“If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly,” said G.K. Chesterton. All that talk about being the best is Olympic fever, ad hype. If everyone were the best, where would the rest of us be? In sports this is obvious. Perhaps not so much so in advanced nuclear physics. The guy next...

We don’t weigh much: maybe 40, 50 pounds. We’re light compared to you. And that’s how it all got started. Some big guy got mad at Joey LaRoy down at MacNab’s Bar and Grill. He picked him up—to shake him, that’s all; but Joey bit him on the nose, and the guy threw him clear...

“Whew-whew! Whew-Whew!” I looked past my mother through the half open taxi window. An old man in a grey flecked, tweed jacket was walking a Scotch terrier on a leash. With much effort she cranked the window down another turn and stuck her head out. “Whew-whew!” she whistled again. The man turned, surprised, though not...

“Left! — — Left! — — Left! Right! Left!” The drill instructor inside of me had successfully surfaced and was now exulting in command. We were approaching the corner of the parade field, and I was getting ready for “To the left! ! March!” when it suddenly occurred to me that it might be amusing...