history lessons
How an LSD death after a Pink Floyd concert fueled the drug war in Canada
14-year-old Benji Hayward drowned after taking LSD in 1988 in Toronto. His death helped shape future drug policies.
Canada’s sordid history with white supremacists involves a Caribbean coup plot
For decades, far-right groups were a loud minority in Canada. From neo-Nazis to the KKK, Canada had a white supremacy problem.
Blackout At Home: When The Lights Went Out At Shea Stadium In 1977
40 years ago Thursday, the lights went out in New York and the city was plunged into 25 hours of chaos. Here's what that was like at Shea Stadium.
That Time Michael Jordan Allegedly Ran Up a Million-Dollar Golf Debt
Just before the 1993 NBA Finals, one of Jordan's golf buddies published "Michael & Me: Our Gambling Addiction...My Cry For Help!" The book is forgotten, but its lesson is not.
An Incomplete List Of Basketball Things From The Last Century Worse Than LaVar Ball
A Nike exec said Ball is "The worst thing to happen to basketball in the last hundred years." Let's take a look at the tape.
Those Oversized Disembodied Heads at College Basketball Games: A Life Story
The oversized heads that fans wave around behind baskets during college basketball games were once one of fandom's great ideas. Now they're just part of the landscape.
Two Extremely Tall Guys Made Baseball History In The World Baseball Classic
At the end of an insignificant game, in the middle of the night, Dutch pitcher Loek Van Mil and Team Israel first baseman Nate Freiman made history. Probably.
Rest In Peace To Ralph Branca, Whose Life Was Bigger Than One Pitch
Ralph Branca was a fine pitcher who threw the pitch that became "The Shot Heard 'Round The World." What defined his life was what came after all that.
Kyle Schwarber, And The Large Adult Sons Of October: David Roth's Weak In Review
Baseball lives in its history like no other sport. In this World Series, that history is more present than ever.
Ball Four, You're Out: How A Classic Baseball Book Became A Failed Baseball Sitcom
Jim Bouton's "Ball Four" still stands as the best, funniest, most revealing baseball memoir ever written. It was also a short-lived CBS sitcom, and a bad one.
Barry Windham and the Disappearing Cowboy Wrestler
Wrestling has always leaned on archetypes, but the country-strong badass that Barry Windham embodied in the 1980s and 90s has mostly vanished. It's a shame.
Forgotten Man: Bobby McDermott And The Rise Of Pro Basketball
No player did more to build pro basketball in the 1930's and '40s than Bobby McDermott, a brawling, hard-drinking scorer from Queens. How did he get forgotten?