You weren't the first, tony, so I wouldn't worry. Can I use your thread to answer aristo's question? -- no, we don't call it a pigskin. Sadly both my American football teams went out of the playoffs this week - New Orleans Saints (after a fantastic holiday and a sentimental attachment to the town) and the Green Bay Packers (having visited friends in Milwaukee a couple of times.)
tonyw: My great-uncle had a hippo-leg umbrella stand. He was quite eccentric, however, and may have been trying to be rebellious. Now that I think of it, it was rather on the small side.
Bullfrog: Can't believe the Saints and Packers are both out. The Patriots are still in, and I'm looking forward to the traffic jams; there's only one town between mine and Foxborough, and a few weeks ago the main highway through here was backed up for thirty miles- all over a pigskin.