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Feb
19
American Evan Lysacek glided to Olympic gold in men's figure skating on Thursday in a super upset of Russian Yevgeny Plushenko.
It was a crushing blow for Plushenko, who had come out of retirement to rescue Russian skating.
He assumed (wrongly) that he had prevailed as he came off the ice and raised both index fingers. It was surprise and a bit of anger when he saw the scores and he was not a happy camper on the podium with his silver.
At 6-foot-2, Evan Lysacek's jumps may not be what you're accustomed to from watching much shorter people in this sport. He looks like his sport is football or hockey and not figure skating.
Yes, Plushenko stressed jumps, but there was little else to his program. No grace, no solid footwork and the last full minute of his program left the observer yawning.
Lysachek was the opposite. His choreography kept you enthralled. His jumps and footwork were just about flawless and he finished with a flourish. He had beaten the demons of the past.
As the Kansas City Star put it:
Lysacek was pumping his fist in affirmation before he ever stopped spinning.
Five spots later came Plushenko. The Russian with the haughty attitude.
Call it a Cold War, if you like.
There's a new Olympic champion.
Plushenko is not a gracious loser.
"I was positive that I won," he said. "But I suppose Evan needs a medal more than I do. Maybe it's because I already have one. [ uh, no. You had no artistry --and btw, your attitude sucks]
"I have to share with you: two silver and one Olympic gold medal is not too bad."
Plushenko is the only man with three Olympic figure skating medals. Gillis Grafstrom of Sweden won four: gold in 1920, '24 and '28, silver in '32.
At 27, Plushenko already is considered old. Knee problems helped force the retirement that ended with his comeback this season.
Plushenko did not like the direction skating is taking, wondering why the quadruple jump he mastered long ago isn't more important.
Wasn't he taught that figure skating is more than the technical aspects? Apparently not, or he has forgotten it.
"He's a great jumper," Plushenko said, referring to Lysacek. "He can do triple lutzes, triple flip, yes. And he's a very good skater, like artistic." [bingo. It's an ART]
Lysacek didn't do a quad, and Plushenko couldn't resist a jab.
"If the Olympic champion doesn't know how to jump a quad, I don't know," he said. "Now it's not men's figure skating, now it's dancing."
No, Ice Dancing is a separate category. Do you even know your sport or are you just in a foul mood? Yeah, it's the latter. Get over it.
Category: In the News
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Jan
25
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Sunday it is cutting about 11,200 jobs at its Sam's Club warehouse division as it outsources in-store product sampling to marketing company Shopper Events in an effort to win more customers and boost lagging sales.
The terminations represent about 10 percent of the warehouse club operator's 110,000 staffers across its 600 stores. About 10,000 members of the demonstration department, most part-time workers, were let go. The company also cut its new business membership representative positions, affecting about 2 staffers per store, or about 1,200 staffers in total.
Employees were told the news at mandatory meetings on Sunday morning.
"In the club channel, demo sampling events are a very important part of the experience," said Sam's Club CEO Brian Cornell in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "Shopper Events specializes in this area and they can take our sampling program to the next level."
Shopper Events, based in Rogers, Ark., currently works with Wal-Mart's namesake stores on in-store demonstrations. Sam's Club is looking to the company to improve sampling in areas such as electronics, personal wellness products and food items to entice shoppers to spend more.
And Shopper Events, run by a partnership of Crossmark and Advantage Sales and Marketing (the company I work for — see pic), means more work for me! Very welcome news indeed.
Category: In the News
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Nov
11
It is a sad state of affairs when street thugs have more honor than the Senators and Representatives who should be listening and working for us.
A 21-year-old student from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee was walking home from work about 1:15 a.m. Tuesday, when he was pulled into an alley and told to lay face down and with a gun to his neck. Four men took his wallet, $16, keys, his cell phone and even a PowerBar wrapper from his pants pockets.
The strange thing was when his Military ID was seen and one of the robbers then told the others to return the items — which they did, even the empty wrapper.
"The guy continued to say throughout the situation that he respects what I do and at one point he actually thanked me and he actually apologized," said the reservist.
Category: In the News, Military
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You don't know who Ray Vivier is — or was, but here is a story of the best of us.
This 61-year-old ex-Marine was a homeless vet, passed by and ignored by hundreds as he lived in a shanty beneath a Cleveland bridge. He had struggled with alcoholism, but by November he had a welding job, friends and a place to stay at a boarding house. He was just getting his life together again.
He rescued five people from that house when arsonists set it on fire, but died in the heroic act. He and three others died, and two people have been charged in their deaths. Vivier's body, unclaimed and unidentified for weeks, seemed destined for an anonymous, modest burial.
However, Jody Fesco had met Vivier while she was volunteering at a soup kitchen and connacted a friend at AP to make sure Vivier wasn't forgotten. Sse found his family and arranged a proper funeral.
On Friday, Vivier's ashes were inurned at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.
"You can see from what he did that he definitely had a good heart," said Mercedes Cruz, Vivier's ex-wife of 23 years, who attended the funeral with the couple's children. "No matter what our difficulties were in our marriage, I'm very proud of what's happened."
His grown children are trying to put together the pieces of their father whom they had not seen in 15 years. They know of his heroism now, but nothing of his struggles and turnaround.
"What I'm trying to get out of this is to have one good, concrete memory that I can have of him for what he did to save those people," said his oldest daughter, Elisha Vivier. "I'm proud of the man that he was becoming."