So, the Winter Olympics is history, as is the Super Bowl in suspense, and March Madness mania is now mundane, so have you gotten enough of … curling as a sport? Don’t just go ho hum. Like my friend Tom sorta was/is. More on that midway.
The summer Olympics aren’t coming around for a bit, to fill your taste for sports. But baseball is underway, so there is more than one four-person, four-bagger with four hot dog-one beer, sobriety limits, even for the Brew Crew. (See below).
— That aside, the long winter is over, the whole Boundary Waters Area returns to gear and as such, the availability of the Loon Disposables, representing that dot-winged and call-we-all-know symbol of upper Minnesota and the Midwest, are back in stock on shelves at The Hideaway smokeshop. That means you can get loony in rival Wisconsin, at the store that’s across the St. Croix River in Hudson, with stores also in the Twin Cities — just in time to celebrate 4-20.
As such, The Hideaway tobacco and cigar and more store has been offering a long running twofold special that’s just fit for a loon, like on each of its goosy wings, on its inventory of Loon Disposables — buy two and get $5 off, and buy three and get one free. The coupon for the many various-flavored vape products can be found on the back of receipts from select stores in Hudson, including Jerry’s Foods, named not after Garcia but the formerly known as County Market, just across the freeway — or is it greenway.
That means you can get a complete package full of Loon goodies, known for their affordability, for as low as $11.25 per unit! (When you purchase four, otherwise without coupon, $14.99 to $16.99 per packet.)
The coupons also have offers to buy three and get one free premium cigar, and for money off tobacco purchases, at the 2117 Coulee Road shop. It is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday.
The receipt coupons also have money-off discounts for the nearby Vape Pros. There are several other vape, CBD, e-cigarette and its supply shops within an area of far less than one square mile, which means you can enjoy your 4-20 with the ease that you want on this day, conveniently and affordably. —
So I, I captain, as that of the curl. Or that would be skirting past the skip, as that is his (or her) actual title.
Don’t do that to whoever is in command at the — sure to be blood-curdling in competitive content — Grand Slam Of Curling, held I believe in the fall. Or in the future, at another event slated for before the final wintertime inside ice melts up north.
What has struck me, viewing mostly reruns at the sports bar downtown, is the intricacy — like hockey — of how the sport is played, or slid with its stones, itself. This took me one step further than what I encountered in old Clintonville back in the late 1980s, just out of college, inside an unassuming building just north — fittingly if using that is a stereotype for cold weather — of the downtown in this sleepy town that never managed to grow far past 5,000 people, most of whom did not curl — that remained something ladies did with their hair. There were not too many curling lanes, but wait that’s something you found done at the bowling alley, soon to become a center, across town, positioned just on the west side of the main bar at the curling club, frequently by mostly well-to-do members, this being Wisconsin. I seem to recall that I wanted to write a sports story about a more rank-and-file member among the ranks, but that was frowned upon by my then-boss, the local newsaper’s publisher.
And the planning, and strategy involved in curling, is exquisite. How this stone is, spieled into play out with the next one, and the one after that? One stone is gently bumped into the main scoring zone, arriving there to also move another out, only for it to be knocked out itself a minute or two later. All these various scenarios need to be taken into account by the team and its leader, who I assume also serves basically as coach
And there is the bend of the path of the stone, like the arc of the diver, which alters course by an inch or two or three as it travels toward the target area, and this plays into the strategy of positioning. How is it done? By brushing — forgive me all through this if I as a novice use the terms wrong in this first reaction — with the wisk ends of a broom, starting at a given point of time during the gradual arc, and I do believe being directed when to start that curve by a teammate.
Back to Tom. And Tim. At the sports bar. A different one, as I still get around. The former quoted the latter, as saying there is a special place from where they get the stones, curling around the edges just right and making the stripes semi-circle. I guessed Ireland, land of such, stemming from the vaguely religious and Christ, (going back full circle to that annoying full-frontal headline to start off my blog.) Tom guessed I was right. But not at Stonehenge. However, is the sport a head-turner, as there were many beautiful women at the bar, albeit most in the next room over, dancing the night away? Maybe, Tom said. Although he like an earlier me, said he couldn’t figure the sport out. Hello me it’s me again, Megadeth sings.
The person releasing the stone(s) and sliding all the way while holding one knee way up and the other straight, with every muscle taut including an extended arm, is impressive. The athleticism shown rivals that of various other athletes, and goes way beyond golf. But also, as this is spring, homers? We won’t Judge.
But I have so many more questions. How many are the maximum number of teams that can compete at once? And is there a crucial stone in the strategy that is striped differently in color? And who and why determines which person with a broom does the sweeping, and when one or the other stops, and what purpose they both serve, and how does it differ? Just wondering. I guess that’s why there are analysts.
But forgive me if even here up north, my eye and ear are mostly focused for now on the action and its call on another ice driven sport, this time with a Zamboni, NHL hockey, via that little ol’ team over in St. Paul, the Minnesota Wild. For they showed up big in their playoff opener, beating that team with big ol’ hats, The Dallas Stars, (they used to be the North Stars when playing up here), 6-1.