-- For you fishermen: Clarence Olberling yanked a rainbow trout out of Holmen Lake in Nebraska a while back. Nothing funny or finny about that? It had two mouths.
-- Three Russians recently blew up a train headed to their favorite fishing spot when the dynamite they'd planned to use to help them catch fish accidently exploded. Police did make the catch of the day--three Russian fishermen.
-- Iditarod champion Paul Gebhardt on why he never drinks before a race: "If I did, I might be the first musher on the Yukon to get a DUI."
-- The late Los Angeles Times writer Jim Murray once said, "The only time I ever took out a 1-iron was to kill a tarantula and I took a 7 to do that."
-- From Colette Simonelli: The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal? Dogs.
-- We'd like to salute a couple of high school gamers. Lake Howell High School pitcher Ricky Shultz, who lost a leg when two and a half years old in a lawnmower accident, has high hopes of playing for Rollins College next year. Culver City High School (Calif.) slugger Jake Blodgett, born without a right eye (now has a prosthesis which doesn't move), has earned a baseball scholarship to Pepperdine.
-- Brewers coach Rick Donnelly calls Carlos Lee "7-Eleven" because "his mouth is always open" ... Mickey Mantle's highest salary was $100,000 and a pinstripe Yankee shirt worn by the Mick in 1960 brought $140,000 in 1992 ... Wouldn't you love to see Barry Bonds and Comish Bud Selig co-host Saturday Night Live sometime soon? ... Back in February Oriole third baseman Melvin Mora flew from Venezuela to Baltimore for the funeral of longtime popular coach Elrod Hendricks. He was the only active player who attended. Today's players?
-- The Florida Department of Corrections last month gave an ex-minor leaguer a no-show job so he could help prison guards win a softball tournament.
-- Alabama quarterback Brodie Croyle has been described as a look-a-like for Ringo Starr. "Who's he?" Croyle asks.
-- The Society for Sports Uniforms Research gives the top five NFL helmets of all-time: Vikings, Eagles, Redskins, Rams and Chargers. The five worst: Bills, Ravens, Bucs, Raiders and Jets. What happened to Bengals? ... Ravens' Deion Sanders had a $4 million contract for 2005. That comes out to $500,000 for every tackle he made.
-- And finally, Liz Dunton wants to know if you heard about the drifter who hired himself out as a handyman and was asked to paint a family's porch for $50. When he appeared at the door to collect his money after completing the job, he exclaimed, "By the way, it's not a Porsche, it's a Lexus!"
(Some of the information in this column was obtained from other news organizations)