The BOx gets a new .sig:

Mike Doogan
"Then there's figure skating and ice dancing and snowboarding. The winners are all chosen by judges. That's not sports. That's politics.

Yup, just like gymnastics and high-dive and shit in the Summer games (this *was* from a rant about the Winter Olympics, right?), those are... Eh, I would have said "a beauty contest", but his metaphor is even better!

(Though, ahem, it's perhaps more of a commentary on American [*cough*Presidential*cough*Election*cough*2000*cough*] politics, than on sports? :-)

And curling? If curling is a sport, pork rinds are a health food."

But that's bullshit. What's "not a sport" about curling???

That it's not the world's greatest explosion of physical exertion? Well, heck, at least they *do* move their asses, a bit... Look at archery and skeet shooting and ordinary target shooting (rifle and pistol both); they're even less physical -- and nobody is claiming *they* aren't sports!

Heck, curling seems to be about as physical as, say, golf. Perhaps you don't get as much of a walk (though I wouldn't discount that factor altogether; it's just that they walk the same little ice field back and forth, in stead of just once around some bucolic pasture-without-the-sheep), but at least they're hefting some real macho projectiles (What do those stones weigh, 19 kg must be somewhere over 40 pounds?) in stead of a wimpy little ball. And don't talk to me about a bag of clubs -- that's either in the golf cart (and there goes the nice little walk!), or on the shoulder of a caddie!

And curling sure isn't as utterly, mind-numbingly boring to see on TV, as is golf -- on the contrary, it can be quite exciting.