Here we go again

Oh Canada crap, here we go again. As mentioned in an earlier post, being in Canada right now can be compared to being a Green Bay Packers fan walking into Soldier field on game day. Is this what Archie Manning feels like when he has to watch his sons play each other?

One Canadian response to the loss to the USA last week

It's no doubt going to be a big game and a perfect ending to these Olympics. 

Here's another commercial we've been watching on Canadian TV. It's funny, but oh so true. In our case though, we get searched coming back to Canada. We're just Americans trying to smuggle  pay realistic prices in the States and avoid 14% sales tax for dog food, laundry detergent, printer ink and Patron.

These dudes are serious

This hockey stuff is serious.


A friend of mine works in Washington, D.C. doing some sort of engineering job having to do with the defense department. She's one of the smartest women I know, and one of the funniest. She happened to spend her grade school years in Toronto so she understands Canadians.


When I sent her the link to the curling blog from the other day, she wrote back with this hilarious story...

One of my friends works in a NATO office for the US Navy.  When the Canadian naval officer showed up, ashamed and embarrassed after the defeat to Team USA, some one asked  him, if Team Canada could go to the volcano and sacrifice some curlers in exchange for a hockey win, how many curlers would they throw into the volcano?  The Canadian began to explain how important curling is to Canadians, then stopped and said, "all of them."

We get to see Super Bowl caliber commercials during these Canadian Olympics. This Coca Cola ad says it all...not sure if you see this is the U.S.A. Lots of hockey today...could we have another U.S.A. and Canada match up on Sunday?

In other Olympics news...how about those Canadian women? Quebec is beaming with pride following Joannie Rochette's bronze medal in figure skating. And the women's hockey? Those girls can play! What's been really cool to watch is how many of the Canadian athletes are staying in Vancouver cheering on Team Canada instead of hitting the talk show circuit back in the States. Yes, Canadian athletes can ink sponsorship deals after a medal win. Most will agree though that it's not at all as lucrative as it is for U.S. athletes. I'm just saying...it's the Olympics. Stick around and cheer on your TEAM. 

Bobsleigh or Bobsled?

Living in Canada during these Olympics has enabled us to view the television and newspaper coverage from the Canadian perspective. With that comes some differences, even though we're not that far from "home." So when the bobsled coverage started and we were watching the story on CTV and they kept saying "bobsleigh." We were all, "Huh? It's bobsled! Bob Costas and Al Michaels have always said "bobsled." Why are the Canadians saying bobsleigh?"

From a quick google search it appears as though the term is interchangeable depending on your mood. Sort of like that whole "you say tomato, I say tomato" debate. Not much of a difference.

After watching hockey and the USA take on Switzerland (we got to see the entire game on several channels) and then Canada take on Russia, seeing the Canadian women take gold and silver in the bobsleigh was really cool. What made it even more nostalgic was seeing the Americans join the Canadians the podium. Such nice neighbours, or shall I say neighbors?

About this Curling

Oh my rocks. Those things are called rocks you know. Or more formally, stones. And they are made from granite. Imagine all those countertops.

Curling was entertaining. It was amusing. Now it's annoying. Every time we turn on the TV, it's more curling. Our Canadian friends keep telling us it's one of the most popular "sports" in the world, just not in the U.S. Really? It's like shuffleboard. It's on television in Canada ALL DAY LONG. There's nothing like turning on the television in the middle of the day to enjoy a bit of Oprah, the news, and finding curling on AGAIN. The thing is -- it's somewhat addicting. It's like flipping through the channels looking for something educational and the remote happens to stop on Bravo and before you know it you get sucked into watching the full episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County. And then you realize you wasted an entire hour where you could have been out shoveling the driveway. That's what happens when you start watching curling. Kish was hoping that all that yelling about sweeping would motivate her to...well...sweep something.

We believe that sports where you can play and enjoy a beer (or two) at the same time should not be considered Olympic sports. Ooops. That rules out skiing as Kish enjoys a glass of red before skiing, and certainly after skiing. Après-ski, but pre-ski we like to call it. Now....Ski Cross...that's some crazy shi stuff.

The following is from the Montreal Gazette's Bluffer's Guide column...

CURLING
Curling? That's the bedpan and house brush sport, right?
Stone and broom, if you please. The stones are made from Scottish granite and weigh almost
20 kilograms each. The brooms have synthetic bristles, unlike the old style, which were made with straw.


20 kilograms? So the winners are always the strongest?
Not necessarily. The idea is to get the stone as close to the centre (tee) of a circle as possible. A point is awarded for each stone closer to the tee than the opponents' best, provided that the stone is within 1.83 metres of the tee. This area is the house. Accuracy and timing are key rather than brawn.


Like all winter sports, the gold medal favourites will come from the coldest countries?
Mostly, but Great Britain's men's team won the first curling gold at Chamonix in France in 1924 and are the world champions. The sport disappeared off the Olympic radar until 1998, when Switzerland took the men's gold while Canada won the women's event. In 2002, the women's gold went to Britain.


Doesn't sound like the most gripping of sports. Any storylines I should know?
Sandra Schmirler skipped the 1998 Canada gold medal team, but died two years later at the age of 36 from cancer. In Turin in 2006, Denmark's women's team needed extra security following outrage in the Muslim world after a Danish newspaper published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.


What should I watch for in Vancouver?
Dumping. Sounds unsavoury, but it's when a player lifts his broom to leave debris on the ice, slowing down the stones of an opponent. Canadian teammates Marc Kennedy, Ben Hebert and Richard Hart were recently at loggerheads over the issue in a club game.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Bluffer+Guide/2595439/story.html#ixzz0gT9wAcSc

or here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curling

A love letter to Canada

One of the best things about having these Olympics in Canada, while we live here, is learning even more about the relationship between our two countries. This report from Tom Brokaw is a great reminder. Or, as one Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reporter said, "A Love Letter to Canada." In this story Brokaw tries to explain Canada to Americans.


In response to the video, the CBC reporter wrote the following story and included an old video from  Canadian perspective.
From the CBC...
A new video is getting a lot of airplay on both YouTube and Twitter today, and it's one that's got normally reserved Canucks feeling more than a little chuffed and patriotic.


The clip, entitled "Tom Brokaw Explains Canada to Americans," was originally prepared by the revered former anchor of the NBC Nightly News as part of that network's Olympics coverage, and aired before the Olympic opening ceremonies on February 12.


What's got Canadians so excited is Brokaw's reverent tone throughout the video, in which he praises our country for being very neighbourly - a nation always willing to share natural resources, open its borders to immigrants, export its homegrown talent (Jim Carrey, anyone?) and loyally stand by other nations in times of political crisis and war. Some are calling Brokaw's Canadian shout-out's a "love letter" to our country, and with the clip's soaring score and loving close ups of our breathtaking geography, it's hard to disagree.


Though Brokaw's spontaneous show of affection for Canada should definitely earn him some kind of honorary national treasure status, it's interesting to note that he's not the first journalist to give this type of impassioned, border-busting shout-out.


Way back in 1973, Canadian journalist (and Front Page Challenge panelist) Gordon Sinclair constructed his own passionate tribute to the U.S. The stirring speech, called "The Americans," and playing out to the strains of the The Battle Hymn of the Republic, was so popular with our neighbours south of the border, the clip eventually rose all the way to no. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100:




Now...back to Curling and the Olympics...