Stunts

Barry Bremen, a Michigan businessman and incorrigible impostor who fielded pop flies at baseball's 1986 All-Star game, launched warm-up layups at the 1979 NBA All-Star game and bounded on stage to accept actress Betty Thomas' Emmy Award in 1985 has died. He was 64. Bremen died of cancer June 30 in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he lived with his wife, Margo. Beginning in the late 1970s, Bremen made headlines for his gate-crashing stunts, mainly at sporting events. Clad in a New York Mets uniform, he caught the eye of then-Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda before the 1986 All-Star game while shagging balls in the outfield at the Houston Astrodome.

Ryan Dunn, a member of the "Jackass" crew of outrageous daredevils and gross-out pranksters of MTV and movie fame, died in a fiery car crash in a Philadelphia suburb early Monday. He was 34. Dunn and an unidentified passenger died in the accident, which occurred in West Goshen Township, according to police. Authorities were called to the scene early Monday and found Dunn's 2007 Porsche 911 GT3 in the woods, where it was engulfed in flames. Speeding may have been a contributing factor in the accident, police said.

"Since American liberals don't have the guts to say it, allow me: The Rev. Terry Jones hasn't done anything wrong. Nothing. " So writes my friend and conservative radio host Michael Graham in the Boston Herald. And, on this, I think Michael's nuts. Graham is referring to Jones, the pastor of a tiny fringe church in Florida, who held a Monty Pythonesque "trial" for the Koran and, to the surprise of no one, found the book guilty. While the stunt got blessedly little attention in the United States, foreign media picked it up and some radical clerics overseas used the incident to foment murderous pogroms against Westerners.

Leaders of a California labor group battling the giant Service Employees International Union alleged in a lawsuit Tuesday that the SEIU engaged in a pattern of violent threats and strong-arm tactics against dissident unionists. The suit, filed in Superior Court in San Francisco, is the latest salvo in the bitter intra-union clash pitting the SEIU against the breakaway National Union of Healthcare Workers. For two years, the rival group has been trying to woo SEIU members at California hospitals and healthcare facilities.

World oil prices are rising sharply as violence spreads through Libya, the first major petroleum exporter to be threatened by unrest sweeping North Africa and the Mideast. As fears mounted that soaring energy costs could derail the global economic recovery, the benchmark price of crude in London on Monday surged $5.48, or more than 5%, to $108.20 a barrel, its highest level since September 2008. The rise knocked European stock markets sharply lower. U.S. oil prices also jumped, hitting $91.42 a barrel in electronic trading on a day when most U.S. financial markets were closed for the Presidents Day holiday.

Hollywood's annual awards season kicks into high gear with the unfurling of the Golden Globes red carpet on Sunday. From afar, it will probably all seem the same as usual ? cheering fans in the bleachers, photographers and TV crews by the yard, glamorous women ready and willing to strut and pose. Look a little closer, though, and that carpet's seeming a little frayed and down-at-the-heels. Call it red carpet fatigue syndrome, a syndrome that incubated during the last year's worth of "step-and-repeat" appearances at award shows, premieres and press junkets.

Wisconsin players looked up into the Rose Bowl stands Saturday and saw a familiar sight: A sea of red courtesy of Badger Nation. But when Wisconsin's offense ran out on the field during the second half against Texas Christian, it repeatedly looked out upon acres of turf between the line of scrimmage and the end zone. Poor field position, courtesy of TCU's special teams, and uncharacteristic penalties proved too much for Wisconsin to overcome in a 21-19 defeat to a TCU team that finished the season 13-0.

Rarely had a Rose Bowl seen such flawless execution. The preparation was inspired, the key players unwavering and a national television audience enthralled. Fifty years ago this Sunday, an intrepid interloper made an uninvited, unprecedented and unforgettable appearance in the so-called Granddaddy of Them All. Caltech made the Rose Bowl. A small band of ingenious Caltech students made it happen, surreptitiously altering a University of Washington halftime flip-card routine so that it would spell out "CALTECH" in what became known as the Great Rose Bowl Hoax of 1961.

The Senate on Wednesday voted to take up the arms limitation pact with Russia, President Obama's top foreign policy objective in the lame-duck congressional session. In a 66-32 vote, the Senate agreed to begin debate on the treaty, which requires 67 votes for ratification. Eight Republicans voted with Democrats to open discussion. Some Republicans had previously indicated they would stall deliberations by insisting every word be read aloud. The move prompted a sharp retort from the White House.

In the early 1920s, long before it became famous for roller-skating, Venice was the capital of another sport: stunt flying. It was a time, as author Don Dwiggins put it, when barnstormers and carnival fliers gathered at DeLay Airfield "to try out new ways to cheat death for money. " When a daredevil thought of a new maneuver that the movies or newsreels might buy, he'd drop out of the continuous poker game in the DeLay hangar to give it a try (hoping he'd live to be dealt another hand)