Dave Barry has published a new column.  Apparently, the Superbowl shall be in Florida this year.  Who knew?  ;-)

The Kentucky Derby is this Saturday!  I just realized this!  Granted, it's always on the first Saturday of May.  For 135 years.  This is not a surprise.  But May is on the next page of the calendar, and I'm on this page of the calendar, and...  Skipping the race on purpose, fine.  Missing it because I didn't see it coming, ridiculous!  There ( Read more... )

The first purchase I made in my fencing hobby was not my own foil, nor even mask or jacket: it was a book on fencing.  This surprises none of you.  This is what we do: we read!  And I've read so many interesting things in these histories of swordplay and manuals of fencing this past year that I would like to share with you, and just haven't ( Read more... )

"And tomorrow is the forty-third Superbowl, in which the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals will open for Springsteen." -- Seth Meyers, "Weekend Update," Saturday Night Live 01/31/09

The US national fencing championships are being held in San Jose, California this year, from July 1 through 10.  And while fencers must pay to compete (registration, etc.), the audience gets in for free, I'm told.  Events appear to begin between 7:00 AM and 2:00 PM daily.  Venue: San Jose McEnery Convention Center, 150 West San Carlos St., San ( Read more... )

( Belmont Results Spoilers )

I will be leaving shortly for a day-long fencing event (went to Saturday vigil mass -- 4:30 in English because Spanish and Portuguese get the prime later spots).  I don't plan to put my raw incompetence on display in front of strangers :-) but my sister will be competing ... and I will bring a change of clothes, just in case someone does need a ( Read more... )

Has everyone heard the exciting results of the 139th Belmont Stakes?  Or is it still a spoiler?  ( Read more... )

For your amusement, an excerpt from Monday's column by Leonard Pitts:"[L]ast week, CNN juxtaposed ... two fascinating stories on its website. One was Dr. Sanjay Gupta's report on a study by one Dr. J. Philippe Rushton, who, after analyzing SAT scores of 100,000 teenagers, claims that males are, on average, 3.6 IQ points smarter than females ( Read more... )

Every year, I watch the gate load at the Preakness with just one question, however put: Will the Kentucky Derby winner make it this time? Will this be a Triple Crown year at last? Will we learn whether there will ever again be a three-year-old thoroughbred who can run both sprints and endurance races at this level ( Read more... )