Month: February 2026

For me the most tragic moment in this year's Winter Olympics was Ilia Malinin, a hugely talented American figure skater, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory when he bungled a seemingly certain gold medal by falling twice in a performance where Malinin was so far ahead of his competition, all he needed to do was skate a clean program and the medal was his. As his stood on the ice, unable to comprehend what had befallen him, there was still a lot of cheering from the audience. They recognized his brilliance, and how uncharacteristic his deeply flawed skating was…

It warms my heart to behold the recently released Pac-12 football schedule for the 2026 season. Back in November 2023 I wrote about how sad it was to watch the last Pac-12 Oregon vs. Oregon State game, as back then Oregon, Washington, Stanford, California, UCLA, USC, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State had announced they would flee the Pac-12 conference for greener (as in more media money) pastures. That left Oregon State and Washington State as the sole remaining members of what had become the Pac-2. Things looked dark for OSU and WSU. But in December 2023 they got $255…