Word: sporting
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...Given that our unofficial national motto is "Too much sport is not enough," I am surprised that Australia and its games did not get a guernsey in your "Games People Play" issue. Polocrosse, a wild fusion of lacrosse and polo, has horses fitter than polo ponies and far more bruising action than polo does. Australian Rules, a cross between rugby league and Gaelic football, requires the utmost fitness, as there are virtually no stoppages and minimal reserves of replacement players. As for equestrian competition, when the Australian team won the Three-Day Event over the killer course...
...like Abbie Hoffman - who donned a shirt made of the flag - or others who stitched the flag onto the seat of their pants. But it was Richard Nixon who brought the pin to national attention. According to Stephen E. Ambrose's biography Nixon, the President got the idea for sporting a lapel pin from his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, who had noticed a similar gesture in the Robert Redford film The Candidate. Nixon commanded all of his aides to go and do likewise. The flag pins were noticed by the public, and many in Nixon's supposed "silent majority...
...tells of an eating contest between the god Loki and his servant (the servant won by eating the plate). But organized competitive eating - consuming as much as you can, as fast as you can, within a given period of time - is relatively new. According to Major League Eating, the sport's governing body (yes, there is one) the American version of the pastime began in 1916, the year that Nathan's Famous held its first Fourth of July hot dog-eating contest in Coney Island. According to legend, four immigrants competed to determine who was the most patriotic (the Irishman...
...After languishing for decades in county fair pie-eating obscurity, the sport rediscovered legitimacy in the mid-1990s when two brothers, George and Richard Shea, took over Nathan's publicity. They increased the hot dog contest's attendance from the hundreds to the thousands, and other restaurants jumped on the trend. The Sheas founded the International Federation of Competitive Eating (since retitled Major League Eating) to oversee the events. They now host 80 to 100 competitions a year, featuring everything from deep fried asparagus to tiramisu. The top events are broadcast live on ESPN; last spring, Nintendo announced a competitive...
...event, though, Germany's last-minute win in the first match between the countries in a major tournament in 50 years was also a victory for those who see sport as a relief from politics. The game outstripped expectations but not for what happened off the field. Turkey, which took the field without eight of its first-choice players, who were forced to miss the game due to injury or suspension for previous yellow cards, managed an inspired performance that laid bare the weakness in Germany's defense while Germany belied a lackluster performance for much of the game...