A few ruminations on "the big game"

I am a Bruin. If you asked me to rate my level of excitement about tomorrow's UCLA vs. USC game on a scale of 0-100, I would answer 0. Zero? Yep Zero (0). ZERO?!?!? Why so low?

Well, let me tell you about that. Both teams have loosing records. Neither of us is bowl eligible, meaning we will both miss bowl season completely. The Trojans are on probation and have a poor record. We Bruins are just plan poor. This game has absolutely nothing to do with the PAC-10 title. This game has no significance on the national stage. The Trojans are coming off a loss to Fighting Irish. We are coming off numerous losses. Both teams are having years to forget.

Unless I miss my guess, this will be the most forgettable game in the entire history of the series. I, for one, am not planning to watch.

USC Trojans snark "You know we are going to win". Bruins try to peak my interest by asking questions like "So can we break the Trojans winning streak this year?" I don't want to get involved...

Terry Donohue says we will break the streak, but he is an ultra-homer and you know it. Chris Foster of the Los Angeles Times officially picked the Bruins by a score of 24-17 in Overtime. I don't know his background, so I can't account for his biases. I am pessimistic, as usual. Let's hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Frankly, I am not at all pleased by the way this college season has unfolded. There have been many scores of disapointments in this year tained by the fragmentation of the Big-12, and the Cam Newton scandal.

Giada De Laurentiis

So, as you all know, I am big fan of the Foot Network. If I am not watching ESPN, or the NFL Network, I am watching the Food Network or the Cooking Channel. That's how it goes at my place.

As you all know, Giada De Laurentiis is the reigning Diva of the Food Network. With all due respect to Alton Brown, she is probably the most popular figure the network has ever had. If you walk into any Target, you cannot go past the cooking gear or the groceries without seeing her face at least 20 times. Here is just partial list of some of the things I have seen with her face and logo it.

1. Giada De Laurentiis Pasta
2. Giada De Laurentiis Pasta Sauce
3. Giada De Laurentiis Cookware
4. Giada De Laurentiis Cutlery
5. Giada De Laurentiis Cutting boards
6. Giada De Laurentiis Utensils
7. Giada De Laurentiis Cookbooks
8. Giada De Laurentiis Table sets

So forth and so on. Amazing... Giada has conquered the world. Not only this, but my buddy Colin is head-over-heals in love with her. I mean bat-shit crazy in love. He has been for several years now. It is just one of those crushes that just won't go away. He is a Cancer guy, and his Taurus wife really doesn't cook. Now you know the rest of the story. Do you remember what the Star Goddess had to say about this subject?

The funny thing is that I never knew Giada back in college. Neither did Colin. Why is that a strange thing? Giada happens to have a B.A. degree from UCLA in Social Anthropology. The date stamped on her diploma is 1996. The funny thing is that I happen to have a B.A. degree from UCLA in Anthropology 1995, although my focus was more biological. I was one year ahead of her.

I find it particularly strange that I never met Giada because Dr. Anna Simons sat on my B.A. Honors thesis committee. I was in her office regularly. What does Anna Simons have to do with this question? She was the reigning social anthropologist in our rather small department. Anna held the seat in Social Anthropology. Giada must have worked with Anna. I am surprised we never bumped into each other... at least I never noticed her. I think I would have noticed her.

Colin has chastised me several times over the past several years saying "Shame on you for not remembering Giada!" I usually retaliate by saying "See, if you had majored in anthro rather than history, you would have met Giada yourself." He turns grey-green like a corpse when I say this to him. Incidentally, Colin graduated from UCLA with a degree in history in the year 1997.

Of course, there is a the propofol problem, and the 89mm subdural hematoma Katy Perry inflicted on me, but since our first discussions on this subject predate my first knee surgery and the subdural hematoma, I am pretty sure we never met. This is not just a case of memory loss.

When Colin first brought her to my attention, my first impression was that she was a created media figure, a glam girl for the kitchen set. Nope. I was absolutely and completely wrong about that. Upon further review, I discovered that the woman has serious skills and more training than just about anybody on the Food Network.

Not only does she share a degree in anthro with me, but she shares a degree in culinary arts from the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu in Paris France with many 9th degree black belts. Folks, that's about as good as it gets. You must admit, this is a pretty good block of training for what she does. Not only that, but the training shows.

She has not influenced me a lot, primarily because she loves to make cofections: Cakes, pies, cookies, candies, you name it. She spends a lot of time doing this. I can see and understand why she is the femme super heroine of our day. The girls must love watching her show. Still, I respect the remarkable skill and knowledge she brings to the stand mixer.

Her skill and technique should not surprise anyone. She has her Mercury in Virgo, just like me. The most brilliant people always do.

I used to jest that a degree in Athro from UCLA and $1.00 would buy you a 12 ounce can of coke. After seeing the way my fellow Bruin anthropologist has conquered the world, I may have to reconsider this saying.

By some flukish roll of the dice, today just happens to be Giada's 40th birthday. Strange that I sat down to finally scribble out this blog entry today. I've been considering writing this entry for several months now. In any case, my best wishes for a happy 40th birthday today. The malady struck me down almost 4 years ago now, and in a week or so I will be turning 44 myself.

Damn... how did we all get this old this fast?

On the death of Coach John Wooden

At the moment every UCLA Bruin is a bit shaken up. Coach John Wooden, the emblem and identity of our Alma Mater has died at the age of 99. This is not news. ESPN has been going wall-to-wall with this for some 18 hours now. It is well, they should. Even with the NBA finals in progress, there is no bigger story than this at the moment.

Not since Bear Bryant died has a university lost an icon like this... but even the great Bear was not like this. I say that with all due respect to a coaching legend in my favorite sport.

If you listen to some of the praise they are heaping on Coach Wooden, it would seem impossible to believe, if you didn't know or understand what he accomplished. They call him the George Washington and Abraham Lincoln of NCAA Basketball. They call him the greatest coach ever, regardless of sport. They call him the figure that towers above all other coaches in basketball history. They are unwilling to place Red Auerbach and/or Phil Jackson in John Wooden's class.

One coach referred to him as the Rain God, sitting on a cloud above the rest of the coaches in Basketball sprinkling little bits of wisdom over them all. No?!?! Yes, I heard the man speaking on ESPN. Seems outrageous? Maybe... Maybe not.

I know Coach Wooden as the man who built UCLA... quite literally. If you look at landscape photos of UCLA in the year 1960 and then look at very similar photos from similar angles in year 1980 you will see an astounding difference. UCLA went from an interesting collection of buildings on 411 acres of dirt to a metropolis/metroplex.

The level of construction that occurred during those 20 years was amazing. Believe me, that burst of construction was not financed by the State of California or the City of Los Angeles. Maybe they contributed a bit to the pot, but that money came from Coach John Wooden's basketball program. The TV revenues and the product licenses brought tens of millions of dollars into our university, and that money built the UCLA we know today.

The 13 libraries we have, the medical school which is renown throughout the world, the gymnasium which bear Coach Wooden's name, the giant student union we enjoyed... All of that came from Coach Wooden's basketball program.

The thing we love about Wooden is that he did it the right way. He was a Gentleman's Gentleman. He was of the highest moral fiber. He embodied the best of old-fashioned saintly values. He did that in a city we frequently call Sin City. He always won the right way. He never won the dirty way. He was an astounding guy.

One of the things I loved about Dick Vermeil is that he seemed to be a little chip off the old block. He seemed more than a little bit like football John Wooden. This was probably due to the fact that Coach Vermeil was a UCLA coach and during the peak of Coach Wooden's run. I am willing to bet that some of Coach Wooden rubbed off on Coach Vermeil during that time. When he (we) won the Super Bowl in 1999, we did it the right way, with a band of excellent men. I like to believe our 1999 team was a little twig off the Wooden tree.

Los Angeles has lost of two of its greatest sports figures this year. Ram defensive tackle Merin Olsen was the first. Now Coach Wooden. These guys were two of our greatest; arguably the greatest. We still have some great ones. Kareem, Magic and Worthy still live. David Deacon Jones and Jack Youngblood still live. We still have Steve Garvey and Mike Socia. Of course, Kobe has many decades ahead, we all hope.

Still... this has been a rough year.