“GIANT WRESTLING BABIES.”

“GIANT WRESTLING BABIES.” The Economist for October 13 has an article on scandals in the world of sumo. There are allegations of abuse of young trainees—perhaps even murder—in addition to recurrent claims of match fixing. (FREAKONOMICS featured a statistical analysis of alleged match fixing by sumo wrestlers.) I was surprised to learn that the history of sumo wrestling goes back over 1500 years. The scandals are unfortunate because the sport televises well, and we have enjoyed watching it from time to time. Of course, we enjoy it the more because friends of ours told us years ago that their young children had come running to them once, shouting “Come see what’s on television! Giant wrestling babies!”