At Least They Didn’t Throw Haggis

The team song for the Berwick Rangers, a second-division soccer team in Scotland, is such a happy little verse. Among the printable lyrics: “Go left, go right, go pick up sticks.”

Presumably, this does not mean pick up sticks of celery.

Last month, a couple of veggie-minded fans from Berwick tossed celery sticks at fans of visiting rival Stranraer. The two lads apparently not only had strong arms, but speed as well, escaping local authorities.

But the celery moment has had something of a shelf life in the southwest town of Stranraer. One fan on the team’s Web site, www.stranraerfc.net, had this recent query:

“Do we know if the kits are changing? I was going to buy three home shirts for myself and two kids in the not too distant future. Maybe there’s a change because of interest from a new sponsor? Possibly the ‘Celery Marketing Board.’ ”

Trivia time: What year did boxing make its debut in the Olympics as a medal sport?

Barney bashing: When a guy rips out the tongue of a cheerful animal mascot -- as happened recently when Edmonton Oiler Coach Craig MacTavish mauled the Calgary Flames’ “Harvey the Hound” -- even relatives of the perpetrator grow concerned.

“My daughter was a little worried,” MacTavish said. “She wondered if I’d go after Barney.”

Barney is the purple dinosaur on a children’s TV show.

Log rolling: South African Mike Horn is trying to complete a 12,400-mile journey around the Arctic Circle by using a variety of transportation methods, but nothing motorized.

The first mishap occurred near Greenland on the ninth night, when his sailboat crashed into a log. Otherwise, he is surviving. Sort of.

“I miss the freedom of hanging out in shorts and a T-shirt, no shoes, without dying of exposure,” Horn told Outside magazine. “The cold is like a dog -- it’s just waiting to bite you.”

Open window: U.S. Olympic skier Caroline Lalive fell, but she managed to get up and get on with her athletic career after a crushing crash experience in Salt Lake City.

“Skiing is a short window in life,” Lalive said to Stu Campbell of Ski magazine. “I’m a home girl. Skiing doesn’t define who I am.... I have killer instinct, but I’m still a kid trying to figure things out.

“Someday I’m not going to be wearing a tight little suit, crashing into fences. I’m going to have a baby on one hip and a spatula of chocolate in my hand.”

Trivia answer: The 1904 Olympics in St. Louis. Boxing was left off the program at the 1912 Games in Stockholm because of laws prohibiting the sport in Sweden. It returned for the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium.

And finally: Pitcher Eddie Guardado of the Minnesota Twins was telling Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star Tribune about his new home in Tustin Ranch -- not exactly great timing after the Angels knocked the Twins out of the playoffs last fall.

“I picked the wrong year to move to Anaheim,” Guardado said. “I was taking my son to school, and all I see is Anaheim flags, Halo flags, Rally Monkeys. My son says, ‘I’m glad they beat you, Dad.’ I almost had a heart attack. Then he tells me, ‘That’s because now you’re home.’ I said, ‘We don’t have to go to school, son, we can go to Disneyland.’ ”

-- Lisa Dillman