December 2007 issue: The Curling News

The December 2007 issue of The Curling News is in the mail – are you getting yours? – and it's jam-packed with all the latest and greatest from our sport, namely:

• The rundown from Chillywhack: what was great, not so great, and the future of the Continental Cup

• Calling all curling contributors: Matt Hames has been browsing curling on Wikipedia, and he's issued a call to arms... er, keyboards...

• Book madness: there are nine – that's right, NINE – curling books out there; TCN provides the lowdown on each and every one

• Euro 2006: European curling's biggest show is ready to start in Basel, Switzerland, and Rodger Schmidt has the preview

• 50th Anniversary Celebration: our season-long birthday party continues, with incredible archived content republished from 1958, and 1967, and more

• PCC 2006: Who did what at the Pacific Curling Championships in Tokyo

• The Curling News TV Guide: where to get your curling TV fix this month

• Larry Wood, but of course

• The Curling Newsdesk: NBC's Korbel weekend; a look at China's disappointed men's team the Canadian Mixed; and more

• Mary-Anne Arsenault dishes the inside scoop on her new team – versus the previous skip

• Calendar Offer: a 2007 women's curling calendar update, plus a special holiday offer!

You've heard the chant: don't delay, subscribe today ...

In addition:

• OK, so we didn't blog very much from the Masters. Quite busy. Quite busy having fun, actually. So here's a nifty roundup of stuff for you, from the CP story to the host broadcaster's story to the TorStar story; and it's always nice to see Brian McAndrew on the scene, may we say. Finally, the event – and the Grand Slam series as a whole – got a plug from the Globe's Bob Weeks on Saturday ...

• Anyone know of any other curling scribe who spends a weekend covering junior city zones? Other than Bender, that is ...

• DID YOU KNOW: This is a Canada Games curling year? Didn’t think so. Here’s a look at the NS playdown and here’s the website for the Games themselves, out in Whitehorse in February ...

• The club closure in Nova Scotia isn't happening without a fight. Over 1,500 signatures have been collected thus far to peitition against the city-mandated closure of the Lakeshore Curling Club, and you can sign it online here ...

• DID YOU KNOW II: That Calgary club ice is apparently (still) lousy? Heather Rankin thinks so. She gets the quote(s) of the day award(s) for her utterances in today’s Calgary Herald, after winning a spot in the Alta Southerns on the weekend. Apparently, Rankin used to call a colourful aggressive draw game, but due to Cowtown ice conditions, she’s given up:

If you want to get out of Southern Alberta, you have to hit. I've played nine years (here) and I've got there (provincials) once (a second-place finish in 2001), so obviously my style of game is not working. So I have to change it. And we're gonna hit right through to the provincials.

It's bad for the fans and all of that, but it's all about winning. I apologize, but that's what you're going to see: bang, bang, bang. I may be stubborn, but I'm not stupid.

You go, girl. And maybe, just maybe, some ice techs will start listening, eh?