My Blog My WordPress Blog

WASHINGTON – As it turned out, Sameer Mishra provided more than just comic relief at the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee. He ended up winning the title. The 13-year-old from West Lafayette, Ind., who often had the audience laughing with his one-line commentaries was all business when he aced “guerdon” …

Late last year, when I was playing Valve’s brilliant puzzle game “Portal,” I felt a weird sensation: Laughter. I’m not sure when I first noticed it; perhaps it was when GLaDOS, the insane artificial intelligence that was tormenting me, promised “grief counseling and cake” after my ordeal. What really threw …

ROCK ISLAND, Tenn. – One moment, Justin Hill was turning into his driveway. Minutes later he was being flown to a hospital as his home went up in flames. Then he got a traffic ticket. Hill, 42, got into a crash after turning into the path of an oncoming car …