The Roaring Game
All right folks, I’m about to have a serious problem on my hands. I’ve become addicted to curling and I’ve only got about a week’s worth left before it disappears for another four years.
Sure, curling exists in the four-year pause between Winter Olympics – in weird, far away, possibly mythical places like Scotland, Canada, Sweden and the quasi-Canadian northern extremes of the United States. For people like myself down south, however, curling is like the Brigadoon of sports; it appears for a brief period at regular intervals to entrance us before disappearing completely and leaving us in the lurch.
I noticed the sport during the 2006 games, but didn’t really think much of it at the time. This time around, though, I’ve been totally hooked on it. Thanks to all the late-night coverage on CNBC and MSNBC, I’ve been able to watch a lot and have learned quite a bit. The Dog has been faithfully at my side watching it all as well.
The Wife doesn’t get it. Every time she walks into the room and it’s on the television, she makes a comment about how weird it is and how she doesn’t understand how I can watch it. That’s okay. Curling and I can weather her intolerance.
I think it appeals to me for many of the same reasons that baseball does. On the surface, it seems to be an incredibly simple game, yet it’s actually quite complex and difficult to play at its highest levels. The emphasis on physical performance is secondary next to the planning and strategy that goes into each end that’s played. It’s full of tradition, colorful terminology and ridiculously specific rules. You’ve got to have an intuitive understanding of simple physics and be able to use it on the fly. Good sportsmanship is the rule, not the exception. It’s more than just a sport, it’s a pastime.
Plus, it doesn’t hurt that the Danish women’s team is pretty hot.
I’ve got about five more nights of curling to tide me over until 2014. Maybe I can figure out someway to steal Canadian cable after that.
Thank goodness baseball appears again soon. I’m going to need something to help me with the post-Olympic curling withdrawl.
Good to know someone else out there is watching it, I’m also fairly addicted.
Congratulations on embracing your inner Canadian. I curled for two years when I lived in Canada and I loved it!
My husband and I are addicted too! Curling Rocks! We got addicted during the 2004 Winter Olympics and we have been avid curler watchers ever since!
dfwcurling.com and lonestarcurlingclub.org (DFW and Austin Clubs)
We curl all over up here, too (in the bowling off-season). Although the outfits are more mundane, our warmup room has a keg.
Glad I’m not the only one. I think we’re actually going to give it a try at the dfw club.
I don’t think I’d ever really heard of curling until this year. It’s just … odd.
Kevin loves watching it too, and he learned some of the terminology. I haven’t watched much of it, and was surprised to hear how into it he was when it was on and we were both home yesterday….so glad the Olympics are wrapping up..