Two curling cartoons in honor of Olympic curling

I have not finished watching all of the Olympic women's curling on my DVR, so do not tell me the results. At one point I had 12 hours on there, and I am sure I have watched 24 hours worth, compressed down to 50% to 33% with aggressive skipping (a curling pun if you get it). Partly the reason you can watch three hours of curling in one is because NBC tends to cut about 4 to 8 rocks out of each end, usually the first ones, and fill it with commercials, and then they fill the breaks with commercials. I do have to do some skipping ahead during the early part of the end and through timeouts, because much as I would like to, I do not have the time to watch it all the way through.

Here are some cartoons to keep the Olympic curling fun alive a few more days.

(via the Ottawa Citizen, via Cam Cardow at Cagle cartoons, this one)

(via Savage Chickens)

Watching Woman's Olympic Curling

This Olympics I have been watching a lot of the woman's curling. I have hours and hours of it recorded on my DVR, although I keep hearing results before I get to watch them.

Unfortunately, I just missed the opportunity to join a woman's curling betting pool, I can't think of anything more obscure than betting on woman's curling (football playoff fantasy football and superbowl statistics are mundane compared to that). I am really mad I missed the chance to bet in the pool, because I could have won, since I am sure that I am watching more curling than anybody else in the pool. No amount of computation would probably be able to predict this one. Neither Wisdom of the crowd or genetic algorithms could be applied, because I really have no information (Aren't you scared I thought of it, though?).

Curling is the sport with the 42 lb stones they slide on the ice to a target. It is interesting to watch because it isn't just "wack the opponent's rocks" out of the circles (called the house); there is strategy involved. I also enjoy the Canadian/Minnesota accent of the announcers, certainly a humorous accent to an east-coaster like myself. I suppose it's surprising that I should have an interest. Perhaps it is due to the similarity to bocce or lawn bowling, or just it's obscurity.

I suspect the popularity is higher this year because the US Woman's team has some really cute girls, and the human interest story of the two Johnson sisters on the team. They have their own website over at Curlgirls.com, where you can leave comments wishing them luck. After starting 0 and 3, they have finally won a match against Denmark. I am hoping for more victories for them going forward. U S A !