Alex Trebek (1940-2020), curling enthusiast
The tributes have been pouring in on the passing of Alex Trebek, the world’s foremost trivia emcee. Answering clues with responses won’t be the same. If you ask any older folks in Canada (or Detroit) in the 70s, they may remember seeing Trebek cover curling.
Sure enough, that curling history crept into Jeopardy as well. Once there was an entire category of curling questions. This was in 1998, filmed well before the Winter Olympics, so obscurity was sky high. Nobody got the $400 and $1000 questions correct.
It’s been 20 years since that last clue and I don’t know about you but I can honestly say that leads are never without sin.
I also looked in the Jeopardy archives and found once instance where it was a Final Jeopardy response, in 2002. The category was “Canadian Sports” and the clue was “Valued at $60,000, the Brier Tankard is the ultimate prize in this professional sport.” The returning champion, who was from California and leading by $7,900 going in, couldn’t answer correctly (went with “lacrosse,” a fine guess) costing her the game.
If there is anything to be learned from Trebek, it’s that he made trivia cool and interesting. He implemented strict rules (answering in the the form of a question, pronouncing things correctly) with a human touch. It’s easy to see the parallel: curling used to be a sport for old white guys. Now it’s not, because there was no reason one demographic had to lay claim to the sport. Now countless bizarre individuals from everywhere show up in clubs and leave their indelible mark.
We move seamlessly from Jeopardy to the Yellowknife International Film Festival, which is Yellowknife’s premiere international film festival. Apparently included in a pitch for a comedy series called Curlfriends. This Facebook video of it is either a shortened version of the pitch or the pitch itself. Totally unsure. But it does include the phrase “F*** you, Becky,” so that’s all the pitch you need.
It appears our hopes and dreams of a curling bubble may be answered. Calgary seems to be the place, and if we’re lucky we’ll get a Scotties, a Brier and a men’s worlds out of it. We all just need to survive until March.
Seriously. We gotta get there. We have lots of seasons left. I know several clubs are starting to shut down for the season either by their own accord or temporarily according to government regulations but if your club is open, ensure they have a mask mandate or skip the season (and maybe even a face shield too) and limit or skip the drinking entirely. Also consider doubles and triples leagues, and forgo the bonspiels. Trust me, we will have plenty of time to talk about all this wild shit once things open back up.