It may be that I’ll have to turn in my “Man Card,” but I have to admit the other day I found myself sitting on my couch and cheering loudly for a group of middle-aged women pushing brooms on ice and sliding a 44-pound piece of granite toward a target.
Yup, I fell in love with curling … and that’s what makes the Winter Olympics so great.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not tossing away my affection for football, basketball and baseball, but it’s hard not to get wrapped up in supporting American teams doing whatever they do — even curling — while on the grand stage of the Olympics.
Heck, that’s just being patriotic.
With that in mind, though, I would have never pictured myself mesmerized on my couch, nervously watching as three-time Olympian Debbie McCormick, a Wisconsin native who works at Home Depot, draw weight on a target.
But there I was, cheering, sweating and eventually lamenting the USA squad’s loss to Japan.
Of course, while watching, I have to admit I wasn’t 100 percent sure of what all was going on at all times.
For those who don’t know, curling is basically shuffleboard on ice, and the object is to slide granite stones across the ice to a target. The goal, obviously, is to get the stone as close to the bull’s eye as possible.
Apparently, the sport began in Scotland back in the 1600s. It was added as an Olympic medal sport in 1924, but then quickly discontinued before being re-added in 1998.
On the men’s side of things, the U.S. team includes a bartender, a school teacher and a 22-year-old musician. For the women, the team alternate is five months pregnant.
Basically, they are just Average Janes and Joes by day, but the best of the best in what they do.
And, once again, that’s what makes the Olympics so great.
You see, with a primary election in full swing and lots of disagreement in Washington D.C., most days we’re treated to news about “us” against “them.”
With the Olympics, though, America is as it should be, a bunch of “we” cheering on “us.”
• Don got great shots of the Terrell Sharks' first home game on Saturday.
• Pretty much every other day last week, Kaufman recorded the most early votes. On Saturday, though, it fell to third behind Forney and Terrell. I have to wonder if that's because the downtown square was shutdown by TxDOT. Bad timing.
• By the way, through Saturday, a total of 2,055 ballots have been cast early for the March 2 primary election. Of those, 1,867 were in the Republican primary.
• South Carolina will no longer recognize U.S. currency as legal tender, if State Rep. Mike Pitts has his way. Link.
• The Kaufman Chamber of Commerce membership banquet will be held this Thursday.
• Do you know your Muppets?
It's Monday ... let's make it a great week.
After having dug to a depth of 10 feet last year, New York scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the conclusion, that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 100 years ago.
ReplyDeleteNot to be outdone by the New Yorkers, in the weeks that followed, a California archaeologist dug to a depth of 20 feet, and shortly after, a story in the LA Times read: "California archaeologists, finding of 200 year old copper wire, have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than the New Yorkers"
One week later. A local newspaper in Texas reported the following: "After digging as deep as 30 feet in his pasture near Kaufman Texas, Bubba, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing. Bubba has therefore concluded that 300 years ago, Texas had already gone wireless".
Just makes you proud to live in Kaufman Tx, don't it?
Smile Gresham