Sports & Entertainment

Last week's column described life with my 10-year-old son, Josh. I received a better response to that column than anything I have ever written before. As one Very Important Person said to me, "You need to write more personal columns that people identify with than just writing about politics."

I tried not to take this as indicating that few people care about my political opinions. (My 10-year-old son tells me he cares; my wife tells me she doesn't.) Read more...

First, this is a different column than the usual blah-blah-blah about politics, although I will try to link the topic to the name of my Washington Times column, “Purple Nation.” Just be patient. This column is actually about something important. This is about life with my 10-year-old son, Josh.

Let’s start with: Does anyone remember what it was like to be 10 years old? I try to. It was before I cared about girls, and cared a lot more about my baseball cards, Willie Mays (OK, I am dating myself), and Superman comic books. Read more...

Well, Barack Obama has been president-elect for just three weeks, and already something that a few times threatened to dominate the election seems to have been nearly forgotten.

Barack Obama is a black man. Yes, he is. But how quickly we’ve gotten to the place where it’s just not mattering very much. When you saw the president-elect up on the platform introducing his team of economic advisers, did you find yourself thinking, “Hmm, he’s a tad darker than the guy on his left”? Nope, I don’t think you did.

Oh, there’ll be a bit more discussion of race and culture, especially at inauguration time. But don’t expect it to go much beyond the sidebars that accompanied LBJ, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton when each of them brought his own culture and personality to the Oval Office. We just don’t have time right now for a lot of that kind of reflection. Read more...

Nov. 4, 2008 was certainly an historic day, but not just for politics.

The first annual Junior Ambassadors Tennis Cup held its finals, right here in Washington, at the William H.G. Fitzgerald Tennis Center.

Eight countries had 14-and-under boys and girls in the draws: the U.S., France, Italy, Venezuela, Japan, Czech Republic, Canada and Kazakhstan. Read more...

Last weekend two news clips caught my eye. One reported that former “SNL” comedy writer Al Franken (D) pulled ahead of Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman (R) in that state’s senatorial contest (40-34, according to one poll). The front page of The Washington Post advised, “Comedian Becomes Serious Contender.” Franken’s campaign has been stimulated by appearances by Hillary Clinton and Al Gore, and $6 million of ads paid for by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

In a second news item, CNN announced the premiere of a new comedy-news show, starring D.L. Hughley, a stand-up comic and former L.A. gang member. Hughley commented, “I’m, like, ‘Come on, man. I barely even know how to read. I’ve got a GED.’ ” CNN stated it was entering “into the well-established genre of news delivered with a satirical smile,” according to The New York Times, which highlighted the new program in its Arts section. Read more...

In Friday’s New York Times, Oakland Athletics’ General Manager Billy Beane, along with two politicians, co-wrote an op-ed arguing for the use of greater statistical analysis to bring down the costs of healthcare, while also increasing its efficacy. While the oddball pairing of former Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) are the powerhouse names on the letter, it’s Billy Beane’s that should inspire the most confidence.

There are some people who are so talented that they make things more interesting no matter what the medium or format. If you are a Tony Kornheiser devotee, you probably have gone to great lengths to follow him in print, radio and TV. I feel this way about Billy Beane. I was intrigued to learn that Beane has already turned his analytical eye on soccer (my favorite sport), and now it turns out that he has a plan to fix healthcare. What’s next? Is it possible Beane would be willing to serve on a presidential commission to fix the Metro escalators? Read more...

I never thought I would write this, but after three years on the air, “The Colbert Report” is consistently funnier than not only its Comedy Central predecessor, “The Daily Show,” but every nightly comedy program.

When “The Colbert Report” first aired, I wondered how the show would stay fresh, relying on what I thought was essentially a single joke. It seemed likely that “The Colbert Report” would have exactly the same problem “Saturday Night Live” has when it tries to stretch a five-minute sketch into a feature-length movie — it might work at the beginning, but eventually it’s going to seem stale and tired. The opposite has happened. Read more...

It's that time of year again — the race is coming down to the wire. Supporters' stomachs are clenched, not wanting to do anything that may jinx their team. I'm talking, of course, about the Major League Baseball playoffs.

As last night's improbable come-from-behind win by the Boston Red Sox showed, anything can happen. (There might be a campaign metaphor there.)

Over the past several years, politicians have tried to turn our National Pastime into something political. Read more...

China called upon the world community of gifted talent to build and design the most magnificent, green, tech-savvy buildings that you've ever seen, all done with Chinese thoughtfulness. There's no way that London will be able to have so many new sports stadiums built by so many renowned architects.

The three main tennis courts in the Olympic Forest Park are dodecagons, with each of the 12 sides serving as a stand. The stands, in turn, look like petals of a lotus flower. Taking into account the size of the tennis ball and its high speed, the architects designed steep stands that give fans the best line of sight, according to Zheng Fang, chief architect of the Shenzhen Design Consultant Corporation. Read more...

Ni hao from Bejing.

Olympians sightsee, too!

The sun finally took a break and allowed some rain, but the Games carried on and Olympians could be found sightseeing around the rich, vibrant and mammoth capital city of Beijing.

Beijing in a snapshot: The subways are clean, high-tech, easy, cheap, and smiling volunteers rescue you in a moment to assist. They are eager to help and it thrills them to do it. What a wonderful attitude the volunteers have. Many teams could be seen bicycling around to the sites and were so cheerful to wave and say hello and "Ni hao!" Read more...