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Nonsense USA

Cool Runnings (well, more like Sweepings)

In the spirit of the “25 Random Things” that is currently “sweeping” Facebook and which I will probably feel obligated to do at some point, I offer a teaser:

Random Thing #1. Curling

When I was a small child, I was a member of the Schenectady Curling Club. We trained every weekend and competed in bonspiels all over the Northeast. I collected and traded curling pins.

For years I avoided divulging this information like a good skip shooting for two in the ninth end without the hammer.

particularly dorky curling pinWell don’t throw in the hammer on curling just yet. It turns out that there are people all over the world, even in places without purpose-built curling ponds, who want to achieve international glory on the curling sheet. Meet the Jamaican bobsled team – oops, just kidding – the Brazilian curling team.

samba sweeps

The Brazilian team is so serious that they have challenged the US team for their berth in the 2009 world championships of the sport. (Read the full article here.)

Who knows – if Brazilians make curling cool again (which I don’t think it’s been since about 1855), I may just have to head over to the Barcelona Skating Club and take a refresher course. Yes, there is curling within a fifteen-minute walk of my apartment in Barcelona.  The similarities between Barcelona and Niskayuna are simply stunning.

Samba bonspiel, anyone?