I think Mrs. P. is right. The newspaper lady told on herself when she said, "And, only because he was queried about it, Chan pondered the rival who isn’t here — Plushenko."
In other words, the absent Plushenko was the farthest thing from Patrick's mind as he prepared to take on Hanyu, Takahash, Kozuka and Fernadez this weekend. When Ms. Dimano pestered him about it out of the blue (Come on, say it -- you think you can kick Plushenko's butt, right? Say it! Say it!), the best Patrick could come up with is a mild I hope so.
Exactly. Sorry, but if I was Patrick, I would definitely be thinking more about competing against the guy who has the highest SP score EVER or the guy who beat me in my home country than somebody who wasn't here.


this is that same woman?! I remember thinking the woman was completely laughable... how do the editors let her stay on (then again there've been some morons for our local paper when it comes to stuff to do with Alaska... so I guess it happens everywhere)????