Uncommon Snips - Spirit Bear Edition

I have to be honest, I'm a little miffed at the performance of the American curling teams so I haven't watched any curling lately, but I'm not staying away. The Olympic semi-finals are happening today, yesterday I heard from Bill Simmons that Cheryl Bernard is looking to get Chargers season tickets, and the 2010 USA Curling Club National Championships are still going on, so it's not leaving me alone, either. Incidentally, I watched this episode of the Flintstones when I was a young lad, and because of the way they whispered, "slalom," I thought it was a dirty word.

In this edition: Surfing? In Canada? It's more common than you think, you'll be free to murder the Spirit Bears that inspired an Olympic mascot soon, Lindsey Vonn broke her finger in her giant slalom run and has a rivalry with Julia Mancuso, the King of Norway got his pants, Kevin Martin looks like Wallace Shawn but is the Michael Jordan of curling, your preview for today's Olympic curling semi-finals, and an amusing story I'm not telling you about here. 

• Canada becoming top surfing destination | Canada | News | Toronto Sun
  Forget California, Canada is now North America's premiere surf destination.
• Impending spring hunt imperils iconic spirit bear - The Globe and Mail
  Mr. Neasloss, a bear viewing guide, was thrilled to see the iconic white bears of British Columbia's central coast getting such reverential treatment. But at the same time, he knew that in a few weeks B.C.'s spring bear hunt would be under way, putting at risk the animal that gave rise to one of the enduring images of the Games and inspired the creation of the Olympic mascot, Miga.
• Vonn breaks finger in crash - KansasCity.com
  American skier Lindsey Vonn suffered a broken right pinkie finger during a crash Wednesday in the first run of the women's giant slalom.
• Vonn 'bummed out' by rival Mancuso's 'popularity contest' claim - Fourth-Place Medal - 2010 Olympics Blog - Yahoo! Sports
  The frosty relationship between American skiing stars Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso may have grown a little more contentious Wednesday
• From throne to stone | NBC Olympics
  The king got his pants, and a big victory to boot. Norway's King Harald V cheered his countrymen to a shortened 9-5 victory over world champion Britain in eight ends Tuesday. The win earned skip Thomas Ulsrud's foursome the No. 2 seed for Thursday's semifinal matchup against Switzerland.
• Martin's performance not a vindication tale | NBC Olympics
  It would be easy to write a script for Canadian curler Kevin Martin telling how a veteran returned to the Olympics eight years after missing a gold medal by a hairsbreadth and gave the performance of a lifetime. Too easy. Martin proved unbeatable in the leadup to Thursday's Olympic semi-final.
• Preview: curling semifinal games | NBC Olympics
  The much anticipated semifinal games in curling come to the Vancouver Olympic Centre on Thursday. On the women's side, it will be Canada taking on Switzerland and China versus Sweden. The men's side sees Norway facing Switzerland and Canada playing Sweden.
• Norwegian pants pulled down, briefly | Winter Games | 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics | AP News Coverage
  Janie Mccauley wrote a story for the AP about the taking down and reinstatement of Norwegian curling pants' Facebook fan page.