Oh great...the only straight guy in the place. You hit a gay guy in the head and all he does is say, "Eh, all in a day."

T minus 2 hours to the men's long program and... Well, not a whole lot else.
(Edit: Okay, so it already happened and the results are posted, but I'm trying not to watch it until tonight)

No really. Here in Milwaukee we've had record 10+ inches of snow, large hail, sub-zero wind chill, closed or undrivable highways and roads, freezing rain, 235 car accidents by 2 pm, school closures. And of course, the weather's not making any sense in general cuz I see that there are tornado warnings in Michigan. Really?

By the way, if anyone watched The Runway last night, don't tell me. My tofu and I are quite happy.

I'm all giddy with anticipation about the men's figure skating long program tonight. Russia's Plushenko skates an inspiring program. Sometimes it's difficult to watch figure skating and know the difference between a gold medal and a 9th place performance. Not the case with Plushenko. Even without the sometimes annoying and vulgar commentating**, it was obvious that Plushenko had the gold and everyone else was a clear also-ran.

Interestingly, one of the best stories at the Games is the U.S.'s Johnny Weir, currently in second (for all those living under a rock, or in Charleston, WV. Not Huntington, that's the U.S.'s hidden gem). He's an insurmountable 11 points back from Plushenko but with a chance to walk with a medal.

Of course I have to be drawn to the stories about Weir. He's referred to another skater's program as "a shot of vodka, snort of coke." His short program costume is that of a jewelled swan with a red "beak" of a glove that he calls "Camielle." U.S. Figure Skating officials have tried to censor him and major newspapers are hesitant to fully quote or poetically describe him, calling him "outspoken" and "eccentric" more often than not.

Over at Outspots.com, their commentators/columnists are still "speculating" that he may be gay. On the discussion boards, opinions about Weir range from the greatest admiration, to anger that he won't say he's gay, to labelling him a "bitchy diva" who just needs to shut up. Really folks?

Isn't this what progress looks like for gay men in (the gayest) sports? Weir is accomplished and decorated as the best male figure skater in the U.S. for the past how many years. And he's still improving. He's honest to a fault and a great story for the media. He's confident and self-assured.

He hasn't spoken the words, "I'm gay." But, he doesn't have to. It's just understood as part of the whole story. In the past he's said that training has made it impossible to keep seeing someone in Boston. His expressive skating style is refreshing on the men's side of the sport, but even led to one NBC commentator to say how comforting the masculinity of another American skater's routine was for "audiences."

Malcontent has the video capture of NBC's Weir feature as well as his short program. Check it out.

Some Weir quotes:

"I know that a lot of people, especially the more Republican [Edit: sorry John!] style people, are very afraid of what I mean to the sport and what I'm going to say, what kind of revolutionary, crazy things are going to come out of my mouth. And...good for them. They should be scared."

"I'm not for everybody. There are going to be people that like you and people that hate you. And...there's nothing I can do."

"My harshest critics will probably just say that I'm full of air and fluff and I don't mean things that I say. But for now....., my critics can...eat it."

Of course, it's all about performing and competing. If you can do both, then everything else becomes the background and a nice story for the media to tell. I would think that's what one type of progress looks like.