Tarred and bothered

Somewhere, Gaylord Perry is smiling: New York Yankee pitcher and former Seattle Mariner Michael Pineda was suspended 10 games after he was caught using pine tar to improve his grip on the ball.

You know, it’s kind of refreshing to see a professional athlete suspended for using a performance-enhancing substance that wasn’t swallowed or injected.

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I call it the Beanbag Couch: Talk show maven Ellen DeGeneres will host a furniture design competition for the HGTV channel. “Ellen’s Design Challenge,” to air next year, will pit six competitors against each other as they sketch, design and build furniture.

If the competition ends in a tie, DeGeneres will determine the winner through a dance-off.

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Don’t know much about history: On this day in 1507, a world map produced by German cartographer Martin Waldseemueller contained the first recorded use of the term “America,” honoring Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.

Fortunately for us, Waldseemueller’s cat jumped up on the map and smeared his earlier label for the continent of North Vespucciland.

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