Thanks for the responses.
Alex, it's just from google images but I've seen plenty of other diagrams saying the same thing.
Gargle, by all movement 'follows' the great circle, do you mean all movement is drawn to the great circle (equator)? If so, why? And, as Alex said, wouldn't that mean in your analogy shooting west, Coriolis would deflect it to the left? If so, that is contrary to the notion that Coriolis always deflects right in northern hemisphere.
For your analogy, I don't know what I'd expect, but circling the north pole and hitting me doesn't feel any more 'wrong' than flying to the south pole, passing at a hundred yards and coming back.