Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Doo Dah Curling















The Doo Dah Parade is a popular and utterly farcical show held once a year in Columbus, Ohio, on July 4. It’s modelled after the original Doo-Dah Parade which began in Pasadena, California in 1976 as an avant-garde response to the traditional formality of the Rose Parade.

Naturally, it’s the participant groups that make the very colourful scene. Groups like the legendary “Marching Fidels,” a gang of men and women who dress like Fidel Castro, take siestas along the parade route and conscript bystanders into the “Cuban army”, dressing them in camouflage and forcing them to march in the parade.

In recent years, groups such as The Fishnet Mafia, the Wilber Hills Country Club, Feature Creatures Haunted Acting Troup of Central Ohio, Deri Air, the Ohio Roller Girls, and the Doo Dah Band have taken part. And now, as this ambergris photo illustrates, a group from the local curling club has done so, too (click for larger image).

Judging takes place along the route and participants bribe judges to vote for their entries.

Wonder how the curlers did?


Elsewhere:

• Are there really any fears that the Guelph Curling Club might be closing? No way, we say, but here’s a recent blogpost that just might throw a scare ...

• Oooh, looky at this very cool old curling board game ...

• Here’s a couple of Curling 101 webposts from around the world; this one from Japan and this one from Croatia (we think)

• One-time import curler SSS, in Indiana, has just discovered curling in his own backyard...

• ... and SSS was the first person to register at this online curling group ...

• Sad to see the Midsummer spiel in Nelson, B.C. go the way of the dodo after this week’s 64th anniversary tourney ...

• The Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin will share in a $500,000 “Olympic Opportunity Fund” grant being issued by the United States Olympic Association to 24 organizations. We guess their share, marked for curling initiatives, will be over 20K ...

• And finally, that’s a large paint job for San Jose’s San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club ...

1 comment:

Andy Turner said...

How did you find out about the Columbus Curling Club in the Doo Dah Parade. As one of the people in the picture I was surprised to see this posted on the front page of CurlingZone.com.

We(the CCC) thought that we would participate in this parade to try to get some publicity in Columbus. We are moving into a leased warehouse this year and will be making our own ice in the facility. This has been a huge undertaking but hopefully it will be worth all the effort in the end. Personally I am getting kinda tired of playing on arena ice where you never know what curl you should be throwing.

Thanks for the publicity and wish us luck with our new facility... I am sure we are going to need it.

Thanks,
Andy Turner