March issue, Brier weekend

The post-Olympic March issue of The Curling News is oot and aboot... got yours yet?

Included:

• George Karrys live from Pinerolo; with all the inside scoops

• Doug Maxwell on the Olympic show; the view from a couch spud

• Likewise Larry Wood; it was just another Eurolympics

• TCN Newsdesk: snippets featuring Linda Moore, Dave Parkes, Jessica Alba and Bode Miller (say what?), Saskatchewan's official sport, John Morris and this year's Manitoba Hall of Fame ballots

• The Curling News TV Guide: a March Madness pointer to all the games on the tube and your desktop

• Slamming in St. John's: Randy Ferbey reminds all that he's still present and accounted for

• Matt Hames on the USA's Olympic hindsight

• The TCN Gold Trail: who's in the money?

• They Said It: TCN's popular collection of quotable quotes

• Queensland curlers making waves in Oz

• 2006 Brier: the Slammer invasion

Enjoy the opening Brier weekend... sigh... Olympics may be the quadrennial pinnacle, but there's just something about the venerable Brier that strikes a real chord with the heart. Kinda makes it turn purple for nine days.

Speaking of, here's a look at the home team's skipper, plus a tale about Saskatchewan lead Ben Hebert getting an earful and a good lesson earlier this season from none other than The Ferb... resulting in this sampling of Hebert's new self-awareness:

I still have a burning desire to win every single game. I expect to win every game and I know it doesn't work that way. When you beat teams like Kevin Martin, Randy Ferbey and Jeff Stoughton, you don't think you should ever lose to teams below them. I'm learning how to lose.

So, who is your money on? Jumping Joe in Ottawa says Quebec is a Brier threat, and we aren't arguing... Manitoba is certainly a threat, with third man Jon Mead pointing to the Olympic Trials teams as the field strong points... and what about K-Mart? Arch-rival Ferbey thinks he just might win it.

Some final notes for your weekend:

Looks like some controversial city budget money will be allotted to Brandon's stalled bid to host the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame... this jab at Rhona Martin isn’t just Off The Record, it’s Out To Lunch... Did You Know: a NY Mets pitcher watched the women’s Gold medal game, and one of the Dutch women's curlers is a Canadian... the world's top wheelchair curlers start Sunday in Pinerolo – here's a spotlight on the British team – and CBC's TV analyst has got game... curling is also underway at the Arctic Winter Games, with stories here and here... Now Look Here, Buddy: this Yank is appalled that Canada whomped the USA in baseball, after first conking them in Olympic curling, but we’ll have you know that Kim Mitchell is simply brilliant, and easily one of the most underrated axemen in music history... and besides, we are taking over... the Con Man asks where are the street signs named after Edmonton curling heroes, huh? ... tomorrow in hysterical Bemidji, it's Paul Bunyan and "Hammer Hankies"... and through all this madness, Pete Fenson has made the long climb back from an 0-2 start to make the U.S. Trials Page 1/2 game... meanwhile, the CurlGirls, now skipped by Jessica Schultz (Cassie Johnson is off galivanting in Europe) have scrapped their way into the 3/4 women's match... former Winnipeg Free Press curling writer Reyn Davis has passed away (link is subscription-only)... what's this? Ethan Hawke taking one-on-one curling lessons from some mystery gal? ... check out this bizarrely-timed and somewhat bizarrely-written mini-feature on curling, from a New-York based Chinese English-language newspaper -- er, website (check their “About Us” and try and figure it out for yourself)...