The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
The Metric System, Explained
A passage in a Reuters dispatch on Bethlehem (the one in the Bible, not Pennsylvania) clarifies something that has long mystified this column:
Foreign tourists are whisked through Bethlehem from nearby Jerusalem on half-day visits organized by tour companies located in Israel. The two cities are divided by just a few kilometers (miles) but also an Israeli wall that complicates the journey.
Of course. “Kilometers” are miles. Now it all makes sense. The one complication is that they’re the wrong length.
An Athlete Puts Things in Perspective
“You never forget that day. That was pretty unbelievable for all of us. A lot of us you know, your first chance to play in a Super Bowl and winning the Super Bowl, and of course the circumstances of that year with 9-11 happening and U2 performing at halftime–that was pretty unbelievable.”–New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady on Super Bowl XXXVI, quoted by the Associated Press. Nov. 26
We Blame Global Warming
“Hezbollah Blames U.S. for All Terrorism”–headline, CNN.com, Nov. 30
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.
