Goodbye New York

ROCKEFELLER PLAZA, NYC – We’re outta here, folks.

The Korbel Challenge was indeed moved up to the AM, as the rain is now picking up in the late afternoon. Good call, producers. Hope this didn’t mess up The Chicks, though it probably did.

Here’s a photo taken by a Plainfield CC member after the taping wrapped up this morning.

There was another hit during the morning Today Show, too, which you can see right now on the show website (look for “Curling on the Rockefeller rink”) ... hey, that looks like Maria Menounos... it is! It was! But I shan’t comment further, as I think the sport could have been presented in a better light. Don’t you?

What’s the takeaway? Not really sure, to be honest... we’ll just have to tune in Dec. 23 on NBC to find out. I’m still trying to figure out how Al Roker got shipped to Scranton on a day when he could have been learning how to curl.

Thanks, TCN... it’s been a blast...

Dean Gemmell
The Curling Show

(No, thank you Dean... take a bow [see May 04] – Ed.)

Manhattan – the night before

by Anonymous (for just a bit longer)

ROCKEFELLER PLAZA, NYC – After the tent turned into a kite earlier in the day and the weather forecast turned more ominous, Mark Shurek and his ice crew started working earlier than originally scheduled — 5:00 in the afternoon to 10:00 at night. Now the plan is to play and tape the game in the morning — at about 10:30am, I think — and then perhaps play again in the evening.

They have done wonders with the ice despite all that is working against the cause. No idea how it will end up running but the darned thing was a giant puddle just a couple of nights ago.

If the sheet looks a bit short, that’s because it most definitely is. Remember, this is Manhattan. Put a hot plate and a mini-fridge in the rings and we’d call it an apartment. Even curlers have to get used to living in smaller spaces. Just don’t blink during peels!

The Today Show bobbleheads will take their brand of hard-nosed journalism to the ice on Friday morning. Not sure what they’ll be doing. Perhaps Al Roker will slip and much hilarity will ensue. How about 3-1 odds that Matt Lauer is needled about his housekeeping abilities when Team Fenson’s Joe Polo shows him how to sweep? Let’s just hope Ann Curry doesn’t get a stone in the rings and set the sport back about 25 years.

Speaking of Team Pete Fenson, they stopped by to have a look at the setting after a dinner with the Swedes and the Korbel folks. Team Peja Lindholm figured there were better things to do in Manhattan on a Thursday night than watch water freeze.

I probably won’t be back in Manhattan until Friday evening. If the Nor’Easter really does hit, I doubt I’ll see any curling. If it doesn’t, I’ll watch the game along with Prometheus ...

•• MORNING UPDATE ••

AHA... the editor reports that curling just made its first TV appearance, Friday morning at 8:31 am ET.

In no particular order, Fenson threw a rock (and the tent is down!); Lauer was crowned with a curling “rock hat”; and Roker seems to be in Scranton, PA.

We’re up and running, folks!