One of the reasons I keep up my Wall Street Journal (other than out of professional interest) is that sometimes they run endearingly quirky stories. Take, for example, this story from Saturday’s paper (subscriber link):
At Middlebury, Alexander Benepe and several friends came up with their spin on Quidditch last year after tiring of a weekly game of bocce ball on Sunday and marveling over the latest Harry Potter movie. About 30 Middlebury students played pickup games almost every weekend this fall, usually two or three matches, before heading to a championship “Quidditch World Cup” that drew five teams and about 60 players this month.[...]
Players passed the quaffle up and down the field, with those holding it often finding themselves face down in the mud underneath a rugby-style scrum. Greta VanDeventer, an 18-year-old freshman, was temporarily sidelined after she took an elbow in the eye that left a small gash.
Mr. Johnson, playing the snitch, snared the spotlight. A 5-foot-6-inch, 135-pound bolt of lightning, he ran backward to keep the sock out of reach, dived through thick mud and evaded players by running through a crowd of spectators cheering “Go, Snitch!”
it almost makes you want to go back to college.