81 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

NHLers 'not going' to Olympics if ice isn’t ready and safe, reiterates deputy commissioner

 

'The fact that the building still isn’t completed is disappointing,' says NHL commissioner Gary Bettman

https://www.cbc.ca/s...e-nhl-9.7010523

[Victoria Watcher]

Lindsey Vonn crashes at the Winter Olympics; medevac’d by helicopter

 

Video on X:   https://x.com/BNONew...457942311453127

 

 

 

Ouch.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 February 2026 - 04:18 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

[Victoria Watcher]

[Victoria Watcher]

[Victoria Watcher]

[Mike K.]

Right over my head. What do those memes mean?

[Victoria Watcher]

That you are a bad Canadian.

[phx]

Drama with the Canadian curling team.

 

Rumours they were disqualified after testing positive for rye and ginger are not true.

[Mike K.]

That you are a bad Canadian.

Worse than the Elbows Up guy grocery shopping in the US?

[aastra]

 

Right over my head. What do those memes mean?

 

The main takeaway is this: curling is now a "real" sport just like basketball, football, baseball, etc. Because it turns out that curling also has some explicitly clear fundamental rules that many star players never obey and that almost never get called, thus calling into question the entire point of playing.

[aastra]

 

...thus calling into question the entire point of playing.

 

I suppose $$$ and faux-glory should be reason enough.

[aastra]

--

 

[Mike K.]

Wasn’t World War I started over something similar?

[Victoria Watcher]

It's minor, but the CBC should not make excuses for it.  It's not hard to avoid that incidental contact.

 

> >   https://www.cbc.ca/s...anada-9.7092482

 

While I've curled a few hands, and never hit a home run or scored a touchdown, I know it's not hard to pull your hand away cleanly.

 

 

 

"No. The double-touching that I've seen has been incidental contact, and that's fingers brushing or hand brushing on a 40-pound piece of granite," said Eugene Hritzuk, a Canadian curler based in Saskatoon who has been involved in competitive curling and coaching for more than 60 years.

 

 

 

 

 

Let's be clear.  You can "double touch" it all you want before it passes the near hog line.   These players are accused of additional contact after it passes the line.   There is a sensor in the rock handle to detect if you have hold of it there but it can't detect extra touching on the granite itself, at any position.

 

Imagine if tennis "experts" said it was OK if you just stepped an extra foot onto the court for your serve.

 

There is a simple rule - do not contact the rock after this line.  

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 17 February 2026 - 12:34 PM.

[dasmo]

I think it’s hilarious. Too bad it’s not like the cool sharp shooter hilarious.

[aastra]

 

Wasn’t World War I started over something similar?

 

Princip(le), Sarajevo, Canadian curlers have black hands... there are some eerie coincidences there, for sure. Not to mention, many Americans wanted to skip WW1. It was looking like a draw until they brought down the hammer and it came to an end.

[Victoria Watcher]

^ That's pretty good.  

[aastra]

 

...double-touching is a rule violation akin to traveling in basketball or being offsides in soccer. It does not, he said, rise to the level of cheating.

 

What do y'all think of that? I'd say willful traveling might just be the most blatant form of cheating that (some) players can nevertheless manage to get away with routinely during the course of a basketball game. It can translate into an advantage of several points on the scoreboard over four quarters of play.

This is why thinking adults have long regarded the NBA as mere entertainment rather than actual sporting competition. The league chooses to selectively acknowledge the most fundamental premises of its own game. One moment traveling and double-dribble exist, but the next moment they don't (depending on situation and players involved).

 

I'd say many of the comparisons that people are making between these curling incidents and the issues in other sports are self-evidently inappropriate. The actual consequential advantages of did-he-or-didn't-he curling violations right at the line would seem to be negligible compared to the NBA's issues, yes?

 

Anyway, I'm going to suggest the underlying point is the controversy itself, and our vain zeal for massaging truth, contesting the meaning and spirit of words, and arrogantly taking a hard side on the shallowest of grounds (shocking, I know -- I bet you can't find a thousand other examples of this in the news in less than 30 seconds).

 

If curlers and curling associations want to adjust or further clarify the rules about double-touches then they can easily do that going forward (and they could easily have done it already, long before today). But otherwise, why not honour the spirit of the existing rule for the time being? And if you should happen to lose your temper in the heat of the moment during a competition that's supposed to embody higher values (even though it really just pays lip service to them, but don't tell anyone), then why not humbly apologize for it? 

 

Now if you'll excuse me, the NHL playoffs will soon be upon us and I need to hone my sophistry in preparation for bitter relationship-shattering debates re: offside and goalie interference. If my wife pisses me off again like she did last year then I'm done with her.

[max.bravo]

If the most interesting thing about the Winter Olympics is a curling rule controversy then I feel validated in not watching a moment of it. Yawn.