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And now a worm from our sponsor

It could happen someday: The University of California-Santa Cruz Banana Slugs taking on the Swarthmore College Swarming Earthworms.

Dissatisfied with its nickname - the color Garnet - Swarthmore is holding a contest to give the college a three-dimensional mascot. A committee has whittled more than 100 suggestions to seven finalists: Swarming Earthworms, Garnet Foxes, Griffins, Wild Kangaroos, Mighty Oaks and Little Quakers.

The seventh choice? No mascot at all.

Swarthmore’s alumni magazine on the earthworm’s appeal: “What could be more intimidating than a swarm of worms, and earthworms, essential elements in the health of the campus landscape, is also an anagram for, well, you figure it out.”

That’s right. Rearrange the letters in “earthworms” and you get “Swarthmore.”

Speaking of Worms…

Dennis Rodman wants his own talk show - with, as you might expect from someone this twisted, a twist.

The Chicago Bulls forward says he would dress in drag while interviewing his guests and call it “The Denise Rodman Show.”

“You never seen it on TV,” he said in an interview in January’s Playboy magazine - accompanied by photographs that reveal more than you need to see. “If I get my show, you’ll see that. You never know what to expect from Dennis Rodman.”

Rodman, known more and more for tattoos and dye jobs and less and less for his basketball skills, said he decided to be true to his real nature as an entertainer two years ago. A part in “Eddie,” an upcoming Whoopi Goldberg movie, will be his first big-screen role.

“I could do something else, but show business is what I do on the court. So that’ll be my next career,” said Rodman.

Nonetheless, skeptics abound.

“Rodman explains he chose to be strange, and he identifies what he does as show business,” writes Chicago Tribune columnist Bernie Lincicome. “I imagine that Richard Simmons thinks the same thing.”

Citius, Altius, Tattoous

Pittsburgh Penguins rookie Rusty Fitzgerald got himself tattooed with the five Olympic rings in anticipation of playing in the 1994 Games. Just one problem: he was cut from the United States team.

“I got it to get psyched for the Olympic experience,” he said. “Unfortunately, I had no Olympic experience.”

Maybe they’re afraid of holding calls

Until outlasting the miserable Jets on Sunday, the Rams had hit such a dry patch that coach Rich Brooks was even panning the offense for poor tackling.

“Our offensive team probably is the worst I’ve ever been around after the ball’s been intercepted,” Brooks said. “I’m mean, it’s pathetic. It’s embarrassing.”

And your placekicker’s end-zone dance can use some work, too, coach.

The last word …

“Sometimes I feel the press has been unfair to me. But then again I never had to sit down and write about a golf tournament and make it sound exciting so that people would come out and see it.”

- Betsy King, upon induction into the LPGA Hall of Fame

, DataTimes