Figure 2 is half of 4...

Back to back suggestions relating to figure skating. So... figure skating it is.

Who is your favorite figure skater of all time and why?

Sooo... yeah. Not sure I could have really identified a favorite figure skater before last year... Thanksgiving maybe? Sure, I've always watched the Winter Olympics, and I'll even admit to enjoying figure skating. But there are really only a few figure skaters I could even name at this point. My favorite, for reasons that are ridiculous, is Scott Hamilton.

Is Scott Hamilton an excellent skater? Yes. Do I respect him for battling cancer? Yes. Does any of this have anything to do with his selection as my favorite? No. It's not even the fact that the man can STILL pull off a crazy backflip. Nope. Here's how things went down last year.

I was visiting family a few hours away by myself for the holiday, as my husband was recovering from a recent surgery and didn't feel up to making the trip. My mom, aunt, sister, grandmother and I were all sitting around watching some sort of holiday figure skating special on television, and Scott Hamilton skated. He did a backflip, and my mom started to applaud. I said to her, "you know he can't hear you, right?" My aunt responded, "When he's done skating, he's going to turn to the camera and say, 'thank you [Mom] for the clap.'" Naturally, I started laughing hysterically, and my mother then had to explain to my sister what "the clap" is. Families are fun.

Related to that, Scott Hamilton or Dick Button, who's better?

Well... this one took some shameless YouTubing. After all, I didn't want to just select Scott Hamilton because my mom gave him the clap... no sympathy votes here, folks.

Dick Button is rather amazing, and at first glance, I'm inclined to select him, because he's such an athlete. He has a great deal of power in what he does, yet at the same time he leaps and spins on the ice as though he's standing still. For example:



His performance is freakin' effortless.

However... Scott Hamilton is a man who knows how not to take himself TOO seriously. The man is, above all an entertainer. Exhibit B:



Coincidentally, it's about 3 minutes in to this very performance that the poor man got the clap from my mom... and from the sounds of it, hundreds of other people at the very same time. But that's neither here nor there, and it doesn't resolve the Button/Hamilton question.

Can you really compare the two though? I mean, Dick Button was amazing in an era before televised sports... they were probably equally impressive as far as athletic ability when each was at his prime... hmm. Have you seen Scott Hamilton skating to "Short People" back in the 70's? It amuses me to no end... I guess the real winner in this whole conflict is Randy Newman.

I prefer to listen to Scott Hamilton when it comes to commentary on figure skating, so I guess Hamilton gets the win on this one. And I promise I won't write novels about figure skating again.