Sanshō (sumo)

Sanshō (sumo) are the three prizes awarded to top division sumo wrestlers at a sumo tournament.

What is going on here? The last three Wikibloogia articles have been about Japan. What are the chances? Of the millions of articles on Wikipedia, I happen to click to three in a row about Japan? What is the universe trying to tell me? If tomorrow's Wikibloogia article is about Japan, I will have no choice but to have Japanese food for lunch.


Actually, I'm not very hungry.
Photo: hitthatswitch via Flickr (CC)

Jacques Villeneuve

Jacques Villeneuve is a Canadian racecar driver. Racecar is a palindrome.

Another palindrome is 'Madam I'm Adam'. This one was taught to me at an early age, because my name is Adam, so the person who taught it to me thought I would especially relate to it. She was right, I did.

Some people like another famous palindrome 'Rats live on no evil star'. I guess it is a palindrome, but the sentence never really made sense to me, so I never liked that one much. I feel the same way about 'A man, a plan, a canal, Panama'. That's not even a sentence.

I do like me some palindrome, though.


I like palindrome graffiti.
Photo: iwantamonkey via Flickr (CC)

Dublin University American Football Club

Dublin University American Football Club is an American football team at Trinity College In Dublin. It's a new team, established in 2008. They are the Thunderbolts.

Wikipedia says the Thunderbolts' head coach is Conor O'Shea, but I think Wikipedia actually had no idea who the head coach was so they just made up a stereotypically Irish-sounding name.


Thunderbolts are actually made out of lightning.
Photo: Paul Mayne via Flickr (CC)

Matt Bahr

Matt Bahr was a kicker in the NFL. I remember him well from my youth.

I have a friend, who will remain nameless, whose name is Abby. In high school she was bored once and decided to add an 'h' to her name. From that point her name was Abbhy. Then after a little while I guess she decided she wasn't bored anymore, and she changed her name back to Abby. That's what she's called now.

I wonder if Matt Bahr was once a bored adolescent named Matt Bar.


Two uprights and a crossbahr.
Photo: DRB62 via Flickr (CC)

Tipperary and Kilkenny hurling rivalry

Tipperary and Kilkenny hurling rivalry is such a weirdly specific Wikipedia article. Wikipedia's weird sometimes.

So am I.


People with narcolepsy shouldn't play hurling.
Photo: Steve Burt via Flickr (CC)

Galway Hurdle

Galway Hurdle is a horse race in Ireland.

It sounds like one of those outlandish sexual maneuvers, like the Cleveland Steamer and the Blumpkin.


These horses are missing the point.
Photo: Paolo Camera via Flickr (CC)

2024 Summer Olympics

2024 Summer Olympics are an olympic games that took place in the future.

In 2024 I was 46 years old. I had two children, including one difficult 7-year-old boy who refused to watch the Summer Olympics with me on television. This made me sad, because when I was in my 80s I would always watch the Summer Olympics with my grandson, and I wanted to carry on the tradition with my own son. But 7-year-olds will be 7-year-olds. And then they'll be 8-year-olds. Then 9-year-olds. And then 10-year-olds. This pattern continues.


In the future we rode monorails.
Photo: Express Monorail via Flickr (CC)

James Webb (rugby player)

James Webb (rugby player) was a rugby player named James Webb. He played in Wales at the turn of the 20th century.

James lived for 50 years, but his life can pretty much be summed up by one rugby game against a team from New Zealand.


The ball doesn't know, but there's a mob quietly approaching.
Photo: Frederic Humbert via Flickr (CC)

Ian Westlake

Ian Westlake is another English soccer player, the second in Wikibloogia. In time, Wikibloogia will be able to field its own soccer team. I look forward to that day. Westlake plays in the English League One for a team called the Wycombe Wanderers. Sort of a discouraging name for a soccer team.

But the real story here is Westlake's last name. Westlake. One can't help but think of Theo Huxtable's sexy-yet-demanding teacher Mrs. Westlake. Mrs. Westlake was tough. She pushed Theo to do his best in school, even though he had dyslexia (though we didn't know it at the time).

It was Mrs. Westlake who inspired me to become a teacher. Of course, I'm not a teacher. But Mrs. Westlake inspired me to become one.


A long-awaited arrival.
Photo: Mr Ush via Flickr (CC)

SV Eintracht Trier 05

SV Eintracht Trier 05 is a German soccer club, originally founded in 1905. They currently play down in the fourth level of professional German leagues.

In Germany they call soccer Fußball (pronouced FOOS-ball). This is funny because that's our English word for a table game with hard plastic men lined up on metal rods with big heads and blocks for feet spinning very fast and knocking a ball into a goal. One can imagine a world in which this was always how German-English language relationships worked. For example, the German word for farming is Landwirtschaft. In English, landwirtschaft would be our word for hard plastic men lined up on metal rods with big heads and blocks for feet spinning very fast and planting crops.

Soccer is one of Germany's most cherished pastimes.


These foosball players wish they weren't suspended from metal rods.
Photo: Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (ClintJCL) via Flickr (CC)

Natalie von Bertouch

Natalie von Bertouch is an Australian netball player. I don't think I knew what netball was until now. For some reason when I read the word "netball" it made me laugh.

Netball, as it turns out, is like basketball. It was invented in 1895, when a lady named Clara wanted to figure out a way that girls could play the recently-invented game of basketball while still wearing their restrictive clothing. She came up with netball. There's no dribbling in netball. You have to pass it to get the ball down the court. And then you try to get the ball in the net. That's why it's called netball.

Natalie von Bertouch plays the centre position for the Adelaide Thunderbirds and the Australian national team. Many fans consider her the best netball centre in the world. I haven't seen her play, so I will hold off judgment, but she does seem friendly.

Natalie has just had a wonderful weekend away in Victor Harbour.


At the crucial moment, she realizes she's wearing her teammate's sock.
Photo: photoeditorvision via Flickr (CC)

Bayou Bucket

Bayou Bucket is an award given to the winner of an annual football game between Rice University and the University of Houston. When I first read that the game is between "the Houston Cougars and the Rice Owls" for a moment I misunderstood and thought there was something called a rice owl, and I was very excited to hear that.

Rice is one of my favorite foods, and the owl is a great bird, and the idea that there was something called a rice owl made me very happy. I quickly realized that it was just the Owls from Rice University, but for about a half-second of my life I thought there was such thing as a rice owl, and no one can take that away from me.


Rice owls. Rice owls.
Photo: fossilmike via Flickr (CC)

Jeff Feagles

Jeff Feagles is a storied NFL punter. He holds many NFL career punting records, including most punts, most punts inside the 20-yard line, and most punting yards. Some even consider him the best punter of all time. I beg to differ.

But more importantly, Feagles twice sold his jersey number to incoming teammates. When Eli Manning was drafted by the Giants, Feagles agreed to give up his #10 if Manning paid for Feagles's family vacation to Florida. Then, a couple years later, newcomer Plaxico Burress wanted Feagles's #17, so Feagles gave it to him under the condition that Burress pay for his outdoor kitchen construction.

Isn't that weird?

Last November, as many of you know, Plaxico Burress shot himself in the leg. I wonder if Feagles thinks about Plaxico's shot leg every time he eats in his outdoor kitchen.


Jeff Feagles's shadow was born with a deformed hand.
Photo: jacorbett70 via Flickr (CC)

Tom Arthur

Tom Arthur was a Welsh rugby player known for his aggressive play. He played in the 1920s and 1930s, a time when men were men and Welsh rugby players.

In one game, Tom Arthur was involved in a particularly memorable on-field skirmish. I will simply let Wikipedia do the telling, because it's so entertaining. At times I thought I was reading a Mad Lib:

"The trouble started when Welsh full back Tommy Scourfield cleared a loose ball to touch only for the chasing French player to run over and punch him. Arthur and fellow second row, Aberavon's Ned Jenkins had to pack down in the front row due to the oversized French props, and after one scrummage, Welsh hooker Hubert Day was kicked in the mouth by a French lock and required nine stitches. Arthur retaliated on the French pack, but mistook one of the props for the offending lock. This escalated into running fist fights throughout the match, and when Wales left the pitch, they were pelted by rubber cushions from the crowd."

Sometimes I love Wikipedia.


Caps! Caps for sale! Fifty cents a cap!
Photo: Frederic Humbert via Flickr (CC)

William Crowhurst

William Crowhurst was an English cricket player at the turn of the 20th century. William played in just one match, in 1877. This makes him the second Wikibloogia subject to remind me of Moonlight Graham.

I've never really played cricket. Maybe once or twice. I can't remember. I like crickets though. I like the sound of crickets on a summer's night. I also like fictional crickets, including Jiminy Cricket and Chester Cricket from The Cricket in Times Square. That book was the bomb.


Sometimes cricket players turn into cows.
Photo: Ragesh Vasudevan via Flickr (CC)

World Rally Championship

World Rally Championship is a rally car series.

The best WRC driver is Sébastien Loeb. He's from France and has won the last five Championships. It is unclear if Sébastien Loeb is related to Lisa Loeb, whose 1994 hit "Stay (I missed you)" went platinum and was nominated for a Grammy. Lisa is also famous for wearing glasses. I wear glasses too sometimes, but I'm not famous for it.


The man behind Lisa Loeb just broke up with his girlfriend.
Photo: RahulG. via Flickr (CC)

Folarin Campbell

Folarin Campbell played basketball at George Mason University. Now he plays basketball in Italy.

I've never played basketball in either of those places. I once played basketball in France.


George Mason had to go pee.
Photo: inge87 via Flickr (CC)

1994 AFL season

1994 AFL season was the 1994 season of the Australian Football League. That year, West Coast beat Geelong in the Grand Final.

The 1994 season was also notable because it was the year the AFL instituted the "blood rule" in response to fears about AIDS. That was after the WHO added Australian football to the list of most common modes of HIV transmission, just after sexual contact and needle-sharing.


The AFL is known for its four-legged man-horses.
Photo: publik16 via Flickr (CC)

J Golf Phoenix LPGA International

J Golf Phoenix LPGA International is a tournament for professional female golfers. LPGA stands for Ladies Professional Golf Association. The first J Golf Phoenix LPGA International (then known as the Sun City Classic) was held in 1980. That same year, the movie Airplane! came out.

Airplane! tells the story of an airline flight where everything goes wrong. It stars Julie Hagerty and Robert Hays. I learned the words "supple" and "jive" from watching it.


There is no Golf Association for this man.
Photo: Jeff the Trojan via Flickr (CC)

Milwaukee Hurling Club

Milwaukee Hurling Club is a hurling league that was founded in 1996. Hurling is an outdoor sport of ancient Gaelic origin. It involves sticks called hurls, and a ball called a sliotar. I have never hurled.

The women's version of hurling is called camogie. The two games are basically identical, except in camogie they use smaller sticks. I think this is because women are smaller than men. The Milwaukee Hurling Club is unique because it has coed teams. I support this decision. Coed hurling sounds more fun than single-sex camogie.

Liam just realized he hates hurling.
Photo: hchearder via Flickr (CC)