Fugitive from the law of averages

Imagine portraying yourself in a movie about your most traumatic experiences. Also, 7 other things worth your time—and trivia!

He’d been turned down before by the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps for being too young.

But, now, a few days after his 17th birthday, armed with a newly doctored birth certificate that suggested he was a year older, the son of a Texas sharecropper walked into a recruiting office and enlisted as a private.

Not long ago, I wrote in this newsletter about one …