Noteworthy: Tom, Dick and Harry? More like morning, Afternoon and good night

By Bruce Penton on June 26, 2024.

The New York Times posted a story this week wondering whether society has reached a peak as far as baby names go. The world was agog a few years ago when actress Gwyneth Paltrow named her baby girl Apple, but some of the more recent baby names have gone far beyond the norm. Such as Tank. Or Afternoon. How about Flick? And Orca? C’mon, heaven forbid the girl with that latter name grows up to be somewhat overweight.

Anything goes, I suppose, when it comes to naming your child. But names such as Brian, Robert, Nancy, Mary and Linda have grown stale and would be regarded by today’s parents about as weird as my generation thinks Afternoon would be.

â€¢ It’s jarring to my ears to hear the dialogue on a GolfTown commercial featuring Canada’s world-class golfer Brooke Henderson. A random dude buys a new driver and shows up on the first tee of a local course where Henderson and her sister are getting ready to play. “Mind if we join you?” Henderson asks the man. “Sure,” he says, and off they go.

In my head, when I hear ‘Mind if we join you?’ a response should be along the lines of “No, I don’t mind at all. Glad to play golf with you.’ But when he said, ‘Sure,’ it’s like “Sure, yes, I do mind. Don’t bother me.”

Yes, it’s inconsequential, and no one gets injured, but it hurts my ears every time I see that commercial and hear the dialogue.

The tone of that commercial came up in conversation with a friend of mine recently, but he said his main concern was that the random dude with the new driver ‘”hesitated” before agreeing to play golf with Henderson. “Why would anyone hesitate if Brooke Henderson asks to play golf with you?”

â€¢ New Brunswick-born actor Donald Sutherland, who died last week at 88, overcame terrific odds to emerge as one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. His mother reportedly referred to his face as ‘interesting’ rather than ‘handsome’, and his voice teacher at a London, England acting school told him to his face he should abandon the theatre and “drive a truck.” Nonetheless, his interesting face and somewhat stilted voice carried him to motion picture superstardom. Most people younger than the Baby Boom generation probably know Sutherland better as actor Kiefer Sutherland’s father. Another of his more noteworthy Canadian connections was that his second (of three) wives was Shirley Douglas, the daughter of Medicare pioneer Tommy Douglas.

â€¢ Staff at a few local car dealerships were scrambling with pen and paper last Wednesday when their computer systems went down. They and other car dealerships across North America, who use CDK Global to run their operations, were victimized by a cyberattack, which affected 15,000 dealerships across North America. One report I saw said CDK Global was preparing to pay the millions of dollars in ransom demanded by the cyber attackers. My question would be: If the cyber attackers received their millions of dollars in ransom, why wouldn’t they just pull off a similar attack every month or so?

â€¢ Short snappers: You think it was hot here on Sunday and Monday, when the mercury hit the low 30s? In Saudi Arabia, temperatures ranged from 46C to 49C and the result was more than 1,300 deaths of Muslims attending the Hajj pilgrimage. … I’ve said it before (many times) and I’ll say it again: The right-turn lane for westbound traffic on Strachan Road and 13th Avenue should be converted from a right-turn or straight-ahead lane to right-turn only. The city did that successfully recently at the bottom of the hill on Dunmore Road and it has worked well. … Don’t forget the Canada Day weekend fun Sunday night and all day Monday at Kin Coulee. … NBC’s promotion of the Paris Olympics is going heavy on record-breaking swimmer Katie Ledecky, but Canada’s Summer McIntosh beat Ledecky by six seconds in a recent 800-metre freestyle race in Orlando, Florida. The 800, though, is unlikely to be on McIntosh’s Paris schedule, which would eliminate what would be one of the Games’ most anticipated showdowns. … Warm ocean temperatures aren’t good for anything, especially coral reefs, which are dying around the world. … A Pekingese from Oregon won this year’s ‘ugliest dog’ contest. Now, that’s something an owner can be proud of. … How many people in their mid-70s prefer the oldies on local radio as opposed to today’s new music? … Speaking of oldies, it’s the Biden-Trump debate Thursday night on CNN.