December 9, 2006
"Home Field Advantage" and the New York Knicks
D. Randall Smith, a contributor to the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport was interviewed about home field advantage for yesterday's story about the New York Knicks's abysmal season. I have to admit I didn't know they were suffering, but I have heard David talking about the article on "Home Field Advantage." This is just one of the many new topics covered in our latest sports publication. Publicist Jeff Rutherford was able to pass the story, and the contact with Professor Smith, to the Times. Here's yesterday's article, "At Home, Knicks Go From Bad to Worse":
In the meantime, the Knicks have apparently lost the vaunted home-court advantage that teams so often cling to like a security blanket. Although not easily defined, the home advantage “is there, it’s real, it’s a phenomenon that’s been studied for 30 years,” said D. Randall Smith, a sociology professor at Rutgers who has authored some of those studies.
According to the [Berkshire] Encyclopedia of World Sport, to which Smith contributes, pro basketball teams generally win 64 to 65 percent of their home games.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 5:08 AM | Comments (0)
December 4, 2006
Home to Yoga5
It's time to write something about one of the things that keeps me sane and healthy: astanga yoga at a new studio in Great Barrington, Yoga5. I stumbled into this kind of yoga when I got back from the London Book Fair in March, and through a series of coincidences found myself at Yoga5 just as it got started. Jonas Zev Amberger had moved here from Vermont and set up shop in a big building on "The Flats" south of town, gathering a group of rather obsessed yoga practioners who'd been waiting for an astange studio as well as a few bemused newcomers like me.
My daughter Rachel used to call it my cult because I was so enthusiastic. Now it's become more routine: I can do my hour or hour and a half's practice in the morning and arrive at the office feeling good instead of like I'd been put through a wringer, and I don't talk about it all the time.
The yoga community is very different from where I spend the rest of my life, and I don't suppose I'll ever feel that I really fit in there. But it's been a good lesson about community: you don't have to fit in entirely to feel part of a group. Being in London made me even more appreciative. I went to Astanga Yoga London on Drummond Street, an 18-minute walk from the Goodenough Club so perfect, I thought. But it was crowded to a degree that really wasn't fun. I had less room than in any hotel room I've ever been in, had to practice almost nose up to a wall (and the walls gave off that interesting rising damp smell you get in many English buildings), and no one looked very cheerful. That's city yoga, I know, but how lovely to come back to the warm atmosphere of Yoga5 and the hugs (and help in headstand) of my pals there.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 4:32 PM | Comments (0)
November 29, 2006
Company footwear
I've never been a stiletto woman, except for a couple weeks when I was 20, but I'm starting to think of starting a company dress code that requires comfortable shoes. This will mean plenty of disapproval, especially from female colleagues. A couple years ago, I wore sneakers to a conference because I'd hurt my foot, and heard that catty comments were being made. "But I'm a sports publisher and editor," I said, "surely that's a good reason." Not really, according to my colleagues. CEOs are expected to be more conventional.
Then in May I sprained my ankle badly at the SIIA Content Summit and ended up in a wheelchair. No, I wasn't wearing stilettos when I misstepped, just some nice ordinary ladylike heels. Since then, I've been especially careful, and when I have a lot of walking to do, I'm more and more likely to wear a very proper suit with very comfortable hiking shoes. I thought maybe people wouldn't look down and notice, but no such luck. So if you see me at London Online tomorrow, please be aware that I'm the guinea pig for a new series of women's sports books--the target reader, in fact, according to our author, Julie Harrell--and therefore have to make sure I'm in shape and fully recovered--ready for the new regime of biking, kayaking, and rock climbing, and even something called longboarding.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 1:03 PM | Comments (0)
November 25, 2006
Cricket and croquet
On the Tube last night, Rachel said, "Mum, explain cricket to me." (Yes, it may have been the first time in history that a teenager has asked this question of her American mother.)
"What do you know about it already?" I asked.
"Well, it's like croquet except they try to stop you." Fortunately no one in our carriage seemed to be English, or we might have been in some trouble.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 7:16 AM | Comments (0)
November 23, 2006
One of the real world series: The Ashes 2006-7
We've just sent out the first galley proofs of Global Perspectives on the United States to the major reviewers, and more will be going out next week while the indexing and corrections are finished. I'm in England now, celebrating Thanksgiving Day with fish and chips, and trying to figure out how to catch a bit of the first match in The Ashes, the cricket competition between Australia and England. It's shown from midnight to about nine in the morning, not exactly prime viewing time. But the BBC has a spectacular website with all kinds of educational stuff, too, which got me to wondering if there are English people who need an explanation of "LBW." I know what it means: Leg Before Wicket. And I know what a wicket is, and how the game is played. During my years in England, I watched dozens of league cricket matches and the guys liked nothing better than to explain the game, but the finer points I used to know, and the slang, have definitely faded in memory.
What I do remember is how global perspectives came into the talk about sports. The cricketers could not understand why tough Americans wore so much padding for their football, and they thought baseball gloves were hilarious. A cricket ball is almost exactly the size and weight of a baseball, and cricketers use no gloves (except the wicket keeper--the catcher). No wonder they saw baseball as a bit wimpy. This made it even more ridiculous that Americans called their baseball championship the World Series.
Try the Cricket Academy if you want to learn what an LBW is. Oddly enough, the glossary doesn't explain my favorite terms, googly and golden duck. Finally, here's a history of The Ashes written by your humble correspondent and put online when England won last year: http://www.berkshirepublishing.com/blog/archives/2005/09/england_wins_th_1.html. The first day this year went to Australia, 346 for 3 (90.0 overs). For you Americans, a quick explanation. 346 is the number of runs. 3 is the number of batters, out of 11, who are out. And an over is a kind of inning. The whole thing goes to 6 January 2007, with five five-day matches.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 2:35 PM | Comments (0)
November 6, 2006
"Mountain research" at Boulder Bookworks
My return to the United States in 1991 came about in part because a small Colorado publisher purchased rights to my first book. The key person who brought this about was their sales director, Alan Stark. I ended up living in Boulder with my kids for six months, my initial reentry into American culture after spending my twenties in England, and became friends with Alan and his wife Linda. That reentry experience laid some of the groundwork for Berkshire's work today on global perspectives towards the U.S., and Alan's the person who recommended The Great Good Place by Ray Oldenburg, who became an editorial board member for our Encyclopedia of Community.
I'd forgotten one important thing about the winter culture of Boulder until I saw this note about "Mountain research" on the website of Alan's company, Boulder Bookworks::
SNOW DAYS AND MOUNTAIN RESEARCH: We can generally all make it into the office on heavy snow days. However, on Fridays with new powder in the mountains, one or more of us may not be available.
Given our new interest in rock climbing--and the kayaking and cycling books, too--the Berkshire Publishing team may have to start doing mountain research, too.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 5:23 AM | Comments (0)
November 1, 2006
An introduction to rock climbing with Jules Harrell
What a day! Berkshire breezes that wrap their arms round you, soft golden sunlight, and distant hills dappled with the last russets and golds. I was the luckiest person around, because Julie (Jules) Harrell, an avid sportswoman who is writing a series of books for us, decided to come to Great Barrington to give me an introduction to bouldering and rock climbing. We didn't actually do any climbing today--this was my first time out on rough ground since spraining my ankle in May, and Jules is nursing sore shoulders from paddling all summer--but it was a taste nonetheless. First, here's Jules with some of her equipment. I've been around people who climb for many years and thought I had some idea what was involved, but I was wrong: I didn't know much of anything. We hiked in to a favorite spot and Jules took me on a tour of different boulders, with different "problems." I imagined--and, mind, this is embarrassing to admit--bouldering as a kind of obstacle course, climbing up and down over boulders. Instead, it's rock climbing on the sides of huge rocks, rocks large enough to create a real challenge, but low enough not to require ropes. Instead, the safety net is big pads, which you can see above, next to Jules. The pad goes on the ground under where you're climbing, and a partner stands ready to move it and to push you onto it if you fall.
Here's one of the boulders we saw. Fortunately, there were a few people out today, and we got to watch two guys attempt their chosen "problems." It's an intense activity, totally involving, so I was baffled when they said it was "kind of like hackey sack." Not exactly! But in being an activity that justifies men in hanging out together, yes, I guess the sports are similar.
It was an awesome outing, on a perfect day, and when we got back to the office after having lunch on the rocks (publishing's a tough job but someone has to do it), the idea of a company climbing trip generated lots of excitement. So if you call the office on the 14th and get an answering machine, it's because we're all on the mountain with chalk on our hands. On the other hand, you might get Joe or David. They're claiming that they should stay in town and make sure we get a good spot at Pearl's, for our after-the-climb drinks.
The books, by the way, are A Woman's Guide to Cycling, to Kayaking, and to Rock Climbing. The tagline for the series is "finding your inner adventure woman," and I guess you could say I'm on that quest.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 8:47 PM | Comments (0)
September 2, 2006
Becky Clark and Billie Jean King
Even after a banquet at the Great Hall of the People on Tienanmen Square and exciting days in Beijing, I can't wait to post a message received from home, from a dear friend and author, Becky Clark:
FLASHBACK to the good old days! Billie Jean King and I worked together at the national NEW AGENDA conference on girls and women in sport back in 1983 in Washington, DC. We co-authored a resolution together regarding girls and women with disabilities in sport. Was both a thrill and honor to work with her. Tonight they named the park that hosts the US OPEN the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center. It was an honor to work with Billie Jean some 23 years ago and it's an honor and a moving tribute to all that she has achieved for girls and women in sport and society as well. The first female in sport to have a building/park/stadium, etc named for her! HOORAH, Billie Jean, YOU GO, GAL! Standing ovation and SRO! THIS ONE'S FOR YOU!
Becky contributed to two of our sports encyclopedias and her e-mails are always full of life. I've written about her on the blog a couple of times, and here's a photo of us together the time she introduced me to another women's sports hero, Pat Summit.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 8:25 PM | Comments (0)
August 7, 2006
I didn't make it to Wikimania
It was a glorious weekend in the Berkshires--bright blue skies, cool breezes, and clean green scents. But it was a mixed-up weekend, too. I was almost ready to set off for Boston on Saturday morning, to speak on a panel at Wikimania, when I realized that I haven't driven more than a short distance since early May, before I sprained my ankle the first day of the SIIA Summit in San Francisco. A three-hour drive each way did not seem prudent, with my ankle still sore after almost any special pressure. I am nursing it carefully, and doing a special yoga routine as therapy, because I leave for China in three weeks and must be in good shape for that. But I guess I'm still not adapted to the situation, since I really didn't think about the long drive until it was almost time to leave.
My adventure outing on Sunday, mentioned last week, was also a mix-up. David was able to drive me to Charlemont, a village north of Amherst, about an hour and a half away. Julie was well aware of the ankle situation and had been very reassuring about the river trip and said I could wear my air cast or a brace. But I never got a chance to find out if this water sports are okay for someone with a recovering sprain, because David and I went to one place to meet, based on a web link Jules had sent, and she went to another, thinking we must surely know where the Zoar Gap parking lot was. It was apparently a "pushy" day on the river and the friend she was with flipped and had to be rescued by three kayakers, so maybe I had a lucky escape. I don't need that kind of adventure just yet!
I now know a lot more about the water sports available in western Massachusetts, though, and am amazing at how much is practically on our doorstep. There's apparently some good bouldering and climbing in Great Barrington itself, but I'll save that for later in the year. I'm in training for China now.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 8:33 AM | Comments (0)
August 2, 2006
Who me, an adventurous woman?
Sometimes it seems that Berkshire have made a specialty of disheartening topics, like terrorism and global perspectives on the United States. As a result, I'm thrilled to have signed a local author, Julie Harrell, to write three women's sports books for us. These are uplifting titles, full of encouragement for every woman who wants to find her adventurous self, and with a strong environmental bent, too. You'll be hearing much more about these titles in the months ahead, mostly from Jules who will have her own blog.
I clicked a link from Jules this morning and realized that this project is going to be thrilling in more ways than one. While she assures me that our first outing is going to be very easy, the Deerfield River has more whitewater than I've ever seen--let along paddling in. I'll report after our Sunday adventure.
The books are about kayaking, rock climbing, and biking, so you can see what's written on my fortune cookie.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)
March 1, 2006
Rituals of the road, squash at Grand Central Station
En route to London for three days business (and fun) before the business of the London Book Fair. It's a long trip to JFK but I prefer it to Boston because I can take a train--much more relaxing than driving. Rachel, my daughter, is traveling with me, and that's a help because I'm carrying encyclopedias for display at one of our representative's stand (Cranbury International, F760, in case you're around!).
In a refreshing change from curling, there was a crowd at Grand Central Station watching a squash match. I don't know if it's squash season or what, but I'll ask Liz, who has herself qualified for a big competition in New Haven later this month. We have quite a women's sports crew at the office these days: Jenn plays Ultimate (frisbee), indoors in the winter and on the field in summer, Liz plays squash and is now promoting curling, and Carrie surprised me by her enthusiasm about boxing.
Here at JFK I was reminded of our faith projects when the jolly woman at the baggage area explained to someone that it is Ash Wednesday and that's why she had a gray smear on her forehead. I'd never seen that before. But we had our own Berkshire Publishing religious ritual: pancakes with lemon and sugar last night, for Shrove or Pancake Tuesday.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 8:35 PM | Comments (0)
February 27, 2006
Jolly curlers
I'm on the losing side, it seems, when it comes to deciding whether Berkshire Publishing should be skipping and hacking. Liz Steffey, our intrepid squash-playing China EA, has already enlisted author and curling expert Morris Mott as our remote coach, and put together a list of important dates coming up in local curling, as well as a reading list! I grew up, early on, in Minnesota, so the consensus is that I should be taking to this sport with rather more enthusiasm. I do like the idea of team tshirts, though, and at this time of year in New England anything that helps us get through till spring is welcome. But you won't call me a "jolly curler"--the title of a sidebar we included in the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 4:08 PM | Comments (0)
February 23, 2006
The history of curling--and maybe the future of sports at Berkshire Publishing
My lack of appreciation for the sport of curling has not gone unnoticed. While everyone else in the office is getting ready for the open house at the nearest curling club (they have even named our team--it's called the "Skippers" according to the sign on the office bulletin board), I am holding out for sports where you hit something, or someone.
But curling is obviously much loved. Our expert on the subject has written for us for many years, and I am happy to share his superb coverage of the topic. Tomorrow I will post a couple of our great photos: of a women's curling team and a venue in western Canada. I am delighted that we have such excellent coverage of a sport that's attracting attention in the Winter Olympics, but I have to admit that when Cassie said I could be the coach or manager if I didn't want to play, I didn't feel a whole lot better! Here's a quote from Morris Mott's excellent article, posted here for the benefit of all the people curious about the history and culture of this newly popular sport: "The attractions of curling are much like those of bowling and golf. Recreational players can be confident that serious injuries almost never occur to participants. They can be confident as well that even a novice can expect to make a few shots." You won't catch me bowling, either.
Curling, by Morris Mott
Curling is a team sport played on a long, narrow sheet of ice. It incorporates the basic principles of lawn bowling or horseshoes. Each of four members of a team has a counterpart on an opposing team, and in alternating fashion the members of the teams throw (slide) objects toward a target. The target is a group of concentric circles called a “house” at the far end of the sheet; the largest of these circles is 12 feet (3 meters) in diameter. The objects that are thrown are round “stones” or “rocks,” which must be less than 44 pounds (20 kilograms) in weight, less than 36 inches (1 meter) in circumference, and less than 4.5 inches (11 centimeters) in height.
After each player has made two throws—after a total of sixteen throws—an “end” (similar to an inning in baseball) has been completed, and at this time one point is awarded to a team for each of its stones that lies both in the house and closer to the center of the house (the tee or button) than any of the other team’s stones. If neither team has a stone in the house, the end is “blank”; however, most ends result in one team counting between one and three points. A new end then begins, with players throwing toward the house at the other end of the sheet. A match is normally complete after ten ends. However, extra ends are played to break ties, and in recent years
clocks have been introduced to speed up play, and occasionally a match is terminated because one team has used all the time allowed for its total of eighty throws.
The sheet of ice on which the game is played is called a “rink.” The rink is 146 feet (44 meters) long, although only 132 feet (40 meters) are in play. As one moves down the sheet eight lines are encountered, each drawn straight across the ice, and many of the rules of the game preclude or allow particular activities within the specific sections of the ice created by these lines. The width of the ice varies from the 14 feet, 2 inches (4.2 meters) commonly found in Canadian curling clubs to the 15 feet, 7 inches (4.7 meters) used in other countries and in international play. The side boundaries are identified, often with wooden boards, and stones that touch or strike the boards are removed. The only important consequence of using the different widths is that in Canada one stone can fit in the space between the side boards and each house at the line drawn across the ice at the middle of the house (the tee line), but in other countries and in international events, two stones can fit there.
Teams
A team of curlers, often also called a “rink,” is composed of a “lead,” a “second,” a “third”(sometimes called a “vice skip”), and a “skip.” The four members throw their stones in order, and in the usual pattern the lead alternates with the other team’s lead in throwing his or her two stones, then the second does the same, then the third, and finally the skip. Normally, though not necessarily, the skip throws last because usually he or she is the best shot maker on the team or at least the best shot maker under pressure. For this reason, and because the skip is given the responsibility for calling the shots that a team will attempt as an end unfolds, the skip is the most important member of the team. This explains why usually a team will be identified in the skip’s name.
Shots
If one reduces curling shots to their essential purposes, only four types exist. The first is the draw into the house. The second is the hit, a faster-running shot designed to take out (remove) an opponent’s stone(s). The third is the guard, a stone thrown with quiet weight that stops in front of the house (but it must be within 21 feet or 6.4 meters of the tee line to remain in play). The fourth is the tap-back, which might involve raising a guard into the house or simply moving stones to more advantageous positions.
A curling stone is thrown from a “hack,” which is now a rubber foothold but once was essentially a hole hacked into the ice. Two hacks are at each end, one for left-handed throwers and one for right-handed throwers, and each is 126 feet (38 meters) from the middle of the house at the far end. The curling stone is held by a handle, and as it is released the thrower imparts a spin or turn to the stone. If the thrower twists his or her elbow and hand out on release, then an “out turn” has been used, and if the thrower is right-handed the stone will rotate counterclockwise as it moves down the ice. If the thrower twists the elbow and hand in on release, then an “in turn” has been used, and it will rotate clockwise, again if the thrower is right-handed. As a stone moves along the ice toward the far house, and especially as it starts to lose speed, a stone thrown properly will move across the ice as well as down it. This fact means that a curler almost never throws directly at his or her target. A well-played curling shot is one that has been thrown with not only just the right amount of weight but also just the right allowance for sideways movement.
All of the players hold a curling broom or brush (the brush has become far more common since the 1970s), and this piece of equipment has different functions. The person throwing the stone holds the broom or brush in the nonthrowing hand and uses it to help maintain balance through the delivery. The skip uses his or her broom to provide a target for the thrower; when the skip is throwing, normally the third holds the broom. Almost always the broom is placed to the side of the true target to allow for the sideways movement. The other two members of the team use their brooms (brushes) to affect the speed and direction of the stone after it is on its way. Essentially, they sweep or brush in front of the stone and thereby cause it to slow down at a less rapid rate than it would if they were not sweeping. Just how sweeping affects speed is a matter of some controversy, but it seems to do so in several ways. It removes debris from the path of the stone, although in modern indoor rinks about the only debris that creates problems is the straw or hair left by other brooms or brushes. It affects speed also by temporarily heating the ice directly in front of the moving stone and thus creating a slicker path, and perhaps by creating a bit of an air vacuum just in front of the stone.
Attractions
The attractions of curling are much like those of bowling and golf. Recreational players can be confident that serious injuries almost never occur to participants. They can be confident as well that even a novice can expect to make a few shots. For competitive players, the rewards can be the fame that comes with victory in prestigious club, regional, national, and even world championship events. The rewards also can be the valuable merchandise or, in recent years, substantial amounts of money awarded to victors. The most important reward, of course, is the knowledge that a player has achieved excellence in a sport that rewards coordination, skill, concentration, stamina, strength, strategy, and teamwork. Finally, for both recreational and competitive players, one of the attractions of curling is that it is a sport with many natural breaks in the action, and the time can be used for socializing with other players and even spectators.
Origins and Early Development
Games in which an object is thrown or rolled or slid toward a target are thousands of years old and have been played in many parts of the world. However, the game we would recognize as curling, featuring stones and brooms and houses, probably appeared during the sixteenth century, perhaps in northwestern continental Europe but more likely in Scotland. Certainly the Scots were responsible for the early development of the game, if not for its first appearance.
The early games of curling were played with stones that were simply held in the hand, although sometimes grooves or small holes might have been added to provide a better grip. The caliber of shot making must have improved dramatically during the seventeenth century when players began to use rocks with handles. The caliber of shot making improved still further during the latter half of the eighteenth century, especially as round stones became more common, and triangular or oblong ones became less. During the eighteenth century curling clubs began to proliferate. People established clubs for many reasons, but among the reasons were the desires to recognize meritorious play and to schedule regular competitions and social occasions for members.
Until early in the nineteenth century members of Scottish clubs curled with stones of differing weights, and perhaps even shapes. They used sheets of ice of assorted dimensions and a variety of rules to govern delivery, sweeping, and etiquette. Then, during the second quarter of the nineteenth century, improved transportation networks allowed curlers from different towns or districts to compete against each other, and standardized rules and regulations became desirable. The result was the formation of the Grand Caledonian Curling Club in 1838. This club was really an association, not a club. It became the Royal Caledonian Curling Club in 1843. It adopted and then promoted key rules that remain in effect today: Participants should not interfere in any way with an opponent’s delivery; each team should have four players; each player should make two shots per end; only circular stones should be used; the sheet of ice should be 138 feet (42 meters) from “foot-score to foot-score”(the hack lines).
As the Scots were developing curling, they also were beginning to export it, often by emigrating, sometimes just by traveling. By the end of the nineteenth century the sport had been introduced into several countries, especially Canada, where in specific regions iron or wooden stones might be used. By the turn of the twentieth century curling in Canada was played mainly with “granites,” and the sport was more popular in Canada than anywhere else in the world. This is still true today; Canada has about 1 million curlers, perhaps forty times as many as any other country.
Canadian Prairie
The region of Canada that especially took curling to heart was the Canadian Prairie, which was settled between the 1870s and the 1920s by peoples of European ethnic origins. Curling quickly became probably the most popular participant sport among them. Part of the reason for this popularity was that a significant number of newcomers were Scots, people already familiar with the sport moving in either from Scotland itself or from an eastern Canadian province. Another reason was that the basis of the Prairie economy was commercial agriculture, and winter was a slow time of the year. Finally, especially on the eastern part of the region, excellent natural ice could be maintained for three or four months each year, much longer than in Scotland or eastern Canada. The indoor, natural-ice curling rink was not invented on the Prairie, but it soon became far more prominent there than anywhere else. In small towns little two- or three-sheet sheds or “rinks,” often joined to an indoor skating rink, were built almost as soon as schools or churches were, and in cities larger structures with perhaps eight or ten sheets were quickly constructed.
Canadians on the Prairie not only curled more often than people in other parts of the world, but also curled more seriously and more skillfully. Beginning in the 1880s the better curlers began to gather for bonspiels, which are curling tournaments of several days’ duration at which prizes are offered to winners of events. The most skilled Prairie participants also introduced techniques and practices that made curling a better test of athletic excellence. In particular, they developed the shoulders-square-to-the-target delivery, a type of delivery that was facilitated by the permanent hacks that players could build in indoor rinks. On their temporary outdoor surfaces the Scots had used portable footholds (crampits), which encouraged a shoulders-sideways-to-the-target delivery that was not as efficient. With the squared-up delivery came improved accuracy and a style of play that featured hits rather than draws. Finally, during the 1920s the serious prairie curlers also worked hard to establish a Canadian (men’s) championship event. It was first held in 1927, and prairie curlers dominated it until the mid-1970s. This championship was called the “Brier,” after a product manufactured by the sponsor, the Macdonald Tobacco Company. The Brier has been sponsored by other corporate entities since 1979, but it still goes by the same name, and it remains the most keenly followed national championship event in the sport.
Artificial Ice and Growth in Popularity
During the last half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth, Canadians and especially Prairie Canadians nurtured the old Scottish game of curling to new levels of popularity and athleticism. However, not until after World War II, with the availability of artificial ice, did the sport become truly international.
Artificial ice is created when a thin layer of water is sprayed onto a cold, hard floor, usually a surface of cement. The floor is cold because brine is pumped through pipes laid just below the floor surface. The sprayed water freezes, and the ice remains hard and true even if the air in the building is quite warm. Artificial ice was invented in England late in the nineteenth century, and it quickly began to have an impact on skating and ice hockey, but not until the prosperous 1950s and 1960s could large numbers of curlers in Canada and elsewhere afford to join clubs that installed an artificial surface. Then the technology began to have immense consequences.
One consequence, especially in Canada, was that more women began to participate. A few women had curled earlier, but the more comfortable, heated, artificial ice rinks drew women by the thousands, and by the 1970s and 1980s curling in Canada was truly a mixed sport. Another consequence was that curling could become much more popular and much more competently played in the moderate to warm weather regions of Canada. Finally, artificial ice led to internationalization. In the United States, in Scandinavian countries, in Switzerland, Germany, and other European nations in which the sport had been established earlier, curling now became much more popular. It also gained a small following in such unlikely nations (given their climates) as Australia, Bulgaria, Mexico, New Zealand, and Japan (in some of these nations the sport was not completely unknown prior to World War II). By the turn of the twenty-first century curlers competed in about forty countries around the world.
World Championships
Another reason for the rise in popularity of curling after the 1950s was the example of athletic beauty and excellence exhibited by elite players in world championship competitions. Almost always these competitions have featured a strong Canadian team, but competitors from other countries, notably Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States, have won frequently. An unofficial annual men’s world championship event began in 1959; it was sponsored by the Scotch Whisky Association. In 1966 the International Curling Federation was formed, partly in an attempt to have curling accepted as an Olympic sport. During the next few decades the federation (in 1991 it became the “World Curling Federation”) helped to establish and then to oversee an annual world women’s championship (first held in 1979), a world junior men’s (1975), and (in 1988) a world junior women’s championship (junior curlers can be no more than twenty-one years of age). In 2002 it established world senior (fifty years of age or older) championships for men and for women and a world wheelchair curlers’ championship (wheelchair curlers use a stick to push the stone). These world championship events are, of course, preceded by national championship events in the individual countries.
Television
Since the 1980s many of the national and international championship events have become popular on television, as have other events in both North America and Europe that feature “professional” curlers (the money that curlers can win is not enough to live on year around, but it is substantial). Various curling organizations, including the World Curling Federation, have introduced or promoted initiatives to make curling a more attractive sport for live audiences as well as TV viewers. Among these initiatives are the use of clocks to encourage teams to quickly decide on a shot and then play it, the use of microphones on players so that the television audience has access to discussions about strategy, and especially the use of the “free guard zone” rule to increase the likelihood that the early stones thrown in an end will remain in play and that the last few shots will require great skill.
The Future
Curling likely will grow in popularity both as a participant sport and a spectator sport. Since 1998 it has been an “official” Winter Olympic sport; this designation assures exposure all over the world. In western Europe and in North America demographic trends suggest that recreational, easily learned, sociable sports such as curling will thrive. The sport is easily televised, and, as the Sports Network in Canada has discovered, a large demand for televised curling exists among retired people. Artificial ice has allowed the sport to be introduced in many warm weather countries, and the fact that curling has recently gained a few followers in Israel, Spain, and Greece suggests that this pattern will continue. Curling is enjoyed by men and women, by young and old, by highly competitive athletes as well as by people who want mainly a reason to laugh and talk with friends.
Morris Mott
Further Reading
Creelman, W. A. (1950). Curling past and present: Including an analysis of the art of curling by H. E. Wyman. Toronto, Canada: McClelland and Stewart.
Kerr, J. (1890). History of curling, Scotland’s ain’ game and fifty years of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club. Edinburgh, UK: David Douglas.
Kerr, J. (1904). Curling in Canada and the United States, a record of the tour of the Scottish team, 1902–1903, and the game in the dominion and the republic. Edinburgh, UK: George A. Morton.
Lukowich, E., Ramsfjell, E., & Sumerville, B. (1990). The joy of curling: A celebration. Toronto, Canada: McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
Maxwell, D. (1980). The first fifty: A nostalgic look at the Brier. Toronto, Canada: Maxcurl Publications.
Maxwell, D. (2002). Canada curls: The illustrated history of curling in Canada. North Vancouver, Canada: Whitecap.
Mitchell, W. O. (1993). The black bonspiel of Willie MacCrimmon. Toronto, Canada: McClelland and Stewart.
Mott, M., & Allardyce, J. (1989). Curling capital: Winnipeg and the roarin’ game, 1876 to 1988. Winnipeg, Canada: University of Manitoba Press.
Murray, W. H. (1981). The curling companion. Glasgow, UK: Richard Drew Publishing.
Pezer, V. (2003). The stone age: A social history of curling on the prairies. Calgary, Canada: Fifth House.
Richardson, E., McKee, J., & Maxwell, D. (1962). Curling, an authoritative handbook of the techniques and strategy of the ancient game of curling. Toronto, Canada: Thomas Allen.
Russell, S. (2003). Open house: Canada and the magic of curling. Toronto, Canada: Doubleday Canada.
Sautter, E. A. (1993). Curling—vademecum. Zumikon, Switzerland: Erwin A. Sautter-Hewitt.
Smith, D. B. (1981). Curling: An illustrated history. Edinburgh, UK: John Donald Publishers.
Watson, K. (1950). Ken Watson on curling. Toronto, Canada: Copp Clark Publishing.
Weeks, B. (1995). The Brier: The history of Canada’s most celebrated curling championship. Toronto, Canada: Macmillan Canada.
Welsh, R. (1969). A beginner’s guide to curling. London: Pelham Books.
Welsh, R. (1985). International guide to curling. London: Pelham Books.
World Curling Federation. (2005). Retrieved March 4, 2005, from http://www.worldcurling.org/
Posted by Karen Christensen at 7:08 PM | Comments (0)
February 5, 2006
Our national sports holiday
Today is Super Bowl Sunday. I don't know what the equivalent is in any other country: a single day, a winter Sunday, that has its own food and community rituals and is also the peak event of the year in TV advertising. More pizza is ordered, and presumably eaten, on this day than any other, and if anyone's keeping count, I'll bet the same thing is true of nachos--the newest national snack food. In my house, it's Italian sausage subs this year; Tom the nacho maker is now away at college.
For those who want the full story of the Super Bowl, I'm going to include the article from the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport. Given his enthusiasm for the event, I shouldn't have been surprised to see that David coauthored it! Our regional team, the New England Patriots, won three of the last four Super Bowls, but they're not playing this year. Apparently we are rooting for Pittsburgh, because it's closer than Seattle.
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl, the championship game of American football, is the most watched, written about, and talked about single sports event in the United States today. It has become a national ritual, and Super Bowl Sunday is akin to a national holiday-marked by gatherings of family and friends, food, drink, and betting on the outcome. The competitors are the winners of the National Football and American Football conferences of the National Football League playoffs.
An American Institution
First played in 1967, the Super Bowl is traditionally staged on a Sunday evening, and is seen by more than 130 million television viewers alone in the United States. Advertisers, who paid as little as $75,000 for a thirty-second commercial for the telecast of Super Bowl I, now pay $2.5 million for the same thirty second commercial. Apple Computers introduced its first ever line of Macintosh computers with a Super Bowl television advertisement in 1984.
The NFL estimates that in 2004 almost one billion people viewed part of Super Bowl XXXVIII in 229 different countries, and the game was broadcast in twenty-one different languages. Some 3,000 media credentials are typically assigned for a Super Bowl, including 400 to international journalists. The game's number is traditionally referred to in roman numerals, although that practice did not start until the fifth Super Bowl.
The game is played at stadium site that is picked years in advance of the actual game date. No team has ever played a super bowl in its home stadium. Super Bowl games are usually awarded to stadiums in the southern part of the United States, to help insure good weather since the game is played in either late January or early February, although on a few occasions the games has been played in more northern locations that had a domed stadium. In all, eleven different cities in the United States have hosted a Super Bowl, with New Orleans hosting the most with nine. Cities are competitive in bidding to host the game, since the economic impact from just one Super Bowl can be as high as $250 million.
The day has become so popular-more pizzas are sold on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day of the year in the United States-that some consider it a de facto holiday. In 2004, more than $81 million in bets were placed on the Super Bowl in the state of Nevada, where gambling on professional sports is legal. Privately, it is estimated that several billion dollars is actually wagered on the game illegally. Part of the Super Bowl tradition is the elaborate halftime show featuring top entertainers. The 2004 show was controversial when singer Janet Jackson's breast was bared; the 2005 show featured former Beatle Paul McCartney and was much tamer. Commercials have become an integral part of the television broadcast as well, with major corporations vying to produce the most creative, innovative, or amusing commercials-which are then widely critiqued in the media on the day after the game.
History
The game was originally known as AFL-NFL World Championship Game, and came about because of competition between the two competing professional football leagues-the American Football League founded in 1960 and the National Football League founded in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association. It took the NFL name in 1922. The game didn't actually become the "Super Bowl" until 1968, before the third championship game. Legend has it that the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, Lamar Hunt, who's team played in the first ever Super Bowl, came up with the event's name after coming across one of his daughter's favorite toys, a super ball. The game's number is traditionally referred to in roman numerals, although that practice did not start until the fifth Super Bowl.
The Chiefs played the Green Bay Packers, coached by Vince Lombardi considered one of the league's most legendary coaches, in Super Bowl I, played 15 January 15 1967. Today, the trophy given out to winning team is called the Vince Lombardi trophy. The Pete Rozelle Trophy-named after the man who served as league commissioner for almost thirty years and is largely credited with spurring the growth and popularity of the National Football League-is given out to the Most Valuable Player in the Super Bowl.
Far from the popular event it is today the first Super Bowl only attracted 61,946 fans, almost 40,000 short of capacity at the Los Angeles' Memorial Coliseum, although every game since has been a sell out. Green Bay won the first game, 35-10, led by quarterback Bart Starr and receiver Max McGee-who only saw action in the game because of an injury to starting wide receiver Boyd Dowler. For the entire season, McGee had caught only four passes for 91 yards, but in the newly created title game, he hauled in seven passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns. Each Packer received a "winner's share"-a monetary reward for being on the victorious team-of $15,000 each, while each Chief earned $7,500. By comparison, the 2004 winning share for each member of the New England Patriots was $68,000, while the members of the losing Carolina Panthers each earned $36,500. The most inexpensive ticket to the first-ever Super Bowl was $6; the most inexpensive ticket price for the 2004 game was $350.
Seventeen teams have won the Super Bowl:
Dallas Cowboys 5
San Francisco 49ers 5
Pittsburgh Steelers 4
Green Bay Packers 3
New England Patriots 3
Oakland/LA Raiders 3
Washington Redskins 3
Denver Broncos 2
Miami Dolphins 2
New York Giants 2
Baltimore Colts 1
Baltimore Ravens 1
Chicago Bears 1
Kansas City Chiefs 1
New York Jets 1
St. Louis/LA Rams 1
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1
The New England Patriots have won three of the last four Super Bowls. This is considered a near-amazing achievement given efforts by the league to develop parity among teams. The most significant Super Bowl was the third when the New York Jets of the AFL beat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts of the NFL y the score of 16-7. The victory had been publicly guaranteed by Jet's quarterback Joe Namath three days before the game. The victory made the AFL the equal of the NFL, and the next year the leagues merged.
Brian Ackley and David Levinson
Further Reading
Bayless, S. (1993). The boys. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Green, J. (1991). Super bowl chronicles: A sportswriter reflects on the first 25 years of America's game. Masters Press.
Konner, B. (2003) The super bowl of advertising: how the commercials won the game. Bloomberg Press.
Weiss, D., & C. Day (2002). The making of the super bowl: the inside story of the world's greatest sporting event. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 5:27 PM | Comments (0)
February 4, 2006
Writing softball history
I was trying to find something about the Canadian badminton player with whom I share a name, and instead found myself quoted about the history of softball on the International Olympic Committee's website. The article says I claim softball came to England because of the film "A Touch of Class." Not at all: softball appears in the film because Americans had brought it to London already!
Nonetheless, it's always nice to be quoted, especially if they spell one's name correctly (the IOC does), and this brings back happy memories. I was involved in starting the first UK softball association and co-managed a women's team called the Artful Dodgers. I was made manager because I was no athlete and certainly no ball thrower--but I did know the rules. We had players from the US and Canadia, Colombia, and Britain, and had a great time in Regents Park, and afterwards in the pub. I saw a photo the other day that reminded me that the pub, the Allsop Arms, actually paid for tshirts for our team.
And why was I looking for my Canadian namesake? Because we'd sent a review copy of our new Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport to Brian Coutts, who chooses "Best Reference" for Library Journal every spring. He mentioned in an email that he had looked up western Canadian sports like curling, and that brought to mind the email I once received from a potential badminton author who assumed I was that Canadian champion. Another connection: Brian said our photo of the curling rink was exactly like the one he remembered from his youth. Author Morris Mott, who has written for us for years now, sent that photo at the last minute; how nice to think that it brought back memories for a library colleague now in Kentucky.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 6:42 AM | Comments (0)
December 4, 2005
Italian review of Berkshire's World Sport, in English
Here’s the review, translated by Gherardo Bonini:
“Looking back over the years, there have been few good encyclopedias of sport. The Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport, issued this year in Massachusetts by Berkshire Publishing Group, is the enlarged and updated version of a work published in 1996. It deserves particular attention because it was conceived with a new philosophy. That is, because it is not a alphabetic list of athletes but is instead a survey of topics including: the origins, evolution, and contemporary status of the sporting phenomenon in all countries; economic, social and political views; and sports in individual lives. It is possible to expand topics that have often been neglected through this the contemporary multifaceted approach.
“The main authors of the work (four volumes, 1,816 pages) are David Levinson and Karen Christensen, for whom the relationship between sports and culture is very consistent. They were helped by a team of experts from many countries: the article on Italy was masterfully written by Gherardo Bonini, the enthusiastic sport historian who works at the Historical Archives of the European Union of Florence.
“Here is a short list of topics covered: men and women in the sport; big international events; famous sporting facilities; teams and societies; the sports industry; early and modern sports media; training systems; the evolution and questions of sports medicine; and the relationship between sports and health. Among the sacred venues, for instance, are the Coliseum and Foro Italico, Ascot and Holmenkollen, Madison Square Garden and the Maracanà. Among the events, beside the Olympic Games, we find Wimbledon and Indianapolis. The historical honours of each of the countries are duly covered.
“The text, in English, is enriched by sidebars. The work costs $475 and can be ordered from Berkshire Publishing Group, 314 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA 01230, USA, cservice@berkshirepublishing.com.”
One of our contributors from the Encyclopedia of Modern Asia, Gerry Sperling, is a also a filmmaker and here in Rome for the Congress. This, like the Italian review, is astonishing serendipity, especially since Gerry's academic expertise extends to a topic I happen to need an article just now. Now, if only the weather will be similarly cooperative as I set out to see a little of Rome before flying home early tomorrow.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 6:43 AM | Comments (0)
December 2, 2005
World Sport on the Italian newsstand
Talk about timing: a great review of the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport appeared today in Italy’s main sports newspaper. David called with the news, sent by our wonderful long-time contributor Gherardo Bonini, and I was able to go to the newsstand and buy a copy! I’ll post a translation soon, with some help, but the gist of what I read is that this work provides a new approach, a new perspective, on sports. In world history, of course, which makes it entirely appropriate to the conference I’m here for!
Posted by Karen Christensen at 12:44 PM | Comments (0)
November 25, 2005
Browsing on the run
Here's a weird idea--weird, that is, till you think about it and then it seems obvious that someone would try. Computers in the gym instead of televisions, so people can browse the Internet while they sweat. Even, according to "Web surfing while working out," using a flexible, sweat-resistant keyboard to write email. I don't know about you, but TV or reading is all I can handle when my heart's anywhere close to that magic fat-burning rate--which I don't get to nearly often enough these days. Here's where sports and human-computer interaction hit the track together, though, and that's intriguing.
Colleges are doing this, by the way, to get students into the gym. In a related news story, here's what happens when students have wireless laptops in the classroom: they play games and IM their friends.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 6:29 AM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2005
Marcy Ross's walk with Regis
Berkshire editor Marcy Ross has been a willing participant--some might have said guinea pig--in our fitness activities over the years, the most outlandish, but memorable, of which was a basketball session. (As we walked into the gym at Simon's Rock College, I think it was Marcy who said, "They'll think we got lost on our way to the library.") Her recent commitment to walking has got her a lot of media attention, and you can read more at America on the Move.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)
October 6, 2005
A sock for every sport
Ed Beauchamp, of the University of Hawaii, and I became friends when he was writing for the International Encyclopedia of Women and Sports on boxing. He then became our Japan editor for the Encyclopedia of Modern Asia, working with June Kim. A scholar with many interests and a lively curiosity about the world, he's became a great favorite at Berkshire Publishing, and even got me to take up boxing a couple years ago. (He also sent me a tshirt that says "A woman's place is in the ring," which I love wearing to yoga class.)
Ed also joined the editorial board for the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport, and we shared a laugh this week over the sportswear industry. I was buying socks at a little shop on Main Street and discovered that there are boxing socks, golf socks, tennis socks, running socks, and more. What does this say about our world?
Here's just one line from the *Starred Review* in this month's Booklist magazine: "Many of the contributors are well known in their field and are often athletes themselves. Entries . . . are followed by impressive and detailed lists of further reading (often a dozen or more sources, including scholarly journal articles)." And, "It is a fine addition to any library at the high-school level or above."--thanks to people like Ed Beauchamp.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 7:01 AM | Comments (0)
October 1, 2005
Berkshire's Marcy Ross on the move
Editor Marcy Ross not only steers important projects through production but is our resident popular culture and celebrity expert. I don't know how she finds time to keep up with all the latest news and Hollywood gossip, but she does, and she's also been working on fitness by wearing a pedometer to keep track of steps walked (her biggest day, by the way, was at ALA--proof that conferences are hard work).
And the pedometer's paid off in spades, because she and her daughter Sarah were chosen to participate in Wednesday's America On the Move Day of Action. 
See Marcy here, walking along Central Park South between Regis Philbin and Sarah. Donald Trump was waiting for the walkers at Trump Tower, and Marcy says his hair was just as bad in real life as it looks on TV.
I'm looking forward to our Pilates classes after work with Margaux, who's also got me planning to try spinning this autumn (she taught spinning in South Africa and will be doing some substitute teaching here).
Women and sports is still a hot topic at Berkshire!
Posted by Karen Christensen at 1:31 PM | Comments (0)
September 13, 2005
England wins the Ashes
Monday morning the first thing to pop up on my computer screen was a news alert from the BBC: England had won the Ashes! I have never hit a cricket ball, but when I lived in England I watched many league cricket matches (and ate many cricket teas), and I love the game. The Ashes is one of the odder aspects of it. Here's a BBC article about this summer's triumph, after 18 years, and the link below will take you to the short article I wrote for our new Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport on the history and meaning of "The Ashes."
"Ashes, The" from the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport
Symbol of global rivalry, and a colonial relationship fraught with ambiguous feelings, the Ashes tour is a major sporting event: the biennial cricket competition between Australia and England. The Ashes themselves truly are ashes-the cremated remains of a cricket bail or stump, placed in a small brown urn and preserved and cherished in the museum at Lord's Cricket Ground in London.
History
The Ashes is cricket's oldest international contest and has its origins in the third Australian tour to England. The visitors horrified the host nation (and thrilled their country's people) by beating England in its own green and pleasant land on 29 August 1882.
The Australians had won four out of seven matches before the Test Match at the Oval cricket ground in south London. This in itself was considered humiliating by the English, who commentators say were determined to teach the Aussies a lesson, presumably about proper filial behavior. (England was known as the "mother country.")
The defeat at the Oval was made even worse because the Australians came from behind to devastate a confident English team at the last moment. The following mocking obituary was published the next day in the Sporting Times:
In Affectionate Remembrance of English Cricket,
Which died at the Oval on 29th August, 1882,
Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing
Friends and acquaintances.
R.I.P.
N.B. The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.
When the English team next toured Australia, its captain, Ivo Bligh, stayed in a home in Sydney, where one of the young ladies of the family suggested she make a velvet bag in which he could store the imaginary ashes of English cricket. This brown velvet bag, embroidered with the year 1883 in gold thread, still exists, but it was quickly deemed inappropriate for the storage of the Ashes. Supposedly the ladies of the household then burned a bail, one of the small wooden bars that rest on top of the three vertical stumps that stand behind a batsman. When the bails fall, the wicket is lost (a "wicket" is an "out").
Florence Morphy of Melbourne, Australia, is credited with having provided the brown urn in which the Ashes now rest. Bligh himself married Florence Morphy and settled in Australia, and after his death she presented the urn to the Marylebone Cricket Club. They have been on permanent display ever since, and a substitute is the Ashes trophy, which moves between England and Australia, depending on the results of the latest tour.
The original Ashes returned to Australian only once, for the country's bicentenary celebrations, flown by RAF aircraft and moved under police escort to and from Lord's.
The Ashes Tour
The England-Australia series was rechristened the Ashes tour, and is played every two years, alternating between England and Australia. Because it is played in two hemispheres, some of the series are listed by two years, played in the Australian summer season.
The "Bodyline" Assault
Americans associate cricket with the English, and a privileged, leisured way of life. But cricket has been for well over a century an intensely global competition, a venue where the complex emotions of colonial relationships are played out. In the 1932-1933 series, a new edge was added to the legendary rivalry, when England's captain, Douglas Jardine, decided to implement a tactic that was not forbidden in the rules but which was aggressive and dangerous.
For the Australians, winning at cricket was about beating the English at their own game. For the English, the country's and the Empire's honor was at stake. But this was a new era, in which the British government was negotiating for a Commonwealth constitution with the Dominion governments (including Australia) that would assure loyalty to the Crown yet recognize Dominion autonomy. In this politically charged time, the British government wanted to avoid anything that would cause Australians to feel ill-will toward Britain.
One player said, when he heard that Jardine had been named captain, that England would "win the Ashes-but we may lose a Dominion." Jardine has been credited with the strategy known as the "bodyline," but it was only possible because he happened to have four star fast bowlers. The star of the Australian team was batsman Donald Bradman, known as the "Don," who took England's traditional spin bowling in stride but showed some uncertainty when faced with ace fast bowlers like Harold Larwood.
Jardine took advantage of this and ordered his bowlers to the attack, placing their balls in such a way that it would bounce right in front of the batsman and jump towards their heads. The bodyline itself was a line-up of fielders placed closely round the batsman, instead of spread over the pitch. The batsman was forced to respond defensively, and the ball would go straight into the hands of one of the close quarter fielders.
Like baseball, a catch is an out, and that batsman never comes back to bat. A technique that could knock out a player like the Don, who might get 200 or 300 runs, was of considerable value. But, as the crowds roared, it was not sportsmanlike. It was not cricket.
A diplomatic crisis ensued, with telegrams crossing the globe. An Australian player was quoted as saying that Jardine's tactics were unsportsmanlike, an insult so breathtakingly offensive that the British government demanded it be withdrawn. The crowds were wild, especially when several players were struck in the head and one Australian batsman sustained a fractured skull.
The 1984 Australian miniseries Bodyline: It's Not Just Cricket dramatized the legend. Jardine was portrayed as a sportsman not just obsessed with winning but as a sadistic Englishman who had to prove his superiority over the colonials. It was highly popular in both England and Australia.
Contemporary Tours
In recent decades, fans have talked about England's cricket performance in a way akin to Americans talking about the Chicago Cubs or the Boston Red Sox (though there was no known curse on England). The 2004-2005 Ashes tour, however, revived English hopes of regaining the Ashes.
As it happened, Larwood, the star bowler of the bodyline series, settled in Australia and became something of a hero. And in an ironic twist of modern commercialism and globalization, the Oval, where English cricket supposedly died in 1882, is now called the Foster's Oval, under the sponsorship of the Australian beer.
Karen Christensen
Further Reading
ABCs of cricket: The Ashes. (2004). Retrieved March 28, 2005, from http://www.abcofcricket.com/A_Legend_Is_Born/a_legend_is_born.htm
Cricket: The Ashes tour. (2003, January 25). Retrieved March 28, 2005, from news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/the_ashes/history
Guttmann, A. (2004). Sports, the first five millennia. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.
Holt, R. (1989). Sport and the British. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Lord's: The Ashes. (2002). Retrieved March 28, 2005, from
http://www.lords.org.uk/history/ashes.asp
Posted by Karen Christensen at 8:56 PM | Comments (0)
August 17, 2005
Women and sports
A couple of years ago I ended up as senior editor of the International Encyclopedia of Women & Sports (Macmillan 2001), a surprising position for someone who read instead of ran as a child. I'm a pre-Title IX woman, no doubt about it, but from my late teens I have been drawn to sports, and I've participated in quite a few. But I know the difference between a real athlete and a wannabe jock like me! Yesterday one of our sports contributors, Becky Clark, came to visit. Becky and I met in Tennessee in April but this was her first chance to meet the Berkshire team (which she is very much an honorary member of).
She and Marcy and Margaux have been emailing a lot over the past few months, so they had a special first meeting and we had a good time talking about a book called 25 Sports for Every Woman we're going to produce. We already have a good representative spread of women from different backgrounds and sports experience, and a 25-year age span between us, too.
One way the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport is different from our 1996 encyclopedia of sports is in its extensive coverage of women's sports, and the subject of women and sport is one that's still very much on our minds. (Margaux has started our training, too, with after-work Pilates ball workouts. She's trained as a spinning instructor, but we haven't yet figured how to manage that!)
Posted by Karen Christensen at 6:15 AM | Comments (0)
August 6, 2005
Horseracing at Saratoga Springs
This blog is sounding all too frivolous for a serious publisher intent on changing the world of reference! And it gets worse today: David and I are off to Saratoga, to see that famous horseracing venue for the first time. We've talked about doing this for years. David and Rolf Janke from Sage Reference were always making plans (and discussing their betting strategies). Last year we meant to go with our friends Mick and Julie. But it's finally come off, thanks to librarian Dave Tyckoson of Fresno State, whom we met at ALA in Chicago. Dave is a terrific thinker and writer on reference, both print and digital, and a regular contributor to Against the Grain. He's also a regular at Saratoga, so we have the great advantage of his experience when it comes to where to sit, eat, and generally enjoy the experience. He is not, though, willing to give betting advice! That's okay, David's already been online planning his strategy.
I don't have track fever, but I do love watching this sport--the "sport of kings." We visited the Horseracing Museum at Saratoga once, when we were thinking of an encyclopedia on the subject. That never quite came off, but of course the topic is one that we have covered at length in the new Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 8:02 AM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2005
Thoughts from the bike: on publishing and women's sports
I wore my 1999 Women’s World Cup tshirt while cycling this morning, and it reminded me of one reason we decided to start publishing independently: speed.
I got the tshirt when we attended a World Cup game at Foxborough stadium, on a blazing summer’s day in 1999. We were then putting final touches on the International Encyclopedia of Women & Sports, published by Macmilllan. As you’ll see from the extract below, this event presented a special opportunity to talk to women athletes from around the world. When we got to our hotel at midnight, the teams were there, so after picking up an autograph or two I spent an hour running around trying to interview someone from the North Korean team because we really wanted to fill in the sketchy information we had about women’s sports in that country.
But the encyclopedia wasn’t published till 2001-—and it had no update for the 2000 Olympic Games! This was done on big-box publisher time, not on a Berkshire schedule, which goes from start to finish in under two years. From the point we were at when we watched the World Cup would have been no more than two months to press.
Today, I'm happy to say, we get articles out faster, often, than academic journals do, to the amazement and pleasure of our authors. This speed keeps costs down and is good for libraries because their patrons get fresh, accurate information.
Most of our final work on the International Encyclopedia of Women & Sports took place during the Women’s World Cup of 1999 and we were lucky enough to attend a double header at Foxboro Stadium in Massachusetts. The thrill of the matches and the huge crowd was compounded when we returned to our hotel at midnight and found the lobby full of players from the U.S., Mexican, and North Korean teams we had watched play earlier in the evening. Instead of studying women’s sports, we were in the midst of it. We watched the players sign soccer balls and pose for photographs with their fans, and we talked to several members and coaches of the three teams.
It was enlightening to be among the calm and confident American players and their friends and families, talking to North Korean officials as the team dined on a buffet of American Chinese food, and chatting with 16-year old Monica, the youngest member of the Mexican team, in the corridor outside our room. Perhaps most striking was the fact that they were wide awake, happy, excited, and hungry, although it was midnight and they had just played 90 minutes of end to end soccer at the height of a heat wave.
The encyclopedia wasn’t forgotten. We had been unable to include an article on North Korea (though we do have one about South Korea) and we were hoping that Mr. Kim, the team’s spokesman, would be able to help us. Our efforts to meet him were unsuccessful, but the experience left us hopeful that sports - and particularly women’s sports - will continue to be a means of bringing peoples and cultures together, with increasing understanding and appreciation.
[Here's what we added to cover ourselves--and Macmillan--as far as the unfortunate delay in publication!!]
It is fitting that this encyclopedia will appear in print soon after the closing of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. The Olympics is perhaps the most important showcase for women’s sports, with events broadcast around the world and reported daily by the media. Women gold medalists become instant celebrities in their homelands and sometimes around the world. Because of the significance of the Olympics, we considered delaying publication of this encyclopedia to allow us to cover the Year 2000 Games.
But we did not want to see the publication of this much-needed resource delayed a day longer than necessary. Olympics results and biographical updates will be readily available on numerous websites and in the media, and an assessment of the importance of these particular Olympics in the history of women’s sorts requires both time and a broader framework than here-and-now event analysis. This encyclopedia is not a source of current events - though we have updated articles through June 2000 - and has a different mission from that of a TV news channel.
The International Encyclopedia of Women & Sports covers all aspects of the history and culture or women’s sports, the sports themselves, and women’s sports in the their societal context. Its 500 detailed articles provide context, background information, significant ethnographic and anecdotal information on women’s sports in the 2000 (and future) Olympic Games.
Karen Christensen and David Levinson
Berkshire Reference Works, part of Berkshire Publishing Group LLC
http://www.berkshirepublishing.com
Great Barrington, Massachusetts
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July 17, 2005
Peanuts and Cracker Jacks
David's watching the Red Sox play, after a long day of gardening interspersed with the British Open (he does devote himself to sports study!). And I've just found these notes Marcy sent me for posting when we were in Chicago, at ALA, about Oak Park, the area we stayed in--away from the downtown traffic and expressways.
I think I put it off then because the lovely area, where architect Frank Lloyd Wright built his first homes, had been the scene of a murder only a few days before. This murder hit close: the victim, professor Peter D'Agostino, was a friend and former student of Martin E. Marty, one of our eminent contributors whom we were meeting at ALA for the first time.
Here's Marcy Ross's article on the Chicago Columbia Exposition from the Berkshire Savant, along with some details about Wright's work. We love the idea of this early attempt at global thinking, and it's fun to imagine a time when soda and Cracker Jacks were brand new inventions.
"The World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago was visited by more than 27 million people during its six-month run from May-October 1893. It included a hugely popular midway of amusements with exotic dancers and carnival rides, including the world’s first Ferris wheel. Carbonated soda, hamburgers, and Cracker Jack were also introduced at the fair. Although much of the fair was devoted to extolling industrial progress, there was also a glorious Palace of Fine Arts and a woman’s building, designed by Sophia G. Hayden, the first woman to receive an architecture degree from MIT. Some 700,000 people attended a variety of “world congresses.” The World’s Congress of Representative Women drew 150,000 attendees, who heard addresses from Jane Addams, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and many others. The World’s Parliament of Religions brought together spiritual leaders from around the globe. Thousands of African Americans attended the eight-day “Congress on Africa”; Frederick Douglass and other key black leaders participated in the congress and in a “Colored American Day.” The Palace of Fine Arts (now the Museum of Science and Industry) still stands, along with a replica of Daniel Chester French’s “Statute of the Republic” that appeared in the fair’s Court of Honor. And Jackson Park, the site of the fair, still remains as a popular oasis for Chicagoans and visitors." (Marcy Ross, whose mother was a Chicago native, is an editor at Berkshire Publishing Group.)
From the time of the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 with the Japanese "Ho-o-Den" display, American architect Frank Lloyd Wright was influenced by Japanese art. Wright reported that he found Japanese art "nearer to the earth . . . than any European civilization alive or dead." Wright's work had some influence in Japan, too: the building known as the Japanese "White House" is inspired by his designs.
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July 6, 2005
London wins the bid!
We've been waiting eagerly for the IOC's announcement of the location for the 2012 Olympics. New York would have been closer, and any opportunity to go to Paris is welcome, to have the next but one Olympics in London, which I think of as my home city (Great Barrington is my home town), is perfect. Especially since the 2008 Olympics will take place in Beijing, the other global city looming large on our horizon.
In fact, the hallway our offices are on are lined with Beijing Olympic posters, brought back in 2001. We were in Beijing during the bidding process and the entire city seemed to be plastered with gorgeous posters. Even the elevator at our modest hotel was lined with them. I told Shaoping, a Chinese friend, that I was planning to take a couple with me. She was horrified, and the next morning turned up with a whole roll of posters and pamphlets: she had travelled to the Chinese Olympic Committee's office to get me a supply, to ensure that I didn't get into trouble at the hotel!
Posted by Karen Christensen at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)
July 4, 2005
The 4th of July
After a cold late spring and then a month of hideously hot weather interspersed with deluges, the weather gods granted us a 4th of July weekend of sheer splendor: clear warm days ideal for hiking and gardening. Our IP attorney and his partner, who had fascinating stories to tell about her representation of Guantanamo Bay internees, happened to have booked this weekend for a stay in the Berkshires. I think they have good karma!
I associate the 4th of July with softball, because during the years I lived in England I used to organize softball games and a traditional American BBQ for the 4th of July. This wasn't easy, because it so often conflicted with the Wimbledon finals and because teaching English people the rules of softball was hard work. It was an exercise in translation: the women wanted the game explained in terms of rounders (a game I was unfamiliar with), while the men thought in terms of cricket (a game few Americans can comprehend, though over time I came to love it). The thing they found most baffling, and never really accepted, is that someone could be out in one inning and yet go up to bat again later in the game. In cricket, when you're out, it's over--but then again people stay in to get hundreds of runs.
There was always strawberry shortcake, invariably enjoyed. But I could never convince an English person that iced tea was a civilized beverage. (Personally, I was quite happy to add Pimms to my 4th of July menu.) I miss those days of international sport in London, and felt quite homesick when my friend Emma emailed photos of her son playing village cricket.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 6:24 PM | Comments (0)
June 18, 2005
Batter up!
This week was a blur of activity--getting packets ready for the AP World History teacher workshops that start next week, setting up several cooperative events for ALA Chicago, and working on the strategic plans for our newly formed nonprofit, the Barrington Institute--but the most exciting event was holding the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport for the first time. These four beautiful volumes are leagues better than anything we've done before on sports, and the first set actually arrived a couple of days early. Our printers, Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan, are a small town, employee-owned business, and they have been with us every step of the way as we produced our first books. This, number three, is one that has everyone excited. (In fact, it's so popular that I'm hoping to have a special one-volume Father's Day edition ready a year from now.)
Ken Breen, who runs the Gale Virtual Reference Library, is such an enthusiast that he picked up the phone and got us an extra-special addition to the sports raffle we're holding in Chicago, thanks to his friend Peter Orlowsky at Getty Images. Thanks, guys!
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May 8, 2005
Toasting the Derby
Yesterday we watched the Kentucky Derby, an annual tradition even though in Massachusetts it’s barely springtime. When David announces that it’s Derby Day we always say, “Already?” Not the big hats and sleeveless dresses of Churchill Downs for us, but we do join in, no matter what the wweather here, with mint juleps. I had to scramble amid the mulch to find the very first tips of fresh mint, but there was enough, just. The Derby this year brought encyclopedias to mind in two ways. First, every time we watch a sporting event we are checking to make sure we’ve covered the sport and the issues well enough in our new (going to the printers this week) Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport. Sponsorship of the Derby is going to NBC from next year, though VISA will continue to be happily involved, it seems. “That’s Media-Sport Complex,” said David, “we’ve got an article on it.” "NBC Gets Ky. Derby Rights"
And when I watch the Derby I always think of Vince Davis, who wrote for one of my first encyclopedia projects, the Encyclopedia of U.S. Foreign Relations (which was eventually, long after I’d moved on, published by Oxford). Vince was long-time head of a diplomatic research center at the University of Kentucky and for some reason came to be my advisor on bourbon as well as U.S. diplomatic relations. I’d just returned to the States from the UK, so I think he was trying to get me reacclimated, and as a result, the only bourbon I drink is Maker’s Mark.
The funny thing is that I’ve never met Vince--though he did invite David and me to go to Lexington and explore the idea of an Encyclopedia of Horse Racing, a tempting idea. Reference publishing gives us such opportunities to develop connections with fascinating people all over the world (and experts to turn to for advice on subjects ranging from gene mining to whiskey). And every year on Derby Day I drink a toast to my Kentucky friend.
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April 22, 2005
Favorite author: Becky Clark
Here's that photo of Becky and me, standing in front of the (little) basketball hoop that's going in the playroom at the Child Advocacy Center. I really should have thrown a basket or two--I would have had a good chance there!
Listening to David Caruso yesterday I was struck by the connecton between sports and leadership, and Iwant to tell you about one comment of Pat Summitt's which has a lot of relevance for leaders. Pat Summitt is what they called the "winningest" coach in college basketball: she's won more games than any other coach, men's or women's. You can imagine what that takes. Her leadership style, when you watch her on the court, isn't at all soft, or what you might call empathic or even emotional. She's fierce. She yells.
Listening to her last week, it was obvious that she feels an immense sense of responsibility for the young women who play for the Lady Vols (players like Becky, by the way, who went deaf while she was on the team). She told us that players sometimes ask her, "Coach, aren't you ever going to be satisfied?" She tells them, she said, "I see more in you than you see in yourself. That's why I'm not satisfied."
That's one powerful kind of leadership.
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