Outside the Beltway

Thirty-Five years ago, an adventure began.

Ilya Shapiro asks, “If luxury stadiums were hugely profitable, why would the savvy businessmen who own the teams let the politicians in on the windfall?”

Eugene Polley, the inventor of the first wireless TV remote control, has died aged 96.

The Oklahoma City Thunder is making their first trip to the Western Conference finals after ousting the Los Angeles Lakers in five games. Naturally, rioting and gunplay ensued.

Uni-watch is holding a contest for a redesign of the uniforms for the NFL’s Washington Redskins.

For years, I’ve used Loretta Lynn as an example of how fast societal mores have changed. It turns out that her marriage at age 13 may be a bit of myth making.

Larry Bird has been named NBA Executive of the Year. Is there any basketball-related honor he hasn’t won?

An object lesson in the problems with our intellectual property laws

Thomas Friedman is like a goldfish who only sees China, jobs, and the Internet.

Dish Network is offering customers a DVR that will skip commercials. I’m sure their content providers are thrilled.

Another bizarre conservative rant about the President.

The outpouring from my Twitter stream yesterday on the news of the death of Adam Yauch, MCA of the Beastie Boys, surprised me.

HBO’s Game of Thrones is violent and full of sex. Is it too much?

[FAIR WARNING: SPOILERS]

Another potential scandal in New Orleans.

Rex Huppke reports, “Facts died Wednesday, April 18, after a long battle for relevancy with the 24-hour news cycle, blogs and the Internet.”

You’ve likely heard that Alabama’s 2011 football championship trophy was accidentally smashed last weekend by the father of one of the players. Now, as Paul Harvey would have said, for the rest of the story.

The commander of Fort Knox has canceled a Ted Nugent concert after the rocker’s recent rant about President Obama.

Pat Summitt’s predecessor stepped down as head coach to work on her doctorate.

Legendary musician Levon Helm is dying.

Pat Summitt, arguably the greatest women’s basketball coach of all time, is stepping down to deal with Alzheimer’s .

Ted Nugent, whose music I really liked when I was in junior high school, said something vile and crazy.

The story of Ensign Chuck Lord may be the greatest—or perhaps only—prank in Pentagon art history

Why the Internet is awesome: a Taiwanese animatronic take on the Secret Service hookers scandal.

Shockingly, the “Springfield” in the long-running sittcom “The Simpsons” is Springfield, Oregon, near where creator Matt Groening grew up.

Jeffrey Brown has a children’s book titled Darth Vader and Son scheduled for release on April 18.

Should you lie to your kids about holiday fantasy characters?