"I'M SICK OF THIS STUPID GAME"



I know how US Olympic Curling Team skip (captain) John Shuster feels.*

(He uttered these words last night, as the US got whomped again in curling - this time by China).

I've been a bit obsessed with curling since watching the US get their asses kicked by Switzerland on CNBC last week. It's so much quieter and sattvic than the popular, more rajasic ski, skate and snowboard contests they show on the regular network.

I wasn't a fan when I saw curing firsthand back in 1988. The then-boyfriend's lawyer brother and his lawyer wife were part of a North Shore club, and we had a huge laugh watching the Yuppies slipping on the ice and getting redfaced while frantically sweeping their asses off.

But now I love to watch the stone gracefully float across the icy curling sheet. I love the graphics of the house (target). I love the strategy, which reminds me of billiards, darts and shuffleboard (which I'm almost old enough to play). I love how the players dress like regular guys rather than athletes. I love how their left shoe is slippery, but the right one isn't. I love how the left knee bends way out to the side when they bowl, but the meniscus never snaps.

I also like how Shuster has a paunch and looks like a guy you'd see at the corner bar. (Last night I did some digging and learned that he actually tends bar and works on a golf course grounds crew in the off-season. Of course. Many people hate him for losing, and he was even benched for a game. But I find something very appealing about a regular guy from Minnesota appearing in the Olympics [kind of like how anyone with certain capabilities can become self-realized, if they really work at it]. More on Shuster, who started curling in 1997 and won a bronze in 2006, here).

I also like that the players wear microphones. Last night the Chinese bowler would remain in the low lunge and yell "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" as his team-mates swept like madmen, trying to coax the stone to do their bidding. Regular guy Shuster stood up after bowling, and yelled "Hard! Hard! Hard!"

It didn't always work, and last night we heard him say, under his breath:

"I'm sick of this stupid game."

A regular guy.

And honest, too.


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The US men's team is out of contention (as they should be) but there's more curling on CNBC at this very moment!


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*In my case, it's Maya that I'm sick of. And the mind. But not curling.