Summer is grim, in the soccer-loving precincts of the world.

Most countries have soccer leagues that play from August and into May. And in June and July?

A whole lot of nothing, aside from some tennis, some golf and … (ack!) cricket.

For what seems like a month, the sports department TV, which sits poised about 10 feet from me, here in the offices of The National, has been playing hours and days and weeks of cricket.

Some of it live. Some of it tape. All of it insignificant. And dreary. And endless.

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It wasn’t long ago that leaving the U.S. for the Old World meant learning to live without a wide range of foodstuffs, from Oreos to blueberries.

Now, pretty much everything you have ever eaten is available. Even perishable fruits and vegetables.

Which still amazes me.

Like the little box of blueberries I am looking at.

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Just another hoax. I was thinking that even before this commercial ended.

Nothing about the Nike “prank” video starring Cristiano Ronaldo dressed up as a homeless guy feels real.

None of it. Except the crowd at the end when it becomes clear that it’s it’s Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo doing tricks with the ball in a local plaza. That, I believe. Nothing else, aside from the guys who look a lot like security men who show up at the end of the commercial.

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It’s the sort of “no news” story newspapers typically do not run.

Star Wars sets are not still standing in the Abu Dhabi desert: Twofour54

And then you peruse the story, and you realize why “no news” in this case really is news.

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Abandoned cars are the dumped mattresses of the UAE.

An economic problem “solved” by property owners who simply walk away from their former investment … a solution that cannot be swept up in the morning.

The National reported this week that Abu Dhabi Municipality has impounded 3,000 vehicles of some 4,300 abandoned on the streets of the capital (and its environs) in the past year.

I can vouch for this as a significant problem.

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A pundit on the BBC World network said, “It seems like 2005, not 2015.”

It’s Dubai thinking big again. With a project to include the Dubai One residential tower, at 2,332 feet the world’s tallest; the world’s longest indoor ski slope, an 8,000-capacity arena and an enormous mall with a retractable roof.

Also part of the project named Meydan One will be a five-star hotel with 350 rooms, the world’s highest observation deck (at 2,148 feet) and the world’s highest restaurant (at 2,214 feet).

And a 100-yacht marina.

And the world’s “biggest dancing fountains”.

The project returns Dubai to the thrilling days of yesteryear when mind-boggling projects were an everyday thing.

Have a look at the photo gallery in The National, which includes artists renderings.

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The Baseball Hall of Fame wants some of the old sports writers off the voting rolls for the game’s greatest honor — admission to the Hall of Fame.

I would take that personally … except that I think it’s a good idea.

To see the headline is to think, at first: “Hey, ageism at work! That’s wrong!”

But that doesn’t convey the nuance of the decision, and the nuance makes it sensible.

Here is the key provision:

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The human brain is such that basic facts from our youth are likely to remain lodged there decades later when we struggle to recall the name of the new co-worker sitting across from you.

I remember the birthdays of neighborhood pals. I know the date of D-Day, Waterloo, V-E Day and the Little Bighorn. I can recite the winners of every World Series of the 1960s.

I also remember the day my grandmother died.

August 1, 1966

Since 1966, no August 1 has passed without me thinking of her.

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“God hates (fill in city name)” was a meme Bill Simmons worked into the ground during his writing days. He could hardly go a month without revisiting the topic, tweaking it slightly, looking at it from another perspective.

Sure, it usually came out with Cleveland and Buffalo near the top, as “most benighted sports cities” … but cases could be made for Minneapolis, San Diego …

And Toronto?

I don’t remember seeing much about “Toronto and Godforsaken”, but Canada’s biggest city warrants some sympathy, as I realized after looking at the baseball Blue Jays this week as they swung a couple of big deals in a bid to improve their chances of making the baseball playoffs …

… for the first time since 1993, the longest no-playoffs streak in North America’s Big Four sports leagues.

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Back in February I looked at the list of the 10 bobblehead nights the Dodgers were planning for the 2015 season, and saw a name there barely familiar to me:

Justin Turner.

And I did a post entitled The Unknown Bobblehead … referring to this Justin Turner person, who for all I knew might have played 100 years ago.

And now, six months later, I have come around on this to the point that a case can be made that Justin Turner is the third or fourth most important hitter in the Dodgers lineup.

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