Musings of a Dinosaur

A Family Doctor in solo private practice; I may be going the way of the dinosaur, but I'm not dead yet.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Enough with Curling Already

Curling: the most ridiculous "sport" *ever*. And now it's in the Olympics?? For crying out loud, it's just shuffleboard on ice!

Since when has MSNBC become the all-curling, all the time station?? Enough!

It's just fucking shuffleboard. On ice. With big stones instead of little disks. And people running down the ice next to them sweeping the ice trying to make the stone go j-u-s-t where they want it to.

There are people watching this stuff. Live. And cheering! Chanting U-S-A, as if it were a hockey game or an actual athletic competition. Watch; next thing you know, someone will be petitioning to add tiddlywinks to the summer games. Or jacks! Now there's a sport! I excelled in it at summer camp. Maybe I can try out for the team!

But no. Instead, we have Curling.

WTF??

IT'S JUST FUCKING SHUFFLEBOARD ON ICE.

23 Comments:

At Sat Feb 20, 12:53:00 PM, Blogger XE said...

Hey hey! Careful there Dino, there are Canadians reading! International curling may be kinda lame but the Tournaments of Hearts for the top Canadian team is a truly fierce competition; you're just not seeing the right games I think. :)

 
At Sat Feb 20, 12:55:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hate it when you beat around the bush and don't get to the point.

 
At Sat Feb 20, 01:40:00 PM, Blogger Beth Nelsen said...

I was at the gym the other night and saw one of my residents. He's originally from Syria. We were making small talk and since curling was on, he asked me what it was. I did my best to explain it to him (rocks and sliding, the brooms, the scoring) and he said it's the dumbest thing he's ever heard of.

Listening to the commentators is pure comedy. It's just so damn bizarre.

I bet you could make a curling drinking game. THAT would make it interesting!

 
At Sat Feb 20, 01:58:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

First, I'm not a curling fan. Second, curling was in the 1st Winter Olympics in 1924. Thirs, the game is older than nearly any other winter Olympic sport.

Your tastes are certainly well worth noting, but do not make ignorance more palatable.

 
At Sat Feb 20, 03:10:00 PM, Blogger k8 said...

At least it doesn't have style points.

 
At Sat Feb 20, 03:49:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm American but I attended graduate school in Canada, where I learned I kinda like curling. Many of my Canadian classmates spent weekend evenings at the local curling club, curling and drinking. Mesmerizing. (Did I mention the local 'shine? Smooth...)

 
At Sat Feb 20, 04:03:00 PM, Blogger brian t said...

I've been watching it on BBC, which naturally focuses on the GB teams, which are (basically) Scottish teams, since the Engilsh don't Curl. 8) The skipper of the GB Women's team, Eve Muirhead, has the most adorable Perthshire accent... 8)

 
At Sat Feb 20, 04:59:00 PM, Blogger #1 Dinosaur said...

Anon 1:58: I don't care if it was part of the Olympics in ancient Greece.

IT'S STILL FUCKING SHUFFLEBOARD ON ICE!!!

 
At Sat Feb 20, 05:17:00 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

A nice game of marbles would be more interesting, and warmer, to watch.

 
At Sat Feb 20, 07:43:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Another Canadian. I LOVE watching curling. I've played a couple of times and it's REALLY difficult. Don't dis curling. :-P

 
At Sun Feb 21, 07:20:00 AM, Blogger NYEMT said...

I have to agree that copious alcohol consumption might make it more interesting ("Oh, MY! One of the Russian team, caught in an unwary moment, has been ruthlessly taken off at the ankles by the Americans' well-placed shot! They'll be down a "Swiffer" for the remainder of the match!").

But they should really either pitch pennies or play beer pong. Either one would be more of a sport.

 
At Sun Feb 21, 10:07:00 AM, Anonymous Dick Carlson said...

I had the chance to watch curling in person once in Minnesota -- and the part that they're missing on television is that everyone was drinking.

Pretty much between every rock, every sweep, and every single trip up and down the ice, they'd take a sip or a glug of something alcoholic.

That made it MUCH more interesting.

 
At Sun Feb 21, 09:41:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

COG's candid contribution: clearly, curling causes considerable cogent comments, collectively constituting curious concatenations!

 
At Mon Feb 22, 04:57:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

and skiiing is just falling off a mountain with bits of wood tied to your feet, but then, I've never done that, either. Its all perspective.

 
At Mon Feb 22, 11:23:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

>>the part that they're missing on television is that everyone was drinking.>>

As I said earlier: moonshine.

Winters could be long in the region of Canada where I attended graduate school.

 
At Mon Feb 22, 11:27:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dinosaur, you are such a grumpy old crank.

That said, curling is the silliest (note, I did not say dumbest) sport ever. It's silly to hear discussed and it's sillier still to watch.

Probably anything involving half-pipes is the dumbest sport ever, but those sports are at least fun to watch.

 
At Mon Feb 22, 03:26:00 PM, Blogger Midwife with a Knife said...

I think ice dancing is a stupider sport. I know that dancing is very difficult, and that great dancers are artists, but come on, it's an athletic competition, not a "anything that's really hard competition"

Therefore, the argument that curling should be an olympic sport becuase it's really hard is a stupid one. I've done some really hard vaginal deliveries in my day, doesn't make it an olympic sport...

 
At Mon Feb 22, 03:35:00 PM, Blogger #1 Dinosaur said...

Hey MWAK: Oh yeah?

 
At Mon Feb 22, 04:35:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Dr. Dino - according to one of the comments you're not a COG but GOC! Amazing.

 
At Tue Feb 23, 05:54:00 PM, Anonymous tom said...

Godzilla vs Rodan

 
At Fri Feb 26, 06:48:00 PM, Anonymous NinjaBaker said...

You may have seen this, but I wanted to take credit for posting it on GraphJam, just for you.

http://graphjam.com/2010/02/24/funny-graphs-popularity-curling/

Enjoy!!

 
At Fri Feb 26, 09:57:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have never curled, but grew up in a town (northern WI on MN border) where one of my high school counselors had an Olympic medal in curling and we had an option to play it in gym class. Maybe folks from the East just don't understand.

Now I moved to a town where curling is king again - my husband started playing it this year. He is a pretty smart guy and enjoys the strategy - it is not easy and does require physical skills - just because it isn't measuring the EXTREMES of "strength" or "speed" doesn't mean there isn't physical skill involved and strategy. Just because you are unfamiliar with a sport doesn't mean that there aren't millions of people who enjoy it. For instance, ask anyone outside of the US about football. :-)

 
At Sat Feb 27, 08:56:00 AM, Blogger #1 Dinosaur said...

NB: Awwww! I did see that, but of course had no way of knowing it was you who posted it. <3

Anon 9:57: All I said was that it was just SHUFFLEBOARD ON ICE! (Okay, I really said it was fucking shuffleboard on ice, but stay with me here.) Regular shuffleboard is just as hard, but WE DON'T HAVE IT IN THE OLYMPICS!

See MWAK's comment above.

And for the record, I think American football is ridiculous too.

 

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