Alysa Liu — and her 4 siblings — are the children of a single father who had them through surrogate mothers and anonymous egg donors.

"Arthur Liu was born in the small mountain village, Mingxing, in China’s Sichuan Province... In 1989, Arthur participated in the Tiananmen Square protests.... After immigrating to the United States, Arthur Liu studied law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law.... Arthur Liu brought Alysa Liu to her first ice skating lesson when she was 5 years old.... 'I spared no money, no time,' Arthur said.... 'I just saw the talent.'... ... Arthur participated in his daughter’s training aspects by watching her practices and tracking the speed of her jumps with a radar gun.... When Alysa Liu announced she was retiring from ice skating in April 2022, she did not talk to Arthur Liu before making the decision. 'I didn’t really ask [my dad’s] opinion when I decided to retire. After all, it’s my life'.... When Alysa decided to make her return in 2026, she shared that her dad is less involved with her skating career. 'He’s a great father, I just didn’t want him to be as invested in it as he was before'...."

From "Who Is Alysa Liu’s Father? What to Know About Olympic Gold Medalist’s Dad Who Welcomed 5 Kids Via Surrogate" (Us).

Us is written on a really low level. Fine. But don't tell me this is "What to Know." There's obviously a deeper dimension. I want to know. What happened to the other 4 children? Were they pushed into any sport? What did they do while Arthur was spending so much time aiming a radar gun at Alysa? Were they all conceived as designer babies, then tested to determine who had the talent and who deserved attention and money showered on them? Should a single man be able to buy his way into fatherhood for 5 children? What does Alysa really know and how does she really feel?

ADDED: I'm just noticing the weirdness of the expression, "I spared no money, no time." We understand it to mean that he spent endless time and money, but if you stop and think about it, it seems to mean the opposite, that he gave no time or money. It does make sense if you understand "spared" to mean, held back for myself.

AND: I'm seeing this NYT article, "In Her Big Olympic Moment, Alysa Liu Celebrated Her Freedom/Competition can wreck a figure skater, but Liu and other Olympians shed the pressure and delivered transcendent performances focused on artistry." The word "father" appears nowhere. I searched for "Arthur" and got only "MacArthur Park," the song she skated to. Apparently, no on wants to touch the father problem. The Olympian parents are always devoted and earnest, watching hopefully from the stands.

"Malinin, who in his youth chose the Instagram handle 'QuadG0d'... was rightfully saddened and a bit angry at the end of his free skate..."

"'I had so many thoughts and memories flood right before I got into my starting pose that it almost, maybe, I think, overwhelmed me a little bit, he said afterward.'... Malinin is a self-described adrenaline junkie. He embraces the idea of conqueror like no other American skater.... On Friday, he at first appeared to be feeding off the Olympic energy. When he initially stepped on the ice for the top six skaters’ final warmup, he made fun faces with the camera man and coolly glided on the ice. Then came the disaster. After Shaidorov skated the performance of the night, the mood slowly dampened with poor skates from France’s Adam Siao Him Fa, who sunk from third to seventh, and Kagiyama, who skated clumsily without his trademark speed.... When Malinin returned to the deflated arena, something about him seemed to be missing as well.... Other Olympic champions had chosen... big music to seize victory.... But Malinin chose to channel himself and his vulnerability, skating to his own voice delivering quiet affirmations that he hoped described the man inside the persona of the 'Quadg0d'..."

Writes Robert Samuels, in "Mikhail Shaidorov was everything Ilia Malinin wasn’t for one night" (WaPo)(gift link).

He was skating to the sound of his own voice, delivering affirmations.... 

Imagine a true God skating extravagantly to the sound of his own voice, delivering affirmations. Don't click for more unless you want to read Grok's 12-point answer to my question: If the God of the Old Testament were delivering affirmations to himself, what would he say?

"What's the original version of the adage 'Friends don't let friends [blank]'? Is it about drunk driving? is it 'vote Republican'? What's the first one and where did it go from there?"

Just a random A.I. prompt of mine. That came up this morning.

Yesterday's equivalent was: "What was that hippie poster that was mostly text and included something like and if we find each other it will be beautiful?"

On Thursday, my idle musings got me to: "What is the old waltz most associated with ice skating?"

Without A.I., things like this would float along, fermenting, festering, and maybe one day you'd happen to run into the answer and think aha! I've been wondering about that for the longest time. Now, you can get the answer immediately, and it doesn't amount to much other than that I've destroyed the groundwork for what might have been a delightful aha moment somewhere done the road.

"Glib, opinionated and extemporaneously eloquent, Mr. Button explained the sport in a way never before seen on television..."

"... as if he were a critic covering the opera or ballet. He saw figure skating as a rare blend of athleticism and artistry. 'It has music, it has choreography, it has personality,' he said. 'You watch it not to see only who wins, but to see how they win.' Over time, he acquired a reputation for sometimes withering remarks about skaters, their costumes and program. 'That was an angry tango,' he said of one less-than-sublime Olympic ice dancing routine. He described another performance as 'slapped together without very much thought or intelligence.' Mr. Button had 'a candor and critical objectivity that make the gee-whiz, smiling-toothed reportage of video’s full-time sportscasters seem hopelessly out of date,' New York Times television critic Jack Gould wrote of Mr. Button at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France."

From "Dick Button, Olympic skating champion and TV analyst, dies at 95/The two-time gold medalist later became the voice of figure skating, known for his sometimes acerbic critiques" (WaPo)(free-access link).

I loved watching Olympic figure skating when Dick Button was the announcer. It was never the same without him. For me, personally, he was the most important sports commentator.

"The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane..."

"... for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!"

Wrote President Trump on Truth Social last night.

According to The Washington Post: "According to flight surveillance data, the downed Army Black Hawk helicopter was heading south, roughly along the District side of the river, before the collision with the American Airlines regional jet. [Jeff Guzzetti, a former crash investigator with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board] said it appeared the helicopter had been traveling in that corridor, but that he could not be certain...."

It was an Army helicopter (WaPo): "The Army helicopter involved in the collision was a UH-60 Black Hawk on a training flight, military officials said late Wednesday.... Three service members were on board, according to two defense officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the incident. Flight tracker information identified the helicopter as 'PAT25,' the typical call sign for helicopters used for 'priority air transport” missions...."

Russia connection:

"Trump’s allies already pounced on the Hunter Biden pardon as evidence of their wilder allegations about the elder Biden’s own culpability in his son’s."

"There’s no doubt they would again spin additional pardons as validation for Trump's bogus claims that he has long been a victim of hoaxes, witch hunts, and 'deep-state' political attacks."

Writes Eric Lutz, in "Pardoning Trump’s Enemies Is a Double-Edged Sword/By offering preemptive pardons to the likes of Liz Cheney and Adam Schiff, Joe Biden might rescue them for legal retribution. But Trump would falsely use it as evidence that they committed crimes" (Vanity Fair).

It's always amusing to Democrats' problems phrased in terms of Republicans "pouncing" on them, and I like that the person writing "pounce" is named "Lutz" — both a pounce and a lutz are jumps.

"Mr. Malinin started skating to the 'Succession' theme last fall, but he has yet to watch the show. 'I don’t have a subscription to HBO'..."

"... he said in an interview. 'But if I did get it, I’d definitely watch.' The network’s programming has influenced his performances before: Last season, he performed a free skate program set to a selection of music from the series 'Euphoria.' 'I didn’t watch "Euphoria" either,' he said, 'but I’ve heard it’s a really good series.'"

From "'Succession' on Ice/Ilia Malinin, an American teenager, won the men’s World Figure Skating Championships with a performance set to the theme of the HBO series" (NYT).

For my post with videos of Malinin's amazing performance, go here.

ALSO: From the NYT article: "In the coming months, Mr. Malinin plans to 'take the time to mentally prepare for the idea of trying' the quint jump, he said. 'I like to push the boundaries of physical abilities and the boundaries of this sport.'"

The article headline is "'Succession' on Ice," but Malinin isn't in any way interpreting the story or the characters from the show. It's completely abstract music to him (and his choreographer), I presume. For a viewer of the show, however, the music calls up those associations. It's not just music. It's a particular, awful family... that has nothing to do with Malinin.

"Nineteen-year-old American superstar Ilia Malinin scored a record 227.79 in the free skate, winning his first world title by landing the best collection of jumps..."

"... in one program in figure skating history. Malinin landed a quadruple Axel, quad Lutz, quad loop, quad Salchow, another quad Lutz and a quad toe loop, then finished his four-minute skate with a a triple Lutz-triple Axel finale."

And all to the "Succession" theme:

Perfect ice skating conditions — on Rabbit Lake, in Alaska.

"I love to see a beautifully stereotyped man and woman—a beautiful prince-and-princess waltz—but not because we’re forced to..."

"... but because a couple thought it was beautiful and wanted to make it their own. But I always felt that was imposed on us, which, for me, never felt authentic. And I don’t think I’m the only one thinking that.... It’s just nice to explore something that exists in me but I had never explored on the ice before."

Said Gabriella Papadakis, a female ice dancer who wants to be able to skate with another woman, quoted in "The Once Unthinkable Revolution Coming to Figure Skating Is the sport ready? Some of its biggest stars think so" (Slate).

My first reaction to this was that women will lose out, because males will physically dominate. But that might not be true, considering the supply and demand problem in ice dancing: 

"Besides Eric Heiden, the great American speedskater to whom Stolz is compared, Stolz’s performance recalled some of the folklore at the heart of speedskating here in the Netherlands."

"The arena, Thialf, is named for Thialfi, a boy from Norse mythology. As the 13th-century textbook 'Prose Edda' recounts, Thialfi and others are made to perform feats by Skrymir, a supernatural giant. Thialfi asks to race, and Skyrmir selects a boy named Hugi to run against him. Despite Skrymir saying he has never seen someone as fast as Thialfi, he is beaten soundly each time by Hugi. The next morning Skrymir reveals that Hugi is no ordinary boy, but the embodiment of thought itself and impossible to outrun. The best skaters in the world must have felt as if they, too, were chasing after an idea and not a mere mortal. Dubreuil, the silver medalist, called Stolz 'otherworldly'.... 'How long he is on his left before he drops the right skate is just something that I don’t think I’ve seen in a speedskater before,' Dubreuil said.... 'I cannot gain anything on him' [said Thomas Krol, the defending Olympic champion].... Friday’s polite cheers for Stolz transformed into Saturday’s recognition of a champion, and finally into Sunday’s appreciation for having witnessed one of the greatest tournaments in speedskating history."

From "Vanquishing the Dutch, Jordan Stolz Creates a New Norse Myth/Stolz, the 18-year-old from Wisconsin, won three gold medals at the speedskating world championships, finishing his turns in a way that seemed like something out of a storybook" (NYT).  

⚡️️STOLZ SPEED ⚡️

18-year-old speedskater Jordan Stolz is officially the youngest single-distance world champion in history!

cc: @USSpeedskating pic.twitter.com/DnDJEvs2zp

— Team USA (@TeamUSA) March 3, 2023

"The women’s free skate had promised to be one of the most-watched events of the Games. But few could have expected its stunning denouement...."

"[Kamila Valieva, 15].... had stepped on the ice wearing the same face she’s worn all week in Beijing: Nearly expressionless.... Now that her free skate was over, she buried her face in her hands.... 'Why did you let it go?' [asked her coach Eteri Tutberidze]. 'Why did you stop fighting? Explain it to me, why? You let it go after that axel.' Valieva did not reply.... On NBC, Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir called the scenes around the end of the competition 'heartbreaking' and 'devastating,' and made clear, over and over, that they believed it had been unfair — to Valieva, to the other skaters, to viewers around the world — for the 15-year-old to have competed.... 'It’s not fair,' Lipinski said as the sobs played out on the screen, for a 15-year-old to have dealt with all of this. Her colleague Johnny Weir posted a video to his Instagram story soon after the broadcast ended, calling the night the 'most bizarre and heartbreaking event I have seen in my entire life.'... And on Russian state television, the commentator Andrei Zhuranko thundered, 'Sports officials, you have broken the most talented figure skater in the world.'"

From "Tears and sobs, and not just from Kamila Valieva, follow her crushing Olympic end" (NYT).

I used to be part of the huge audience that watched what must always be the most-watched event of the Winter Olympics — women's figure skating. I can't watch anymore. There's something awful about it. We're watching abused children, aren't we? So tiny, so young, so insanely controlled. It used to seem beautiful. It was always emotional, but now the emotion is ugly. The fashion is still idiotically sparkly, pumping up the grotesquerie.

"Watch any old figure skating program from the ’70s or ’80s on YouTube and read the comments below; you’ll inevitably find at least one that is wistful, yearning for a past era of skating...."

"While there is absolutely nothing wrong with preferring a style of skating from a previous era the way one might prefer music from a different generation... this sort of sentiment is peculiar to sports like figure skating and gymnastics. In track and field, for example, there is no yearning for a time when athletes ran slower or jumped lower but embodied some other essential values.... It’s too soon to tell whether the pendulum will swing back toward presentation and skating skills because it’s too soon to know if a critical mass of female skaters will be able to do the quad. The quad mountain is a much steeper climb than the triple hill was.... Historically speaking, anxieties over the safety of female athletes have been used to deny women the opportunity to participate in sports, especially ones that were deemed 'masculine.' There’s a blade-like thin line between protection and protectionism. We, of course, should be concerned about the physical ramifications of training certain jumps, especially during growth periods when athletes are more susceptible to injury. But we have to be wary of the protectionist impulse that stems from a particular worldview about what women’s figure skating is — and is not — and the determination of some to steer it in a certain way so we end up with the 'right' type of winners."

From "The Quad Jump Revolution Has Transformed Women’s Figure Skating. How Far Will It Go?" (FiveThirtyEight).

Skaters on Lake Mendota at sunrise. Temperature 8°.

I wasn't skating. Just running. Was it terribly cold? Really — no. It's crisp and lovely. There's so much difference between running and walking. 

At the Sunrise Café...

... you can talk all night.

And here's a picture of me on my 70th birthday, ice skating:

Photo by Meade.

And thanks to all who wished me a happy birthday.

The dreamy loveliness of ice skating — presented in minimalist TikTok style.

Hockey highlight.

Pierre McGuire had a brush with certain death pic.twitter.com/ZLChnv3JyY

— Alex Fitzpatrick (@AlexJamesFitz) February 19, 2019

The Russian National Guard would like to sing for you — "Last Christmas" (the George Michael song).

Well, that's nice. Can we all get along for Christ's sake?

I especially enjoyed seeing everyone skating without breaking into a massive fight with everyone hitting each other.

"[T]he classic 1971 confessional isn't really a Christmas song. Never mind that its opening melody is 'Jingle Bells' in a minor key..."

"... and that the lyrics begin with a seasonal scene: 'It's coming on Christmas, they're cutting down trees/They're putting up reindeer, singing songs of joy and peace.' Ultimately, 'River' is a bereft song about a broken romance and a woman who desperately wants to escape her heartbreak, saying repeatedly: 'I wish I had a river I could skate away on.' The despairing drama just happens to be set around the holidays. 'There were all these 18- and 19-year-olds doing traditional Christmas songs, and then, bang - they start doing "River,"... I'm thinking: Where on Earth did this come from?'... 'We needed a sad Christmas song, didn't we?' [Joni] Mitchell said with a chuckle last year... 'In the 'bah humbug' of it all.'"

From a 2015 WaPo article archived at the Joni Mitchell website. Some cover versions collected there. Here's the original.

I was thinking about that song after someone on Facebook put up this cool video...

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Cool Hunter (@thecoolhunter_) on Dec 15, 2018 at 2:06pm PST

... that reminded me of the best ice we ever had on Lake Mendota (back in January 2011)...

They made fun of Katie Couric for saying that the Dutch skate on their canals.

And now look...



The Dutch are skating on their canals.