#john shuster

He curls! He sells sporting goods! He helps you straighten a painting on your wall!

World Men’s #Curling Championship 2017: Switzerland and Sweden win on Day Three

Edmonton: Wins for Switzerland and Sweden during Monday’s (3 April) sixth session of round-robin play puts those teams into second place in the Ford World Men’s Curling Championship 2017 rankings, behind undefeated Canada.

Canada top-the-table, and are the only undefeated team left in the event, thanks to wins over Switzerland (7-5), Russia (11-3) and Sweden (8-6).

Behind them, also on three…

World Men’s Curling Championship 2017: #Canada, #Germany, #Japan & #USA win on Day one

Edmonton: The Ford World Men’s Curling Championship 2017 began on Saturday (1 April) afternoon in the Northlands Coliseum, in Edmonton, Canada – with a win for the host nation.

After an opening ceremony that featured legendary home-town players from the past – including 90-year-old Matt Baldwin and World Curling Federation (WCF) Hall-of-Famers Warren Hansen and Randy Ferbey, play got underway, in…

In a few days it will be my birthday and full-on adulthood looms large. I figure now's a good time to look back on the year that was. While I can't control the future, I can control the past! So, let's strip away all the b.s. of 2010 and revel in the curling highlights for me, the the teams and the blog.

Last January started out well enough. When Team Zissou and the Bond Girls were prepping for MoPac playdowns in Seattle, Chris Erskine of the LA Times came by to do a story on curling. It's a pretty average curling article, but when in ran it in the paper, my photo was right there on the front page of the LA Times sports page, under Kobe and LeBron and a story on the LA Kings. Needless to say, that's the highlight of my curling career so far. Please note that my sweeping form has improved in the year since. At the end of the month, we had an Open House, and Olympic Skip John Shuster was in town to do the Leno show and he was gracious enough to stop by! He took pictures with the new curlers and did the raffle and everything. Super cool guy. He didn't pack his curling shoes, and had to borrow mine. I think all my bad luck rubbed off on him. I also had the chance to be on the radio. Kevin and Bean have been doing a morning show in Los Angeles for as long as I've been listening, so when they needed someone to talk about curling on the show, I was thrilled to get to do it! I was super nervous, but at least I was confident in my message, and I think I held my own. It ended with the proposition game; if they played us and won, we'd disband the league. It never happened because of scheduling. In February, the Simpsons curling episode aired, especially cool since The Face and I helped teach the writers about curling while the girls were at Club Nationals in '09. Then the Olympics happened and it was crazy! Exciting to see so many other people get interested in it. This blog got so many hits, mostly from my fake profiles of Olympians.

While we were teaching all the n00bs at learn to curls, the Bond Girls were off in Madison for their second straight Club Nationals appearance. In 2009 they made the local paper in Utica, this time they made it on TV. Better yet, once they returned, the girls were featured in a Spanish language show, Con Chile y Limon on our local Univision station as they taught the host all about curling. Hopefully I'll get video of that up at some point. It wasn't long before we were back on the ice and actually playing games. My top highlight that actually involves me curling this year was when we attended the PIC. We were so out of our element, but it was fun and a great learning experience. It wasn't always so pleasant for the Wife, but she came out of it with an overall good experience and a new tattoo. Vancouver is a rad town, hope to go back there and spend more time in the city. During the Summer, I programmed a short film festival for our bonspiel. It was a good crop of films, and Deadspiel is always a crowd favorite. The bonspiel itself was fun, Zissou and the girls got ousted from the A bracket and spiel in back-to-back draws by the eventual winners from Scotland. Even with the Olympics in our rear-view mirror, the demand for curling was still pretty strong. So much so that we got to teach people to curl in Vegas! If you know me, you know I'm a degenerate so when you add gambling to the combination of drinking and curling, it's like hitting 7-7-7 on that slot machine!

Photo by Mark Dossett

For Labor Day both teams trekked up to Vacaville, CA for The Crush bonspiel. It was a good trip, steady improvement for both of us, but the best part was meeting our second Olympic Skip, Debbie McCormick. She even signed my cowbell. Now if only I made it down to San Diego, I could have got Cheryl Bernard to sign the other side. Just as the new curling season was about to begin, Olson Curling came out with a new line of colorful curling shoes. I've been saying for as long as I've been curling that traditional curling shoes are pretty ugly, and apparently others agree. This is, by far, the most popular post on NoHoCurling.com. Maybe I should talk about shoes more often. So, when is Goldline or Olson going to hire me to design a shoe for them?

Speaking of hiring me. The Curling News tapped me to write an article on curling in America. I compared curling to narcotics and in my photo I'm drinking a giant beer. Yup. When I got that issue in the mail, it capped off a good week when I was tops in a curling pick 'em and won best costume at our curling Halloween party.

It's been quiet the past two months. Figure, let's ease back in to it with a flashback from the height of the Olympic fever. When the American teams under performed, many patriotic bandwagoneers had an opinion. One guy decided to share his opinion with Hollywood Curling.

From:  ***@aol.com To:      Hollywood Curling Date:   Wed, Feb 17, 2010 @ 3:37 PM Sub:    olympics I know four 80 year old senior citizens that play shuffleboard on cruises who can probably be more successful than the embarrassing U.S. olympic teams. Who picked these non-competitive clowns to represent this country? From:  Hollywood Curling To:      ***@aol.com Date:   Wed, Feb 17, 2010 @ 4:16 PM Sub:    Re: olympics

I'm sorry you are displeased with the performance of our Olympic teams. You can find all the information you need about the selection process at the website for the United States Curling Association, curlingrocks.net. Perhaps your octogenarian friends can form a team and compete for the spot in 2014, that is if they're still alive by then.

Hopefully you'll find joy in watching the US teams compete in figure skating and ice dancing. Cheers! From:  ***@aol.com To:      Hollywood Curling Date:   Wed, Feb 17, 2010 @ 5:24 PM Sub:    Re: olympics Thanks for the email. I'll pass your greetings to the 80 year olds. But i must say that the last thing that i'll ever watch is figure skating. I'll stick to the hockey. See you in 2014 From:  ***@aol.com To:      Hollywood Curling Date:   Wed, Feb 17, 2010 @ 6:28 PM Sub:    Re: olympics Where do we send the Alpo for the choking dog Shuster?....laughing at that clown...enjoy the games anyway From:  Hollywood Curling To:      ***@aol.com Date:   Wed, Feb 17, 2010 @ 6:35 PM Sub:    Re: olympics Wow, such vitriol. Is this Tyler George? Question, are you emailing all the US curling clubs? From:  ***@aol.com To:      Hollywood Curling Date:   Wed, Feb 17, 2010 @ 3:37 PM Sub:    Re: olympics Have no idea who Tyler George is. Actually i only see curling every 4 years, but i'm sure you must be familiar with the saying...If you keep on doing the same thing over and over, and expect a different outcome, you are a fool. Why have the incompetent Shuster the last man up when there's the most pressure?..He obviously can't handle it..Have a good day