Heavy metal curling

Time to clear the desk off and with the Olympics drawing to a close this weekend, get back to our regularly-scheduled blogging next week. Between the editing, the live-blogging, and hittin' the mute button whenever those animatronic beavers show up, it's been hit and miss these last two weeks, but promise it'll be back to the usual blend of the trivial and the inane on Tuesday.

AP PHOTO

Rock 'n roll: You might regret this, Anette.

One last look: These crazy Swedish curling women, banging heads and tossing rocks. Anette Norberg and her partners in leather and brooms may well regret this, when years from now someone digs it up and throws it back at them -- sort of like these guys.

One Two last read(s): Bloggin' colleague Antonia Zerbisias doesn't think much of sportswriting, or at least most of it, I'm not sure what her point is. I've always thought that some of the best writing in the paper is generated by a group unfairly disparaged as the toy department -- while ascribing to Theodore Sturgeon's law, Revelation, when someone suggested to his that 95 90 per cent of science fiction was crap crud. "95 90 per cent of everything is crap crud," he answered (at least, that's the Wikipedia version of the story).

First, Dave Perkins goes to Milan fashion week:

Again, remember you're talking to someone who suspects fashion style means wearing a brown necktie to complement yellow teeth. Occasionally something elegant would emerge, hanging from another pair of bony shoulders, but much of the stuff only Ronald McDonald's wife would buy.

And here's Cam Cole's post-mortem on the Canadian men's hockeyists (although I could've pointed out Marina Hyde in the Guardian, Rob Hughes in the IHT, Steve Brunt and Al Maki in the Globe, and on and on -- there's a lot out there):

A very large majority of Canadians said -- loudly and with righteous anger and well in advance of the fact -- that it would be a mistake to put Todd Bertuzzi on the Canadian Olympic team; that quite apart from his penchant for taking the bonehead penalty at the wrong time, he was not morally qualified to wear the colours and represent who we are in an Olympic Games.
And guess what? Those people might be the only ones in the country exchanging high-fives and told-you-sos today.

Breaking news: The AP and a number of newspapers are refusing to run stories or photos of LPGA events until a dispute over the use of photographs is resolved. This will become an even bigger international issue this summer, and comes at the same time that FIFA may face legal action from the World Association of Newspapers over its restrictions on photographs taken at the upcoming World Cup.

(UPDATE: AP, LPGA reach agreement.)

Sports around town: The Ontario women's volleyball finals go Friday and Saturday at the Sports Gym. Tonight's semis have U of T facing Laurier at 6 p.m. and Ottawa-Windsor at 8; tomorrow the semifinal losers play off for bronze at 6 p.m., with the winners in the championship at 8. Go Blues!

Watching: Olympic gold medal hockey, 7 a.m., Sunday, CBC. Earlier this week the Star had an in-house auction of five Olympic jerseys, and my bid on an autographed Mikael Tellqvist away No. 32 in Tre Kronor blue did the trick. So I'm a fan! And I'll be wearing it for this one, while desperately trying to avoid spilling my latte on the sleeve.

Not watching: Boca Juniors at Argentinos, 10 p.m., Fox Sportschannel. There are 11 soccer games on TV on Sunday, and this is the last one. I have to draw the line somewhere.

Comments

[Carla]

'Again, remember you're talking to someone who suspects fashion style means wearing a brown necktie to complement yellow teeth.' - Dave Perkins

Before she casts any more aspersions towards the sports department, I would like to see that catty Antonia Zerbisius come up with a line as perfect as this one from Dave Perkins.

[Scott Carefoot]

That's a surprising cheapshot from Antonia, who isn't exactly Margaret Atwood (or even Rosie DiManno) herself. Judge not lest ye be judged, Antonia.

Oh, and your "Sturgeon's Law" is a bit off, Chris. What you're referring to is "Sturgeon's Revelation", which was: "90% of everything is crud." This revelation is accurate in print and in pixel, of course.

[cy]

Scott, you're right (as usual). I shoulda checked Wikipedia there, instead of assuming my memory was correct and so too was the google search outcome based on it. I was close, though. Sort of a case study in Sturgeon's Revelation, this.