A Tale of Two Tweeters… and Five Additional Things about Last Night

Here’s what Johnny Weir had to say in the hours before the SP yesterday (via Twitter):

Looking forward to the short. Practiced well today. Just gonna try to fly. I hope everyone has their fingers crossed for me. Love you! =)

And after the SP…

I'm so happy! Thank you to everyone who felt me tonight, I love you. So looking forward to doing it again in the long!

And JeremEEEE, who has been relentlessly upbeat (and pretty frickin’ hilarious at times) on his Tweets, posted this in the hours leading up:

Today is the Big Day!!! Thank you everyone for the great wishes! AND I am So ready to be a rock star tonight!!!! KILL IT! DO WORK! :D
The Excitement is mounting, and I'm ready for the challenge! It's time to attack it with poise and control! Time to rock it! BRING IT ON!!!
And (sigh) what he posted after… (I must admit I wondered if he’d post anything. Certainly would have been understandable if the last thing he wanted to do was address thousands of “followers”…)
To add insult to injury I got the pleasure of doing doping after my extraordinarily beautiful performance tonight! YAY! lol :(
Thank U all 4 UR love & support! I love sharing my sk8ing & joy w/ you all! Im only sorry 2night I had 2 share my disappointment and regret!
I promise with all my heart that there will be a reason to smile on thursday! My goals are out of reach, but my Olympics is not over yet!
And actually here’s one more from him, hot off the TweeterPress…
The sun is shining here in Vancouver, and I am loving life! Good practice today! On to tomorrow! Damn the Torpedos... No regrets!
Well, there you have it. As soon as he learns how to spell “torpedoes” he’ll be good to go :-)
Now that I’m slightly more awake than I was when I posted my notes last night (!), I’ve got a few additional things to mention… and they don’t have much to do with the protocols, if only because I haven’t studied them yet…

1) I’m hoping NBC plans to show Vaughan Chipeur’s free skate tomorrow night, even though he barely made it into finals (currently in 24th). His skating isn’t often what I’d call breathtaking, but from everything I’ve read about him he’s a hardworking guy outside the arena as well as in, scraping together every dime he has to put into this sport…kind of like a Canadian version of Mark Ladwig (the pairs skater who got his business card featured on-air yesterday). Also, one of his coaches is the terrific former U.S. men’s champ Scott Davis. I don’t know that Chipeur has adapted all the elements that allowed Davis such awesome spins in his time, but in watching Canadian Nats a few weeks ago I spotted one at the very end of his free skate (one possessing a couple different “jump over” moves) that is incredible…gotta have rubbed off a little from Davis?

2) I’m still in disbelief that Kevin VDP wore the Bones costume to the Olympics. It’s kind of like when you have a relative that you know is a little eccentric (or maybe a LOT), and you’ve gotta take them to a big shindig, and you just PRAY that they don’t embarrass you… but next thing you know, you see them at the dinner table using their steak knife as a toothpick. Didn’t he retire this sucker last season? And does this mean we can count on another “classic” for the free skate (I’m thinking either the Pirate look or the one that says “EXIT” on the back)…?

3) Speaking of costume chatter, Kristi Yamaguchi and Peter Carruthers did a pretty good bit on the Universal show today where they teased about last night’s duds as well as Peter’s old outfits from the early 80s. You’re watching the show on Universal, right? The Figure Skating Review/Preview Show… or something like that… airing daily at 2PM Eastern? Hosted by Terry Gannon and various others you’re familiar with? If not, go seek it out—it’s worth it. Kind of like 2006’s Olympic Ice with a desk… and (cause she’s kinda busy doing other stuff) Mary Carillo.

4) And about last night in particular… if I didn’t know any better, I’d say NBC likely did some major hustling over the past couple of weeks in order to come up with a piece that featured both Lysacek AND Abbott. I recall a Tweet from Abbott right after Nationals that indicated NBC had whisked him away for an early-morning shoot… could have easily been the b-roll they showed of him out running in the dim twilight, working in the gym, etc. But on the other hand, I have it on great authority that much if not all of the Lysacek footage was shot weeks, even months, ago. NBC set their sights on Lysacek, so I think a surprise second defeat by Abbott left them scrambling a little. In any case, it was another good effort. I know not everyone is a fan of the “fluff pieces”, but having produced some of those things myself (not for skating, but other efforts), I always enjoy and respect what they do.

5) And finally, this about Dick Button hanging out with Bob Costas: whether you think our beloved “Uncle Dick” is on more than he needs to be, or yearn for 4 years ago when he shared what must’ve been a very crowded booth with Tom, Scott and Sandra… you’ve gotta hand it to Costas for being able to “gently” cut him off when time is up on their segment. There’s an art to mastering that skill! Especially with someone as famously loquacious as Button!

That’s the scoop for now. Later tonight—Ice Dance Predictions!!