Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shoulders, back, chest, and abdominal muscle groups. Gymnastics evolved from exercises used by the ancient Greeks that included skills for mounting and dismounting a horse, and from circus performance skills.
A pun, also rarely known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophonic, homographic, metonymic, or figurative language. A pun differs from a malapropism in that a malapropism is an incorrect variation on a correct expression, while a pun involves expressions with multiple interpretations. Puns may be regarded as in-jokes or idiomatic constructions, especially as their usage and meaning are usually specific to a particular language or its culture.
Air guitar is a form of dance and movement in which the performer pretends to play an imaginary rock or heavy metal-style electric guitar, including riffs and solos. Playing an air guitar usually consists of exaggerated strumming and picking motions, and is often coupled with loud singing or lip-synching. Air guitar is generally used in the imaginary simulation of loud electric or acoustic guitar music.
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, also called RodeoHouston or abbreviated HLSR, is the largest livestock exhibition and rodeo in the world. It includes one of the richest regular-season professional rodeo events. It has been held at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, since 2003, with the exception of 2021 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was previously held in the Astrodome. It is considered to be the city's "signature event", much like New Orleans's Mardi Gras, Dallas's Texas State Fair, San Diego's Comic-Con and New York City's New Year's Eve at Times Square.
Individual events in speech include public speaking, limited preparation, acting and interpretation are a part of forensics competitions. These events do not include the several different forms of debate offered by many tournaments. These events are called individual events because they tend to be done by one person unlike debate which often includes teams. This distinction however is not entirely accurate any more given the addition of duo interpretation events and forms of single person debate. Competitive speech competitions and debates comprise the area of forensics. Forensics leagues have a number of speech events, generally determined by geographical region or league preference. While there are several key events that have been around a long time, there are several experimental events around the country every year that can be limited to individual tournaments. Forensics leagues in the United States includes the National Speech and Debate Association, the National Christian Forensics and Communications Association, the American Forensics Association, the National Forensics Association, the Interstate Oratorical Association and Stoa USA. Organized competitions are held at the high-school and collegiate level. Outside of the rules for each event provided by the individual leagues, there are several cultural norms within each region that are not written into law but are almost always followed. Rules for time limits vary by event and by individual tournaments, but there are penalties in every event for exceeding the time limits though the severity of the penalty widely varies.
Richard Lederer is an American linguist, author, speaker, and teacher. He is best known for his books on the English language and on wordplay such as puns, oxymorons, and anagrams. He has been dubbed "the Wizard of Idiom," "Attila the Pun," and "Conan the Grammarian." His weekly column, "Lederer on Language," appears in the San Diego Union-Tribune and his articles are in newspapers and magazines throughout the United States including the Mensa Bulletin.
The World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) is the world's largest international debating tournament and one of the largest annual international student events. WUDC is held in the British Parliamentary format.
Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It is an interactive fiction video game written by Jeff O'Neill and published by Infocom in 1987. It was released simultaneously for MS-DOS, Commodore 64, and other platforms. Nord and Bert was unique among Infocom games in that it used the game engine to present wordplay puzzles rather than an adventure story. It was Infocom's twenty-seventh game.
Slick Hare is a 1947 Merrie Melodies cartoon, directed by Friz Freleng. The film was released on November 1, 1947, and features Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. It parodies the Mocambo nightclub in Los Angeles—in the cartoon referred to as "The Mocrumbo". Mel Blanc voices Bugs, Arthur Q. Bryan voices Elmer Fudd and impressionist Dave Barry portrays Humphrey Bogart. The title is a pun on "hair", from an era when hair slicked down by oil was a popular fashion style for men.
Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional fights are supervised by a regulatory authority to guarantee the fighters' safety. Most high-profile bouts obtain the endorsement of a sanctioning body, which awards championship belts, establishes rules, and assigns its own judges and referees.
The William Sydney Porter House or O. Henry House is a historic structure in Downtown Austin, Texas. William Sydney Porter, better known as the author O. Henry, lived there between 1893 and 1895. The Porter house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 18, 1973. The house is known today as the O. Henry Museum. The collection is curated by Melissa Parr, Site Coordinator.
John Pollack is an American originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who served as a Special Assistant to the President and Presidential Speechwriter for Bill Clinton, as a foreign correspondent, and as an advisor to prominent leaders and philanthropists. Now a consultant, Pollack is a noted authority on analogy, wordplay, creativity, and innovation.
Battle rap is a type of rapping performed between two or more performers that incorporates boasts, insults, wordplay and disses originating in the African-American community. Battle rap is often performed, or freestyled, spontaneously in live battles known as Rap battles, where participants will compete on the same stage to see who has the better verses.
Claude Bracey, known variously as the "Texas Flyer," the "Dixie Flyer," and the "Texas Tornado," was an American sprinter who tied world records in the 100-yard and 100-meter races between 1928 and 1932. He competed for the United States at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam and also won the 100-yard and 220-yard sprints at the 1928 NCAA Men's Track and Field Championships.
Lee Jackson is an American composer. He was the music and sound director for the video game developer 3D Realms from 1994 through 2002.
Standard Chinese, like many Sinitic varieties, has a significant number of homophonous syllables and words due to its limited phonetic inventory. The Cihai dictionary lists 149 characters representing the syllable "yì". Many Chinese take great delight in using the large amount of homophones in the language to form puns, and they have become an important component of Chinese culture. In Chinese, homophones are used for a variety of purposes from rhetoric and poetry to advertisement and humor, and are also common in Chinese loans, for example phono-semantic matching of brand names, computer jargon, technological terms and toponyms.
The 2016–17 ISU Junior Grand Prix l Skating Union]] that were held from August 2016 through December 2016. It was the junior-level complement to the 2016–17 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating. Medals were awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. Skaters earned points based on their placement at each event and the top six in each discipline qualified to compete at the 2016–17 Junior Grand Prix Final in Marseille, France.
Miniature bull riding is a rodeo sport that involves a youth rider getting on a miniature bull and attempting to stay mounted while the animal attempts to buck off the rider. It is bull riding on a smaller scale, as both the bull and the rider are smaller than in professional rodeo. All competitors are under age 18.
The 2018–19 ISU Junior Grand Prix was a series of junior international competitions organized by the International Skating Union that were held from August 2018 through December 2018. It was the junior-level complement to the 2018–19 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating. Medals were awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. Skaters earned points based on their placement at each event and the top six in each discipline qualified to compete at the 2018–19 Junior Grand Prix Final in Vancouver, Canada.
Janani Krishnan-Jha, known by her stage name J. Maya, is an American singer-songwriter. In 2023 she participated in Survivor 45, the 45th season of the American reality-TV competition series Survivor.
