Contests

Before the 2nd National Cricket Singing Competition begins, the master of ceremonies issues a stern warning to contestants. "Don't let your cricket take drugs. Anybody caught cheating will be disqualified." The performers are lined up in glass bottles that look like big salt shakers. Some have socks around the bottom to keep out the late December chill, because it's well known that cold crickets don't sing. Hovering over the bottles, a judge wields a hand-held sound meter.

At 6-foot-3 and 213 pounds, Crazy Legs Conti stays in shape with jogging (he's run two marathons) and six to eight small, healthful meals a day, heavy on the protein. Most days. And then there are days when he binges big-time, like the Sunday a few weeks ago when he scarfed a bushel of Florida sweet corn in no time flat. This was not self-indulgence. It was self-disciplined preparation for the April 27 National Sweet Corn Eating Championship in Palm Beach, Fla.

It's the latest cookie kerfuffle of Campaign 2008. Cindy McCain and Bill Clinton whipped up a bit of controversy over cookie recipes they submitted to Family Circle for its fifth Presidential Cookie Bake-Off, published this week in the July issue. For the last four presidential elections, the magazine has asked the spouses of the leading candidates to share their favorite cookie recipe -- then let readers choose the tastiest.

In China, competitive math teams are groomed and cosseted like college football squads. And in Vietnam, a television show called "Go to Olympia" tracks math contestants almost as if they were budding American Idols. So it came as little surprise that when Pasadena City College's math team won a national contest this year, six of the members were Chinese-born. The seventh arrived from Vietnam two years ago.

The bailiff was an earnest teenage boy. One attorney for the defendant was a 17-year-old girl. The witnesses were high-schoolers, their testimonies invented. But when Gabrielino High School of San Gabriel beat James Monroe High School of North Hills in the Los Angeles County Mock Trial Competition finals Thursday, the tears were real. "Our team completely flipped out, even the guys were crying, we were all so emotional," said Gabrielino team member Vanessa Menchaca, 17.

Hollywood Boulevard isn't the easiest place to attract attention, with the Cinderellas trolling for pictures and Darth Vaders fighting with Transformers for a spot on the pavement. But Matthew Doolan entranced a few dozen passersby Tuesday while promoting the nearby Virgin Megastore.As the crowd cheered, Doolan threw an arrow-shaped sign 10 feet in the air and caught it behind his back.

Toys R Us Inc. agreed to award a Chinese American infant a $25,000 prize in a New Year's baby contest after the company came under fire for disqualifying the girl because her mother was not a legal U.S. resident. Chinese American advocates said they were infuriated by Toys R Us and launched an e-mail campaign. The company responded by awarding each of the three babies in the grand prize pool of the "First Baby of the Year Sweepstakes" a $25,000 savings bond.

A 28-year-old woman found dead hours after taking part in a radio station's water-drinking contest died of water intoxication, the coroner's office said Saturday. Assistant Sacramento County Coroner Ed Smith said a preliminary investigation found evidence "consistent with a water intoxication death." Also known as hyponatremia, water intoxication occurs when the body's sodium level falls below normal.

Two participants in a radio station's water-drinking contest with a 28-year-old mother of three who later died said they were not warned they could be putting their health at risk, a newspaper reported Monday. Gina Sherrod said that family members listening to the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest on KDND-FM told her that a nurse called into the program to warn that drinking too much water was dangerous, but that she did not worry until she learned of Jennifer Lea Strange's death.

A radio station fired 10 employees Tuesday, including three morning disc jockeys, after a mother of three died following an on-air water-drinking contest last week at the station's studios. The hosts of KDND-FM's "Morning Rave" -- who go by the on-air names Trish, Maney and Lukas -- were fired a day after the Sacramento-area station announced it was suspending the show and investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Jennifer Lea Strange.