The off topic off topic thread

[Alexander555]

He Kassy, is there any hope for an elfstedentocht this year ?

[kassy]

LOL

Well of course there is speculation but you need a specific set of circumstances.
First of it needs to be cold for a while and that one checks out for next week although it might be already phasing out then.

Other conditions needed: not too much or ideally no new snow over the ice because that inhibits ice  growth. This might be a problem because here it is a rather constant downpour of tiny snowflakes and i bet they have the same.

If you have both cold and no snow you also want a little wind but not to much but i do not think it is relevant now.

Then there are other details like Covid. Events are banned. Some elite sports like soccer but also ice skating have bubbles and exemptions. Of course the Marathon skaters now want that too but the official Elfstedentocht commision already said they can not organize it.

The other talk is the dutch natural ice marathon championship which was last contested 8 years ago. And yes it is very sad that they will have to wait for the next one in who knows how many months but ofc the elite sports get a pass because the are regular TV filler.

So yes there is hope but it is in vain.

[nanning]

A taste of humour from Friesland (Fryslân).
(3m52)

[be cause]

great to see you at last .. b.c.

[Gerntocratis#1]

I'm hoping a lot of posters return for the melting season, especially Friv.

[oren]

Careful what you wish for... Friv usually comes when the ice is crashing.

But you can already see how the thread suddenly became very active as soon as a few days of losses came along. Many posters will come out of their hibernation, rest assured.

[Tor Bejnar]

Some of us hibernate with our mouths open (or fingers tapping).