Bruce Cameron

Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published in 2009.

As frequent readers of this column know, I am a natural athlete who enjoys participating in a wide variety of sports, as long as I don’t have to be there in person. This is especially true during winter, so when my nephew informs me he wants to go ice skating, I’m only too happy to tell him he’s wrong.

Here’s a little history: Ice skating was first invented sometime around 3,000 B.C. to make the game of hockey more dangerous. It was introduced to North America by the Swedes, who fled the frozen terrain of their native Scandi...