stars on ice

My mom-in-law took me to see Stars On Ice in the new Air Canada Centre building. I've always been a fan of the Olympics figure skating competition, but never seen live professional skating before. It was great to see some familiar names perform live (Kurt Browning, Tara Lipinsky, Brian Orser, Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler, Lu Chen, Shae-Lynn Bourne & Victor Kraatz, Jenni Meno & Todd Sand, Josee Chouinard, Steven Cousins). The show was recorded for tv, and afterwards, audience members were invited to linger on to watch some of the skaters do flubbed bits again...missed jumps, falls, that sort of thing. Kurt Browning seemed to be a sort of emcee for the evening, and filled time with patter while the skaters did their costume changes at the end. He wore a Wayne Gretsky "99" shirt and asked how many husbands had to miss Gretsky's last game to be at the ice show with their wives. About four hands went up. :-)

I'm not a big hockey fan (I did used to root for the Leafs a long time ago) but even I tuned in to watch part of that last game. And (like the sap I am) did get teary-eyed at the end. (I'm the sort that gets teary-eyed during Cantel commercials...) I had to leave before the end of the game to go meet Ginny, but on the way to her place I passed a cluster of people in front of a sports bar window. They were all watching the end of Gretsky's last game, of course.

(Side note: I find the term 'the Great One' a bit amusing (Gretsky fans will want to rip my throat out for saying that, I'm sure). They kept talking about 'the Great One' all through the game. I wonder how much ribbing he gets from his friends and family about that? :-) "O Great One, could you please pass me the salt?")

But back to Stars On Ice. Wow, were there a few loud screamers in the audience. Most of the younger ones seemed to like screaming for Kurt Browning. If I was a screamer, I would have opted for Steven Cousins, I think. :-)