• I watched a Second World War movie called The 12th Man recently. It started off in the UK and then moved to Norway. Once the setting changed, the story was told in Norwegian and German. I watched for about 15 minutes, thinking it would revert to English at some point. Then it struck me that I would have to watch the movie with subtitles. Duh. It was worth watching.
• I’d like to see the cowboys pull the horses in chuckwagon races.
• Count me among those who don’t like the infield shift in baseball. But it’s not new. It was used as far back as 1877, according to baseball historians. To put this into perspective, Lloyd Robertson was a rookie reporter at the time.
• Why can’t sportscasters and headline writers choose their words with more sensitivity? They didn’t have to say/write that the Riders dumped, unloaded or got rid of Zach Collaros. Traded would have sufficed.
• From Pat Sajak’s Twitter account: “It was a quiet day at a mall. Walking around, unnoticed, until somebody yells, ‘Hey, it’s Pat Sajak!’ Then pandemonium: handshakes, pictures, autographs. I am almost sorry I yelled.”
• Commentator Patti Dawn Swansson on American soccer player Alex Morgan winning the ESPY for best female athlete: “I was surprised that she made it from her seat to the stage without taking a dive.”
• I purchased two tickets for one of my sons for a recent concert. The face value was $129.50 each. The total, with charges, came to $310.50. That sucks, but whatever. When he said he couldn’t go, I put them on Ticketmaster to resell. Ticketmaster set the minimum I could ask at $149 and change. I am not sure there is a moral to this story, but it seemed odd that there was a minimum price on Ticketmaster. I eventually pulled the tickets off Ticketmaster when it worked out that my son could go.
• A sign spotted in a grocery store: “Due to the increase in temperatures, we will no longer be accepting money carried in your bra. Thanx, management.”
• The best man’s speech at a recent wedding in Toronto: “I was asked to recite a short prayer for the loved ones who are unfortunately no longer with us. Blessed art though, Kawhi Leonard, for bestowing a miracle upon our city.”
• As many have said, wouldn’t it be great if Leonard took Drake to L.A. with him? He and the homer announcers in Toronto ruin basketball games for many of us.
• Pablo Picasso’s full name, according to several online sources, is Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso. You will be tested on this later in the column.
• Does the Major League Soccer season have a start and end?
• Comedy writer Alex Kaseberg on a Capitol One hacking breach exposing 100 million applications: “Capitol One. What’s in your wallet? Never mind; everyone knows.”
• Raiders guard Richie Incognito has been suspended for two games for his ongoing off-field issues. I wonder if anyone will notice.
• Get this. The Flat Earth Society says it has members all around the globe.
• My dog and I were in the waiting room at the vet’s office recently. A woman walked in with her pet and looked over and said, “Aren’t you cute.” I said thank you.
• Montreal columnist Jack Todd is not a Don Cherry fan: “Ask people who had to deal with the man how they feel about Cherry. The fighters whose lives were wrecked by the punches they took who never got a dime from his videos. Security guards he walked by for 30 years without once saying hello. The man’s a fraud.”
• Cherry is on Twitter. He has 788,000 followers and follows one person — Ron MacLean. I knew it wouldn’t be the Carolina Panthers, where a bunch of jerks play.
• A couple of years ago, Steve Simmons of the Toronto asked a Blue Jays executive a question: “When did Marcus Stroman become a jerk? His response was rather telling at the time: You don’t become one.”
• What is Picasso’s full name?
-Cam Hutchinson