ITA, Equestrianguy and with the others who noted that though Sasha was slow overall, her very presence on the ice outshone everybody else. I especially loved her first combo spin in which every position looked as if it were from the proverbial Grecian urn.
She was back to looking too thin, IMO, but I chalked that up to the flu. I thought she looked great at TEB, IIRC, when her muscle mass was up to snuff. I've also been concerned about the speed of her spins all season. Of the three times she competed on TV this season that I saw, her spin speed just wasn't there and that used to be one of her strongest assets. What happened there? As for any other tiny "mistakes," after four days of the flu and not even being on the ice--pfft!
I loved her costume, thought the shade of dusty blue and the costume in general was one of the best I've seen on her and one of the best I've seen in general this season.
As for Emily and Bebe, really, their scores were so close and, IMO, so was their skating. They just have different qualities and different strengths. I don't think we'll be able to discuss how they did "rationally"

(unless you don't have a preference) until we see the detailed judges' scores. Then we can say, "Emily got X for her spirals and Bebe got Y?! Emily/BeBe wuz robbed!" Seriously though, I think both Emily and BeBe have a lot of great things going for each of them and I hope they don't turn into the next "Love-Hate" rival couple on the boards.
But what I most agree with, sadly, is Idle's observation, which was exactly my own, that the camera on Angela Nikokinov is about the saddest thing I've ever seen in sports. Not only is there the death of her mother plus her own injuries in that terrible car crash on the way to last year's USNs, but I don't think I've ever seen an athlete with such a dark cloud over her head. I mean, first her mentor/coach, Elena Tcherkesskaya died, then Angela went to Frank and promptly suffered a shoulder injury (and those are a b**** to heal and rehab), and just as she was getting consistent, even more rain started coming down and it just hasn't stopped. The longer the camera was on Angela's face, which looked as if it had seen the worst of the world, the more I wanted to yell at the TV, "Just leave her alone!"
And while I loved seeing live coverage, ESPN definitely should have covered more men, pairs, and dance. If I saw one more bad Biellman I was going to Biell-hurl.
Still, the '06 US Nationals are underway and even though we've all heard it, it was sad that Michelle had to miss her first USN since '93, IIRC, in an Olympic year and due to two injuries.
Rgirl
P.S. Piel: Why did you say on page 1, "So Mark Mitchell is on the committee to decide if Michelle gets a bye...hmm"? Is there something significant about Mark being on the panel?