Friday, October 10, 2008

Curling Politics II





















It’s been almost a month since our Curling Politics posting caused such a ruckus. Guess what: there are, honestly, more curling politics to highlight, as the first of North America’s two elections – Canada’s – is now only five days away.

First, we have the above political cartoon – of sorts – from Don Asmussen of the San Francisco Chronicle. His Bad Reporter feature often mocks up newspaper cover stories, and his lampoons from September 5 include a reference to U.S. Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the self-described “Hockey Mom” whose candidacy had just been announced by Presidential hopeful John McCain.

And what indeed, about the Curling Moms, eh? Doesn’t their vote count for something?

CONTEST ALERT: Who’s That Girl? The first person to message us through the Comments section of this blogpost, or via the Wall on our Facebook page with the correct identity of “Linda Smith” in the Asmussen cartoon above wins a brief “test subscription” to The Curling News: our first three issues of this imminent publishing season mailed to your door, or to the a door of a friend. So... Who’s That Girl?

Still with the Yankee election – on tap for November 4 – Democrat Barack Obama represents many things unique to a candidate for President of the United States. Yet another is a fairly decent penchant for stand-up comedy, and as this September blogpost shows, the would-be Prez once dropped a curling reference in one of his routines...

Moving over to Canada, the news that New Brunswick’s provincial government is injecting $200,000 into the coffers of next April’s Ford World Men’s Curling Championship – the 50th anniversary celebration of the men’s global shootout – has been greeted with nodding heads. But what happens when the federal government gives a $50,000 grant to one of the women’s Grand Slam cashspiels (here and here)? A reporter soon points out that the event benefiting from the grant is in the home riding of the minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency – Peter MacKay, who is in a dogfight with Green Party leader Elizabeth May to win the riding. And so, the question now seems to center around identifying “good” pork from “bad” pork. When it comes to curling, says us, it’s all good.

There’s more. Alberta Conservative incumbent Brian Storseth is, or was, a competitive curler himself, telling the Edmonton Sun that he “used to curl in provincials – my last curling match was against Kevin Martin.” The 30-year-old has since clarified to us that he did indeed lock horns with K-Mart but it was at a NACA Northern playdown, the step just before the provincials. Storseth has made a few such playdown appearances in his on-ice career, and also competed in a provincial junior championship years ago.

As for The Other Guys, the federal Liberals released a $70-billion promise to replace crumbling infrastructure back in September, and one spokesman even mentioned the c-word: “curling rinks”. Given the many challenges facing curling clubs these days – which we spotlight every month in TCN’s Dominion Club Corner department – we sure like the sound of this.

Finally, in a classic blogosphere yarn of the dark side of politics, an Ontario curler has played a role in making ex-Tory and current Liberal MP Garth Turner squirm like never before. However, in an online mea culpa published shortly thereafter, the scrappy former minister has declared he is now “going back to kick ass”. Well gee, you just go, Garth.

Canadians, don’t forget to vote on October 14.


So... what else is going on?

Shannon Kleibrink is rolling into today’s first women’s Grand Slam in Calgary ...

• Other action this weekend sees major Euro women’s teams in Basel and Winnipeg’s gals at the Atkins; and there are no less than five big men’s events in play this weekend – in Vancouver, in Ottawa, in Brandon, in Regina and in Oakville, just outside Toronto ...

• Have you seen the new graphic look for CurlTV.com? No? Well head on over, where you can also read about Glenn Howard’s recovery from hernia surgery, first reported right here on the TCN Blog. Howard told us there is still some discomfort when he prepares to slide, and if things don’t go well early on today in Oakville – the Howards meet Quebec’s Simon Ouellet at 11:30am ET – he will throw lead stones and call the game ...

• Speaking of Howard, five Canuck squads are confirmed for Scotland’s Ramada Perth Masters in January – with the possibility of more to come – but Cliffy’s two-time defending champs aren’t on the list ...

• Here’s your Cute Curling Pic of the Day ...

• And speaking of pics, our friends in Scotland are promoting their companion website, their recent Top 100 images and, for a limited time only, ALL the photos that have appeared on the Curling Today blog in its first year (1,500 images in all). Good heavens! Click here if ye dare, but don’t expect to get much work done today ...

• Ah yes, little did they know ...

• And all we have to say about this one is... well then!

• DID YOU KNOW: that the winningest North American race horse of all time is named Curlin?

• Brandon Sun writer Keith Borkowsky has a review of Curling Etcetera posted on his blog. Watch for our review, written by Teri Lake, in the upcoming November issue of The Curling News ...

Eric Eales’ Wheelchair Curling website gets a plug here ...

• Dude, listen, the only way you could possibly get close to only one-quarter of the $7,500 you’re asking for this stuff is if you included a) some Brier pins from those early days and b) the purple hearts – aka British Consols crests – from the actual Brier sweaters ...

• And finally, you know how curlers like to say that anybody can play this sport? Well, it would appear that some can’t, plain and simple ...

2 comments:

Bob Cowan said...

It is of course Scotland's Kelly Wood, wearing her GB top.

angelinjones said...

David Nedohin and Gerald Shymko are going to let those running curling cashspiels decide if they can enter those events this fall.
Tournaments that invite Hemmings, Nedohin, Shymko or John Morris risk losing their World Curling Tour sanctioning because those four teams are the only ones in the WCT's top 20 who haven't signed an agreement to play in the WCT's four-event Grand Slam of Curling.
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jones
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