Staff ace Aaron Nola was headed to salary arbitration weeks ago until he reached a four-year, $45 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies. “I don’t play specifically for the money,” he actually said after signing his contract, “I play for the love of the game. I play for my teammates.”

After finishing various levels of schooling, training and employment, and upon reaching a certain age, encountering a heretofore unknown activity provokes surprising interest. When that activity is designated with an equally novel term, the curiosity only heightens.

Frustrations abound in life and law.

• The train is either agonizingly delayed, at the expense of my monthly meeting — obsessively gaveled to order on time — or leaves with infuriating promptness when I am held up, forcing me to acknowledge I can no longer cover the five-minute dash to the station in less than seven minutes.

Legal gambling on pro and college sports outside Nevada hit the jackpot on May 14 when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act passed by Congress in 1992.

Airplane travel is nature’s way of making you look like your passport photo. — Al Gore

Like rain on a day off or coffee spilling on your shirt on the way into a client meeting, air travel delays seem inevitable.

The past four spring training columns have each covered the progress of a class-action lawsuit in which minor league players sought to obtain what Major League Baseball, supreme ruler of the minor leagues, was unwilling to provide: a living wage. Many minor leaguers earn less than $7,500 a year, some less than $3,000, but barring action by the Supreme Court, their suit appears concluded.

Tipping after a meal is a highly individual preference. Some food lovers will leave huge tips even if the soup arrives cold and the beer warm with the waitstaff nowhere to be found, while other customers tip frugally after receiving five-star service at a busy restaurant.