Coming soon: Cameron's 'Moments, Memories and Madness'

Press sports columnist Steve Cameron has seen the elephant and heard the owl.

No, he’s not sure precisely what that means, either — but that phrase was once used in all seriousness by a former colleague at an event where Steve was being introduced as a guest speaker.

According to language expert Denis J. LaComb, here’s what we know…

“The saying: ‘I have seen the elephant, I have heard the owl’ is an American colloquial phrase that refers to gaining experience of the world at a significant cost.

“It was a popular expression in the mid-to-late 19th century throughout the United States, beginning with the Mexican-American war and beyond.”

Despite his long, long tenure in the newspaper business, Cameron claims he actually missed the Mexican-American war — but as for gaining experience of the world?

Oh, yes.

Steve isn’t sure there was much cost (unless you count poor pay), and rather than any suffering, he’ll tell you he’s had a blast over the decades while covering sports from high school football in three inches of mud all the way to the Super Bowl, the Olympics, soccer frenzy in Europe and the outrageous fun of traveling with a major league baseball team.

That’s just the start.

He insists he’s loved it all, and one quote we’re sure is correct came from Hall of Fame broadcaster Verne Lundquist, who said: “Steve is simply one of the best storytellers I’ve ever known.”

We’re going to take Lundquist at his word and let Cameron open his book of tales with a special Sunday column called: “Moments, Memories and Madness.”

Steve insists that reliving some of the more interesting (and bizarre) events he’s seen and written about will be an awful lot of fun.

We think it should be a hoot for readers, too.