Oh Deer: Now We Need Gum Control

Going bowhunting for deer? You’ll need your archery equipment, of course.

Oh, and don’t forget your camouflage gum.

Neil Bretl of Antigo, Wis., along with his dentist brother, Nicholas, and an organic chemist have developed a pine-flavored gum, Gum-o-Flage.

They theorized that deer in the woods were picking up on the breath odor from bowhunters, who need to be closer to the deer than rifle toters.

“My first few batches were hideous,” Bretl told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “It was tough chewing.”

Cost: $4.99 for 12 tablets.

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Add outdoors: There are bigger wildlife problems on a Hong Kong golf course. Wild boars were ripping up fairways and greens in their search for food.

So course managers hired night watchmen to drive “noisy buggies” to scare off the offenders, according to the Sunday Morning Post.

“The security guards were nervous on the first night, but after two or three nights they weren’t worried,” General Manager Kevin Yuen said.

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Trivia time: How many Southeastern Conference championships did Steve Spurrier win at Florida?

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Tennis talk: The sport is dominating the headlines in late October in Australia. But it has little to do with the playing of tennis.

The broken engagement of Kim Clijsters of Belgium and local hero Lleyton Hewitt was being analyzed from every possible angle last week when it was blown out of the water in Australian newspapers by another story.

Tabloid reports had Mark Philippoussis’ taking up with Paris Hilton, shortly after breaking up with his longtime girlfriend, Australian pop singer Delta Goodrem.

The Sydney Morning Herald wondered in a headline: “Is Scud a Cad?”

Philippoussis is nicknamed Scud because of his explosive serve.

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Boston pops: Chicago Tribune columnist Mike Downey on the Red Sox’s hold on New England during the American League championship series against the Yankees:

“You know Red Sox fever is in the air here when an armored car in Quincy, Mass., gets knocked off on the day of Game 7 and a cop describes the crook’s disguise as ‘a Johnny Damon kind of beard.’ ”

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Sleep deprivation: Sam Donnellon of the Philadelphia Daily News found that even the most avid baseball fans were simply unable to stay up into the early-morning hours to watch extra-inning games.

Donnellon wrote about one New England man’s solution during the Yankee series: “He found out his beloved team was still alive the next day in the harshest manner possible. His retired mother told him.

“Like sportswriters, retirees don’t have to go to work in the morning.”

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Trivia answer: Six.

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And finally: Actor and humanitarian Tom Hanks in the stands at the World Series in Boston, explaining his temporary membership in Red Sox Nation to Fox TV: “I want Bill Buckner to have a good night’s sleep, for crying out loud.”