800 Words

February 26, 2006

800 WORDS

Cowboy Down

He's big, he's bad, he's tougher than jailhouse steak. In fact, he is jailhouse steak. He's Reindeer Dippin', 1,550 pounds of snot-flinging muscle, a black-and-white meat tornado —among the meanest, strongest, most unridable bulls on the Professional Bull Riders' Built Ford Tough circuit. In 23 career outings only two riders have

February 12, 2006

800 WORDS

True Blue

Look, up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's . . . oh my God, I'm already bored.

February 19, 2006

800 WORDS

R.I.P. STOP

What hath God wrought? Late last month, after more than 150 years, Western Union discontinued all telegram and commercial messaging services. Not just STOP but full stop.

February 5, 2006

800 WORDS

All Rays Lead to Pasadena

You may have a cool job. You may even have a cool title—say, something along the lines of "dessert czar." But I submit that no one has a more rapturous job title than Bill Weber, who is the head of something called the Interplanetary Network Directorate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Compared to such a title, "Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff" sounds like a typing monkey.