Tuesday 10 April 2018

RJ’s Groaner of the Week
China's skip at the men's curling championships, Dejia Zou, couldn't score with last rock in giving up three straight steals against Sweden. It was Dejia Zou all over again.

5 comments:

  1. Very good!

    I've been meaning to ask, and now that I remember...where does the name "Curling" come from and how does it apply to the game? I could Google it of course, but I'd rather ask the expert.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This was not a groaner. This was a good line.
    Chad

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you kindly, gents.
    As for the name, Gary, two schools of thought. Popular opinion is it's because of how a rock arcs or curls as it slides down the ice. But I'm not in that camp.
    I'm in the camp that thinks it grew from the rumbling or growling noise a rock made on outdoor ice –– called a "curr" in old Scottish dialect, hence curling. If you look at centuries-old pictures of curling rocks (https://tinyurl.com/y8bmw2ny), it is hard to imagine they curved or rotated the way modern stones do. ... Also, modern ice-makers "shape" and "pebble" the ice to generate curl. No such possibilities existed in the seventh century on a frozen pond.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Interesting. I thought they were playing on a smooth surface. Nice piece about the stones, too. My grandmother was from Scotland. I wish I'd been far more inquisitive about her life, maybe she could have taught me their dialect, if she knew it. She did see Babe Ruth play a few times when she lived in NYC. That caught my attention.

    Thanks for the information!

    ReplyDelete