Behind every successful athlete is a geek.(The Dallas Morning News)

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah _ Before you start up that curling club, here are a few things you should know: your bowling shoes will not do, cow chips are not a substitute for stones, and you can't buy your brooms at Wal-mart.

Not unless it has a "sweep ergometer" aisle, anyway.

Technology marches on, crunching all in its path. Nothing is sacred. Curling has been around hundreds of years, which we know because the Presbyterians wrote up Bishop Graham of Orkney in 1638 thusly: "He was a curler on the ice on the Sabbath."

Sundays are cool now. And that's not the least of it. Instead of diving into some haggis and neeps after a good three-hour match, the Scots are …