Inside the NBA

The first baseman for the San Diego Padres is Yonder Alonso.

Nina Cassian, Romanian poet, wrote a poem parodying the practice she called 'uniquely American' in which a poet giving a reading precedes each work with a précis of the very work to be read.

Not one of Thomas Hardy's first three novels sold more than twenty copies.

The Center for Information Dominance in Monterey, California recently hosted the new chief of the NSA. His speech to the center was closed to the media, but a press release and photo were made available.

Charles Barkley, basketball player and tv commentator, is rumored to have political aspirations in the state of Alabama.

'Clearing confusion' is the name of a Zen practice between two people, or among a group, in which any and all possible previous miscommunications are meant to be rectified, though the practice often creates new confusions, as noted by the participants.

Lawrence Durrell, a lifelong smoker, died of emphysema in the south of France.

Charles Bukowski, told by his doctor he had to stop drinking or he'd die, left the doctor's office and headed straight to a bar on Beverly Boulevard, staying there until closing time, drinking.