-- If you're headed to Beijing for the Olympics, be sure to spend a couple of hours in a toy store trying to find anything with the words "Made in America" ... Only 42 percent of the hotel rooms there have been booked for August 8-24. Could it be the air pollution? ... Beijing expects more than 9,000 couples will wed on August 8--date of the Opening Ceremony ... Nancy Lieberman on her teammate and USA Olympic women's hoops coach, 6'8 Ann Donovan (15" taller than the average American woman): "Don't let the Clark Kent glasses fool you--underneath, she has an 'S' on her chest" ... The average American walks about 900 miles a year (Harvard study) while the average American drinks 22 gallons of alcohol a year (American Medical Assn.). This means, overall, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon.
-- According to Bunny Anika, an Old English mastiff from London UK is the longest and heaviest dog in the world (measures 8'3 nose to tail and weighs 33.8 lbs.).
-- Last month 11-year-old Hanks Massey made a hole-in-one at the par 3 third hole of the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course in Ponte Vedra Beach, then his brother Davis, 9, promptly aced the same hole, his ball falling into the cup on top of his brother's. Odds 17 mil to one! ... Wish the American media had given British Open champ Padraig Harrington (playing with a wrist injury) more credit. If it were Tiger, all we'd hear is how he won with one arm.
-- Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez skipped the recent Home Run Derby for medical reasons. His wealth is suffering from a pending severe divorce settlement ... Had fans voted Jason Giambi (new mustache) onto the All-Star team, we probably would have seen full mustaches on John McCain and Barack Obama ... Full-season package for four regular-season box seats at the Mets' new ballpark next year will cost $60,000. In 1993, same package - $5,837.
-- Ironic, Packers' Bret Favre made decisions on the field in fractions of a second but can't seem to make up his mind about himself.
-- In closing, Ann Marie Aldrich gives you a couple of signs you have a bad airline pilot: he's wearing a UPS uniform and later rolls down the cockpit window so his dog can stick his head out.
(Some of the information in this column was obtained from other news organizations)
