Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Brent Laing hates watching curling, Blake Shelton does not

So, Brent Laing, how are you enjoying the Olympic curling so far?


"I hate it," he said Monday, while watching his partner, Jennifer Jones compete in the opening draw of the Olympic tournament.
"It's really hard to watch. It's so much harder because you have no control. It's much harder to watch than it is to play. When you're playing you are in the heat of the moment and you have some control. It's probably a man thing, the lack of control sucks."
It's not hard to understand Laing's sentiment, which he gave to the Sun's Ted Wyman. After all, he's a competitor and he'd rather be throwing stones than watching them. Same for Mike McEwen who is Laing's drinking buddy this week. 
Apparently the boys have been staying away from any coaching, which is a good thing said Dawn McEwen. 
"No, they haven't tried that," she said, with a laugh."It's just nice having them up there and getting the support from them. It means a lot to us."
We do understand that the staff at Canada House now welcome Brent and Mike the same way the staff used to welcome Norm at Cheers.

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And apparently Brent and Mike aren't the only ones watching curling. So is country music star Blake Shelton, who sent out a Tweet yesterday professing his love for rocks and brooms.

Maybe he'll write a song about it. Sure Be Cool If You Did.

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Now who ever thought curling would make it into Chemical & Engineering News? I know, you're thinking, this is probably cause for celebration.

The roaring game was featured in the august publication with an article about how curling ice is very close to water. According to mechanical engineer "amateur curler" Rick Olson:


The ice is “perilously close to being in the regime of water.” The sweet spot, he says, is -4.5ºC, or just a hair under 24ºF—any warmer, and there’s too much friction dragging on the curling stone. But if the ice is any colder, it won’t “curl,” or travel in the curved trajectory needed for the game. 

You can read the entire article (really, you can) right here.


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