Overheard

Cut to the core

'This is a problem now, that as downtowns have bled retail, we've got these rises in very powerful retail corridors and clusters that are really reshaping the city'

-- University of Winnipeg's Institute of Urban Studies director Jino Distasio on the IKEA complex and other development along Kenaston Boulevard south.

Horror in the park

'It was just horrifying. I immediately rushed to her and I tried to pry it off with my hands. I couldn't budge it.'

-- Rob Shura, whose dog, Pippin, was killed by a trap near a public hiking trail in Grand Beach Provincial Park.

... and maybe Liberal voters elsewhere

'Perhaps a solution is to let provinces find different solutions. What's important is protecting Quebecers from gun violence.'

-- Liberal leadership candidate Justin Trudeau, struggling to deal with questions about the long-gun registry.

A Movember to remember

'Canadians have come to the forefront and demonstrated that they love their moustaches and they love making a difference'

-- Pete Bombaci, national director of Movember Canada. For the second year in a row, Canada has raised more money than any other country for the Movember campaign for prostate cancer research.

Bad sex its own reward

'Flesh, that archaic kingdom that brings forth tears and terrors, nightmares, babies and bedazzlements'

-- One of the passages in Infrared that inspired judges to award author Nancy Huston the Bad Sex in Fiction award.

The line starts here, buddy

'I was due a divorce but every day I would go to her house to have sex with her. This particular day, someone beat me to the punch. I guess Brad got there earlier than I did.'

-- Mike Tyson, who caught Brad Pitt in bed with his wife, Robin Givens, in the late '80s.

Snow job

'Are we a winter nation, or a just a nation that merely endures the winter and doesn't actually bother to get up close with it outside? Ottawa needs to wake up and smell the pine trees.'

-- Bartley Kives, Free Press columnist, takes on the federal government decision to stop grooming many ski trails at Riding Mountain National Park.

This has it covered

'The Post cover treatment neatly embodies everything people hate and suspect about the news media business.'

-- New York Times media reporter David Carr on the New York Post's decision to put a photo of a man about to be struck and killed by a subway train on its front page.

Leave corgis at home

'I would suggest that any time after 9 o'clock will be suitable to visit. We'll be getting her freshened up.'

-- A nurse at King Edward VII's hospital in London, giving a woman she thought was Queen Elizabeth an update on Kate Middleton. It was a prank phone call.

Probably much later

'SASKITOBA: Look, I just doubled your Grey Cup chances. You can thank me later.'

-- National Post columnist Steve Murray, musing on what could happen if other provinces were to merge, after a group of Conservative Senators encouraged Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island to create one powerhouse province.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 8, 2012 J12