Mental Floss:
Olympic curling has taken to the ice, but if you’re like most Americans, this writer included, the game is a bit baffling. Here’s a quick, stripped-down primer on everyone’s favorite icy alternative to shuffleboard. It doesn’t cover anywhere near all of the game’s nuances, but it should give you enough info that you can enjoy watching an end or two. (And yes, you’ll learn what an “end” is.)
Anyone who lives in a small northern town, be it in Canada, The US, Scotland, Norway, etc, knows what curling is. It’s incredibly popular in those kinds of communities but almost completely unknown outside of them. But, every four years, the Winter Olympics brings it to the forefront again and, while it may look silly with all of the yelling, sweeping, and sliding around, it actually is a very nuanced sport.
We Canadians love our curling. It helps that we are a “world power” of the sport.
Curling is great fun to watch. Always enjoy watching it as part of the Winter games.
I see you curlers like to get your stones off with a hammer.
Curling is such an easy game on the surface made utterly baffling by the vast array of insane terminology used in it. I love watching it. 🙂
My favorite announcer comment of the Olympics: “Curling, like Golf, was invented by the Scots, who excel at creating games where people yell at inanimate objects.”
To really understand curling:
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/movie/men-with-brooms/id1117499020
A fascinating pictorial essay from the NY Times.
“Ailsa Craig, an uninhabited 220-acre island off the Scottish coast, is the source of a distinctive water-resistant microgranite used to make most of the world’s curling stones, including those used every four years in the Winter Olympics.”
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2013/11/24/sports/24curling_ss/s/24curling_ss-slide-KUGP.html
What is curling? It’s more exciting than a cup of tea but less exciting than muffin stacking.
https://youtu.be/qRgmG1qFwyo
Watching this clip is going to cost me 22 minutes. (Corner Gas is one of my faves.)
You know, this hour has 22 minutes, right?
That too!
As the host country, Canada got to introduce curling as an Olympic sport in Calgary 1988. The IOC is pushing Calgary to host again in 2024. You know what that means?
Krazy Karpet as the next official sport.
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If it’s in Calgary it’ll be an oil drilling speed run in parks.
Watched the first two minutes. Fair enough. Saved for later viewing in entirety.
Go watch “Men with Brooms” you’ll learn all you need to about curling. Also that beavers move in mysterious, large packs at times 🙂