The LEGO advent calendar curling mystery
Namely: what is the yellow thing?
December 11 was a very auspicious day in the curling community. ‘Twas day the curling rocks were unveiled in LEGO City’s annual advent calendar. It came with four rocks and a yellow … disc thing.
My 5-year-old son has been extremely excited to open each one. It’s the first thing he does in the morning. Yesterday when he saw what it was he excitedly told his mother “Dad. You have to get dad up. It’s curling.” Hey, at least he knows what gets play in this house.
We knew it was coming up. It was teased on the box, which went around curling social media circles and also included a landscape with a curling sheet when you opened it.
Many of these individual items (so far it’s had things like a snowman, snowball launcher, plow, Christmas tree) had extra pieces. So I thought little of the yellow thing that was included. But then it was on the instructions:
The yellow thing was intentional. Curling doesn’t have a yellow thing.
Like any good mystery, we start with what we know it’s not:
• Another colored handle. It’s a slightly different shape and doesn’t fit on the white base.
• It’s not the base of a rock either. It’s not smooth on the bottom, rather it has
• It’s not a damn piece of curling equipment.
What we do know:
• The box shows it placed on the button. Maybe it’s … maybe it’s what they think you aim at? (This was at least my son’s unprompted theory)
If you want to be hypertechnical, and who doesn’t, it’s part 4740, a dish 2x2 inverted. It’s a popular piece and usually shows up as a gray/neutral color but has been sometimes featured in this particular color, though usually it has a practical purpose.
We may never fully understand or learn the origin story of The Yellow Thing, but please be aware that it does exist, and it is now a curling symbol for that which we must accept as truth but may never fully know. Kind of like the drag effect.
• A follow up to Tuesday’s edition about cleaning broomheads, friend of the newsletter Brian Dau mentioned that for a DIY project you can also just replace the fabric over the pad. It looks like it takes a few tools but if you have them, it obviously saves money. While the link to the fabric goes to, for whatever reason, coat hangers, the specific type of material you want is 1000D Cordura Urethane Coated Fabric. So wherever you can order it, make sure it’s pretty. And if you need to order it by the yard, here’s a summer project for your club.
• If you were interested to learn more about the Mexico Curling Federation, the Rocks Across the Pond podcast interviewed Team Mexico women’s skip Adriana Camarena, promoting a couple of their fundraisers: one for their team to go to Finland and compete in the last chance world qualifier, and one for their Bay Area dedicated facility. Links for them are on that podcast page, including places to buy Curling Mexico merch.
• Buffalo is holding a fundraiser spiel to help the needy around their community and they got some area bands to join in on the competition.
The Boost National grand slam started Tuesday in Newfoundland, and the broadcast for it began shortly thereafter, which one of Sportsnet’s behind-the-scenes gentlemen making helpful notes for all the team names. See if you can find all the easter eggs:
