Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/07/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]With respect to curling:
Between the ages of 8 and 16 I lived in northern
Alberta, about 450km north of Edmonton. Winter
was long and severe, and I experienced cold down
to -55?C at times (but also heat up to 50?F).
The biggest town for 200km had a population of
2,000; most were 1,000 or less and there weren't
that many. No TV at the time. Each town, even if
it had only 800 people, had two large buildings:
the hockey arena, which could typically seat 1000
to 1500 people because after all, if you have a
hockey game against the neighbouring town, you
had to accomodate both populations, right?
This was were I and most other younger people
spent a lot of our time; skating and playing
hockey. There were many outdoor rinks, and many
back yards had skating surfaces in the winter,
but getting in out of the wind and most severe
cold to skate and play hockey was nice.
For older people, the gathering point was the
curling rink, with 4 to 8 sheets of ice and a
lounge overlooking the sheets. It was very
popular, both the lounge and the curling excuse.
Curling is fairly easy to learn but hardly easy
to master. You don't have to be a top athlete
physically, but you have to be skilled and
mentally sharp. You can do it when your hockey
legs have given out on you.
That's why the most difficult tournament for a
Canadian curling team to win on the road to the
world championship is the Canadian Championship,
because you have to play against 11 other teams,
each one which is quite capable of being the next
world champion.
That pretty much covers curling. Note that the
main ingredient in both hockey and curling is
ice, which is readily available. In northern
small town Canada, if you don't play hockey or
curl you don't do much in winter and your social
life is minimal.
At 11:49 AM -0700 7/1/09, Peter Klein wrote:
>Ted: For the record, I would be happy to discover a maple leaf properly
>engraved on any of my Leica gear. Heck, several of my lenses and one film
>body were "Made in Midland," so the maple leaf is at least implied.
>
>My new dog Tilley was made in Surrey.
>
>So, maple leaves forever, eh! And happy Canada Day to all you Canadians
>and Canadian wannabees!
>
>(Now, if someone could explain curling to me. It's kind of like quantum
>mechanics. When I read about it, it kind of makes sense, but the next
>day, it doesn't.) :-)
>
>--Peter, just south of the 49th parallel.
>
>Ted wrote:
>
>> Today is the celebration day of my country CANADA obviously it's "CANADA
>> DAY!" for all the "Crazy Canucks" of the world and this massive northern
>> country of ours. So a couple of thoughts for the day and the current
>> topic
>> at hand.:
>
>
>
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--
* Henning J. Wulff
/|\ Wulff Photography & Design
/###\ mailto:henningw at archiphoto.com
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