Poke-A-Thon

How sword fighting and not, say, pistol duels or throwing knives, evolved into a slick Olympic sport, I’ll never quite understand. With button-tipped foils and thick safety gear, fencing has almost entirely removed the element of danger that always made swashbuckling such a good time. Used to be, you could tell by their shouts when someone got cut by a sword. Now they get “touched,” and it makes a high-pitched beep. Still, for a free spectator sport, you could do a lot worse than lightning-fast foil- and saber-work, and since it’s the Coupe de Monde of fencing, you’ll be watching some of the world’s top talent pretend to stab one another. Presented by the Fencing Institute of Texas, the masked action runs from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday at the Sheraton downtown, 400 N. Olive St. Call 214-444-8498 or visit fenceintexas.org.

June 19-21, 8 a.m.-8 p.m., 2009