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    <title>Slate Magazine - Left Field</title>
    <link>http://www.slate.com/id/2096252/?from=rss</link>
    <description>Dispatches from the dark corners of sports.</description>
    <copyright>2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC</copyright>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <pubDate>Tue, 30 Nov 2004 07:59:27 EST</pubDate>
    <lastBuildDate>Tue, 30 Nov 2004 07:59:27 EST</lastBuildDate>
    <ttl>120</ttl>
    
    <item>
  <title>Sumo wrestlers fatten up on chankonabe.</title>
  <link>http://www.slate.com/id/2110026/?from=rss</link>
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  <description><![CDATA[  Not long ago, while on assignment in Osaka, I had the most exuberantly revolting meal of my life. I was in a Shinto shrine that housed sumo wrestlers and my host was Konishiki (pronounced Ko-NEESH-kee), the Hawaiian-born sumo legend affectionately known as Meat Bomb. When I arrived in late morning, I was ushered up a raised platform at the end of a dim training hall. From this lofty redoubt, Konishiki and I watched a dozen fleshy wrestlers grunting through a training session. Somber and loin-clothed, the rikishi stood around a circle of hard-packed clay, smacking their thighs and stamping their bare feet as if signaling to tenants downstairs. "Sumo wrestlers don't eat until noon," Konishiki said. "They need to work up an appetite."<br /><br />[<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2110026/?from=rss">more ...</a>]  ]]></description>
  <category>left field</category>
  <author>Franz Lidz</author>
  <comments>http://fray.slate.com/discuss</comments>
  <pubDate>Tue, 30 Nov 2004 07:59:27 EST</pubDate>
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<item>
  <title>A Paralympian stands accused of getting an illegal leg up.</title>
  <link>http://www.slate.com/id/2109441/?from=rss</link>
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  <description><![CDATA[  In September's Paralympics, a pair of carbon-fiber legs carried 17-year-old Oscar Pistorius to stardom. The unheralded South African won bronze in the 100 meters and set the world record—21.97 seconds—in taking the 200 gold. In the latter event, the teenager walloped Marlon Shirley and Brian Frasure, veteran American sprinters who were wearing the same model of racing leg as Pistorius, the Flex Foot Cheetah. But even as the Americans congratulated their foe, they were looking his legs up and down. Pistorius, they said, had unfairly rigged his Cheetahs—he was "racing tall."<br /><br />[<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2109441/?from=rss">more ...</a>]  ]]></description>
  <category>left field</category>
  <author>Felix Gillette</author>
  <comments>http://fray.slate.com/discuss</comments>
  <pubDate>Wed, 10 Nov 2004 14:28:42 EST</pubDate>
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<item>
  <title>The 1,000-pound bench press.</title>
  <link>http://www.slate.com/id/2104915/?from=rss</link>
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  <description><![CDATA[  Gene Rychlak Jr. is the best bench-presser in the world. Powerlifting experts coo over the 6-foot-1-inch, 380-pound behemoth's physical attributes. His short arms bulge with massive triceps that propel eye-popping weights to the ceiling in an instant. The big stomach comes in handy, too—anything that stops the bar a couple of inches closer to lockout position can't be bad. So, what does it all add up to? Rychlak can bench-press 965 pounds.<br /><br />[<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2104915/?from=rss">more ...</a>]  ]]></description>
  <category>left field</category>
  <author>Josh Levin</author>
  <comments>http://fray.slate.com/discuss</comments>
  <pubDate>Mon, 9 Aug 2004 13:46:20 EST</pubDate>
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  <title>The tiny town that's home to every sport you've never heard of.</title>
  <link>http://www.slate.com/id/2104258/?from=rss</link>
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  <description><![CDATA[  As is often the case with fairy tales, it all started with a frog. One day in 1732, while strolling through the wilds of Wales, the sickly Vicar of Llanwrtyd stumbled upon a foul-smelling spring. He gazed into the bubbling muck and, to his surprise, a rudely healthy frog popped out. The priest swallowed a mouthful of swamp and was instantly cured of his scurvy.<br /><br />[<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2104258/?from=rss">more ...</a>]<!--AD BEGIN--><br clear="all" /><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/slate.rss/politics;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=7195" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/slate.rss/politics;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=7195" border="0" vspace="5" /></a><!--AD END-->  ]]></description>
  <category>left field</category>
  <author>Franz Lidz</author>
  <comments>http://fray.slate.com/discuss</comments>
  <pubDate>Mon, 26 Jul 2004 14:05:54 EST</pubDate>
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  <title>Soviet wrestlers mourn Ronald Reagan.</title>
  <link>http://www.slate.com/id/2102264/?from=rss</link>
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  <description><![CDATA[  "Business was good with Reagan," recalls a wistful Nikolai Volkoff. "I voted for him twice."<br /><br />[<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2102264/?from=rss">more ...</a>]  ]]></description>
  <category>left field</category>
  <author>Dave McKenna</author>
  <comments>http://fray.slate.com/discuss</comments>
  <pubDate>Fri, 11 Jun 2004 15:14:49 EST</pubDate>
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