No Songs Yet About the City by (Green) Bay

When singer Tony Bennett passed through Green Bay recently on his way to performances in Manitowoc, Wis., there was a surprise waiting for him at the airport: two more Tony Bennetts.

Bennett was greeted by Tony Bennett, the pass-rushing linebacker of the Green Bay Packers, and Tony Bennett, the star guard of the University of Wisconsin Green Bay basketball team. The Green Bay Press-Gazette arranged the gathering.

The singer, most renown for singing “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” said he will pay closer attention to the careers of the two athletes.

But it wasn’t the first time in his 40-year career he met someone semi-famous who shared his name.

“She was a stripper,” Bennett said. “She spelled it T-o-n-i.”

Trivia time: Warren Moon of the Houston Oilers is attempting to become the second quarterback to lead his teams to the Rose Bowl, Grey Cup and Super Bowl games. Who was the first?

Rabbit’s revenge: John Muir isn’t alone in claiming that he was robbed on the golf course, but he goes out every night trying to catch the culprit.

Muir was hired to kill rabbits at Royal Dornoch in Scotland, the third-oldest course in the world, founded in 1616. Muir roams the links in a remote corner of the Scottish highlands with a shotgun six days a week. Since being employed by the club in 1989, he has killed an estimated 5,500 rabbits.

“The rabbits were all over the fairways,” recalls Ian Walker, club secretary at Royal Dornoch. “It was horrific! They did a lot of damage to the course, so we hired John.”

Muir says he shoots between 30 and 40 rabbits every day. He usually goes out in the dark, using a big light on the top of his rifle.

One night, it happened.

“I had been putting traps in the rabbit holes when I thought it was time to go home,” Muir says. “But when I looked I had no watch. I didn’t feel when it came off my wrist. So now I suspect there’s a rabbit with a cheap watch on the golf course.”

Add rabbits: Muir isn’t worried that he’ll be out of work one day despite shooting so many rabbits.

“There will always be rabbits here,” he says. “I don’t know where they come from.”

An American golfer recently killed a rabbit accidentally with his tee shot on the eighth hole.

Said Muir, “It saved me a bullet.”

Last add rabbits: Even though he had to buy a new watch, Muir gets the last laugh. He says Royal Dornoch’s rabbits help keep his food bill down.

“I eat them,” he said. “They are very good for stews.”

Well, it should have been: In the category of a Jim Healy “Say What?” is this quote that ran in the Milwaukee Journal Oct. 31, from a local politician named Ed Nackers, who was talking about naming institutions after famous people: “In Wisconsin, we have Billy Mitchell International Airport. Lambeau Field is named after Vince Lombardi.”

Trivia answer: Joe Kapp, who led Cal to the Rose Bowl, the British Columbia Lions to the Grey Cup game and the Minnesota Vikings to the Super Bowl. Moon took Washington to the Rose Bowl and the Edmonton Eskimos to the Grey Cup game, which decides the championship of the Canadian Football League.

Quotebook: Miami Heat Coach Kevin Loughery on his previous job as coach of the Washington Bullets: “My last year with Washington was the only year I was upset with myself coaching. I got down on the players. I think I did a lousy job. I deserved to be fired.”