Curling Cuties

Goodness us.

We have found the cutest curlers ever – yes, even cuter than these two – and they happen to live in Seattle, Washington.

Watch them in action right here, courtesy of this KOMO-TV episode of Eric’s Little Heroes.

As you can see, today’s quickee blogpost is aimed at merely applying a smile to your face.

And as an added bonus, here’s another Friday Fingerfest – please stretch your digits before attempting any strenous linkclicking...


• Brantford Expositor sportswriter Ed O’Leary is having fun, we think. Of Glenn Howard’s opening SunLife match this morning against unheralded Darcy Garbedian, O’Leary theorizes when Howard’s second game might take place “If Howard manages to eke out a victory”...

• The 2010 Ford World Women’s is going to Swift Current, Saskatchewan. The official announcement is here and a local CTV news story can be found here. Meanwhile, the town also has this season’s women’s provincial, and they’re looking for more volunteers and sponsors ...

• Joe Pavia has this on young superstar Rachel Homan ...

• Here’s a Jim Armstrong wheelchair feature for you ...

• Speaking of wheelchairs, Germany and – yes, China – are off to the Worlds in Vancouver ...

• The Mixed is over, and we have wrap-ups from locals townie bastard and also Clare, a local from Arctic Bay in Nunavut who wants big numbers... so, let’s give it to him, people!

We also have a final column from the champ, Sean Grassie... he’s quite a writer, somebody should hire this guy! Hmm...

And finally, we have this note on the Nunavut legacy ...

• Bear Mountain is close to confirming their top-notch field ...

• Okay, we lied... looks like she is playing (a little) ...

• Only a mere decade into his career as the curling guy at the venerable Globe and Mail, it was still a real shame to see some Globe desk jockey misspell Bob Weeks’ first byline of the season ...

• Although they did repost a corrected version later ...

• Nice scarf!

• Nice license plate!

• Sorry! but this might as well be labelled a new curling board game ...

• Lisa led 52 youngsters out onto the ice recently ...

• Janet, from Japan, tried curling in Germany ...

• The Virden CC welcomes two new bartenders. For what it’s worth, we love curling bartenders!

• Golden Ears needs a new club manager, and right away ...

• CBC curling host Scott Russell loves that Million Dollar Button thang ...

• Grey Power Insurance is back in curling, as the new title sponsor of the Players’ Championship ...

• Look who’s coming to Clermont, Quebec ...

• The Little Mosque on the Prairie curling episode “Jihad on Ice” (remember this? And this?) is now posted on YouTube. It can be viewed in three parts, all of them located here ...

• And finally, here’s a major, humungeous U.S. wrapup:

– they’re pumped in Kalamazoo, Michigan as the U.S. Nationals are headed their way in 2010;

– KXMC in the Dakotas has a promo story here – including a slideshow – and even a video, located here;

– there’s this spotlight on Indy;

– and this one on Colorado ...

– and in Simi Valley, California ...

– and in Sweet Home Chicago ...

– and this, on radio and transcripted, from Detroit Rock City ...

Russ Howard: Swiss curling coach

After reading this here chat thread about Canadian curling coaches, Russ Howard flew his star pupils – Switzerland’s Team Ralph Stöckli – over to Moncton and then into Toronto yesterday.

OK, we’re kidding, this Canadian Tour has been planned for a while.

Following a week of training in Moncton, with the Stöcklis bunking in at Russ’ house, the squad made a pinch-hit appearance for Team Steski in the Toronto Major League last night at St. George’s. They lost a close one to defending provincial Silver Tankard champ Bill Duck, the club manager.

In the TCN photo taken by Anil Mungal, that’s skip Stöckli at left, followed by third Jan Hauser, The Olympic Champion Yelling Guy, second Markus Eggler (who himself skipped Switzrland to the 1992 world championship) and lead Simon Strübin.

Today the Swiss hit the 401 for the short drive to Waterloo for the first Capital One Grand Slam of the year, the Masters of Curling.

More on Russ and his charges in the December issue of The Curling News, which goes to press next week. Are you a subscriber?

Lots to say about Slam number one:

• There’s a CBC Slam season preview located here;

• Glenn Howard, who has a new interview posted over at The Curling Show, comes in ranked number one, ahead of Kevin Martin (according to us, anyway);

• As Brian Belfry writes, this could be Ontario’s last chance to see the once-previously-retired Kerry Burtnyk throw a live stone;

•Dis you catch the announcement of the brand-new $170,000 Capital One Cup ...?

• And the one regarding world’s first Curling Rewards credit card – click on the ad banner atop this fine website (and this one, too) ...?

• How about the Million Dollar Button contest, now underway and which climaxes at the third men’s Slam at Winnipeg in January?

• What about the not-yet-publicized reveal that next fall’s mammoth Toronto 2009 event – hosted at the Air Canada Centre – has been rebranded as the Masters of Curling Toronto 2009?

That reveal also shows that a secret All-Star men’s team will round out the field – that’s the good news – and that a new $14.00 facility fee has been applied to ticket purchases. That is most certainly the bad news.

What of last fall’s club ticket drive? Those ducats didn’t have a facility fee applied to them at the time...

“TCA will pick up the cost of the facility fee for the package offered last year,” said Toronto Curling Association president Elizabeth Woolnough. “That cost will not be passed down to the clubs, nor to the ticket holders.”

Finally, don’t forget the webcast and television coverage: CBC Sports Online has live streaming of the weekend playoff round (action starts tonight) and both CBC-TV and BOLD will combine to cover those playoff games – three of them – on television.

Anything else, you ask?


• At the Canadian Mixed, the wheat chaffers were undefeated at 7-0 as of Tuesday night and Manitoba skip Sean Grassie even wrote this introductory column for the Winnipeg Sun.

Meanwhile our friend townie bastard is working behind the scenes as a member of the organizing committee... and despite his previous fretting, his photos are just fine!

• You heard about the 2010 Tim Hortons Brier heading to Halifax, right? if not, read this and this ...

• Guess what: Rainy River will survive ...

• It’s just a guess, but it looks like the Toronto Curling Association might be behind this Vaughan Today feature. The participation message is strong among three different sources ...

• Here’s a cool idea: check out Hamilton, Ontario’s “Club 64” league for juniors ...

• 2006 Olympic wheelchair curling champion Chris Daw is in a Newfoundland hospital recovering from a broken hip ...

• Stefanie Lawton is taking a year off work to chase her Vancouver Olympic dream ...

• Wisconsin curling hero Bob simply did a great job ...

• We’ve got just one more Midland, Michigan TV story for you ...

• Crash! They’ve had their first injury at the new club in Columbus, Ohio; and congratulations, by the way ...

• DID YOU KNOW: that the venerable Wall Street Journal gave us a call today? Nope, we don’t know why either. We’re playing voicemail tag right now ...

• Napanee, Ontario is gunning to host either the 2010 or 2011 Ontario Men’s TSC Tankard at their newish $9.8 million Strathcona Paper Centre ...

• More madness in Moose Jaw as local politicians are threatened over the proposed $61.3 million sportsplex, which would include a new home for the local Hillcrest Curling Club ...

• Finally, Bob Weeks has been dishing on an interesting webstrategy quoted by the Canadian Curling Association (follow-up located here) ...

The Curling News: November 2008

Here we are, back again, with the 52nd season of the world authority on the sport of curling.

The Curling News is the granddaddy of this blog, the monthly newsprint edition, and it is chock full of stuff you don’t see here.

Like our monthly TV Guide, which lists all the great curling action available on your TV screen – even local Super Leagues in cities like Brandon and Regina.

And fantastic curling writers like Calgary’s Larry Wood and our resident Canadian-in-Switzerland, Rodger Schmidt.

And fantastic curling writers who also throw a mean competitive stone on the ice, like defending world champion Jill Officer and Halifax’s Teri Lake.

Don’t delay, subscribe today.

Our website subscription page is located here.


In this issue:

• A summary of all the summer curling hijinks

• The first look at the Brazilians

• They Said It starring Michael J. Fox, Brad Gushue, NBA coach Phil Jackson and more!

• Larry Wood challenges your powers of observation

• More Zombie Curling! Yarragharagh!

• Team Glenn Howard rocks inaugural Fantasy Camp

• Thompson returns with the Eversharp blade

• Jill Officer on set: Lights! Camera! Action!

• The Dominion launches the Canadian Club Championship

• Capital One Star of the Future: Mike McEwen

• Teri Lake reviews Curling Etcetera

• Shannon Kleibrink on a roll

• Masters of Curling preview

• The Curling News TV Guide for November/December

• Rodger Schmidt says the future is in Europe, not Asia

And more!

Movember Curling

Movember, the month of moustaches, is back in full force. Curling men are asked to not shave for the entire month, beginning tomorrow, to show support for the fight against prostate cancer. BalancePlus chief – and the coach of Team Glenn Howard – is Mr. Scott Taylor, and he is the prime mover behind this campaign, which you can read about in the October 29 posting at the SWEEP! magazine site.

You may recall our promotion of this thing last year. And yes, that’s them Howards (photo above by Tae) after winning Brantford’s SunLife cashspiel last Movember. Wonderfully cheesy, and all for a great cause.

What else is going on, you ask?


• The 2010 “Olympic Brier” is bound for Halifax, and will be announced there next week. Another story is located here, and another here ...

• They’re looking for more Tim Hortons Brier volunteers in Calgary, stories here and here ...

• As yesterday’s post indicated, today is the last day for one kind of tickets to the Ford Worlds in Moncton and tomorrow launches another series of ticket packages ...

• Bismark, North Dakota will host the Brazil/USA Worlds challenge on January 30 to February 1. Background info located here ...

• The Chinese have left Canada and are in New Zealand, preparing for the Pacific Championships which start on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Aussies – who had a productive yet somewhat disappointing performance in Grand Forks – are looking for more success ...

• The new $1.5M curling centre in Midland, Michigan is ready to open, as ABC-12, WNEM TV and NBC-25 all show us. The debut opening is November 8 ...

• The A-division draw is up for the 2008 Le Gruyère European Curling Championships ...

• CONTEST ALERT: This one is for readers in the Kitchener-Waterloo area of Ontario, as the local blat if offering up six pairs of Event Passes to the first Capital One Grand Slam of the season, the Masters of Curling ...

• Amy Nixon is on The Curling Show, and other recents have been KPark, B.C.’s Bob Ursel and everyone’s favourite, mrnn ...

• We are now 496 days away from Vancouver’s other major sports doo-dah, the Paralympic Winter Games ...

• 2002 Olympic bronze medallist and 2000 world champion skip Kelley Law surfaced last week, and as this story tells, she is content with her life away from the curling ice ...

• Nerdsopolis has returned our recent shout-out: grazie ...

• The dark side of curling? Bring it on, baby! After all, this is the Halloween weekend ...

• This Dutch blog likes the Women of Kurling and their Kalendar ...

• There may be hope for northern Ontario’s Rainy River club following their critical meeting last Friday ...

• California’s Wine Country Curling Club will learn its fate at a Vacaville city council meeting on November 11 ...

• 29 years of writing about local women’s curling? Wow ...

• Rookies tossed some “22kg stone thingys” at Fenton’s the other day ...

• Don Gordon of Lake Cowichan, B.C. quotes a curling story in talking tough about supporting a local arena upgrade plan ...

• We have more curling tales from Schenectady, NY and also from Greg in Hollywood ...

• The site of the original “Callie” was set ablaze on Wednesday ...

• Melfort, SK needs an icemaker ...

• Kamloops city councillor Arjun Singh has blogged about a local curling club asking for funding ...

• Finally, we like this definition of curling posted by the Kalamazoo CC:

CURLING: The difference between a great winter and a crappy, not-enough-snow-to-really-ski winter!

Golden Ford Worlds tickets

As this advert shows, tomorrow, Oct. 31 is last day to get top-choice full-event passes for the 2009 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship in Moncton.

Click the image to zoom in.

These are the “gold” end-zone seats available as nine-day event passes, saving you upwards of $150.00.

There’s another ticket announcement coming later today concerning the two “Champs” packages: “Weekend Champs” (Thursday through Sunday) and “Weekday Champs” (Monday through Wednesday and then Friday through Sunday).

Watch for all news and ticket announcements on the event webpage, with the ticketing page located here.

This year’s Ford Worlds is a very big deal, as it celebrated 50 years of world men’s curling. You do not want to miss this one, folks.

To conclude today’s brief blogpost, here’s a rundown of last weekend’s event winners. Watch tomorrow’s blogpost for still more awesome curling news and info ...


• Mirjam Ott and surprising Stefan Karnusian will represent Switzerland at December’s European Championships while the unsurprising Scottish results see Kelly Wood and David Murdoch also returning to defend their 2007 medals ....

• The impressive junior skip Kaitlyn Lawes was the real story of the second women’s Slam, won by Michelle Englot ...

• Team Glenn Howard is pretty in pink after winning their third straight Brandon tour event ...

• Victoire pour Guy!

• To no one’s surprise, Kevin Martin won in Bonnyville ...

• And finally, Suzanne “No Longer Gaudet” Birt won the Lady Monctonian ...

Limousines in Whitby

We were scanning the various provincial Tour websites this morning, and something in Ontario caught our eye.

Early November’s Mount Lawn Gord Carroll Classic is named after local legend Gord Carroll, who was inducted into the local sports hall of fame last year. Curling dinosaurs (like us) may recall the first few years of print advertisements which announced the new sponsor of Ontario’s Nokia Cup provincial back in the day: the ad showed a dashing fellow wearing a poor boy hat sliding out of the hack without a broom, but with a mobile phone held up to his ear. That was Gordie!

Anyway, this year’s event has 24 men’s and 12 women’s teams, plays a triple knockout and has a $30,000 prize purse.

The men’s champions get $7,000 but qualifying money is a hefty $2,000.

And all this for a $525 entry fee.

Then we discovered that all teams are all being chauffeured around town in limousines.

Hmmmm.

Something very good is happening in Whitby, which hosted the Ontario men’s provincial a few years ago. Right now the event attracts strong southern Ontario teams, but at this rate of growth perhaps the Gordie’s spiel is on its way to eventually attracting some big guns from out of town.

Curling dinosaurs (like us) may remember a major Whitby cashspiel years ago called the Sun Life. Paul Savage, Ed Werenich, Bob Charlebois, Jim Sharples and so many more made that event a regular stop in their annual Tour schedule.

They’re going back to the future in Whitby!


• There’s lots of competition this weekend on the various tours, but Manitoba is hosting two biggees; Ray Turnbull’s annual women’s Grand Slam stop in Winnipeg and the men’s WCT stop in Portage ...

• DID YOU KNOW: that Kerry Burtnyk’s imported third, Don Walchuk, has followed the Park/Stoughton script and is officially a Manitoban?

• They’re getting pumped in Swift Current, Sask. for an appearance by world champ Jennifer Jones ...

• Burtnyk was at yesterday’s news conference launching today’s early bird ticket sales for the January Grand Slam stop in Winnipeg, the BDO Classic Canadian Open ...

• Well, aren’t we darned. Youth sensation Rachel Homan did it again, winning in London for the second year in a row, this time with a final-game victory over world silver medallist Bingyu Wang of China ...

• Wayne Middaugh and Glenn Howard stopped by four Kitchener-Waterloo area curling clubs yesterday to promote the first Capital One Grand Slam: the Masters of Curling, which hits that area in mid-November. Here’s a peek at Howard’s appearance in Elmira, and here’s a peek at Middaugh’s bizarre headgear in Guelph ...

• Hey, nice new look for the Charlottetown CC ...

• By the way, does your club have real hogs at the lines?

• The 2010 Canadian Juniors are off to Quebec ...

• DID YOU KNOW II: that the Gibsons Curling Club in B.C. is offering a $1,000 bursary for a 2009 high school graduate interested in learning the ice making ropes?

• Actually, curling isn’t just for Italian nerds... we welcome nerds of all nationalities ;) ...

• Speaking of Italy, here's not one but two Italian wheelchair curling stories ...

• We agree: this curling joke is Impressively Unimpressive ...

• A different Becker will make his world curling debut for New Zealand in April ...

C’est un bon début pour L’equipe Belisle ...

• Today’s U.S. curling spotlights are on South Plainfield in New Jersey, and in Pittsburgh, and also in Boston, where they just started up last Monday ...

• Happy 70th anniversary to Scotland’s Falkirk ladies ...

• 2006 Paralympic wheelchair gold medallist Sonja Gaudet is one of three athletes profiled in a new Vancouver 2010 campaign involving vehicle license plates ...

• Speaking of Savage and The Wrench, it looks like most of the old 1983 world champion team are supporting Ontario’s 2009 provincial Tankard. Notice the golf shoes and gloves, however ...

• Here’s a thoroughly strange curling featurette, in Danish ...

• Here’s our curling team website of the week: Team Niklas Edin of Sweden ...

• Sick of all those sick zombie curling blogposts? Well, we’re not: Renerd has reviewed the film Deadspiel right here ...

• We’re not sure this fellow is supporting curling as much as he is dissing NASCAR racing ...

• Now on to the bad news: Northern Ontario’s Rainy River Curling Club is in trouble, with the town looking to help out, but things sound gloomy. Today, Friday, is doomsday ...

• Finally, club manager Ellery Robichaud of Curling Beausejour in Moncton says it best in this CCA Business of Curling blogpost:

Our number one secret is we changed what we were selling before. We stopped doing things the same way we did them before. With that philosophy you only get the people you’ve already got. If you only ask your members what they want, you’ll get what you’ve already got. But if you want new people, you have to ask people who aren’t curling why they aren’t curling.

We had to change the product. Curling clubs that want to sell the same thing they sold in the ’70s just won’t be successful.

Curling zombies like beer

Uuuhnnhnuughhruuh. Ugghhnngnuhhr.

(Curling zombie like beer. Ugghhnngnuhhr.)

Zombie Curling Walk

Aaraeeaareeyyaaarraagh.

(Zombie curlers from the short film Deadspiel took to the streets last Sunday before the film premiere.)

Yuurrghaaraghhyurk blaarrk arruugh greaaaghurrrgh murraargh!

(There’s been lots of media coverage of the march!)

Grroooaarrghuurrghhgarhghaaarrggharghaaaaaauuuuhhhh.

(Here’s a brief video clip of the producers introducing the film.)

Uurrhghhuuhhnnnuragh ghhrargh.

(And a brief video review.)

Wuuaarragh GHRAARK!

(photo courtesy of Andy Warner!)

Zombie Curling

Urgghhaargh. Rrraagh.

Urarrgh.

We love zombies. Who doesn’t?

And we love curling. That much, we trust you understand.

We like movies, too. Put ’em all together and you have Deadspiel, the new eight-minute short film debuting Sunday night in Toronto, at 6:30pm before the main feature (Kevin Tenney’s Brain Dead) during the Toronto After Dark Festival. Location: Bloor Cinema.

Awright. We recall hearing about this a few months back. And the latest issue of SWEEP! has a nice feature on it. So what the heck is this all about?

Apparently, it was originally conceived of as a story of Viking curlers. Watching an Olympic curling match between the Swedish and Finnish teams, Pat Corcoran began toying with the idea of Vikings in full regalia yelling at each other on the rink. Fate brought him to one of the busiest film/TV set construction companies in Toronto, where he met fellow carpenter and horror film aficionado Jay Molloy. Molloy had just finished working on George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead in which he was fortunate enough to play a small zombie role, a lifetime dream that he could not stop talking about. A seed was planted.

The film business, being as transient as it is, separated the two, although they kept in contact through mutual friends. During this time, Corcoran began seriously toying with the idea of a curling zombie film. He spoke about it often, mostly to his Acton curling club teammates (which includes former Brier competitior Joe Frans) and opponents alike. Most nodded and smiled politely, then spoke to each other in hushed tones, the common thread being “he’s quite mad, you know.”

“We shot on the weekend of April 19 in Acton,” Corcoran told The Curling News. “We pampered the ice in the days leading up to the shoots so that it would look good for the camera. We had a few interesting and fun games as actors learned to curl, and zombie curlers developed their characters.

“The final scenes of shooting are an icemakers nightmare with blood and bodies everywhere; when we called it a wrap on the film shoot we also called an end to the curling season.”

“We paid for the film with whatever we had in our pockets,” added Molloy. “We both work in film, so the crew were all pros who worked for beer and food... most of them came from Evil Dead the Musical! or CBC’s Little Mosque on The Prairie, which I work on.

“Everyone was taken by the ridiculousness of the story and all really seemed to enjoy themselves – for the most part, anyway.”

Want more? Okay... Sunday’s screening takes place after the Toronto Zombie Walk which will act as a kind of promo for the film. Now this sounds incredibly cool. Imagine: a zombie march in the middle of T.O., on a Sunday afternoon... with curling brooms!

Eeyyaaraaggghh. Waahagahrragh.

“We’re hoping to have a noticeable presence,” admits Molloy. “We’re working on props and stuff for the march right now.”

The film got a mention here, from one of the assistant directors... and what about you, dear reader? Why not mention this to some friends, and head on down to the city on Sunday?

Grrruuaarrghuurrr.


Elsewhere:

• It’s admittedly early, but this season belongs, so far, to Calgary’s Shannon Kleibrink ...

• Happy 50th anniversary to the Grand Falls Curling Club... and we’ll even forgive the spelling of “Ed Wernick” ...

• DID YOU KNOW: that five of the eight curlers in the final match of the first women’s Slam were on the event organizing committee? And one of the quarterfinalists was also the event webmistress ...

• Kinross is in as the new home of Scotland’s National Curling Academy. Curling Today has the story and even the good old Beeb has taken notice ...

• Here’s some Chinese reality-TV mayhem, but filmed in Canada and including a curling club ...

• Speaking of Chinese, Bingyu Wang’s world silver medallists are in London, Ontario this weekend, while defending champ Russ Howard leads two other Canadian teams into WCT-E action in Bern, Switzerland ...

• In fact there’s another six events on this weekend between men’s and women’s play... oh heck, just go here and look at the Gameday Scoreboard ...

• Here’s a lengthy and fun feature on curling in Knoxville, Tennessee ...

• Remember Tromso, Norway? Sounds like they are now out of the running to host the Winter Olympics in 2018 ...

• Er, OK, we agree it’s not a crime... but what’s your point?

• ravenWren is looking for something very special for a curling-crazed U.S. citizen currently living in Canada ...

• Canada’s National Post newspaper is 10 years old, and a recent anniversary sport special aimed to select the greatest Canadian athlete from “the Post decade”. Hosted a la a European curling event draw sheet, curling was represented by Randy Ferbey and Colleen Jones, with Jones “winning” to advance to a battle against tennis doubles specialist Daniel Nestor. Nestor advanced before losing to golfer Mike Weir, who is into the Final Four along with hockey goalie Martin Brodeur, basketball’s Steve Nash and speed skating Olympian Catriona Le May Doan ...

• revRecluse has a new/old curling board game to play with ...

• There’s a pile of partial curling stones for sale, by a roadside north on London, Ontario ...

• The call is out in Bowling Green, Ohio ...

• Little Prince loves the Women of Curling calendar ...

• And finally, they’ll be curling for charity in Kettle Moraine, Wisconsin (with video) ...

Stampeder Curling

What a ripoff.

The scene: Canadian Football League action on holiday Monday. The Calgary Stampeders are thumping the Saskatchewan Roughriders and TSN’s live feed inexplicably crashes early in the fourth quarter. The usual gang of suit-clad mouthpieces cut in, of course, to discuss various statistical whatnots around the table as attempts are made to reconnect to the live action.

When they do, another Calgary touchdown has occurred and scorer Nik Lewis seems to have tossed something (above). The camera stays close on him as he watches and then starts celebrating. The slo-mo replay doesn’t include any of the previous.

The previous was in fact Lewis throwing the football like a curling stone, which his teammates then started “sweeping”.

Ace TCN and Calgary Herald scribe Al Cameron was there, as were his rivals at the Calgary Sun and Cameron, for one, has declared this end-zone celebration to be simply the best ever.

We agree: it sends quite a message to Winnipeg that “Duck-Duck-Goose” just ain’t gonna cut it.

So, apart from a screen capture from TSN’s belated, missed-the-boat coverage (available here, at 13:12 of the fourth quarter) we have ZERO photo and video evidence of the greatest CFL scoring celebration of all time. We even have the CFL’s media department hunting for some images, but they’ve drawn a blank so far.

Our last hope is for some intrepid CFL fans, on site at the game, who might have captured this on video, on film, via a mobile phone pic, whatever. Please drop us a line via Comments below, or via our website, if you have the evidence.

Meanwhile, CFL legend Milt Stegall – a Blue Bomber, wouldn’t you know – has gone completely loco. For no apparent reason, he spoke major league heresy against both hockey and curling, two fo the most Canadian sporting ways of life. What the...?

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 ...

Curling in the Dragons’ Den

Beware the Dragons... they have lots of money and are ready to invest in your business idea, but you might get your hand bitten off while asking for the cash.

Dragons’ Den, the successful “Angel Investors” TV show, now in its third year on CBC in Canada (there is also a UK edition) showcases lightning-quick investment pitches made on-the-spot to a panel of major high rollers. These guys – and one gal – are looking to shell out their own shekels to fund the Next Big Thing, and they often do just that.

For example, last night’s show closed with two gals pitching a street-smart acrobatic show – a small-scale version of Cirque du Soleil – and after getting thoroughly stomped on by four of the five Dragons, the final one ponied up a quarter of a million dollars. Just like that.

Still with last night, quiet and humble Joe Dumouchelle from Windsor, Ontario (image above) also made it into the Den... but came away with nothing. The Dragons weren’t too fond of his invention: a curling rock with wheels, suitable for play on non-ice surfaces.

Joe also showed off a small mockup of a transportable wooden indoor curling sheet... which ships in two massive pieces, totalling 24 feet in length. The Dragons had a howl over that one, with designated Dragon badboy Kevin O’Leary imagining the sight of “a 24-wheeler show(ing) up at your house; ‘Honey! Your curling rink is here!’”

Sadly, the magic of TV editing did not tell us precisely what the Dragons thought of Joe’s main idea: the rocks themselves. Nor did Joe or the Dragons indicate any knowledge of existing dryland rocks – if so, we assume Joe would have been asked about owning a patent.

How about this, folks... whether or not you’ve ever seen the show, or this particular episode, how about helping out poor Joe? The show website features an Armchair Dragon Contest where the public can vote on its favourite unsuccessful “pitch” of the season. If Joe wins this week’s voting, he is in the running for an eventual $75,000 prize and you, dear reader, could receive $10,000 and a trip to Toronto – just for voting.

All you have to do is register – its free – with the CBC website, which can done through the contest page located here. You can also view a :30-second video promo for the contest, located here.

This week’s contest is open until Monday, Oct. 13 at 4:59 ET.

Good luck Joe... and to all curling voters, too!

Olympic curling tickets today! But DON'T PANIC!

As TCN readers are aware, we were the very first curling media org to talk about Vancouver 2010 Olympic tickets – the where, when, how and also the how much.

So, are you panicking that VANOC curling tickets, plus those for ceremonies and other sports, went on sale today? Are you terrified you’ve missed/are missing the boat?

Relax. You haven’t.

As the WCF said last week, non-Canadians need to consult with their respective National Olympic Committees to find out which company is the official ticketing agent in said country... although we do acknowledge that it is best to do this sooner than later!

And please note the emphasis on the word official, okay?

Canadians, meanwhile, have over a month to decide exactly what they want to see. Honest. As the CBC said last month, and many media outlets are reinforcing today, the rather hefty Canadian allotment of tickets is NOT first-come-first-served... it is a lottery, and the final deadline to request your allotment is in early November.

Got that? We shall spell it out for you further:

There is zero difference between requesting your tickets today, and requesting them days or even weeks from now.

So – Canadians – without further preamble, here is your official VANOC ticket portal. Start thinking about who, what, where and when – and yes, how much? – but for heaven’s sake, take a chill pill on the urgency.

Just relax.

After all, it’s Friday, which means you deserve another linkfest... courtesy of your friendly neighborhood TCN Blog ...


• More Women of Curling Calendar hullaballoos? Yes indeed, there are a) many b) such c) examples of continuing excitement, and some from sources that are growing increasingly more risque (five links hereby not posted). For his part, Bob Weeks has offered somewhat grudging support, and yes, we ourselves are also amazed at the continued media interest ...

• BTW, Bob also posted a hilarious comment about curling legends adopting Facebook. For more on the Facebook curling phenomenon, check out the story we printed in our November 2007 issue. The Curling News Facebook Group, meanwhile, now numbers over 1,100 ...

• Congrats and welcome back to junior boosters M&M Meat Shops ...

• Joe Pavia reports that the third Steski brother – well, the first, to be precise – is miffed at the Asham World Curling Tour ...

• Kirk Penton sez that KPark is now eligible to compete in Manitoba’s Safeway playdowns with skipper Jeff Stoughton ...

• Is there a new facility in the works for Fogerty, MN?

• Cheese curling? Um, ok...

• Speaking of Facebook and all those darned techie whatnot-thingys, The Winos seem to be fully dialed in ...

• Looks like local curling media coverage in Inverness seems to be on the upswing ...

• And still with the curling homeland, will Kinross indeed become the epicentre of Scottish curling?

• DID YOU KNOW: that our mates over at Curling Today have gone right round the bend?

• Belay that: the curling inclusion in this blogpost is clearly more bizarre ...

• Any Manitobans want to hear regional tour honcho Andy Stewart, from a radio interview on Brandon’s CJLQ? Well, just click here ...

• Membership drives are underway in Whitehorse ...

• The SoCal club is once again up and running here, starting October 11 ...

• Bob Ursel is among a fine field of men’s and women’s teams in Vernon this weekend ...

• And finally, the Quote of The Day... it’s no surprise that Kevin Martin feels that last April’s World championship victory “was something I needed to get out of the way” ...

Nutmeg fantasy camp

The only American fantasy curling camp in 2008 still has room for participants.

The Hot Shots Fantasy Curling Camp is coming down from Canada to the Nutmeg Curling Club in Bridgeport, Connecticut in just under four weeks. The dates are Oct. 24-26 and the “campers” receive world-class curling instruction with a celebrity angle.

Click on the above graphic to increase the size, and contact Jennifer Stannard at 203-329-7625 for all the details.

We also hear that the 2009 slate of Hot Shots camps will take place in Ontario’s Oakville (August) and Ottawa (September) followed by the Utica CC (October) down in the States. Confirmations will appear on the Hot Shots website at the end of this month.

But for now, we suggest you go nuts at the Nutmeg!

Curling calendar media melee

Well, the ladies have once again caused a media ruckus.

There were major features on the 2009 Women of Curling Calendar in the Sun family of newspapers, in both Ottawa and Toronto... and other stories at Deadspin, at Gustafun, at No-Name 247, at Slanch Report, and many, many more...

... such as SBB, the infamous Fark, and the investigative Scanner.

There were also radio features on FAN 590, and TV features on Rogers Sportsnet and also on Global News Ontario (screen capture above). To see the Global segment, which stars calendar grrrl Chrissy Cadorin and TCN/Shoot For A Cure dynamo Ryan Durham, go here and click on the Sept. 25 show... the story arrives at the 31-minute mark.

Heck, even the Washington Post took a break from the financial metdown stories to take note.

In addition, we offer smiles and shrugs to the Curling Canada guys and finally, a huge thumbs-up to the very funny hockey fellas at Orland Kurtenblog.

Once again, the ladies looking for your support, so please click here. The original blogpost is located here.


Anything else?


• DID YOU KNOW: that 2006 U.S. Olympic skip Pete Fenson is, er, less enamoured by Brazil’s challenge for the second western hemisphere spot at the 2009 Ford Worlds? When asked – by Joe Pavia of the Ottawa Sun – if he would play against Brazil, Fenson said: “I didn’t express a whole lot of interest ... our goal is to win the Olympic Trials this year. We are really not that interested in veering from our schedule.”

Tickets are now on sale for the first Capital One Grand Slam of the season: The Masters in Waterloo, Ontario ...

• We promoted Monsanto Canada’s fine curling club support program last year, and we’re pleased to see the grants are back for 2008-09 ...

• Seems the travel bible Lonely Planet has listed the 2009 Moncton worlds as a top reason to visit Canada ...

• Capital One – and its curling focus – made this recent Globe and Mail marketing story ...

• Team Shannon Kleibrink won the Schmirler tourney yesterday over an exhausted Team Krista McCarville of Thunder Bay ...

• Remember the CKDU bonspiel in Halifax? The pics are now online ...

• Bob Weeks, and many Ontarians, remember Humber Highland’s Earle Hushagen ...

• The Blind River CC blog offers a neat story involving curling legend Hec Gervais ...

• Kalamazoo, Michigan – the former home base of The Curling Show – is in the running to host the 2010 U.S. championships

• Speaking of: Ted Appleman makes his debut on the most recent ep of The Curling Show ...

• There’s lots of Super League turnover in Brandon, Man...

• The PEI Curling Hall of Fame will induct eight new members next month ...

• Team Guy Hemmings is the latest to enter the blogosphere ...

• And so is ex-Ottawa shooter Lesle Cafferty, a self-described Sweepnfreak ...

• Has Vleitholf has discovered the secret to curling?

• Jim Davis experienced our game in Bowling Green, OH ...

• DID YOU KNOW II: that ice technicians want a union? This here Facebook group reveals the plot ...

• And finally, with Team Mirjam Ott safely out of Regina, her squad has suggested that Saskatchewan is, er, rather “flach”. Tell us something we didn’t know!

2009 Women of Curling Calendar

They’re back.

The gorgeous Women of Curling have returned, lensed by photographer/curler Ana Arce of Spain and produced by The Curling News in conjunction with MiCalendar.ca.

Read all about it in today’s Vancouver Sun... and the same story appears in today’s Calgary Herald, in Saskatoon and in Edmonton, and so on. You can find the full text reproduced below.

This 2008-09 16-month bonanza is more of a traditional calendar, in both size and design. Each month also offers event listings of major curling tournaments in both Canada and around the world – even for the summer months.

As the story indicates, there is some debate on the risque factor of this year’s “Curling Club” edition. We invite you to be the judge by clicking here.

Remember the calendar’s heydays of hysteria? The second edition reached a peak during the 2006 Olympics in Turin (note video story too) which also coincided with an endorsement from... Playboy magazine!

As usual, every athlete model shares in the proceeds to fund their on-ice efforts, and some in turn are continuing to support their favourite charitable cause.

Here’s the story, written by Allen Cameron:

Curling’s version of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue is making a comeback.

After taking a year off, the 2009 Women of Curling Calendar, featuring 13 female curlers from around the world, is now on sale. Like past editions of the calendar, it features nude or near-nude curlers posing with props related to the sport.

“It’s not for everyone, but it’s a lot tamer than previous calendars,” said Ryan Durham, director of business development for The Curling News, which is marketing the calendar.

Two Canadians are among the 13 models featured – Christine Keshen, who won an Olympic bronze medal throwing lead rocks for Shannon Kleibrink at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin and now lives in Invermere, and Ontario’s Chrissy Cadorin, who plays third for Toronto’s Colleen Madonia.

Keshen also posed in the 2007 edition of the calendar.

“I think this one is more risque, in my opinion,” said a laughing Keshen. “But my boyfriend (Mike DuBois) thinks it’s great. He’s the boy, he’s the expert.”

Also posing for the calendar are Denmark’s Camilla Jensen, the Toth sisters, Claudia and Karina, of Austria, Giorgia Apollonio and Sonia Dibona of Itala, Germany’s Anna Hartelt and Daniela Jentsch, Fabienne Fuerbringer of Switzerland, Kasia Selwant of Poland, Kim Brewster of Scotland and former world junior champ Linn Githmark of Norway.

The pictures were shot by professional photographer Ana Arce of Spain, a competitive curler herself. She put out the first edition in 2006 to rave reviews. It was intended to be a fundraiser for women’s curling teams, and models receive a share of the proceeds.

Cadorin will be sharing her cut of the money with the Canadian Spinal Research Organization, while Keshen, who's taking a year off from curling, has plans to donate to youth curling groups in her hometown.

The focus of the calendar now is more on the sport than on the models, insisted Durham, noting that the calendar features a listing of major curling events around the world. “That’s another step toward producing a pure curling calendar, with action shots of the athletes,” said Durham. “We’re aiming to produce that for the 2010 Olympic year.”

The calendar retails for $34.95, including taxes and shipping and handling, and is available at www.thecurlingnews.com


Meanwhile, elsewhere in the curling world:

• Goodbyes were sadly given to Ontario curling legend Earle Hushagen over the weekend, and the Winnipeg Sun ran this obituary...

• Ted Appelman was the surprise winner of the Shootout in Edmonton while Switzerland’s Mirjam Ott defeated China’s Bingyu Wang in the women’s final. Down Brockville way, Richard Hart led his Howardless squad to victory over Kerry Burtnyk, with Marie-France Larouche defeating Eve Belisle in an all-Quebec women’s final. And in Moncton, Terry Odishaw took the Early Bird title over Russ Howard.

Action this weekend takes place in Oslo (with online streaming available through Curlingkanalen), and also in Regina ...

• Recplex curlers in Corner Brook, NL were awaiting word on their options for 2008-09, and the good news is now in ...

• Glenn Howard, who is out of the lineup as he recovers from hernia surgery, will be inducted into the Midland Sports Hall of Fame ...

• This bizarre little story in the Leduc Representative tells us a bit about Chinese curling teams training in Canada ...

• World champion skip Jennifer Jones has been busy, doing a 2009 Scottie promo-thing in Victoria (click here and here) and she’s on tap for an October KidSport appearance in Swift Current, Sask...

• The Stabilizer has a nifty new updated website ...

• Well, at least Jamie didn’t get hurt ...

• Stirling had a decent curling turnout the other day ...

• Heather Rankin’s first zinger is already in the lead for quote of the year ...

• This B.C. story takes the reader through the icemaker’s tasks in installing arena ice... and we note the ice techs who frequented the late InTheHack have fully migrated over to CurlingZone ...

• Wally is the latest on The Curling Show ...

• Tellurian has a few things to display on curling history ...

• Former CCA prez and competitor Jerry Muzika was inducted into the PEI Sports Hall of Fame over the weekend ...

• Whistler Outdoors has this feature on wheelchair curling ...

• The wheelchair curling group in Elgin, Scotland is looking for sponsor help ...

• And finally, the Edzell CC in Angus, Scotland is now online, and christened itself with this memory of their first – and only – Grand Match championship performance ...