Well it’s 40 below and I don’t give a fuck,
Got a heater in my truck and I’m off to the rodeo!
Wanna hear a sneak brag?
My niece is playing for team Ontario tonight in the gold medal game at the Scotties Tournament of hearts.
That’s awesome, but what’s sneaky about it? 
Cool! That’s one thing I love about curling - it’s so accessible. Jim’s been curling in Calgary (and before that, Kitchener) for a long, long time now, and he has lots of stories about playing against Olympians and World Champions, etc. He likes to tell the story about one particular champion curler who also likes to drink - he’s unbeatable sober, but later in the game, not so much.
There’s your “You know you’re Canadian when…” moment for you - getting all excited about curling. 
Well, it’s not like she walked in off the street and got to the Canadian finals. There’s as much work in this as any sport to get to the elite level. Well, maybe not as much as hockey, but you get my drift.
So, they won! My niece is a Canadian Champion! (She played second BTW.)
Congratulations to her!
By “accessible,” I meant that the athletes are quite accessible to other curlers - they curl in local rinks, etc. I understand quite well that they have to train and practice and get good at their game just like any other athlete - Jim and I were just discussing what it would take for him to get to a competition-level state with his game.
A high tolerance to beer?
And a willingness to drink it! Well, he already has both of those…
ETA: I see you’re familiar with curling culture.
Years ago, we were having a drink after a game in our social, non-competitive league, and one of the people at the table commented that there was no game next week. Someone asked why, and the first person said it was the city-wide playoffs that day, taking up all the ice time.
Someone else chimed in: “It’s not the city play-offs - it’s the first round of the world championship!”
And he was right. The winners of the city would advance to the provincial championship; the provincial winners advanced to the Briar: the winners if the Briar advanced to the Worlds.
There are not many sports that are that accessible to everyone, provided they’re willing to put in the time and effort.
.
I think one of the really cool things about curling continues to be that the stars of the game aren’t so disconnected from the average player or fan. They’ll sit down and hang out with you; if you get into the right league or bonspiel you’ll play against them.
When I started playing in Kitchener back when I was a young lad of about 13, I got to take part in the traveling Turnbull-Ursiliak curling clinic where I was personally coached by Briar champ Turnbull and two-time world champ Don Duguid.
A few years earlier, when we first moved to Kitchener, my dad got onto a team playing with a very young Glen Howard, who was in his final year of university at Wilfred Laurier. Several years later, they were still on a first-name basis, even though my dad never played at quite as high a level as the Howard boys.
When we moved back to Calgary, my dad and I took part in the Calgary Curling Club’s annual start-of-the-year bonspiel where we played Ed Lukowich’s world champion team. We managed to hang with them for the first few ends but eventually they blew our doors off (as expected).
I played for a few years in a men’s league where one of the skips was two-time Junior World Champ Paul Gowsell, the guy who’s junior team is generally credited with popularizing the push broom. As Cat Whisperer mentioned earlier, his team would frequently show up a couple hours early and have a couple pitchers of beer; if you could build up a lead on them before they sobered up, you had a shot of winning. If not, you weren’t getting past him.
In two of the last three years, Shannon Kleibrink has participated in the men’s 'spiel at my local club as a tune-up for her team’s run at the provincial championship, so the tournament has managed to attract some pretty high level competition.
The fact that I can actually find myself on the ice with world-class players in this game—even if they’re going to kick my ass—is something you simply can’t say about most sports. I’ll never play in a baseball tournament against Roy Halladay or Fergie Jenkins. But I might find myself playing against a current or former world champion curler.
As Cat Whisperer and I were discussing tonight, I’m at a high enough level right now that if I decided to get serious about it and if I got in with the right group of guys and if we started dedicating a couple nights and most weekends from September to March to playing, I could probably get to the point of having a shot at a trip to the Brier within a couple years. But that’s a LOT of ifs and a level of dedication I’m not prepared to make at this stage in my life. Getting to be among the best of the best takes a lot of effort, but getting to hang out with the best of the best in this game is well within the realm of possibility and that’s cool.
Mmmmm… beer.
When I joined my current team a few years back, the interview to make the squad went like this:
Skip: I see you’re looking to join a team here this year.
Jimbo: Yes, that’s right.
Skip: Well, have a spot available. Are you interested in playing on Tuesdays or Thursdays?
Jimbo: Both, actually.
Skip: Oh, well as it happens I’m looking for someone on both nights. So can I ask you one more question?
Jimbo: Sure.
Skip: Do you mind having a drink with the team after games?
Jimbo: No, no I do not.
Skip: Welcome aboard!
No questions about whether I could play. He just wanted to know if I’d drink with the boys. Awesome.
You know you’re from Western Canada when you’re winter vacation is a drive to Prince Albert, SK to watch junior hockey and one of you’re favourite things about the experience is hearing this song during the pre-game ceremonies. Bless you for existing, Russ Gurr!
…and your wife takes an awesome photo of a prairie winter’s day!
(Hey, with the Lethbridge Hurricanes doing as poorly as they are, I’d be happy to move the discussion off junior hockey.)
But it’s such a fascinating topic! Did you know the Blades have 15-game winning streak going?
The Blue Jays are in spring training!
Having grown up in the backwoods of BC, I can’t remember the first time I heard of curling. I have to assume it was late in life because when I first saw it on TV I assumed it was some form of Canadian comedy show in the vein of SCTV or Beachcombers. Only not as funny. 
Didn’t SCTV (purportedly) lose its signal to the US once, and opted to show the feed they were getting from the CBC? So, rather than “Monday Night Football,” SCTV viewers got “Monday Night Curling.”
They also got “Hinterland: Who’s Who”: “The woodchuck lives in wooded areas…”
Could be what I remembered actually:)
I’ve been trying to find copies of SCTV. They are few and far between.
And we are here in Dunedin for the first 3 games! Sun (-ish). Warm. No snow. Weak American beer (there has to be a downside, right?). What is this “Budweiser” of which they speak?
Oh yeah - the Jays lost 5-4 to Baltimore yesterday.
Yes, and they had Howie McMeeker (John Candy) with the telestrator: “Stop it right there!” Anyone who remembers Howie Meeker doing the CBC colour commentary would die laughing, as I did at the time.
Wha…you don’t have local rinks in backwoods BC? I thought it was government mandated, that every small town have a rink for hockey and curling!?!
ETA: You know you’re Canadian when all this recent discussion makes perfect sense to you. 