Labor Day Updates!

Happy Labor Day, American friends! Happy Monday to everyone else. I made a concerted effort to spend my three day weekend engaged only in leisure activities rather than racing through my to-do list until the last two hours of the weekend, like I usually do, and I highly recommend it! I put togethera truly enjoyable puzzle,I strolled around a bookstore with my dog inside a Trader Joe's tote like a total cliché, and I went with friends to see a Dolly Parton tribute band at a very lowkey dive bar where we ate hot and juicy fried pickles. I'm now convinced I need to reclaim all future weekends for leisure. This time on The Nice Capades: At least the Russians keep it interesting. US Pairs are interesting in a less technically proficient way. Some interesting stuff I'm reading and liking. Three Figure Skating Things! First, let's do the now standard 'meanwhile in Russia' check-in. As expected, they more or less dominated atKinoshita Cup, guaranteeing some spots on theGrand Prix substitution listsfor Men and Pairs. They didn't win EVERYTHING though; Mao Shimada continued her streak of NEVER LOSING internationally. Oh to be 17 and invincible and blocking Russian women from earning a spot on the sub list! But if anyone knows you can suddenly stop being invincible at 17, it's Sasha Trusova-Ignatova. She's back and lookingpretty much exactly as she did before, except with less quads.Sure did hold on to that inflated PCS, though, some how scoring higher on that metric than the delightful Ami Nakai. So if you were wondering if maybe four years would give people time to reconsider giving her extra points for her audacity, wonder no more! Another thing that's different: she's now toting her baby son around to competitions instead of her small dogs.And she's saying annoying new mom things, like being a mom is the only thing another skater could do to motivate her. Either the ISU heard the outrage and decided to pull an Uno Reverse, or they were always planning to give everyone neutral status and then re-evaluate. As of this week,Kamila Valieva and Mark Kondratiuk had their neutral athlete status revoked.They have options to appeal, and it seems likely they will exhaust every option before admitting defeat. The Russian figure skating world is taking this with the usual amount of level-headed considerationwith Alexander Zhulin calling it, 'an act of discrimination and genocide.'Like I said, the usual amount. One good thing about the return of the Russians: they are bonkers, and that can be pretty fun to watch. Here's Veronika Zhilina in the kiss and cry. (I'm cheating because she's not skating for Russia anymore, but she is still living and training in Russia, so I will count it.) Yes, she skated with those Grinch gloves! Second,Amber Glenn is officially slated forDancing With the Stars,surprising absolutely no one.According to Jackie Wong, Amber still plans to do the Grand Prix series. Which either means she thinks she will get eliminated early or she really does think she can run the play for two high-stakes and emotional competition series at the same time. I can't decide if this is exactly the distraction she needs to give her the best skating season ever… or if she will flame out in a spectacular emotional blaze of glittering spandex glory. Either way, I support her. Do I support her enough to watch this show live and in full? Undecided. We'll see how long it takes for me to crack and sign up for Hulu. And finally, keep your eyes on American Pairs over the next couple of weeks. Are any of them going to be real contenders this season,especially with the Russians out here executing perfect quad throws? No. But there is an internal battle for supremacy playing out, and I think the struggle to surpass each other will only make all of them better. After most of the Team USA Pairs attended a key party and went home with new partners this summer, only National Champs and wildly in love newlyweds Efimova/Mitrofanov have a real international reputation right now. But the new Pairs are angling for those open Skate America spots. One of them got assigned this week: McBeath/Nagy… which is eyebrow raising because we haven't seem that at all, not even at the Summer Sizzler where some of the other new Pairs did a little exhibition. They must have done something impressive behind the scenes at Champs Camp. We'll get our first look at McBeath/Nagy next weekend at theJohn Nicks Pairs event, where we will also see the other likely Skate America contenders: Starr Andrews + Tall Strong Man and Audrey Shin/Spencer Howe. I have a feeling Audrey Shin would LOVE to place ahead of her former partner, for multiple reasons. Three Non-Figure Skating Things: Three Things I Read And Liked This Week Oliver Burkeman'sMeditations for Mortalsmade a huge impression on me, so it should be no surprise that this grimly comforting essay appealed to me:The end isn't nigh. (The Imperfectionist via The Purse) As I mentioned before, BeanTok found me recently. And now, more bean related content keeps finding me. Beans beget beans. Here's a quick, amusing read about how to decide who keeps the coveted bean subscription in a divorce:I'm keeping the bean club. (COYOTE Media) I readEast of Edenmany years ago in high school, and I decided to read it again in anticipation of theFlorence Pugh-led Netflix series(Vulture) to be released in October. I'm only about 250 pages into it (in case you forgot, it is a BRICK), and I forgot how juicy it is. Steinbeck basically wrote a sprawling family saga, and he wrote an all-time memorable character in Cathy Ames. You can just imagine that Florence Pugh will Chew This Up. If you need a nudge to pick this up again or for the first time, here it is. Also— a request. I find myself craving a high school English class to pick apart the symbolism and themes. Do any of you have any suggestions for well done online resources to help me get the most out of this re-read? Podcasts, YouTube series, etc? Bonus points if said resource has a sense of humor. What's Next:Unless something wild happens this week and we need to talk about it, next week will be my new quad wishlist! The Nice Capades is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.