Joker

Sam Wyche is still a wild and crazy guy.The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' coach, who got the nickname Wicky Wacky when he was in Cincinnati and once told the fans during a game, "You don't live in Cleveland, you live in Cincinnati," was at it again last week.When former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson -- long rumored to be Tampa Bay's next coach if he doesn't get the Miami Dolphins' job first -- came to town to do interviews for Fox TV, Wyche couldn't resist a gag, and Johnson went along with it.Wyche was meeting with the team when an aide came in to say that owner Malcolm Glazer wanted to see him.A minute later, Johnson entered the Buccaneers' locker room wearing Wyche's Tampa Bay jacket.

The Crofton man who police have said called himself "a joker" while threatening a workplace shooting has been charged with a single misdemeanor count of misusing the telephone, authorities said Wednesday. Police drew national headlines when they announced that Neil Edwin Prescott was in custody, saying they had thwarted a "violent episode" with links to a mass shooting in Aurora, Colo. But on Wednesday, prosecutors found themselves explaining the relatively minor charge as Prescott's friends criticized the handling of the case.

Maryland police regularly send heavily armed tactical officers to raid houses searching for criminal suspects or evidence. Sometimes the operations turn deadly, as in a recent case in Reisterstown when a Baltimore County officer shot a man who police said attacked him with a sword. One of the first questions The Baltimore Sun asks after such an encounter is whether officers had a “no-knock” warrant, which would have allowed them to enter without having to announce themselves, even briefly, before going through the door.

Despite the cold, steady drizzle that fell throughout the day, people were stopping and standing yesterday before the grimy, locked doors of a little one-chair barbershop on Greenmount Avenue where James Oscar Remsburg dispensed $3 haircuts and reigned as resident wit and philosopher."

Heath Ledger died at an age when many gifted actors first reach liftoff. At 28, he had achieved acclaim, popularity and riches. But he was just beginning to define himself as an actor and a star. In Todd Haines' I'm Not There (2007), he played a tortured big-screen idol, ill at ease with conventional accomplishment and fame, in the manner of Bob Dylan - or James Dean.

Back in the 1920s, "The World's Worst Golfer" made people laugh around the world. Horton Spurr and his slapstick golf routine played the stage of major theaters throughout Europe and the United States.He appeared with the spectacular song and variety show called Ziegfeld Follies. His was an opening act for first-run movies featuring Abbott and Costello. And when he wasn't chasing a golf ball glued to the head of his club, he was in the eye of the movie camera.In Hollywood, Horton Spurr doubled for movie star Douglas Fairbanks Jr. He played secondary parts with the stars.

WIMBLEDON, England -- There's nothing wrong with men's tennis that can't be changed by a little marketing or a little hatred.At least that's the view of Pete Sampras, who easily beat Sebastien Grosjean, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, yesterday to advance to today's Wimbledon quarterfinals.Sampras and the other men at Wimbledon have been taking some knocks over the past few days for the depressed state of the men's game, which is seen by many as a serving contest among players without personality.So, how to fix the sport?

I AM FUZZY ZOELLER.I tell ethnic, racial and gender-based jokes. Also jokes based on stereotyping people by physical and mental characteristics. I've even got a book. Lots of "little moron" jokes. Even jokes about paraplegics. It's an old book. Times have changed a little. But not completely. I tell fewer such jokes now than I used to, but I still tell them. More often, I listen to others tell them.You are Fuzzy Zoeller.Probably. Admit it. Most of the people I know - and I don't mean just old white males - tell such jokes at least once in a while.

Flick Vaaa-ZOOOOOOOOM!Cracklin' coasters, Batman! Those diabolical Gen-X roller coaster designers at Premier Rides Inc. are about to launch a new gut-wrencher at Gotham City, part of the Six Flags America park in Largo!That's right, kids. The new "Joker's Jinx," the Maryland coaster-builder's eighth tower of torment, opens for business Saturday, making the former Adventure World part of the biggest boom year for roller coasters since the Depression.The $10 million ride's hot new linear induction motors will launch coaster fanatics from zero to 60 mph in just over three seconds.

MIAMI -- It's a good thing that Arsenio Hall doesn't do Tom Osborne jokes. Can you imagine if David Letterman had a list of top 10 reasons why the Nebraska football team can't win a bowl game? It might run to 100.Osborne and the Cornhuskers have not yet become so much late-night fodder, but they have in recent years become the butt of many postseason jokes. "Everybody's laughing at us," said senior I-back Calvin Jones.The latest to get a good yuk at Nebraska's expense was television analyst Beano Cook, who suggested that the only way the Cornhuskers could stop Miami in tomorrow night's Orange Bowl was for the Hurricanes' offense to be put on immediate probation by the NCAA.