I don't know a whole lot about it either TBH. There's a series on Netflix about it called Formula 1: Drive to Survive that I've been meaning to watch (it's already got a couple of seasons)
My husband's first trip to Canada was for work in 2011 (I know that because he had to get his passport then) and it was to Saskatoon. He said one of the interesting differences was at restaurants where they brought the card reader to your table and ran your card right there. That's not very common here in the U.S. with exception to the few places that have the machines at the table where the patron does the process themselves. Due to the pandemic it's becoming more common though to have the option to just pay via your phone online at the table, no swiping even needed.
This is me too. While I do live in a 2 million+ metro I'm still in the Midwest and Great Plains region. When my husband was on a work assignment for over 8 months in Maryland both him and I got almost claustrophobic because so much of the scenery was tall skinny trees and they lined the roads. We have trees and some hills (no mountains or anything) but you can drive and actually see your surroundings. I'm so used to seeing soybeans, wheat and sorghum, corn, sunflowers, cattle just chilling next to the road you're passing, etc.
That makes sense. I will say in racing in the U.S. people do watch for crashes too, though you're right there's a more completive edge to it. We have a NASCAR track here and boy on race weekends it's loud if you're up near that area. I've been to one NASCAR race but I was much younger. My mom has some good friends that go with their RV and tour the races.
I actually had that conversation with my husband, that many curlers started at golf clubs. However, many of those have since closed. He knows of two clubs that don’t have their curling any more, he grew up in Etobicoke. Mississauga Club does have one, that turned up after my initial search. It just isn’t as common as other areas of Canada.There are two in Mississauga (that I know of). Don't forget that many golf clubs have curling sheets (The Mississauga Golf and Country Club does). It doesn't have to have "curling" in its name.
I started curling with "tin can" curling when I was, maybe, six or seven. Fun game. Grew up about four blocks east of the Mississauga border
In the remote, northern Alberta region I grew up in, almost none of the little farm towns had hockey rinks but they all had curling rinks and still do. Until maybe 20 years ago or so most of them were natural ice inside uninsulated plywood buildings - conditions depended 100% on the weather conditions. 
I had an Aunt and Uncle who lived in Paddockwood, Saskatchewan and I remember the curling rink in town in far back as about 1969. The latest Google street view image is from 2013 and it was still there then, but in pretty sad shape.
Absolutely and the players competing at international levels are elite athletes like any other. They often suspend their careers to train full time, or curling becomes their careers and it’s how they make their living (there is an international circuit of competitions with sponsored prize money something similar to the PGA). They work with a full entourage of professional trainers, coaches, sports medicine professionals and sports psychologists. It’s definitely not just a bunch of random buddies getting together to ‘spiel on Saturdays.
True but I was just talking about the interest level of Americans. Find a pic of the 2018 U.S. men's team and you'll know what I'm talking about and all the news stories about it. The dad bods were all anyone could talk about lol at least around here. The interest level skyrocketed and suddenly all of us were glued to our TV, there was a relatable factor. Like I said in my last comment about great skill of course it takes that. Don't take my comment as anything more than explaining how curling got huge attention here in the U.S
