There were a few suspicious long-distance charges ...

Just another fisherman's tale? You make the call.

Englishman Andrew Cheatle lost his cellphone in the surf while playing with his dog, and fisherman Glen Kerley says he found it in the belly of a 25-pound cod a week later.

Amazingly, it still works.

"Cod are greedy fish — they'll eat anything," Kerley told The Sun of London. "They have big heads and big mouths. I've found plastic cups, stones, teaspoons, batteries, and I've also heard of someone finding false teeth in one.

"It was a bit smelly, but I was glad to return it."

Housh rules

The Seahawks are surreptitiously making a serious run at free-agent receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh.

Intrepid reporters put 2 and 2 together when team seamstresses ordered a bunch of long-sleeved jerseys.

Headlines

• At Fark.com, on the ballyhooed QB-supermodel nuptials: "... And that's how they became the Brady-Bundchen ... "

• In the Toronto Sun, after the winner of a Wisconsin ice-fishing contest was disqualified when suspicions arose and he refused to take a lie-detector test: "Hook, line and stinker."

Driving for dough

What, Manny Ramirez thinks it's beneath him to play baseball for $25 million in these tough economic times?

Introducing Manny's new signature golf ball — the Entitlist.

This is gonna hurt

No baseball team relishes the thought of final cuts, with the possible exception of the Prince George (B.C.) Axemen.

It's a trade school

George M. Steinbrenner High School, set to open this fall near Tampa, Fla., looks like it means business.

The principal just offered $3 million and three 10th-grade prospects for Tampa Jesuit's valedictorian.

Canadian bakin'

• Calgary blogger Derek Wilken, on scientists identifying the "happy gene" that predicts a person's life-enjoyment quotient: "This gene is dependent on a number of others, including the playoff-performance gene, point-spread gene and understanding-wife gene."

• Gregg Drinnan of the Kamloops (B.C.) Daily News, on reports that swimmer Michael Phelps hides out in strip clubs to avoid photographers: "Get shot by paparazzi outside or Plaxico Burress inside."

• Cam Hutchinson of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, on Wayne Gretzky getting paid seven times the NHL average to coach the financially strapped Phoenix Coyotes: "For $7 million a year, shouldn't Gretzky be coaching, playing and driving the Zamboni?"

• Vancouver (B.C.) comic Torben Rolfsen, on reports the Falcons are trying to trade dog-abuser Michael Vick: "So far they've only heard from Al Davis and Cruella de Vil."

Dismember the Titans

The Washington Redskins signed free-agent defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth to a seven-year, $100 million contract.

Or as he describes it, better than a kick in the head.

Sideline Chatter appears Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in The Seattle Times. Dwight Perry: 206-464-8250 or dperry@seattletimes.com