Podium
I have to admit that I’m utterly transfixed by certain Olympic performances.
How we have evolved from dragging our hairy knuckles on the ground to something so useless and beautiful as figure skating moves me to no end; ski jumping thrills me (and I guess that being Canadian requires me to defend the sheer broominess of curling).
On the other hand, cross-country skiing as a spectator sport can only be a perverse Scandinavian metaphor, and team speed skating is just weird.
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Comment
- I had the very same thought about human evolution and figure skating when it was on TV the other day. Of course, being a Scandinavian myself I have no problems decoding those perverse metaphors…
— Gustaf Feb 21, 2:51pm # - Being half-Scandinavian i don’t see the perversity or metaphorical nature of cross-country skiing either. And the biathlon has to be the ultimate winter sport, just like hunting on skis. Here in the UK, the BBC show nothing but endless Figure Skating and occasionally curling.
Are there more uses for ‘broominess’?
— Rob Bevan Feb 21, 3:36pm # - A stroke of genius, calling something Nordic perverse. Watch them come out of the woodwork, now.
— Simon Feb 22, 7:52am # - The movie all Canadian expats should have: “Men With Brooms.” I’ve got my copy; do you have yours? Starring Paul Gross yet!
— Margaret Feb 22, 6:13pm # - Have to disagree with you on the team speed skating, Gail. It’s like a mosh pit on ice. Love it!
— Jeff Feb 22, 9:03pm # - Oh, Jeff, who are you fooling? You just like it for the outfits.
And I suppose I should be doubly ashamed of never having seen Men with brooms since my brother-in-law co-wrote it. With Paul Gross, yet!
As to other uses for broominess, I know of none, but you are welcome to exploit it to the fullest – anything to help curling’s appalling public image.
— gail Feb 22, 9:26pm # - The ‘women of curling’ have been doing their bit to improve curling’s image lately: see their nude calander which ‘features 12 strong-willed and taut-figured female curlers from around the world’.
http://www.thecurlingnews.com/calendar.html
— Rob Bevan Feb 22, 10:24pm # - Skeleton racing is an Olympic sport. Skeleton racing has odd accoutrements, and futuristic costumes as well. Though somewhat more exciting than curling, skeleton racing is not as romantic as ice skating.
I must take exception to your use of the cliched and inaccurate “knuckle-dragging” to describe our skateless forebears; as though we were no more graceful than domestic swine before we learned to put on shoes.
That seems a received bigotry against the old ways. Watch any primate in its natural habitat, and recognize we brought that grace down with us from the trees; refined now and lifted to almost abstract levels of artifice and ritual – but the most sublime aspects were in us from the beginning.
— rollo Feb 23, 9:08am # - Biathalon at least adds a bit of interest to cross country skiing. Left on its own tho, it is definitely the most boring thing you can put on a TV. What they need to look into is a modification of the biathalon wherein the competitors don’t shoot at little bitty circles, but at each other. Now that’d be entertainment.
— Phineas Feb 24, 9:28pm # - I have an aversion to seeing fellow human beings exceeding my level of greatness. However, should they fail miserably at their sporting event, bring on the grossly buttered popcorn and dig in.
— Sapphire Feb 25, 1:22pm #
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