Just for Fun

At 85, his eyesight is going, but his curveball could strike you out

August 5, 2023

Pitcher Bill Lear is the oldest of the 450 or so players on D.C.-area baseball teams for those 48-and-older -- and a hell of a competitor

View / Downloadhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/08/05/maryland-baseball-seniors-bill-lear/

Who Edited Hanukkah Out of the Bible?

December 13, 2022

The person (or persons) --referred to as "R," the Redactor -- who wove together the different parts of the Bible to make a coherent whole.

View / Downloadhttps://momentmag.com/bible-edit-hanukkah/

Ni Hao, Pard! Bull Riding Comes to China

October 21, 2014

Mongolian horsemen, who have never seen Western bulls, struggle bravely to learn bull riding.

View / Downloadhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/ni-hao-pard-cowboys-come-to-china-but-bull-riding-is-tough-to-translate-1413945002

In Chinese Bullfighting Circles, He's a Bit Like Mike Tyson

August 28, 2012

A bull named Optimus Prime Optimus Prime humbles opponents when he feels like it.

View / Downloadhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444508504577593062173053248?mod=WSJASIA_hpp_MIDDLEFourthNews

A Bunch of Prima Donnas? Artists Seek Earlier Retirement

October 12, 2010

In Europe, ballerinas, opera singers, and matadors are exempt from laws increasing the retirement age.

View / Downloadhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704814204575508161428912510

Scholar's Dictionary Of Aztec Language May Take a Lifetime

February 24, 2006

Jonathan Amith works to make a digital dictionary of Nahuatl before the language disappears/

View / Downloadhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/SB114075216418482236

Mexican Folk Artist, Brilliant and Cursed, Triumphs as a Painter

July 13, 2005

One of Mexico's greatest amate painters trades his paintings for pschiatricl treatment.

View / Downloadhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/SB112121523457684039

Parma Says British Can't Cut It, Prized Hams Are Its Domain

June 4, 2002

Europe loves pigs, but the people of Parma really love them.

View / Downloadhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1023137142915824840

IRS Historian Quits Over How Agency Is Treating Its Past

December 15, 1995

The IRS makes taxpayers keep meticulous financial records but its historian quit after complaining the agency dumps its own historical files in a basement or shreds them.

View / Downloadhttps://apnews.com/article/58ac9512abd351d23d0cd1ddb2482e80

We Are Stardust, We Are Golden, but Are We Cashing In Yet?

July 27, 1994

I figure out what happened to tens of thousands of Woodstock tickets that were never sold.

View / Download

Bostonians Compete Sunday In World Series of Halfball, The Poor Man's Stickball

September 13, 1985

Halfball is stickball with half a ball. Bostonians love it.

View / Download