More Gushue, U.S. curling and ice tech egos

Olympic golden guy Brad Gushue plays rock star to a sea of kids (photo) as his community tour of Newfoundland & Labrador continues.

Down south, those crazy Americans just can't seem to stop curling. Californians are “stoked” about their new summer curling league in the Simi Valley, while there’s just plain lots of curling going in... Texas!

The brand spankin’ new Lone Star Curling Club is ready to rock in Austin, and they have an open house cooking this Sunday; Houston now hosts a drop-in curling session every two weeks (and here's the sked, next clinic is June 30); and over in San Antonio, the wonderfully-named Armadillo Curling Club has a Learn to Curl program running every Monday night from June 26 through August 14.

What else is goin' on?

• Bloggers are funny: here they make fun of Canadians and “The Great Curling”, while others debate curling as a sport (as usual). Meanwhile, Dan’s Blog reminds us that Western Canada’s biggest summer spiel kicks off July 3 in Nelson, BC...

• DID YOU KNOW: that Scottish ice technicians (don’t call them icemakers) have banded together on their own website to discuss their craft, with a new report on “Pebble” just issued? Should Canadian ice techs do the same? Of course. Will it happen? Never, due mainly to stubborness and somewhat mammoth egos...

• Could the Soo (that's Sault Ste. Marie in northern Ontario) be ready to host a big curling event again? You won’t see the Brier return – The Wrench won his second there back in 1990 – but an upgraded venue with 5,000 seats sounds mighty good for a World women’s or juniors... or a Continental Cup... or even a Grand Slam...