Appendicitis has grounded the Rocket Man.
Sir Elton John postponed a number of summer festival appearances across Europe after coming down with the diagnosis. While he is expected to recover fully, John isn't planning on getting back on stage until the fall, most likely in September. The iconic artist still holds many classic records for his, well, records, including what is still the greatest-selling single of all time, his "Candle in the Wind 1997" tribute to Princess Diana, at more than 33 million copies sold globally.
Early reports indicate that Penn State and Central Florida plan on playing a college American football game at Dublin's Croke Park next season -- fitting for a pair of teams lead by coaches named Bill O'Brien and George O'Leary. Ireland hosted a college football game last season, in which the Notre Dame "Fighting Irish" played Navy in front of 48,200 in Dublin's Aviva Stadium. Croke Park holds 82,300 people. But for perspective on attendance for an American football game abroad, the largest such contest occured when Arizona and San Francisco played in front of 103,467 fans at Mexico's Azteca Stadium in 2005. At the time, it was the largest attendance for a game in NFL history.
Sticking with sports, 60-year-old Paul Risso continues to chase his dream of playing professional baseball.
While the team he recently failed to join, the St. Paul Saints (USA), is professional, they are also independent and thus not affiliated with any Major League Baseball teams. If Risso needs a role model, though, he need look no further than the legendary Satchel Paige. The famed Negro League and Major League pitcher is the oldest player to appear in an MLB game, pitching for the Kansas City A's at age 59 years 80 days.
Lastly, parents, put your kids to bed! A recent UK study shows that young children with late or no bedtimes perform worse than their counterparts on standardized testing. This might be filed under the "common sense" folder, but it's valuable information nonetheless. And once they grow up, kids can stay up as late as they want, like Carin Shreeves and Jeremiah Franco (both USA) who set the record for longest marathon watching television. They watched a "The Simpsons" marathon for 86 hr 37 min in 2012.
