Сочи 2014 (Winter Olympics Thread)

[jwhouk]

So - anyone out there getting a bit excited for the Winter Olympiad in Sochi, Russia? (By the way, the "Сочи" is the Cyrillic spelling of the city's name.)

My favorite sports to watch: curling, hockey, bobsled and speed skating. Three of the four have athletes on team USA from Wisconsin, which gets me a bit more excited than usual (and I get to laugh when an NBC commentator mispronounces "Rio, Wisconsin").

[Jabberwonky]

I thought Rio was much further south...

[jwhouk]

Oh, yeah, it's south of me. It's just not THAT far south.

The vice-skip of the US Women's Curling Rink is from Rio (proper pronunciation: RYE-oh), a small town in south central Wisconsin.

[Jabberwonky]

I hope we do well, but I still don't understand the subtleties of curling...

[shadowinthelight]

What's hard to understand? You scrape the ribbon against one of the blades of some scissors and... oh wait, that's not what you meant, is it...

[Mark N]

What's hard to understand? You scrape the ribbon against one of the blades of some scissors and... oh wait, that's not what you meant, is it...

No, but it tends to be one of my first thoughts when i hear the word (The other thought needs a heated rod with a clip on it or small heated cores fastened onto hair)

[DinkyInky]

Not interested in the least if they are going to be so intolerant as to not allow certain countries to be allowed in the opening because of their National dress(namely, Scotland, Fiji, and American Samoa) because they think they look like dresses and they have such intolerance towards a certain look or lifestyle.

I have better ways of wasting my time. Call me back here if Russia changed their minds.

[jwhouk]

Curling, as I've said elsewhere, is a combination of shuffleboard, chess, and darts - all played with huge polished stones on ice with brooms.

Simple answer: the goal is to get your stone closer to the middle of the "board" than any other stone, and then have more of your stones closer to the middle than your opponent's closest stone. If you get more points from that over 10 tries by each team, you win the match.

[Catawampus]

Not interested in the least if they are going to be so intolerant as to not allow certain countries to be allowed in the opening because of their National dress(namely, Scotland, Fiji, and American Samoa) because they think they look like dresses and they have such intolerance towards a certain look or lifestyle.

The Scottish deserve to be banned, given Scotland's barbaric national sport of wild haggis hunting. Sure, it's the fox hunting in England that gets all of the attention and the organised protests, but what about those poor haggises up in the northern lands? Hardly anybody ever stands up for those tormented critters.

[Jabberwonky]

Not interested in the least if they are going to be so intolerant as to not allow certain countries to be allowed in the opening because of their National dress(namely, Scotland, Fiji, and American Samoa) because they think they look like dresses and they have such intolerance towards a certain look or lifestyle.

The Scottish deserve to be banned, given Scotland's barbaric national sport of wild haggis hunting. Sure, it's the fox hunting in England that gets all of the attention and the organised protests, but what about those poor haggises up in the northern lands? Hardly anybody ever stands up for those tormented critters.

At least the Scots eat what they hunt. When was the last time you heard of an Englishman sitting down to a plate of fox?

[Dave]

The Scottish deserve to be banned, given Scotland's barbaric national sport of wild haggis hunting. Sure, it's the fox hunting in England that gets all of the attention and the organised protests, but what about those poor haggises up in the northern lands? Hardly anybody ever stands up for those tormented critters.

At least the Scots eat what they hunt. When was the last time you heard of an Englishman sitting down to a plate of fox?

The Scots are perfectly justified on ecological grounds, too. Haggis breed very rapidly, and their growing population has put a terrible strain on the highly-endangered wild Scottish oatmeal herds. Just cut open a haggis after you catch it, and you'll see... its stomach will be simply full of chewed-up oatmeals... they have an insatiable appetite.

Haggis may seem to be incredibly cute, but they're actually almost as much of a menace as tribbles (and for similar reasons). They have no natural predators up in Scotland... the wild Abyssinian Tripehound can't survive the dreary rainy climate... and so the Scots have to keep them under control.

[MerchManDan]

WOOO!! Just heard that the Canadian men's hockey team finally has a replacement for Steve Stamkos (out of the running with a not-fully-healed broken leg). Things were getting tense for a while, there.

[jwhouk]

MSL was the logical choice to replace Stamkos. It probably helped that Yzerman didn't even have to go far to look for the replacement.

[DinkyInky]

The Scottish deserve to be banned, given Scotland's barbaric national sport of wild haggis hunting. Sure, it's the fox hunting in England that gets all of the attention and the organised protests, but what about those poor haggises up in the northern lands? Hardly anybody ever stands up for those tormented critters.

At least the Scots eat what they hunt. When was the last time you heard of an Englishman sitting down to a plate of fox?

The Scots are perfectly justified on ecological grounds, too. Haggis breed very rapidly, and their growing population has put a terrible strain on the highly-endangered wild Scottish oatmeal herds. Just cut open a haggis after you catch it, and you'll see... its stomach will be simply full of chewed-up oatmeals... they have an insatiable appetite.

Haggis may seem to be incredibly cute, but they're actually almost as much of a menace as tribbles (and for similar reasons). They have no natural predators up in Scotland... the wild Abyssinian Tripehound can't survive the dreary rainy climate... and so the Scots have to keep them under control.

How many of you have actually eaten Haggis, raise your hands...*raises hands*

Then again, being half Polish, I've also eaten Kiszka...a lot, and it's Hungarian and Russian clones Hurka and Krovyanka.

[Dave]

How many of you have actually eaten Haggis, raise your hands...*raises hands*

Not haggis, no. I've had plenty of its "second cousin", scrapple, though. My mother's parents were of German-American heritage, and we lived in and around Philadelphia, so scrapple was a local standard.

[MerchManDan]

*raises hand* Back in high school for a multi-cultural celebration week. From what I recall, it wasn't too bad at all; a bit dry for something so meaty. Would try again.

[Catawampus]

]How many of you have actually eaten Haggis, raise your hands...*raises hands*

Then again, being half Polish, I've also eaten Kiszka...a lot, and it's Hungarian and Russian clones Hurka and Krovyanka.

Made it. Eaten it. Like it just fine, if it's well made.

I've eaten things a lot "worse" than haggis over the years. As a kid, I'd eat every part of what I caught other than the fur. Every part. And sometimes I'd even be able to cook it first.

[NOTDilbert]

I've eaten things a lot "worse" than haggis over the years. As a kid, I'd eat every part of what I caught other than the fur. Every part. And sometimes I'd even be able to cook it first.

Did you grind their bones to make your bread?

[GlytchMeister]

I've eaten things a lot "worse" than haggis over the years. As a kid, I'd eat every part of what I caught other than the fur. Every part. And sometimes I'd even be able to cook it first.

This sounds like a piece of Jamie Hyneman's mythical backstory.

EDIT: Whaddaya know, it is actually part of his real life past! Jamie was a wilderness survival expert and instructor.

[jwhouk]

MEANwhile, back in Russia:

US skater who was "cyber-bullied" over her addition to the US Olympic squad performs well enough to get the US into the final round of the team competition.