ODDS AND SODS FROM WORLDS

I was very not pleased to get a survey phone call from a party I belonged to for two whole months before I quit. It was much fun to ask the poor the gal who called if she really thought I had any intention of taking a survey while Worlds was on? She's probably still trying to figure that out! Two parts(pairs ans mens) are over and the medals awarded. The pairs were wonderful last night with no great surprises. I *did* have to rub my eyes when I saw a group of Russian soldiers in spiffy uniforms marching along a corridor. I'm still wondering what that was about, as my first thought was that some terrorists were on the loose there. They were only seen that once and the presentation ceremony went on as planned.
Another oddity I noticed is that many of the Russian competitors and their coaches et al still wear their old USSR jackets. Is their economy so bad that their federation can't afford new ones, or do they hope the old jackets will be needed again soon? Confusion reigns in this brain damaged gimp's mind.
Some of the scoring was a bit insane. It *is* a newish system but it seems the judges have found a way to rank the skaters as they wish. Of course they can get away with it now, as there is no way to know who voted how. I hope they change that before the Olympics and next years competitions. I'm not accusing them of collusion or anything, just noting that some of their score were a bit insane, even though I'm thrilled with the final results.
There were some noisy booms outside towards the end of the competition, but maybe it was just fireworks from a wedding or something even though they were disturbingly familiar. You just never know up here and I haven't seen the news for several days and have no idea what's going on outside the rink in Moscow. It will be enlightening to see where they place Galit and Sergei after the Free Dance, and what they do with Michelle Kwan.