Wacky World Cup note...

Police in Berlin arrested two men on Wednesday on suspicion of placing cement-filled soccer balls around the city and inviting people to kick them. At least two people were reportedly injured by kicking the balls, which were chained to lampposts and trees and accompanied by the spray-painted message, "Can you kick it?" (Perhaps the men were A Tribe Called Quest fans?) The doctored balls had apparently been surreptitiously filled with concrete in a workshop but appeared real (and harmless) enough. One angle that the story doesn't address is how long it took for passers-by to realize that those who kicked the concrete balls were actually hurt and not simply pretending to be World Cup players.

-SI 10 Spot, July 6, 2006