Curling fans are slowly going bonkers over the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games – don’t forget, tickets are on sale in early October – and of course we then have Sochi, Russia in 2014.

In fact, it was one year ago today that Sochi got the nod from the International Olympic Committee, shocking many observers (including us).

What comes next, in 2018?

Well, PyeongChang, South Korea is bidding again, having lost to both Vancouver and Sochi. In fact, it says here the Koreans will bid over and over and over until they win it. Simple as that.

Munich, Germany will be bidding, and despite the proximity of Sochi to Europe, the Germans are a major threat to win.

Tromso, Norway, is going to bid and 2002 Olympic curling champion skip Pal Trulsen has thrown his support behind the bid. They are first out of the hack with a website; a Facebook page, located here (you must be a Facebook member to view it)… and here’s a cool promotional video… love the big rings located on the mountain facing the main stadium!

And in a clear acknowledgment that a bid will go forward, there is even an official opposition group already online. But of course.

The Americans are interested, but if Chicago wins the race to host the 2014 Summer Games, any Yankee winter hopes – probably centered on Denver, Colorado – are gone.

Meanwhile, the Bulgarians and Serbians are reportedly combining on a joint bid; the French are infighting over bidding on summer or winter; the Swiss (in Geneva) need a referendum to proceed, the Swedes are exploring their options, and even some southern hemisphere locales (like New Zealand) are thinking about it. But not Durban, South Africa, as some had recently believed.

All formal bids are due in January, 2009.

Anything else?

• Once again, the glorious sport of curling was included in many a news outlet’s annual Canada Day Quiz… such as this one here. However, the answer featured a horrendous inaccuracy – can you spot it?

• It was, of course, Canada Day on July 1… and today, on this fourth of July, we say Happy Birthday to our American friends. There is, by the way, lots of curling action going on down south these days:

– Texas Dan recently celebrated 50 years of Frisco curling and also illustrates another 50-year anniversary, in Green Bay, Wisconsin – and you’re telling us curling is located right across the street from this iconic shrine? Are you kidding?!

– San Jose has not one but two open house days scheduled for next week, and at two different locations to boot;

– curling maniac Richard Maskel won a new summer spiel in Port Huron, Michigan… with extra photos located here. The photographer was Keith, by the way;

– New York’s Coach Heidt, a hockey and lacrosse buff, was recently intrigued with curling;

– there are curling stones rarin’ to be tossed at the new Chaparral Ice rink in Austin, Texas;

– how about Indianapolis? Yep, here’s the story (plus video);

– Team Debbie McCormick second Nicole Joraanstad – a 2007 calendar girl – was recently voted Madison Sportswoman of the Year for 2008;

– the Pittsburgh Tropical is going on, like, right now;

– and those loveable tinseltowners in Los Angeles are making news, again… first they were somehow part of a Dodger Stadium pre-game award presentation to pro baseball player Russell Martin; and now CurlTV has finally drawn a bead on them. Their latest funspiel goes tomorrow …

• This silly hockey story caught our eye: specifically the reference to past disputes between Canada’s CBC-TV Sports and the world of curling. We simply love the line “… sparked hundreds of thousands of angry curling fans to threaten a march on CBC headquarters with lit brooms and pitchforks” …

• Here’s an odd little curling cartoon, from Italy:

• Here’s a curling league software package for $79.95; someone tell us if it’s any good …

• Peter dropped by Naseby, New Zealand, and checked out the only dedicated curling facility located in the southern hemisphere of planet Earth. Soon to come is a luge ride (just scroll down a bit) …

• The Winnipeg Brier has raked in a half-million dollars in profit …

• And finally, the Canadian Curling Association was in Prince George, site of the 2000 STOH, for a venue inspection for the 2009 Pre-Trials Qualifier. Story plus photo here, and video here …

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A reminder, as mentioned in Monday’s January issue preview, that the Canadian comedy Little Mosque on the Prairie returns to television screens tonight (8:00pm ET, CBC) with a curling flourish.

Jihad On Ice sees the local Imam assemble an all-Muslim curling team to challenge a well-known club team. And the episode also features a well-known curling celebrity making a cameo appearance (any guesses?).

This isn’t the show’s first brush with the sport. As blogged almost exactly one year ago, and also written up in the March 2007 issue of The Curling News, last year’s inaugural season saw the cast film a curling promo at the York Curling Club in Newmarket, Ontario. Only some 10 seconds of content was aired, but it had a huge impact.

“As soon as the curling promo piece aired just before season one, people would stop and ask me when does that episode come out?” said actor Manoj Sood, who plays the character Baber Siddiqui (photo by Sophie Giraud).

“I told them that it was just a promo piece and there is no curling episode as such. So many people asked us about the promo and if it pertained to an episode, that production eventually made a decision to make a curling-specific episode in season two.”

And this time, the cast and crew went all-out.

“The promo piece took a a day to make, basically doing a few shots over and over again… there was no real story attached to (it),” Sood said. “In this new episode, we spent almost a week at a curling rink.”

We’ll have more on tonight’s episode tomorrow on the Blog – and extra content in the upcoming February 2008 issue – including a quote from the mystery celebrity. And Sood, for one, sees tonight’s episode as a benchmark “CanCon” moment.

“Until I filmed the promo, and the actual Jihad On Ice episode, I had no idea how many people curled in Canada,” said Sood. “My dad told me that when we first moved to Canada in 1964 that even he had joined a local curling team and curled for quite a few years until we moved to a large city!

“It’s interesting to see and appreciate how important curling is to our country’s cultural and pastime fabric. When people see curling I feel they see Canadian. Our show is very much Canadian and so I feel that Canadian curling and Little Mosque On the Prairie make a great pair. Watch the episode and you will see what I mean!”

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FÜSSEN, GERMANY – So, KMart won another Grand Slam (and well done, again, Mr. Shawn Adams and company) which is his first under the Capital One banner. You can read about it here, but… to be honest, we’re getting a wee bit bored. Aren’t you? Du hast verdammt Recht!

Like, somebody should just go out and whomp the guy, already. Those somebodys will get another chance at the end of the month, at The Hawk.

Hey, did you know the final was streamed online on the CBC Sports website? Nope, neither did we. Hmph. Nevertheless, you can see some online content at this dedicated CBC/BDO Canadian Open page.

There’s another big curling event going on this week, in Füssen, Germany. The 2007 Le Gruyère European Curling Championships are almost finished with Day Three, and it’s Sweden (women) and Norway (men) leading the pack. In the Urs Räber photo above, Austrian third and calendar gal (and TCN fan!) Karina Toth delivers the goods.

North Americans can see this mega event live for the first time right here via CurlTV, while Europeans can watch it on Eurosport TV and also via streaming on the Eurosport family of websites. Plus, you can also read about it here, and follow live scoring here (with B-Pool action here), and even track selected live graphic games here! Whew!

You can also see some great photos and reportage from our friends at Curling Today, the blogpartner to The Scottish Curler. They’re just up the tribune, a wee spot away from us (our seats are better, so nyaah-nyaah!).

There’s yet another popular curling event coming, too. This weekend sees the return of the TSN Skins Game, now known as the Casino Rama Skins Curling Game, and there’s only 1,000 tickets left. Get yours today, or plan your seat on the couch. You can also read preview stories here and here.

There’s certainly more to come from Europe’s biggest event in the coming days, but for now, is there anything else afoot? Oh yes…

• Wasn’t there another Slam this past weekend? Yup, a new women’s event in Nova Scotia, and here’s the scoop …

• Duluth CC, a favourite haunt of ours here at TCN, is doing very well these days, although they might be missing their games tonight; we hear there’s about 400 feet of snow on the ground out there …

• Here’s another story on the Nutmeg (and we still love that name) …

• Looking to catch up on how the Slams came to be where they are today? Here’s a decent primer …

• Did you miss Witt on Sunday’s Slam broadcast? Here’s a peek at Bruce Rainnie, who filled in …

• Why wasn’t Jean-Michel Ménard in Québec City? Something to do with the Order of Merit, we’re told. So, instead he went to Cornwall …

• And finally, here’s the next great curling name, folks: Steen Sigurdson, come on down …

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