If you haven't heard of the medical scourge known as "fan death," you're not from South Korea. Or Canada, for that matter, where isolated rumblings about the dangers of running an electric fan in a closed room have apparently begun to surface as well.

As reported in the Toronto Star, an English teacher at the University of New Brunswick described a bewildering experience she had last winter after telling students she planned to bring an electric fan into the unventilated classroom to alleviate the stuffiness caused by keeping the windows closed during freezing weather.

If you do that, a Korean student warned, it will lower your body temperature, and you'll die. Some other Korean immigrants interviewed by The Star echoed the sentiment.

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The closing ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing were barely over when a missive arrived in my inbox sporting a list of 10 on-air bloopers allegedly made by NBC sports commentators.

"He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it," one announcer supposedly said. "In fact you can see it all over their faces."

"Julian Dicks is everywhere," another was quoted as saying. "It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field."

Nevermind that Julian Dicks is a British soccer player who retired some years ago and never played in any Olympic Games, let alone in 2008. It's the punchline that counts.

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