Jockstrip: The world as we know it

Chorizo joins Brewers 'Sausage Race'

MILWAUKEE, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- A 9-foot-tall chorizo has joined the hot dog, Polish sausage, bratwurst and Italian sausage in the "Sausage Race" at Milwaukee's Miller Park.

For years mascots dressed as giant sausages have battled it out in a spirited foot race between the sixth inning at Brewers home baseball games, with fans rooting on their favorite meaty delicacy.

The race began as an animated scoreboard feature but became so popular actors were hired to dress up as mobile sausages.

German, Polish and Italian immigrants have all added their flavors to Milwaukee and now Hispanics are making their contribution. Wisconsin's Hispanic population increased 23 percent from 2000 to 2004.

"El Picante," as the spicy rookie is called, made his debut Saturday night, when a Hispanic tailgating party doubled the stadium's usual crowd, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The chorizo -- brainchild of a Hispanic marketing consultant -- has a goatee and wears a straw sombrero, a traditional guayabera shirt and a green Mexican League bandana.

"El Picante" placed third in his first race, behind the bratwurst and the Italian sausage.

Bosnian Muslim rites for Kosovo boys

GORNJE LJUBINJE, Serbia, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- A circumcision festival attracted Kosovo's Albanians and Serbs to a Bosnian Muslim rite for dozens of small boys.

Residents of villages near Kosovo's southern town of Prizren say the Sunet circumcisions of more than 100 small boys in one day could be explained simply by poverty.

"It dates from a period of crisis when people had no money. It was simpler for everybody to come together and share the expenses," Rafik Kasi, a journalist from Gornje Ljubinje said.

His nephew was circumcised during the one-day festival, The New York Times reported Monday.

In the ethnically divided Serbia's predominantly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo province, there are a number of other Bosnian Muslim villages in the Zupa Valley near Prizren, between Albanian and Macedonian borders, that had mass Sunet ceremonies.

Now, only these two villages maintain the ancient circumcision festival, all along with a Romany band.

On Saturday, two surgeons and a doctor performed procedures on boys under local anesthetic for a small number of parents, while a 69-year-old barber from Prizren, circumcised a great majority of boys, mostly aged under 5.

Motherhood is 'boring' for London mom

LONDON, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- The most vilified woman in Britain may be an expatriate American who had the gall to tell a London paper she finds motherhood "boring."

Helen Kirwan-Taylor's confession to the Daily Mail has provoked a storm of protest on both sides of the Atlantic and even in Europe, USA Today reports.

A freelance journalist, Londoner Kirwan-Taylor published a first-person essay in the Mail last Wednesday under the headline "Sorry, but my children bore me to death."

In the article, she says when her two sons were young she became a workaholic to avoid spending time with them and even disliked reading bedtime stories.

Shocked at the reaction her confession produced, Kirwan-Taylor nevertheless stands by the point of her article which was intended to denounce the child-centric model of parenting.

In the wake of a bevy of letters from Daily Mail readers criticizing her, Kirwan-Taylor has been defending herself in interviews with newspapers, radio stations and TV networks in Europe and the United States.

"I'm the most vilified woman in Britain because I don't find it interesting to change nappies," Kirwan-Taylor told the Daily Mail.

British ax teaching morals

LONDON, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Government plans to reform education for 11-to-14 year olds in Britain include ending the practice of teaching the difference between right and wrong.

Also being dropped is a requirement to teach children about the country's cultural heritage, the London Telegraph reports.

The suggestions by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority are being met with a combination of anger and disbelief.

Conservative Party member Nick Gibb, the shadow minister for schools, says he was aghast when he learned of the proposals.

"The education establishment is constantly engaged in these types of reforms with the result that everyone is horrified," Gibb says. "Ministers must engage with the public so this type of nonsense is not allowed to prevail."

The changes, outlined in a letter to the education secretary, are designed to give schools greater flexibility in the way they teach.

"The idea that they think it is appropriate to dispense with right and wrong is a big alarming," says Professor Alan Smithers, director of the University of Buckingham's center for education and employment research.