Well. After urgings from a couple of folks in particular over the past few months, today I started my blog. As described in my profile, I have no particular agenda to pursue, but I do like to think and write. Sometimes I do both at the same time. In that way, I believe I may be different than many writers and journalists, especially those in the area of politics, where it seems many of the writers seem incapable of thought, at all. On the other hand, perhaps they're not really not thinking, they just prefer to hide their intellectuality from readers. But, since this is my first posting, I''ll try not to alienate any of those who stumble across this blog by my going down some political road, I'll save those thoughts for another time.
I guess the biggest event being discussed this first day of March, aside from the fraud called health care reform and why global warming seems to bypass the northeast, is the winter Olympics. The two week event ended last night in Vancouver. I myself am not a winter sportsperson. The closest I've come to any kind of winter sports are driving my son to hockey games at four in the morning when he was a player, and watching my grandson play the same game now. Today, I still know nothing about hockey at all, but have acquired a taste for hot chocolate. Since that is the case, I certainly had no interest in any of the Olympic events and spent absolutely no time watching any of them, except for women's curling. Now, don't get me wrong -I don't know anything about curling either, nor do I wish to. All the same, I watched every women's curling match that was televised.
Furthermore, this isn't my first go round as a curling fan, I've watched these ladies in several prior winter Olympics games. For reasons I'll go into in further blog entrys, I watch almost all television with the sound off, thus I learned absolutely nothing about curling as a game, yet I still watched with great interest. The game seems to me a combination of horseshoes, scully and house cleaning (not to make a feminist statement here, because men curl, too) it's just the broom part that makes me think that. Anyway, I happened to mention my interest in the game to a friend the other night, in a sports tavern I've been known to visit on occasion. And, lo and behold come to find out that all the guys in the place watch women's curling (one or two watch the men, too -but that's a different story) and not only that, they know all the lingo.
Discussions and arguments evolved over how much the rock or the stone or the whatever it is they slide down the ice weighs. What kinds of brooms are used, where to buy them and how to get the best broom deal on ebay. They even knew curling terms that sounded something like "I think that was a left-handed Evel Knievel she slid just now, Tom. It seems headed for the house or the parking lot." Needless to say, I was somewhat surprised to see all this interest in an event that doesn't seem to be a macho kind of thing. I mean, nobody's driving at six hundred miles an hour and crashing, burning and exploding into chopped meat. Nobody's trying to jam a puck into these ladies ears and then tamp it down with a big "l" shaped stick. And, nobody's going over the edge of a winding ramp carved into ice, and then shooting off into space when they miss a turn, only to land in intensive care or a body bag. In fact, I doubt anybody dies or even bleeds an iota in the most gruelling of curling matches. So, what's the story here? Why all the interest?
I think it's all about the moment that the curling lady, the one who slides the thing with the handle on it down the ice, lets the thing go. It's then that the camera comes in for a close up of the curling lady. And, I think that that's when the guys realize that a lot of these curling ladies are babes. I doubt a lot of the guys give two icicles about where the curling widget actually winds up, unless perhaps they're die hard patriots and won't sleep unless their nation prevails. For me, I couldn't really be upset if some other countries won the medals because I don't think I have any interest in anybody's curling skill, even our ladies, I just like the close-ups. Then again, if the contest was rocket launching, grenade tossing or just general warfare, I know damn well I'd be rooting for Team USA, regardless of what the enemy looked like in a uniform.
Since tomorrows another day, I'll de-blog for now. After all, I need my rest and have to find another subject. Maybe I'll do some research to try and find out why they show women's curling at three in the morning.
Adios
No comments:
Post a Comment