Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Jimmy Lee: one more time























We’re no longer in Edmitten, but here’s one last look at Korea’s Je Ho Lee – and his perfectly-balanced no-broom delivery – plus a few insider stories, just for you, faithful TCN reader.

Prior to the round-robin game against Canada, Glenn Howard greeted the Korean skip with a “Hello Jimmy!" and Lee was simply thunderstruck, and replied in halting English, “You know my name?”

In the middle of the match, with the scored rapidly getting out of hand, Howard was calling a shot when he heard Lee’s voice behind him: “Glenn... you let me score a point?”

Howard turned and acknowledged the smiling Lee, and returned to his shot. Moments later, that voice again:

“And then you let me score six?”

Hilarious laughter.

In the final round-robin draw, Lee called for coach Brad Burton – a rather, um, rotund Canadian from B.C. – to come down for a timeout. Lee’s signal drew howls from the crowd: he rotated his hands around his imaginary inflated belly. Lee, of course, might weigh 100 pounds or so.

At the end of that finale, Lee hauled out a big sign in which he thanked the fans in Edmonton for a great “learning experience” and declared “Love you all.”

“I told Jimmy just to say thank you,” said Burton, “But he went out to Staples and this took him all afternoon to get it ready. I told him he should be resting but he wanted to get the sign made.”

TCN columnist Larry Wood edited the daily Eye Opener throughout the event, and declared that Lee “truly deserves the Showboat Award at this Ford Worlds. Does this guy know how to play a crowd, or what?...”

He sure does.

Come back soon, Jimmy Lee.

Elsewhere:

• Still with Edmonton, Glenn’s buddy Steve offers his congrats... Cookie Gilchrist thinks Glenn is actually the “nicer” and “kinder” Howard... speaking of Russ, here’s a book Q&A with the guy now destined to be known as Glenn’s brother (sounds good, eh?)... and this tall fellow sorta enjoyed the Ford Worlds; and speaking of access issues, did you happen to read Ryan Durham’s web-special located at the TCN website? Let us know your thoughts ...

• Calgary rocks from tonight through Sunday at the Tylenol Players’ Championship: there’s a preview here, and yes, did you happen to note the new (temporary) skip for Team Kelley Law? Wow ...

• More Gushue vs. Korab stuff here, here and here ...

• Team Jeff Stoughton won the popular Bear Mountain Tour event ...

Now we know why Gloria Campbell wasn’t competing at the World Seniors in Edmonton. Congrats on tonight’s H0F induction and best of luck in the battle to come ...

• Let’s hear it for the Masters, folks...

• Finally, yet another game for you to play: here’s a quick review of, and link to, something called Stone Cold Curling ...

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