So You Think You Can Ice Dance (UPDATED)

While watching the compulsory dance section of the Olympics Ice Dancing competition last night, the spouse asked, "So what makes ice dancing an Olympic sport?"

Good question. And one which I did not have a snappy response to (for once).

My reply: "Let's look it up online!" (Btw, that is my go-to reply now for most questions. Thank God for Al Gore and Jimmy Wales.) To save you the trouble, though, here's the Wikipedia entry for "Ice dancing."

Moments later the spouse again turned to me and asked, "What's the difference between ice dancing and pairs figure skating?"

While an ice dancer or pairs figure skater (or Wikipedia) would rattle off a thousand words of explanation, I can provide you with just two: "no jumps." Not allowed. Not even half jumps.

The way I (and many others) see ice dancing, it's basically ballroom dancing with ice skates. And no, I don't see "Ice Dancing with the Stars" showing up on ABC any time soon, though I could see "So You Think You Can Ice Dance" showing up on Fox next fall/winter.

As for last night's ice dancing compulsory dance, titled "Tango Romantico" (because, what, the tango isn't romantic enough?), the top four finishers were:

1	DOMNINA Oksana SHABALIN Maksim	43.76
2	VIRTUE Tessa MOIR Scott	42.74
3	DAVIS Meryl WHITE Charlie	41.47
4	BELBIN Tanith AGOSTO Ben	40.83

Next up: the original dance, Sunday night, followed by the free dance on Monday night. Woohoo! (Btw, to see the rest of the ice dancing compulsory dance results as well as the schedule for the next two Olympics ice dancing events, click here.)

Slightly O/T: While a number of my female friends have the hots for American alpine skiier Bode Miller, after watching Aksel Lund Svindal ski and be interviewed last night I turned to the spouse and said "Honey, you know I love you and think you are the handsomest man in the world, but Aksel Lund Svindal may be a close second."

UPDATED 2/21/10 P.M.: Two words: USA! USA! First Bode Miller gets the gold in the Men's Super Combined. Then the U.S. Men's Hockey Team beat the Canadian Hockey Team tonight, 5 - 3. Awesome. (Though the men's Curling team lost to Great Britain and will most likely not medal. Boo. And my man Aksel was disqualified during the slalom portion of the Super Combined.) Am now watching ice dancing -- and I swear it is "So You Think You Can Dance" on ice. We've had Cowboys on Ice, Bollywood on Ice (Meryl Davis/Christopher Atkins - I mean Charlie White), the Hora on Ice (or as I liked to call it, Fiddler on the Ice), Flamenco on Ice (Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir), and now a traditional Moldavian Folk Dance (Tanith Belbin/Ben Agosto). (Huh?! Wha?!) So after the Original Dance, it's Virtue/Moir followed by Davis/White and then Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin. Free Dance coming up tomorrow. Woohoo!

UPDATED 2/23/10: And the gold medal goes to... the Canadians, Virtue and Moir (guess being Virtuous pays ;-); Davis and White score the silver; and the Russkies, Domnina and Shabalin, get the bronze. And Belbin and Agosto came in fourth. Go North America! Tonight... more Bode and Aksel, though I'll mainly be watching American Idol, aka the Olympics ratings killer.

The Olympics vs. The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show vs. American Idol

Yesterday, as most of you dog lovers and dog fanciers know, was the first day of the 134th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, which is typically must-see TV in my household (even though we are cat lovers and owners).

However, this year, because of the XXI Winter Olympics taking place in Vancouver, BC, Canada, we were faced with a difficult decision: Which hot dogs to watch? (For some reason, maybe because at one point on our block there were a half-dozen Bichon Frises or Bichon Wannabees, or because the cold and the snow has finally made me snap, and they look like little snowmen, this picture of all the Bichon Frises lined up to be judged just cracked me up.)

As we do not have a TV with picture in picture, the spouse and I spent the evening flipping between the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, where the Hound, Toy, Non-Sporting, and Herding groups were being judged, and the Vancouver Winter Olympics, where NBC was airing the Men's Downhill and Men's Snowboard Cross, even though the results had been announced HOURS earlier on MSNBC (and everywhere else), and Pairs Figure Skating. To summarize, our viewing habits could be described as: DogShowOlympicsDogShowOlympicsDogShowOlympicsFoodNetworkDogShowOlympicsFoodNetwork.

(We got a little bored watching the pairs figure skating so watched Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on Food Network, flipping over to the Dog Show or the Olympics during the commercials.)

Btw, if you missed any of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, you can watch videos from the show here. This video of the Pekingese being judged is one of my favorites:



It's like watching the March of the Tribbles.

Now tonight, with my thumb still recovering from last night's ordeal, we will be flipping between the Winter Olympics, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, and American Idol Season 9, where -- breaking news! -- they will be revealing some of the 24 semi-finalists tonight! (Btw, in case you were wondering, I will officially start my American Idol coverage next week, when the contestants actually start singing -- or when we, the home-viewing audience, actually get to hear them sing for more than 30 seconds.)

May the best hot dog(s) win!

UPDATED 2/18/10: Once again, American Idol beat out both the Olympics and the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show Tuesday night, at least in terms of the ratings. Indeed, the Olympics were a distant second (or silver) to AI's gold, with the Dog Show coming in a very distant third (or bronze), though apparently the Dog Show's numbers went up, albeit to only 2.5 million viewers, down from 3.1 million last year, for the crowning of Sadie the Scottie as Best in Show). Can't say I'm surprised. Anyway, to learn more, read this summary of the ratings numbers.

ANNOUNCEMENT: My live American Idol Season 9 coverage starts on Tuesday, February23!