Outrageous. Sorry, I know there are a lot of marketmanila.com readers in Canada and possibly some in Scotland. And I will probably hurt some of their feelings. But I am currently out of town on business and the hotel I am staying in has very few interesting television channels so I have been reduced to watching the Vancouver Winter Olympics in Chinese. And it is Sweden vs. Switzerland in curling. Yes, CURLING. A sport where one guy slides a “stone” across ice while two other dudes appear to be sweeping a broom like crazed persons just in front of the stone’s path. I have NEVER seen this sport played before. And I suppose it isn’t too different from boules or other related games, but the visuals of two “sweepers” skating ahead of the “ball” while team mates scream is a SCREAM in itself. :) Look it up if you have no idea what I am talking about. And while you’re at it, look up broomball as well. The things you learn when there is a dearth of CSI re-runs. And in case you are wondering, you’ll have to wait a day or two more until I post the cinnamon roll recipe as my photos are on my desktop and I am unable to access them at this time… Now, when are they going to introduce “jolen” or marbles into the Summer Olympics? :)
59 Responses
i love curling! it’s so fun…especially with them screaming at it each other
:D you’re funny Mr. M! .. jolens daw! hehehe .. sana “tumbang preso”din ..
Yes stone, granite to be exact. A really good diversion to sweep away the hours of long dark Canadian winters. Incidentally, the Granite Club in Toronto is one of the most revered wasp bastions back there. It´s the Scottish Presbiterian heritage, I think. Btw, Canada swept gold.
A lot of screaming and sweeping happen in our local “curling” events. See a local beauty parlor near you.
A good friend of mine is a member of a curling club in Plainfield, NJ. It’s developing a following especially among hockey and Canadaphiles (don’t even know if such a term exists, but I know a few New Yorkers who are). Apparently, it is a sport of skill and concentration. Who knew??!!??
I totally agree with jolen becoming an Olympic sport. It takes skill and coordination, no? It’s almost like bocci in miniature!
Wii has a curling game too!!!
Jolen will be one sport were we filipinos will have a sporting chance of winning the gold!!!
Whoa! A non-food related post – Wassap
por dat, MM!??
Lee: You’re home – UK too cold for you?
Footloose: So what is the name of the Island in Scotland where the granite comes from to make them curling thingies?
i only discovered curling when i accidentally saw a coverage of the winter olympics in one of the cable channels…at first, i couldn’t believe that people would actually watch and scream for something like this since everything looked so staid and…just plain uninteresting. but then, the newness got to me and i ended up spending 30 minutes just watching countless stones get slid off the ice…not to mention the sweepers…:D
give it a day or two and you’ll probably get hooked :D
Sillylolo, up to 2002 curling stones were made from a particular type of granite from Ailsa Craig. The shape has a tangential connection with the weaving of plaid and none to do with the scottish reputation for frugality exemplified by the locution “tighter than a scottish maiden in January.”
Footloose: I knew you knew it! And as quickly as you replied, I know you didn’t even Google it! Now then, please tell me more about them tight maidens.
Sorry you feel that way MM. I bet though you couldn’t slide a 40 lb granite stone over 10 ends or innings and make sure you land them accurately on a target several yards away. Once you understand the rules of the game, you will appreciate how cerebral and physical the game is. The players have to be in top physical condition. In fact some retired hockey players tried the game against the Canadian women’s Olympic team and they just got slammed.
I don’t know if you realize that the current favorite past time of traders after the 5:00 pm bell rings at Wall Street in New York is watching CNBC broadcast the curling competitions.
Like the old saying goes: DON’T KNOCK IT TILL YOU’VE TRIED IT! CHEERS! We still love you in Canada.
my hubby tried curling once, and he says its way harder than it looks :).
canada has a strong curling history, as you correctly hinted in your post. winning the gold in men’s curling (and silver in women’s) at Van Olmpics are definitely proud moments in canadian sports.
slightly off-topic, did you see the pants worn by the norwegian curling team? it made the headlines in vancouver olympics fashion news hahaha….
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vancouver-BC/The-Norwegian-Olympic-Curling-Teams-Pants/311163439555
Jack C, I agree that to the initiated they can relate to this as being a game of strategy and skill, but it being a physical game? come on? I guess if you have to make MM lift the rocks on each slide then maybe. I had played it several times and will bet you MM won’t have a problem sliding those rocks, having them accurately land where its aimed, now that’s a different story.
silly lolo, some bloggers mention screaming at the sweepers, trivia for you, the English speaking teams would yell “Hurry HARD! hurry HARD!” several times, and this goes well with your tight maidens…
The point i think being made here is that curling as well as cricket are not spectator sports. Which brings to mind an email i came across years ago that suggests, to bring interest for these sports to gain popularity, you have to add exciting rules to them. For cricket, allow body checks on the batter and for curling use exploding rocks!…. now that my friends I will watch!
The timing of this post is great! We had dinner with my mom last night and she announced she wanted to take up curling. It remains to be seen if any such clubs exist in the Bay area. The Wii version might just be her most realistic option!
Colbert did a segment on curling a few weeks back – it looks really fun!
Silly Lolo…HA! You are behind the times! Them tight maidens are no longer the attractions at Curling….it is THEM TIGHT MEN CURLERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gone are the days the men curlers looked like my Lolo!
Footloose: I didn’t know you get mould the curling stones from an ONION!….Ailsa Craig to me is an ONION!….just kidding>>>I am just so HYPER from watching the GOld Medal game….YUP! “HELLO, BOYS…We’re back!!!” is more like what Sid the Kid should have told the Americans when they dropped the puck!
Chinachix: I asked my dear hubby to get me one of those pants! It was sooooold out ! They said it was the hottest item next to the red mittens!
Hey, ATBNORGE…you’re in Norway, right? care to trade them pants for say something here in Canada? If you can get those pants for me, I will mail you something that I think you will be VERY PLEASED!
I think the physical part comes into play by sucking your stomach in (to me, that’s physical, enough!), so you have a tight core when sliding!…..I think I have to re-phrase that for Silly Lolo!!!!!!
I LOVE CURLING!!! Yeah it is outrageous but fun. It reminded me of jolen, too!
The Argyle pants are not Made in Norway, hehehehe, they are actually from a firm in California and they are HOT, HOT, HOT!
Hei Betty_Q
If they’re that hot, I won’t trade them for anything, though. Sorry. We’re inundated with snow here :-( And the Norwegian Curling team placed second only. Well, we couldn’t win it all.
It’s fun when MM posts non-food articles. Not as fun as the fish pan, though.
YEAH!!!!! WE SCORED!!!!!>>>GOLD MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh….This is sooooooo nerve-wracking! Well done, SID and TEAM CANADA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lee: I must have been have asleep when I read your post last night (I didnt even realize, till now, that it was you). Anyway, you are hilarious!!!!!…Curling in Beauty Parlors…hahahaha
Hahaha! The comments are TOO FUNNY. I knew you could all keep yourselves amused while I was away from my desk. Jack, I completely understand what you are saying, and ignorance is probably part of my lack of appreciation of the sport, but I do think this is still unusual by global standards… And don’t get me started on synchronized swimming during the summer games… I realize that is ALSO highly physical and skill based, but…
As part of the Ifugaos daily life, they repair the thousands of years old rice terraces by moving boulders and stones by hand. They use the water flow, mud, and physics to move stones that we would only attempt with cranes or bulldozers. And it has been done for centuries. But I doubt that would make it to a spectator sport in the Summer Olympic Games. Nor would sipa for that matter. We would much rather watch two humans punch each others face and upper body out until one bloke is knocked out, or risk our gonads popping out of their precious sacs while lifting weights 3-4x our own body weight. Go figure. :)
hahaha…for the life of me, i still don’t get it why sabong (cockfighting) is considered a sport, and many cockfighting halls around the country are called “sports complex” or “sports dome” :-(
hahahahahhhahhaa, marble? heheheh, nakita ko nga yun sa cable, and i really wonder how will u score on them, parang may pato sila, di ko malaman kung kailangan ba nila tamaan yung opposite color or parang may target din sila… similar din lang yan sa mga bata naglalaro ng jolen na may pato…..kaya lang yun sa kanila ang laki… at yung walis.. para saan yung walis? habang nagwawalis ba sila.. napapagalaw pa rin ba nila yung jolen? hehehehehehhehe
I Love Sta. Rosa, hayaan mong ‘yung mga taga-Canada ang mag-explain ng laro, sila ang nanalo, eh.
Btw, nobody wants to wear those Argyle pants here, “Er du gærn?!?” (Are you crazy?!?) Nobody wants to look like a clown. But somebody went out in the streets with just his underpants on in 14 deg.F last night…Now that’s a clown!
Silly Lolo, you brought the house down again. Saludo talaga ako sa ‘yo, hahahahah!
Hey!!! Why don’t we come up with an “improved” version of jolen (and make it a team sport-3 players) one guy shoots the marble, while he’s 2 team-mates sweep the path of the marble with their walis ting-ting. hahahaha
No offense meant to our brothers (and sisters) all over the world who follow the game of curling. I think it (Curling) really is a serious sport.
I saw how that stone was made….watched it in discovery channel… very impressive. The process, that is.
Methinks “piko” is so much more athletic than curling. How about “piko” as a summer event?
Someone once described Curling as ‘housekeeping on ice’! A very funny description but somewhat unfair as it is a sport that requires strength, accuracy, balance and timing. Mind you, I fully agree with you MM on Synchronised Swimming which is just a strange activity….
To a first time viewer curling does look ridiculous. I still think it looks ridiculous. But when you get to watch it a bit you start to appreciate the strategy and skill involved. Here in Canada, hockey is king, but curling gets its fair share of fans. If there is one winter Olympic sport we Filipinos can be good at without need for being physically built, curling is it. China I believe is the current womens world champ. Freakin’ China!?!?!? But their government gave incredible support to develop the womens team. They do nothing but curling. Other nations, Canada included do not give that kind of support. Curlers here have day jobs. But the Chinese do curling for a living. They got a Canadian coach a few years ago and their ascent to the top has been meteoric. They even live and train in Quebec, doing nothing but the international curling circuit year round. Curling may look silly, but when you begin to understand its complexities it actually becomes quite entertaining. Some of the shots made by the upper echelon teams are just crazy.
Hahaha.. I had the same reaction when I saw that game. Outrageous!
what a coincidence! i just read this blog entry from another blog I follow that shares similar sentiments :p
https://dinosaurmusings.blogspot.com/2010/02/enough-with-curling-already.html
I have a few friends from Vancouver and my Facebook account is normally full of the Olympics postings and yes also about curling! BTW, congratulations to Canada for winning the most medal in this Olympics, great job!
RobKSA: USA won the most number of medals. Canada won the most gold medals in Winter Olympic history held home soil!
Betty, thanks for the info. well I guess I only counted the golds then, :)
Yes, indeed Curling does seem like “jolen” on a different level. Broomball is nothing but hockey for those without the hockey equipment. In the old days they would freeze an old broom and use it as a hockey stick.
Yup! Curling = Ice jolen
:-)
Caught it on TV a few times… can’t help but be mesmerized by curling… I didn’t understand how it was being played but I kept on watching anyway…btw, I think the players are cute… :)
I felt exactly the same way, even up to the “jolens na rin” as an Olympic sport.
Then I found this article in New York Post through a friend’s link:
https://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/tv/idol_is_iced_taZG76gS3w27anfyPHfSCO
To quote from the New York Post article: “Meanwhile, a report on the Olympic ratings issued yesterday by Magna buried the big news of these games in its final paragraph — curling is becoming a cult TV hit. Tuesday’s broadcasts of the men’s and women’s curling matches were the most-watched Olympics events on the cable coverage, the report said.”
Unbelievable.
He he, this might interest you too, a photographer made a calendar featuring some of the women curler athletes in “poses ranging from the artistic to the sultry to the very sultry to the not at all safe for work in a Helmut Newton kind of way. “. I’d rather not include the link. What a way to promote the sport – ha ha!
Winter Olympics is a “religion” here in Norway (but many refuse to wear the Argyle pants of the curling team lest they’ll look like clowns). They love to gloat about how many medals the country has won—many buy the Guinness book of World Records every year just for the record that they lord it over the ice.
i remember reading some time ago about the theft of 15 curling stones that were going to be used for a tournament in Australia. each apparently costs around 300 dollars or so. certainly not your common stone, it seems. i’m not a fan of curling, it excites me in the same way that pétanque does — i have yet to understand the fuss.
Congrats to all the Canuck readers of MarketManila! :)
I think I’m going to create a bobsled team in Manila, and join the next winter olympics. Mala-“Cool Runnings” hahahaha
Having a jolen team would be fun. Oo, sobrang may chance tayo sa gold. Considering we Filipinos love to text. And texting is good exercise for your thumbs. hahahaha :D
I vote for Pitik Bulag as an olympic sport. But what is the English translation for “pitik”?
Joni: On behalf of 33 million Canadians, we thank you! However, yesterday’s win Olympic gold medal in hockey is not about being a Canuck fan. It is about BEING A CANADIAN! Sidney Crosby is a Pittsburgh Penguin, Jarome Iginla is a Calgary Flame, Jonathan Toews is a Chicago Blackhawk, Corey Perry is an Anaheim Duck, Luongo is a Canuck among others….
Yeah, why not…it is a possibility creating a winter Olympic sport though youare in the Tropics. There is a guy from Ghana who participated and there is a team as well from Ethiopia if I am not mistaken.
you are right betty. remember the first jamaican bobsled team? they made a movie about that “cool runnings???” i teased my son who loves to ski that he should keep up with it so he represent the philippines’ ski team when he gets older. hehehe.
There are two winter sports that I wish my son would take an interest—speed skating and curling. The first time I saw a speed skating event on TV when I was a teenager, I thought the skaters were alien birds!!!
betty q. , just imagine if Canada lost to the US in hockey. We would be hearing wailing and mourning in the streets. Some very nervous moments but I’m glad they pulled through. Add to that the record 14 golds. A very successful Olympics for Canada. My favorite performance has got to be Joannie Rochette’s short program though. She was awesome.
I don’t like NHL hockey. But Olympic hockey is a blast.
I thought curling was boring until I tried it. It’s fun and challenging!
I prefer hockey though. Yeah baby!!! :)
I actually think it’s cool. I would play it!
Lee, as always, you are hilarious.
In tagalog, kumukulot lalo ang buhok ko sa iyo sa kakatawa.
To think nagpa-rebond na ako.
Previous winter olympic, when we saw our first curling competition sa tv..we were laughing our heads off kasi nga may broom sila to sweep the path of the stone…it was the same feeling when I first attended my schooling here in Australia and was introduced to “cricket” during PE, I was laughing by myself kasi nga it was so weird with the palo-palo as a bat…i keep telling my classmates we use them in the Philippines to hit the clothes during washing days in the province =)
agree completely! we were laughing while watching it; thought it was a joke! we had so wanted to catch the finals of the ladies’ figure-skating; just our luck to catch curling instead!
I hardly know anything about curling and I thought it was a weird sport to be featured in the Winter Olympics. I couldnt help but be fascinated though by the extreme concentration and focus the players showed. And of course we watched this event as the Swedish teams both men and women were in the semi-finals. As many Swedes know very little of curling, one of the major dailies featured the hows and whys of the game so we could appreciate the game.
The Swedish ladies’ team were super cool and very collected – they won the gold, over Canada!!!! It was a close and dramatic match, and the Canadian ladies were tough but the Swedish team prevailed. The Canadian men’s team won the gold though.
Broomball is a much harsher sport. Its basically hockey without the skates on ice. Instead of sticks and puck, you have a ‘broom’ and a ball. In the grand scheme of things for a sport to qualify as an olympic event, there has to be rigor and an element of danger. Somewhere along the lines, broomball got overlooked in favor of curling.
I wouldn’t mind playing it and it does look unforgivingly silly, but a the same time, if I was with a bunch of friends (and a few drinks), I could imagine playing it Pinoy style, probably breaking it down with some good trash talking, some cheating and maybe a few punches.
Perhaps we should advocate the IOC to include billiards and bowling. It that would happen, then the Philippines would surely sweep up the competition. No pun intended (I thinks).
Hi MM…I never heard of curling myself until after i got here..and they are very passionate about the sport!
MM, pwede ba tayo magkaroon ng sport event sa summer? mga version naman natin, pitik bulag , piko, at jolen… hehhehehehhee
Haha. Mr. MM, your last sentence made me laugh. No offense to someone who loves curling. I just don’t understand that sport. But it’s better than poker being a sport.
hahaha,, i got attracted to curling tooo!!!! very new to me, and i love the way they hold the ball ang slide to release it…and scream to death….!!!!
I would actually associate curling to ‘tantsing’. Probably we played ‘jolen’ differently than most of the people that posted here. With ‘jolen’ we put it into a hole (thus the word ‘jolen’ as in ‘hole-in’ or the ‘kulto finish’ as in ‘goal to finish’).
Mr MM
Yes jolen and tantsing as national sport is a fantastic idea.The rules must be set to develop good sportsmanship,teamwork,etiquette and leadership.Mr MM I hope NA and MR win the election so you pass on the idea. One of the rules of curling is calling out
your own infractions to the opposition team,example “burning the stone” that is
accidentally touching the stone with the broom or a body part.Concession is considered an honorable act, the act does not carry stigma of quitting.At the end of the game
the two opposing teams shake hands and wishes for good luck in the future is exchanged,Good Curling!
I had the exact same reaction when I first saw it 5 years ago. But ever since I got hooked on the Vancouver Winter Olympics (of course, cheering for Team Canada), I realize the sport is not sooo bad afterall. It requires a lot of strategy and sweeping action. But it’s an interesting sport once you sit down and try to understand what they are doing. You’re right, it was the strangest sport I have ever come across! :)
i wasn’t able to catch the curling during the olympic games but just reading these posts and comments makes me want to check it out.. i have tried broom ball once before and it was pretty fun.. since most of us were first timers.. it was hilarious.. just a bunch of sliding around and falling on your face type moments..=D all in all it was pretty fun..