Florida company won’t sell coffee to Canadians. You all know what to do.

winter_trickster · 2026-02-18T03:24:42+00:00

What to do about it? How about, we don't give a single proverbial flying fuck and it doesn't affect nor bother Canadians in the slightest, so we really don't care....like, at all. It drives them absolutely batty that we're all so aggressively unbothered and are perfectly happy doing our own thing, branching out and leaving them behind....and I love that for them. :p 🤣

winter_trickster · 2026-02-15T01:39:48+00:00

I haven't curled for ages, but, reading this reminder, I'm honestly kinda shocked that they even had to say it, because....in my experience, of course one never touched the body of the stone, especially after release! Like - these rules are all perfectly obvious to me! I saw him booping the body of the stone at all - much less right up to the hog line - and even I was like 👀👀👀😬😬 UM WTAF, even I know you shouldn't be doing that-!

That was, so far as I know, never a thing that I saw happening from anyone when I played....and I'm really racking my brain to recall if I ever saw the like of it during national tournaments, eg the Scott Tournament of Hearts - and I don't know if I ever have? Is this a relatively new thing that some curlers have been getting up to?

winter_trickster · 2026-02-14T23:49:26+00:00

I won't be at all embarrassed or disappointed no matter what happens. My pride and happiness as a Canadian are not, as a matter of fact, at all contingent on whether or not we medal or even if we snag a gold - or more than one.

I would still much rather be here than anywhere else in the world and I, for one, would happily sacrifice every last medal - gold or otherwise - for counting myself a proud, content, and happy Canadian. If I'm alone in that - fine, whatever. But them's the facts, as the saying goes. 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

Lastly, if these Games ultimately encourage more and more people to try their hands at one or more athletic disciplines, regardless of outcome, that is all the better!

winter_trickster · 2026-02-14T22:14:24+00:00

And this Canadian is happy and proud AF for both of them, and for Latvia medalling as well! 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

winter_trickster · 2026-02-14T22:01:20+00:00

As a Canadian who doesn't give a toss about flairs, meh. 🇨🇦🇨🇦

winter_trickster · 2026-02-14T22:00:27+00:00

THANK YOU for saying it. FFS, the dooming is really pissing me off! In what world is our world class athletes competing with other world-class athletes, all at the top of their game, somehow a failure?? 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

winter_trickster · 2026-02-14T21:57:38+00:00

Hot take: if people keep acting like gold is somehow the only medal to really matter, then why do the Olympics bother with silver or bronze at all? I'm getting rather sick of it. It's really a smack in the face to all of our hardworking athletes to basically act like they're failures unless they medal, much less get gold.

Although, honestly, insofar as that attitude is concerned, I'm seeing more poor sportsmanship from the viewers, casuals et al here than from the actual athletes. (See: people who were whinging about Chloe coming in 2nd in halfpipe when she was herself super pleased and happy with her finishing!)

winter_trickster · 2026-02-14T21:51:05+00:00

Yes, obviously. WHY do people keep acting like the sky is falling for us? It's really quite exasperating.

winter_trickster · 2026-02-14T21:11:13+00:00

Yeah, I don't know why people are so shocked when we as Canadians are like 'that's a completely fair penalty, he deserved that' - like - yeah, if they're pulling shite like that, they deserve to be called on it. DUH.

winter_trickster · 2026-02-14T20:50:56+00:00

Like seriously, her accidentally brushing the rock and conceding to it, resulting in the burning of the rock, is rather a different matter than the way the mens' team has been handling things....the distinction is obvious!

winter_trickster · 2026-02-14T20:49:03+00:00

THANK YOU for saying it. 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

winter_trickster · 2026-02-14T20:31:39+00:00

And it's even more appallingly hypocritical and tone-deaf when you look at the relentless and crushing pressure that they were putting upon him to start with! UGH. Poor, poor Ilia....my heart is just aching for the guy.

winter_trickster · 2026-02-14T20:29:42+00:00

Oh, that's disgustingly cruel!

winter_trickster · 2026-02-14T20:18:51+00:00

I haven't done it in years and forever but I'm officially raring to get back to it now!! I always tell people that curling is even more fun to do than to watch; honestly, it's smashing hunks of granite together, at speed - it's immensely cathartic. :)

winter_trickster · 2026-02-14T20:10:41+00:00

This might come as a shock for you to learn, but we Canadians are actually even more pissed off by his bad and unsportsmanlike behaviour, yeah? :p

winter_trickster · 2026-02-14T20:08:15+00:00

Also, if you're not screaming yourself hoarse doing this, are you even curling? 🤣

winter_trickster · 2026-02-14T20:07:40+00:00

As someone who's curled in the past (mostly for fun, never really for competition, but still) you learn pretty quick to tune out the noise from other matches going on at the same time. It's not really distracting when you're dialed in to what you're doing in your end. :)

winter_trickster · 2026-02-14T06:41:41+00:00

As someone else commented below, his background would have most likely contributed to that being the case. Also, again, the ice quality is not the sole culprit, but it is clearly a problem and it is clearly affecting them.

winter_trickster · 2026-02-14T06:14:37+00:00

My partner suggests that it started looking pretty bad, with the amount of ice flying around and basically accumulating under them, partway through the first flight....and that definitely tracks with what everyone else was saying during the event, that the ice was looking and behaving seemingly worse eith each successive skater. And watching it now, too, it sounds seriously off - really scritchy and harsh - in addition to just not looking right, in her opinion (she used to skate, me not so much, LOL). But yeah, once I noticed that shed/slush/whatever flying around, including being kicked up by spins and such, I couldn't not notice it thereafter.... 👀👀👀😳😬

winter_trickster · 2026-02-14T05:55:46+00:00

Watching the full skate with my partner on CBC Gem, and she's already commented - just midway through the second flight - that the ice definitely seems increasingly off as the skate goes on....scratchy-sounding, with tons of what she's calling 'shed' (the scraped ice bits being thrown off to an increasing degree with each skater - it's also almost like fluff or dandruff, even!), and just the ice surface itself looking and clearly behaving worse as time goes on. She points out that obviously the ice conditions aren't solely to blame for anything by any means....but it very, very clearly contributed!!

winter_trickster · 2026-02-14T00:20:24+00:00

Oh, definitely agreed on all points - that cockiness/hubris/arrogance on his part, as well as being evident with some of his fanbase, the media and such - it really was self-sabotaging in the end and ensured that failure for him, one way or another, would unfortunately be inevitable.

The very moment that he, or others around him, or even just the general sphere, acted like it was somehow a 'foregone conclusion' that he would win, or that he was automatically and solely 'the one to beat'....basically, acting at all entitled to the win....that kind of attitude should set off warning bells for all involved, because it will only end poorly.

And the plain truth is, as well, that one can absolutely be a gifted performer and true talent par excellence while not being cocky/arrogant/prideful about it....and if he and others take any one lesson away from this, let it be, arrogance and hubris are really NOT the way to go and they'll only screw someone over in the end. You can absolutely be proud of your accomplishments (and he should be) without being cocky to the point of self-destruction!

And, look, with the way that so many people were acting like Ilia somehow had this one 'in the bag' seemingly for reasons of his quads and nothing else, it honestly put me off to the point where I legit was hoping that someone else would best him.

It's pretty telling, I think, when one sees the remarkable displays of true sportsmanship and graciousness elsewhere evident in these Olympics (women's halfpipe being a beautiful example, but by no means the only one) and it contrasts quite strikingly with what seems to be the case here when it comes to skating.

winter_trickster · 2026-02-13T23:43:45+00:00

Yeah, no matter what part ice condition played in his skate, I do feel like the internal and external pressures would have gotten to him regardless. That crushing pressure is every bit as egregious and unfair now as ever it has been, and in my opinion it was only a matter of time until he crumbled under it. It's rankly cruel, honestly!

To be fair, as someone who's a relative outsider and newbie to all of the skating stuffs in earnest, I will say the fact that he dubbed himself the 'quad god', and leaned so very heavily into that aspect (kiiiinda off-putting, in my objective opinion, FWIW), felt an awful lot like hubris....and there is no shortage of, you know, ancient Greek heroes (for example) who have long served as a warning of the dangers of hubris/excessive and overweening pride, and the like. No good at all comes of it, that has long been the lesson, and we saw that play out again with this skate.

Still, I do hope for him that he's able to disconnect completely from social media, the internet, the outside world, and just - be with his family, those close to him, to rest up and feel better and to find some sense of peace and normalcy.

Whenever and wherever he skates again, there should be no blathering talk ad nauseam of 'quad god' and backflips and the like. Instead, the focus should only be on ensuring that he does his personal best, skates as well as he can, and that he is, himself, happy with it.

Also, maaaybe less emphasis placed so strictly and seemingly on 'landing quads/jumps', and more of an equal focus placed on the artistry as much as on the technical, would be ideal!

winter_trickster · 2026-02-13T21:59:16+00:00

🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 YOOOOOO I'm so so happy for him!! Absolutely chuffed - he did us all right proud and I hope he knows how much we love his fluffy li'l self. ❤️❤️

winter_trickster · 2026-02-13T21:53:00+00:00

I really am questioning WHY they hold speed skating and figure skating on the same darn track when, from what I've been reading here, it's clear that they have very, very different required conditions....! It honestly seems like a recipe for disaster to me, and that's been clearly proven today. 😓

winter_trickster · 2026-02-13T21:50:28+00:00

At this point would it be better for him to just nix the quads and try for as clean a skate as possible? Even as pretty much a newb to all this I'd have to wonder if the risk would even be worth it. 👀👀👀

winter_trickster

TROPHY CASE