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☆ A Brief History of the Phrase ‘No One Is Above the Law’
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-13 | by ( Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“The American principle that no one is above the law was reaffirmed,” President Biden said after former President Donald J. Trump was convicted last month of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal. “No one in this country is above the law,” David Weiss, the special counsel who prosecuted Hunter Biden on gun charges, said after Mr. Biden was convicted this week. The expression has been used by plenty of political figures in recent weeks, including Vice President Kamala Harris (“Donald Trump thinks he is above the law,” she said at a recent campaign event). The phrase “above the law” has appeared in The New York Times 100 times this year alone. The specific origin of the phrase is not clear, with several people getting credit for pushing it forward.

Persons: Biden, Donald J, Trump, ” David Weiss, Hunter Biden, Mr, —, Kamala Harris, “ Donald Trump, ” Organizations: ”, New York Times

☆ Pro Skier and Partner Fall to Their Deaths in the Italian Alps
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Victor Mather | More About Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A professional skier and his girlfriend fell more than 2,000 feet to their deaths while mountain climbing in the Italian Alps, sports officials in the country said. As is common in climbs of this kind, they were tied together. They were alone, so it is not known precisely how or why they fell. When family members reported them missing, rescuers began a search. The Italian television channel TG3 reported that the pair were almost at the summit when they fell.

Persons: Jean Daniel Pession, Elisa Arlian, FISI, Mr, Pession, Arlian Organizations: TG3 Locations: Italian, Monte Zerbion

☆ Kilauea Volcano Erupts on Hawaii’s Big Island
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-03 | by ( Victor Mather | More About Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Kilauea, the most active volcano in Hawaii, began erupting early on Monday morning. Kilauea, in the southeast part of the Big Island, erupted three times last year. Because the eruption was happening near the summit, there did not appear to be any immediate danger to residents. The eruption began at 12:30 a.m. local time. Magma was rising from beneath the surface and “fountaining” up through cracks, the United States Geological Survey said.

Persons: fountaining Organizations: United States Geological Survey Locations: Hawaii

☆ A Very Quick Guide to Understanding Cricket
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-31 | by ( Victor Mather | More About Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

I know baseball, but can you quickly explain cricket as played in the T20 World Cup? With the caveat that there are some oversimplifications, here is the gist:The cricket field is a large circle, and the fielding team spreads out around it. Two batsmen at the center of the circle take turns trying to hit balls from the fielding team’s bowlers. When a batsman does hit the ball, he and his fellow batsman may elect to run between two low posts, called wickets. Another is that the batsmen may hit the ball in any direction, even backward; there is no foul territory.

Persons: I’ll

☆ An 81-Year-Old ‘Serial Slingshot Shooter’ Is Arrested After Decade of Mischief
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-29 | by ( Victor Mather | More About Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Residents of North Enid Avenue in Azusa, Calif., would find a broken window in their house or car and a telltale ball bearing nearby. Sometimes, more alarmingly, a pellet would whiz by someone outside, nearly striking them. It was, to say the least, “a quality-of-life issue,” as the police put it. It turns out the mayhem was the work of a “serial slingshot shooter,” according to the police. A slingshot and ball bearings were found on his property, which is on the block where the crimes were carried out, the police said.

Persons: Prince Raymond King Organizations: North Enid Locations: North, Azusa , Calif

☆ Judy Devlin Hashman, Record-Holding Badminton Champion, Dies at 88
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-08 | by ( Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Judy Devlin Hashman, who won the all-England badminton singles championships 10 times, more than any other player, man or woman, died on Monday. Before badminton established a world championship or joined the Olympics, the All England Open Badminton Championships was the sport’s pinnacle. Hashman won the women’s singles title in that event for the first time in 1954 at age 18. Her 10 singles titles are the most for any player. She also won seven women’s doubles titles, six of them with her sister Susan Devlin, later known as Susan Peard.

Persons: Judy Devlin Hashman, Geoff Hashman, Hashman, Susan Devlin, Susan Peard, Judy Devlin, J, Frank Devlin, Grace, Steed, Devlin Organizations: England, Olympics, Badminton, Wimbledon Locations: Oxford, England, Winnipeg, Canada, Maryland

☆ A Baguette Is Baked in France
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Victor Mather | More About Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Look, the French know how to make a great baguette, right? Can the French make a big baguette? An enormously long baguette that could feed a small town? French bakers in Suresnes, just west of Paris, made a 461-foot baguette on Sunday. The massive loaf successfully returned the title of world’s longest baguette to France, according to Guinness World Records, as it exceeded a 435-foot baguette made by (gasp) Italians in 2019.

Organizations: Guinness World Records Locations: Suresnes, Paris, France

☆ Pet Alligator Is Mistakenly Released Into the Wild, Owner Says
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( Victor Mather | More About Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

WallyGator, the emotional support alligator who enjoyed a moment of fame last year when he was denied admittance to a Major League Baseball game, is back in the news. Wally’s owner, Joie Henney, said on social media that the alligator had been taken early in the morning of April 21 from a pen where he was being kept in Brunswick, Ga.Mr. Henney said on Monday that he had learned that Wally was taken by a person who had then dropped him in someone else’s yard, possibly to scare them. When the alligator was discovered, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources was called, and brought in a trapper, who caught and released the animal into a swamp where about 20 other alligators lived, Mr. Henney said. Mr. Henney, of Jonestown, Pa., said the trapper had told him that the chances of finding the alligator now were “slim to none,” but Mr. Henney was holding out hope and said he planned to search for WallyGator.

Persons: He’s, Joie Henney, Henney, Wally Organizations: Major League Baseball, Georgia Department of Natural Resources Locations: Brunswick, Jonestown, Pa

☆ A 2-Year-Old in Arizona Died When a Bounce House Blew Away. Can They Be Made Safer?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-30 | by ( Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A 2-year-old boy was killed on Saturday when a bounce house in Casa Grande, Ariz., was picked up by a strong gust of wind and flew into a neighboring lot. The child was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Another child who had been in the bounce house was treated at a hospital with non-life-threatening injures. Whether called a bounce house, a bouncy castle or a moon bounce, those inflatable structures are a popular fixture at fairs and birthday parties. A 2022 University of Georgia study found 28 bounce house deaths worldwide since 2000 in wind-related incidents.

Organizations: of Georgia Locations: Casa Grande, Ariz, Spain, Australia

☆ Huw Edwards, a Top BBC Anchor, Resigns After 40 Years
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Victor Mather | More About Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Huw Edwards, one of the BBC’s highest-profile anchors and who was suspended last year over allegations of paying for explicit images, resigned from the broadcaster on Monday. Mr. Edwards, 62, had led the BBC’s coverage of major national events, including the death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. He started as a trainee in 1984, and by the end of his career he was the regular anchor of “BBC News at Ten.”He was suspended by the BBC in July after The Sun tabloid newspaper reported that an unnamed anchor from the broadcaster had paid a teenager $45,000 for sexually explicit images, starting when the person was 17. Mr. Edwards’s wife later publicly identified her husband as the anchor in the report. The age of consent in Britain is 16, but sharing or possessing indecent images of someone under 18 is a crime.

Persons: Huw Edwards, Edwards, Queen Elizabeth II, Edwards’s Organizations: BBC, Sun Locations: Britain

Two giant, shirtless men bow respectfully and then hurl themselves at each other in a violent pas de deux that ends with a victory in seconds. But the setting for this tussle on Saturday night was not Tokyo or Osaka, but the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. There, a boisterous, nearly full crowd got an in-person look at sumo wrestling, an ancient Japanese sport that is rarely seen stateside. Before the matches began, Melinda Wilkerson, who like most in the crowd was set to see sumo live for the first time, said she expected to see “some talented athletes.” Her husband, Brett, clarified: “Some big talented athletes.”

Persons: Melinda Wilkerson, ”, Brett Organizations: Madison Locations: Tokyo, Osaka, New York City

☆ The Life of O.J. Simpson: A Timeline
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-11 | by ( Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Simpson, who died on Wednesday at 76, lived a life that made him one of the most famous people in America, as well as, at various times, the most celebrated and most reviled. A Heisman Trophy winner when he played football at the University of Southern California, he reached superstar status as a running back with the Buffalo Bills. As a commercial pitchman and a Hollywood actor, he became a household name across much of America. But fame turned to infamy when he was charged in the 1994 double murder of his former wife and her friend. He was acquitted after a trial that riveted the nation.

Persons: O.J, Simpson Organizations: University of Southern, Buffalo Bills Locations: America, University of Southern California

☆ Track Will Be First Sport to Pay Olympic Gold Medalists
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-10 | by ( Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Track and field will be the first sport to give direct cash payments for Olympic gold medals, the sport’s federation announced Wednesday. It took pride in being a competition where elite athletes battled for nothing more than the joy of representing their country. But the notion of amateurism at the Olympics has eroded over the last three decades, as professional athletes have been allowed to participate. Now World Athletics, the global governing body for track and field, will break new ground by making payments to competitors more straightforward: All individual gold medalists in the sport at the Paris Games this summer will receive $50,000. The federation said it would begin paying silver and bronze medalists lesser amounts in 2028.

Persons: Amateurism, ” Organizations: Paris Games

☆ Guns, Machetes and Illness: The Perils of Running the Length of Africa
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-08 | by ( Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Going for a run can get a bit more difficult when it lasts for a year and is complicated by robbery, illness and men with machetes. Russ Cook, a 27-year-old Englishman, completed his south-to-north run across the continent of Africa on Sunday in Cape Angela, Tunisia. He had set off from Cape Agulhas, South Africa, on April 22, 2023. After his start in South Africa, he mostly skirted the west side of the country, sticking fairly close to the ocean. He said he chose the West African route primarily for safety reasons, although he nonetheless ran into dangerous situations.

Persons: Russ Cook Locations: Africa, Cape Angela, Tunisia, Cape Agulhas, South Africa, Angola, Namibia, Republic of Congo, Algeria, West

☆ A Grim Tory Ad About London Crime Used New York Footage
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

It was a typical political attack ad. “London: a city steeped in history,” a narrator says, as grim string music plays. “But tonight its ancient streets bear witness to a different tale. They weren’t in London. They were in Penn Station in New York.

Persons: ” Locations: London, Penn, New York

☆ Chick-fil-A Modifies Its ‘No Antibiotic’ Policy
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Victor Mather | More About Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The fast food restaurant Chick-fil-A said on Monday that it would shift its policy that had barred serving chicken treated with any antibiotics and serve chicken treated only with animal antibiotics. The old policy was known as No Antibiotics Ever and barred the use of antibiotics used to treat people and animals. The new one, which is known as No Antibiotics Important to Human Medicine, is expected to go into effect in the spring. The previous policy meant that no antibiotics of any kind were given to animals. The new approach bars the use of antibiotics used to treat people but does allow the use of animal antibiotics if the animal and those around it are sick.

☆ A Roman Head Is Unearthed, but Mysteries Remain
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

When you dig in a country with as much history as Britain, sometimes you find something remarkable. Or, in a more recent case, it might be the marble head of a woman from the Roman era that disappeared at some point in the last 250 years. Sometimes, such a find comes with a mystery: How the heck did the woman make her way from Burghley House, a stately home near Peterborough, England, to a shallow grave 300 yards away? “Burghley has thrown up all sorts of discoveries over the years,” Jon Culverhouse, the house’s curator, said. “In cupboards, under stairs.”

Persons: “ Burghley, ” Jon Culverhouse, “ Organizations: Burghley House Locations: Britain, Burghley, Peterborough, England

☆ Dallas Seavey Overcomes Moose-Gutting Penalty to Win Iditarod
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-12 | by ( Victor Mather | More About Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Dallas Seavey won his record sixth Iditarod sled dog race on Tuesday, despite an eventful race that included a penalty for failing to properly gut a moose. Seavey was cruising in the race last week near Skwentna, Alaska, when his dog team became entangled with a moose. Sledders in the race are permitted to carry firearms and Seavey used his to shoot and kill the moose. The ethics of the Iditarod race require that when a large animal like a moose or caribou is killed during the competition, its meat must be taken and distributed. So the sledder involved in the accident must stop and gut the animal.

Persons: Dallas Seavey, Seavey Locations: Skwentna , Alaska

☆ Thieves Stole a Formula 1 Driver’s Ferrari. It Turned Up 28 Years Later.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

As a driver on the glamorous, jet-setting Formula One circuit, naturally the Austrian Gerhard Berger drove some serious iron, even away from the track: a red Ferrari 512M Testarossa. So it was very likely with some dismay that he watched his car unexpectedly drive away with someone else behind the wheel. Berger jumped in the path of the car, according to reports at the time, but had to leap out of the way as it zoomed off. He then gamely gave chase in a friend’s Volkswagen Golf, which went about as well as you would have expected it to. The Ferrari was gone.

Persons: Austrian Gerhard Berger, Berger, gamely, Ferrari Organizations: Ferrari, San Marino, San Marino Grand Prix Locations: Austrian, San Marino Grand, Imola, Italy

☆ Microsoft Word’s Subtle Typeface Change Affected Millions. Did You Notice?
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-28 | by ( Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

When you read — a book, a traffic sign, a billboard, this article — how much do you really notice the letters? But even if you don’t really notice them, you might sense it if something has subtly changed. That’s a feeling some people have had in recent weeks when they turn on their Microsoft Word programs. After 17 years of Calibri as Word’s default typeface, many users suddenly found themselves typing in a new typeface called Aptos. Letters are letters, but for designers and typography fans, they matter a lot.

Persons: ”, Jon Friedman Organizations: Microsoft

Maybe it’s AT&T, which went down for many users on Thursday. The short answer: You need a Wi-Fi connection. Call on Wi-FiFirst, be sure that Wi-Fi calling is turned on in your phone’s settings. iPhone users can turn on Wi-Fi calling by going to Settings, and then activating Wi-Fi calling under the Cellular settings page. Android users can turn on Wi-Fi calling within the Phone app.

Persons: you’re

☆ The BT Tower, a Once-Futuristic London Landmark, Will Become a Hotel
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London and the London Eye are all important landmarks in Britain’s capital. But after another staple of the city’s skyline, the BT Tower, was sold to an American group on Wednesday, plans are afoot to turn it into a hotel: one that rises 581 feet (177 meters) above the ground. “We will take our time to carefully develop proposals that respect the London landmark’s rich history and open the building for everyone to enjoy,” Tyler Morse, the chief executive of MCR Hotels, which bought the tower, said in a statement. The sale price was 275 million pounds ($346 million), the seller, BT Group, said in a statement. MCR owns several notable hotels, including the TWA Hotel, which occupies the Eero Saarinen-designed former TWA terminal at Kennedy Airport, and the High Line Hotel in New York City, which was formerly a dormitory for the General Theological Seminary.

Persons: ” Tyler Morse, MCR, Eero Saarinen Organizations: BT, MCR, BT Group, TWA, Kennedy Airport, General Theological Seminary Locations: Paul’s, London, Britain’s, New York City

☆ Kelvin Kiptum, Marathon World Record-Holder, Is Dead at 24
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-13 | by ( Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Kelvin Kiptum, who shattered the world record in the men’s marathon last year, finishing tantalizingly close to the mythical and once unfathomable two-hour barrier, died in a car crash on Sunday in Kaptagat in western Kenya. His death was announced by Athletics Kenya, the governing body for track and field in that country. Kiptum, who was driving, veered off the road into a ditch and then hit a large tree, the authorities said. After some good performances in half marathons, Kiptum broke through in his first marathon in Valencia, Spain, in 2022, with a winning time of 2:01:53. At the London Marathon in 2023, he crushed the field to win in 2:01:25, the second-fastest time in history, 16 seconds short of the world record of 2:01:09 held by Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya.

Persons: Kelvin Kiptum, Gervais Hakizimana, Hakizimana, Sharon Kosgei, Kiptum, Eliud Kipchoge Organizations: Athletics Kenya, London Marathon Locations: Kaptagat, Kenya, Valencia, Spain

☆ How to Fake Your Way Through the Super Bowl
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

I … don’t really understand this Super Bowl thing. You don’t understand the Super Bowl? The seasonal culmination of a sport woven deep within the rich tapestry of a mighty country? You’ve come to the right place to find out all about this year’s Super Bowl with no tears or embarrassment. The Super Bowl is the final game of the season of the National Football League, the mammoth league with the $100 billion television contract and teams that are each worth $5 billion or more.

Persons: We’ve Organizations: National Football League, San Francisco 49ers, Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, CBS Locations: United States, Las Vegas

☆ Tortured Poets’ or Poets? Taylor Swift Meets the Apostrophe Police.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Victor Mather | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

When Taylor Swift announced at the Grammys that the title of her new album would be “The Tortured Poets Department,” what was your reaction? Her first new album in more than a year. I can’t wait!”Maybe it was: “Ho-hum. “I ruined this album release for my students by making it a lesson on apostrophe usage,” Erin Weinberg, an instructor in the department of English, theater, film and media at the University of Manitoba, wrote on X. (Others opined via Reddit, TikTok and elsewhere.)

Persons: Taylor Swift, “, Shostakovich, ” Erin Weinberg Organizations: Poets Department, University of Manitoba Locations: Reddit

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