You wrote that you enjoyed Kati Witt's Can Can act because "people who claimed to love figure skating were incensed at Witt for playing the game perfectly." I assure you, those of us who "claim to love figure skating" have always loathed the International Skating Union and their Eisenhower-era aesthetics. The real scandal of the Witt era, however, was not the skimpy showgirl costumes and flirty behavior, but the bloc voting that allowed horse trading among judges to anoint their favorite competitors. The fixing that occurred in Salt Lake City was only the most egregious example of decades worth of abuse.

The new scoring system does eliminate the ridiculous practice of assigning subjective scores to technical elements. However, it provides total anonymity for judges, whose individual scores for a skater are never revealed. As a Yale statistician has demonstrated (http://www.stat.yale.edu/~jay/EC2006/), the burden of responsibility is removed from the judges and placed on a computer, leaving a skater's fate up to a virtual coin-toss by random selection of scores.

I don't buy the argument that no sport with a subjective element of judging can be a "sport." From snowboarding to surfing to cheerleading to diving, there are dozens of sports that combine objective technical marks with subjective "quality" scores, all without the operatic insanity of skating. The answer isn't to trade sequins for Speedos; it's to hold the sport's czars accountable. There's only one judge at Westminster, but she stands right in the middle of the ring.

Don't let the fan-dance fool you, King. The ISU will keep feathering their own nests until they're forced to stop.

As a long-time user of public transportation, I have only been victimized twice: once by a classic frotteur, and once by a creep who kept trying to grab my nether regions while I was (apparently) asleep.

The first time was on the Washington Metro during the morning rush. I was wearing conservative business clothes and reading the newspaper.

The second time was in the first-class cabin of United Airlines, and I was wearing conservative business clothes and trying to sleep after reading a book and having no interaction with loathsome my seatmate, who was apparently an attorney.

The message now, then and always is that creeps will take being female as an engraved invitation to perpetrate their creepiness. Just ask the women of Cairo who were recently assaulted by gangs in broad daylight in spite of wearing head scarves. Unless we can find a way to completely disguise our gender, the best solution is to hold creeps accountable for their actions, not to hector women with a litany of prescriptive behaviors that will have little to no effect on the perps.

To the undoubtedly well-intentioned Mr. Boyfriend: a gift of tae kwan do lessons might have been more constructive.

My high school had a class like this back in the '80s. It replaced World History, which could be the basis for an interesting argument (without economic skills, you can screw up your life, but without a knowledge of world history, you can apparently become president and screw up the globe).

I've read a lot of studies of sex ed that say that while it increases knowledge, it doesn't change behavior. The only thing that prevents kids from getting pregnant is putting condoms/pills in their hot little hands. I'm afraid it would prove the same with ec ed. Plenty of people who took Economics in college or went to business school still end up in massive debt, for the same reason that kids still get pregnant: short-term fun > long-term planning.

I don't know what the answer is, but I think it would start with a government and economy that isn't enmeshed with the whole banking/credit card/mortgage industry. (P.S. Joe Biden, I will never forgive you.)

To those who argue that an authentic display of traditional dance cannot be stirring or respectful: I invite you to go to YouTube and search for the haka of the All Blacks (NZ) rugby team (yes, they are uncontroversially known as the "all blacks" because their uniform is, uh, all black). The haka, a Polynesian ritual dance, is a thrilling spectacle and a much-anticipated part of any All Blacks game.

Of course, the All Blacks started this tradition decades ago. You are right, King, that the Illini forfeited their chance by their stubborn refusal to consider altering any of their beloved "tradition."

What could be better than a Happy Fun Pak comic? A Happy Fun Pak comic mocking "They'll Do It Every Time." Someone notify the Comics Curmudgeon immediately!