, Scott! Time well spent!)?

No. They're looking for reasons to sham. The tail is totally wagging the dog now. Let's see - they've used charities, xmas, births, the Olympics, marriages, families. What about deaths? Is that next?

I hope we don't one day see "funerals" added to that roster. Could we put it past them to work a funeral? Even a family funeral? Hell no. Especially a family funeral. Scott's fake girlfriends should probably keep some black dresses in their closet in case something happens to Scott so they can sit next to Alma at the service while Tessa hides in the back with their kid. Or maybe she'll pretend she didn't attend.

Is it because they're so busy, and sham is "business" but the other stuff is just stuff and they have no time?

Is it because they are completely "above" fans, and any type of "equal" interaction, even the sort professionals do where you're the celeb and the fan is the fan and the interaction is pretty much confined to a fan/celeb dynamic - they resent? They refuse to put themselves on the same plane as fans? They always have to have the upper hand - not the upper hand built into the freaking celeb/fan dynamic - hello! But the upper hand as in - never let it be said I extended myself to people unless there was profit in it for me, or points I can score in an immature game I'm playing where I'm in the wrong and pissed off to be called out on it.

These points, too:

• Scott and Tessa will get away with this. The media, even when it reads the blog, doesn't have a lot of the source material to look at anymore (the facebooks, the posts). All the skating media knows and will report is these two kids lied about being platonic, what else is new. So, it will be spun and minimized. Which makes the sham even more of a joke, but not the sort they think it is. It's a joke because the media will handle anything the way Scott and Tessa want it handled, so they never needed the sham on facebook in the first place. They only needed their friends, the media. When it comes out - if it ever does, it will be spun as two kids with the celebrity of rock stars in Canada who needed a protective zone in which to compete and shield themselves from well-intended and overzealous fans. The profiteering, the gaslighting, the exploitation - will go ignored.
• As I've said before, unlike the majority of figure skaters competing, Scott and Tessa can afford to treat fans like shit because they can afford to treat fans like shit. So they choose to treat fans like shit. That's interesting to me. Charlie and Meryl can afford it too, so can the Shibs, and they don't. Tessa and Scott may be interested in business, they may be vaguely interested in helping to popularize figure skating in Canada again, but they don't NEED the good will or the money. I think it's telling when, if someone doesn't have to be decent out of self-interest, they're not. That's what they're showing us, Scott and Tessa and their friends and family.
• But, I don't think the internet is going away. I think this will follow Scott and Tessa as they remain in the public eye in any capacity as their careers/lives go on. I think they will be reminded of it a great deal down the line, not only by fans, but by people within the skating "community" who enable it now but may have different thoughts about it once everyone's careers are done. It's not going to be forgotten by the people who were most affected by it. That's not the media and that's not Scott and Tessa's finances, but it is the fans and it is a whole bunch of people at Skate Canada - and their families - who weren't stars.

________________________

Let's once again look at their huge self-involvement. If they'd debuted Carmen at Finlandia, Cassandra's profile picture would have been unveiled some other way in time for Skate Canada. This is like when the dreamy, engagement celebration, Mahler, debuted at Thornhill, Scott and Tessa gave some very couple-sounding interviews, and a few adorable profile videos were released. Once those were out - BAM! Jessica switches out her profile picture to the Dominican and invites us all to gaze at "<3 2009!" 

But the Cassandra debut had to wait until after Skate Canada. It's the same pattern. First, fans saw the program. Then Scott and Tessa talking left and right about the progam's essential sexuality. Then Scott saying how Tessa's not too sweet and innocent for Carmen. Let fans get riled up for a good while, then - BAM.

P.S. - as I look at this - just go back and look at the situation vis a vis the behavior, and then look at the gap between their situation and their behavior, I do think they are trying to use the blog as a justification for their b.s. at this point. It's the only place really focused on them. That's why they do things like m'ovember, put Cassandra out there as bait, and as soon as the blog grabs the bait, they disappear and hide the facebook, the donation - IOW - hide the bait, so it appears as if the blog is pro-active, not reactive. Look - this blog is lasered on us! It hunted down Cassandra Holbin's profile shot and it found photos of Scott and Jessica in Mexico!

Well, no. The blog was spoonfed Cassandra, it was spoonfed Scott and Jessica in Mexico, and as soon as the blog grabs it, the source goes and crawls back down the hole. Shut it down! Shut it down! - As if they had nothing to do with the blog grabbing this stuff, as if the entire idea wasn't that the blog grab this stuff.

It's like the blog was a nemesis initially, but now it's like - well, nobody else gives a shit, so let's USE the blog. Let's set it up, funnel things to it, then hide the source! We can always point to an entire BLOG as Exhibit A for why we had to sham!

Happy to help.

Barb MacDonald don't want to miss a thing*

Ha.

Look here - Scott and Tessa are doing the between-the-legs grab that has some onlookers clutching their pearls, and who is standing on her tippy-toes and craning her neck even though she's in the front row?  It's Director of Communications Barb MacDonald!

If she were their coach or other trainer, or even if she were High Performance director, okay, cause she wants to make sure they nail every bit of the technique on that critical element.

But Barb is Director of Exclamation Points and Piper_Paul_Are Fun and gets her orders from Debbi Wilkes anyway. You'd think she'd be very fine watching on the jumbotron or one of the many monitors back there, or, you know, just regular watching. But nope. Before Scott and Tessa even start the actual skating part, she's gonna topple right over the boards. I wonder what she finds so mesmerizing.
____________________________
*aerosmith shout out.

Scott's right



People who think Tessa is sweet and innocent* don't know her at all.
Scott Moir


PJ interviews Scott Tessa after Skate Canada win

I'm going to relate this quote to the sham, in this way: by looking at how many fans see Scott and Tessa, particularly Tessa, on the ice, and how they imagine she is off the ice, and how that plays into the sham and even how these fans prolong the sham themselves, because of false associations and assumptions based on very shallow but entrenched biases.

I'm not pretending Scott meant "Cause Tessa's a little bitch!" We know what he meant. He means she's not naive, or inexperienced, not some pure and innocent virginal good girl in the realm of passion and the full expression of the power of her personality - both as a woman and as a person. I don't believe we're speaking of only the intimate side of an adult woman's life, but her awareness and confidence about it and in herself.

I think a lot of fans just don't see Tessa, not even how she skates, because of her smile, her manners, her grace and her coloring, and her reserve.

As a figure skater, it's impossible for Tessa to be coarse. But people who claim she has been white bread for most of her career aren't watching Tessa on the ice.  If you strip bias away and actually watch what she's doing, her ease with expressing passion and intimacy is natural and convincing. There's nothing junior and girlish about it.

But when she does this, there are fans who believe she's able to do that BECAUSE she's so innocent, because she doesn't know or feel the meaning or implication of what she does, that to her it's because it's good old sweet Scott, like cuddling a stuffed animal out there. If only she could see him as a man!

In that fairly perverted hypothesis, Tessa is able to be sexual on the ice because she's so innocent, she doesn't even recognize her own movements as sensual vis a vis Scott. For her, they decide, it's kind of a cross between an academic exercise and turbo-charged snuggling.

Poor Scott. That Westermarck effect has screwed up everything.

I don't get that, but I read it a lot.  For those fans, I'd quit trying to relate Tessa to myself. I read that a lot too: "I think Tessa is x, y or z because *I* was x, y or  at her age." Tessa actually isn't like very many other people. If I were these fans, I'd try to get out a whole lot more, or maybe just think a bit more logically.

Then there's the - face it - more fun part of the speculation, which brings in Jessica. In these scenarios, Jessica is the sexually experienced one, the dirty girl, the daring one, and Tessa is sweet and a good girl so can't make a guy's motor run. It's that madonna whore syndrome kicking in, and IMO it has made Jessica Dube (in the fantasies of some fans) and her magical allure (comes down to - she puts out) prevail in the triangle in fans' minds. A lot of editing and willful disregard of some easily observed behavior and demeanor goes into this hypothesis because let's really look at who we're talking about. Jessica. Jessica's fucking tedious. Ask anyone on the Skate Canada team. She's needy. She's moody. Her tastes and interests are immature. She sees the world through a Jessica-tinted prism where somehow she's misunderstood and put upon. She's the narcoleptic of space cases.

Scott talks about the excitement of competing with and matching Tessa's energy, how great it is to play off her and skate with her. If he tried to match Jessica's energy he'd have to put himself into a medically induced coma.

Okay, it must be her fantastical sex appeal that is Jessica's trump card.

A lot of fans for some reason equate sex appeal with "has sex". If you are willing to have sex, you have sex appeal. Who knew the world was so full of sexy people!

That can't, of course, be Tessa, and even if she did have sex, how could the funny, gorgeous, passionate, driven (draw the veil over other adjectives) Tessa Virtue possibly compete with Jessica Dube behind closed doors?

Poor Tessa.

We'll set aside how this fan scenario (the dark haired selfish girl who puts out) supposedly appeals to every guy and, specifically, Scott Moir. Even though by every rationale measure, Jessica is the last person on earth who could interest him in public or private, as the copious production of sham material has repeatedly demonstrated. I'm not saying he'd look delighted if he were shamming with someone else, but I don't think he'd continually look as if imaginary wires were tugging the corners of his mouth up in a smile, although a little unevenly, cause one side is resisting harder than the other.

Then there's the funner side of the speculation still, which is - did Jessica try any funny business with Scott? How could Tessa handle her guy being around Jessica all the time. Jessica is - Jessica. Maybe not Mata Hari, but willing to make plenty of allowances for herself and grant herself as much leeway as suits her self-interest, ego and personal convenience. Scott's a champion. Tessa has everything (particularly Tessa's image) that Jessica would want.

Do I think Jessica is incapable of making a move, particularly if she thought it would infuriate Scott (he'd be the one most pissed). Of course not, she'd do it in a hot second if she was in the right mood.

Setting aside that Scott isn't the manager of the sham, that we don't see what's behind the camera frame, and so that he's not on his own with Jessica as the photos want to suggest, and let's set aside that it's Cara who has spent more time shamming with Jessica over the years then Scott. Let's just look at the threat Jessica Dube represents to Tessa Virtue.

Who looks happier when the entire sham clan is together, and who looks like they have indigestion? The Virtues look serene. Sitting behind Jessica and Alma in the Ilderton Gold Medal Celebration Buggy, they're smiling away, relaxed and happy. Alma's face looks like the face of a home nursing aid whose agency sent her to manage a client that is torturing her, but she needs the money.

Who looks happier - Scott in the Dominican, or Tessa in France (same period of time, 2009).

Who does Scott shove between himself and Jessica when the girl's existence gives him a head-ache? Besides Bryce (back in the day). And Patrick Chan (wingman extraordinaire). And Cara Moir? Tessa.

Personally, I just wish people would stop believing that "this" type of person and physical appearance means they're the sort who is like "this" in certain situations, and the other sort of person and physical appearance means you can conclude other things. If people quit doing that, their own lives would be sorted out a lot quicker, for one, and they'd get a better idea of what is actually going on in a wide range of areas a whole lot sooner.
_______________________________
*Of course, and in fairness, Scott himself has spent most of his post-Olympic Tessa remarks telling us how sweet she is and how cutesy she is. Many fans are casting a soap opera in their heads and believe that if she's sweet and cute, she can't be passionate and strong. And this goes along with, if Jessica is THIS, then Tessa must be THAT. It doesn't work that way in real life, with each person playing an archtype.

Icedance.com weighs in on Debbi's in-house commentary.

For those who aren't aware, www.icedance.com is a terrific web site covering competitive ice dance. Their contributors are observant, timely, well-researched, informative and fair, and are especially good at letting us know what to watch for at each competition, focusing quickly on what's important and why.

Below are www.icedance.com's remarks about the in-house commentary at Skate Canada. I feel as if icedance.com would have preferred to shrug it off, but the in-house commentary by Debbi Wilkes and Liz Manley was such an egregiously unprofessional, inconsiderate, super-embarrasing exercise in vanity, it interfered with the ability of those in attendance to enjoy the competition, and so www.icedance.com had to address it.

As Skate Canada has not revealed if this is going to be an element at Canadians and Words, www.icedance.com had no choice but to weigh in on what the experience was like for everyone - public, skaters, judges, etc. - attending Skate Canada. Forewarned is forearmed.

Okay. I have to say something about the in-house commentators. For anyone that’s not aware, Skate Canada had Debbi Wilkes and Liz Manley on hand with microphones. From a booth down by the kiss & cry, they got on their mics after every skater and commented on their program. The dialogue was sometimes error-ridden, usually cringeworthy, and basically unnecessary. I am not usually a harsh person, but this was one of the worst ideas that Skate Canada has ever had. Beyond being annoying for attendees who didn’t want to listen to it, it was unprofessional, as the remarks were being broadcast through the arena while the judges and technical panel were still working. Plus, it was awkward at best when someone skated poorly, and they tried to say things like, “So’n’so is such a fighter, even though that didn’t go as planned.” I’m one of those people who hides her face during an embarrassing scene in a movie, because I can’t stand the awkwardness, and for most of this commentary in Windsor, I had my shoulders up around my ears, like I was a turtle that could retract into my shell. Awful. I didn’t hear any positive feedback about the experiment, so I hope hope hope that they never put an arena through that again.

Here's what I think. At the moment, the story is there was a "glitch" with Skatebug, and Debbi/Liz was the fill-in.

Sure. A glitch with skatebug.

 Competition is stressful enough for the figure skaters, their families, friends, supporters and coaches.

It's potentially stressful for the public which has made the decision to spend a substantial amount of disposable income on a figure skating competition, and are hoping for a good experience.

They don't need to be subject to Debbi Wilkes' vanity on blast. The absolute second Lynn Rutherford's twitter announced that Skate Canada had decided to "enhance" the event with Debbi Wilkes' unavoidable and relentless in-house commentary, everyone knew the Orwellian fix was in.

What Debbi Dimwit seems incapable of grasping is people aren't as dumb as she thinks they are. She can say "enhance" til she's blue in the face, the people in the seats are going to experience it for what it is: the obnoxious and vanity-bloated exercise of a woman who doesn't want to live outside the spotlight.

Skate Canada owes those who attended Skate Canada a discount.

Debbi, shut the fuck up.

P.S. When I went to wikipedia to be reminded how Revell/Wilkes's bronze medal was bumped up to silver, I found this:

Wilkes and Revell had to withdraw from the 1963 World Figure Skating Championships when Wilkes fell from a lift while posing for press photographs prior to the event. She hit the ice head-first and fractured her skull.
 

It's coming on fifty years since this happened - can I laugh?

I kept going back to re-read and make sure it wasn't a metaphor.

Debbi, you ought to have taken the hint back then. You were literally clubbed in the head.

Mike Slipchuk is okay

Mike Slipchuk

As imperfectly as this blog has done so, I've tried to chronicle the VM p.r. and the SC activity, while bashing some of the egregiously unqualified, arrogant and self-serving Skate Canada personnel. And in the past, I've recited Slipchuk's name in the mantra of Skate Canada stooge-boobs.

But there's a distinction between Slipchuk, and Bill Thompson (formerly, before his departure), Barb MacDonald, and Debbi Wilkes.

I believe I've said it before, but why not repeat. Has Mike Slipchuk, in the past, carried water for the sham - and not just the sham, per se, but lied for Scott and Tessa? (I'm thinking specifically of his tweets prior to 4CC's 2011.) Yes. Did he chime in about some of the more asinine public relations schemes Skate Canada commenced bragging about in 2008? He did.

Here's the difference between Slipchuk and the others, however:

Apart from his b.s. p.r. contributions, does he make an actual contribution to Skate Canada not only at star level, but below star level?

Yes.

When he does speak to the media, do I learn more about Slipchuk then whatever he's talking about?

Nope.

When he speaks about Chan and Kaetlyn Osmond, for example, does he sound like a complete tool, or does he make sense? Is there logic to his remarks? Is it Slipchuk-centered, pandering-centered, or is it "Yeah, that figures" centered?

It's "yeah, that figures" centered. The viewer/listener is all "yeah, that figures." versus "Who is this embarrassing asshole?"

Has he been a media whore in the past two years?

He hasn't.

Is he working in his own interests or in the interest of the skaters?

I think the skaters, which, as it happens, turns out to be also in his own interests. Most smart people understand that being competent is good business. Skate Canada isn't overrun with those types. But Slipchuk is competent, and because he is, he's able to focus on the interests of the organization and its skaters, as well as his own.

Isn't it odd how the one person among the Satan's minions employed by Skate Canada who is actually doing anything, and qualified to do what he does, is the one person who most readily gave up the need to see his name, face, words, etc. in the spotlight? The one person who is actually applying his education, his abilities, etc. towards the greater good of the organization for which he works, is the one person who's dialed down his time in the media spotlight?

Funny how that works.

Mais, qui est son chum?

Here is Jessica's dear friend Sarah, wondering my goodness, where is Jessica's chum (boyfriend). There's her brother's gf, there's her sister's bf, but no Jessica's bf. Where is he?

Ah, says Jessica. It is he who took the photo!

Yes, this is what I thought, replies Sarah.

Is this for our benefit - of course. Otherwise Sarah would say, where's 'Simon"? You know, use a name. Or not ask, because Sarah already knows. The whole thing is for our benefit.

Is it for our benefit Jessica-wise (her ego) or is it for our benefit sham-wise.

She wants us to know she has a boyfriend. Same guy she's had for five years now, or someone new? Which is it.

And Jessica doesn't appear to have whittled off an ounce since her increase in dimensions was first observed.

Also, Skate Canada appears to be behaving as if they'd like us to all forget a team such as Dube-Wolfe ever existed. Dube Wolfe - what's a Dube Wolfe?

Run, Kaetlyn, run

 

ETA - there are people swearing that although they'd considered attending Worlds or Canadians, they won't if the in-house commentary by Wilkes continues (not a positive remark to be found - Debbi might want to have Barb get on that). Wilke's fatuous babble after every skater skates has turned people off more strongly than would a program of aboriginal folk dances choreographed by Linichuk.

Of course the in-house commentary, plus interviews conducted by Wilkes, will continue, because she's got somebody's nuts in a vise. Wilkes got involved in Skate Canada in the first place not to do a job but to mug the camera, and Skate Canada is running out of work arounds. So all you potential attendees who were going to spend money on tickets to enhance SC's revenue - may as well stay home.

I kind of feel as if I'm patronizing Kaetlyn Osmond by wanting her to refuse to be interviewed by Debbi Wilkes. When you look at that slight eyebrow raise and smirk of Kaetlyn's, you know she gets it.

Still, may as well point out that Osmond, like Scott and Tessa, can decline to be interviewed by Debbi Wilkes (Debbi has interviewed all the SC 2012 Canadian figure skaters except Tessa and Scott, who are saving themselves for P.J.).

An advantage of belonging to a dysfunctional federation like Skate Canada with nothing for title sponsors and a bankrupt women's program is, if you are a female figure skater who has, thanks to your own efforts, and to the support team you have personally put together, emerged from obscurity to become a skater who can do triple combinations and win a Grand Prix, there's no need to endure a creepy, narcissistic eyesore shoving her way into your spotlight.

I don't believe any skater should be figuring out how to avoid one of their federation's directors. Debbi's situation is that because she's a director with an empty title, she can insist upon a media role for herself. But Tracy Wilson, PJ Kwong, Beverly Smith and the competent, professional bunch of apparent no-names who've done media for SC are the ones who ought to be doing media. Debbi's not media. She's the Director of Business Development, and what a fine job she's done, what with having a minor sponsor in Thomas Sabo jewelry and with Kozy Shack not actually cutting and running but merely downgrading their involvement to "preferred supplier".

Debbi has no purpose. She's a complacent fool. She's nasty. The target audience can't stand her. She alienates sponsors and public alike.

She invades the personal space of not only the person she's interviewing, but those watching. Maybe if Debbi stopped fogging up the camera lens with her ghastly visage and pried her nose away, the rest of us could breathe.

Among the universally disgusted reviews with Debbi's revolting performance (even someone competent would be obnoxious bleating on after every figure skater, their words echoing throughout the venue. The fucking vanity!), there's this:

kwanfan1818: Yeah, that and, did you ever consider that you might be creating a little Field of Play violation by reviewing performances while the judges were marking inciting the crowd to disagree with the judges?

Skate Canada never considers anything, Kf.  

So this:

I was considering going to Canadian Nationals if I could work it out, but if they continue with the in-arena commentary, I'm never attending another of their events.

is best. Of course SC was going to figure out a way to snatch attention from the event and turn it towards Debbi (by force). Debbi also did her best to hijack the Olympic spotlight from the figure skaters and direct it towards her own suffocating imbecilities.

Lots of events in Canada this season. Good idea to start off by making those who dug into their pockets to spend their hard-earned money decide the experience isn't worth repeating. There's nobody who works for a living just to use their disposable income to satisfy  the vanity of Debbi Wilkes.