Today's Potluck Quotes (4 of 10): Richard Nixon

Greetings to those of you enjoying your lunch break at the New Golden Dragon Chinese Restaurant in Salt Lake City, Utah, where it is almost noon now, or any of you who are a taking a break from the 2016 Rio Olympics where Team USA is now playing Team Japan in women's volleyball.

One of the fun aspects of these Olympics has been following former American Olympic gymnast and UCLA Bruins standout gymnast Samantha Peszek use social media to document her experiences in Brazil covering the games, which have included sharing a ride with former gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi whom our friend blogger Chris Knight from Reidsville, NC, ran into in an airport once.

Ok that's enough digression; here's today's quote of the day from the late Richard Nixon (1913-1994); yes. of course, we are doing this because it's also an election year here in les etats unis:

"If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But, if you take no risks, you win no victories."

Wow! Even though he is no longer alive, it seems like Nixon would have been a perfect spokesperson for match.com

According to the web site for the Nixon Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, Calif., CIA director John Brennan will speak there on Aug. 24th at 1:00 p.m. about how intelligence was gathered during the Cold War when Nixon was president.

http://www.slcnewdragon.com

http://www.uclabruins.com

https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/

Salute to NCAA college sports (1 of 3)

The six athletes pictured are 1) Amy Boswell, women's volleyball, BYU; 2) Alex Lyon (the goaltender), men's hockey, Yale; 3) Nadia Podo (in white), women's lacrosse, Towson; 4) Jordan Sheffield, baseball, Vanderbilt; 5) Sophina DeJesus, gymnastics, UCLA; 6) Joergen Brath (from Norway), men's skiing, University of Utah

NCAA Gymnastic Champions Tweets: Greetings from Forth Worth, Texas

The NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships are underway in Forth Worth, Texas, which is not where we actually are. But, even though some local folks may be more interested in the Assassination City Roller Derby match in Dallas, Tex., given that no Texas Superconference school has a women's gymnastics program, we thought we'd post some tweets from some of the participating schools.

We are going with an image of former North Carolina State Wolfpack gymnast Ashley Shepard to show neutrality as the school did qualify at regionals for the championships, and we wanted to go with an image of Cam the Ram, the mascot for Colorado State University, as well. But, since Colorado State doesn't even have a gymnastics team, we figured none of our blog-readers would be amused.

Here are the tweets (Note: Some schools have gymnasts competing individually even though their teams did not qualify):

1) Kentucky Gymnastics: NCAA gym warmups are underway! Sydney Waltz will compete in Stanford's rotation of bye, bars, beam, bye, floor, vault.

2) Florida Gators Gymnastics: Gator senior Rachel Spicer returns to Texas as NCAA Championships cap emotional senior year.

3) Samantha Peszeck: It's game time Bruins, lezzzgoooo

4) LSU Gymnastics: LSU competes for a spot in the Super Six in NCAA Semifinal II.

5) NC State Gymnastics: Brittni Watkins and Michaela Jayne ready to go!

6) WVU Gymnastics: Congratulations, Jaida Lawrence to co-Big 12 Scholar-Athlete of the Week!

7) CSU Cam the Ram: Happy Friday, Rams! Hope that rain jacket is green and gold! (The tweet actually featured a sheep wearing a raincoat!)

8) UCLA Gymnastics: All gymnasts master difficult skills. Danusia Francis likes to invent new ones.

9) Urban Dictionary: Hater_ A person that simply cannot be happy for another person's success.

College Gymnastics Lists (4 of4): Gymnasts from the Pac-12 Conference

Of the 12 schools in the PAC-12 Conference, eight have women's gymnastics programs (Colorado, USC, Washington State and Oregon do not), so you may not see many Oregon Ducks t-shirts at a gymnastics meet. But, here are 10 gymnastics from those eight schools which have teams, UCLA, Utah and Stanford are seemingly possible contenders for the Super Six (equivalent of the Final Four):


1) Sydney Sawa, UCLA. Senior. (pictured top)

2) Aliza Vaccher, Washington, Senior. (pictured center)

3) Stephanie Miceli. Arizona State. Soph. (pictured bottom)

4) Georgia Dabritz, Utah. Junior

5) Selynna Felix-Terrazas. Arizona. Fresh.

6) Chelsea Tang. Oregon State. Junior.

7) Ivana Hong, Stanford. Junior

8) Alice Asturias, California. Senior.

9) Leilani Alferos, California. Senior

10) Allison Northey, Washington. Soph.

http://www.collegegymfans.com

College Gymnastics Lists (2 of 4): The All-Stars

Here is a list of NCAA gymnasts who have been stand-outs all year or all during their respective collegiate careers. The order presented here by no means suggests where each gymnast stands nationally. It's interesting that both Bridget Sloan and Samantha Peszek who competed as Olympians for Team USA are from Indiana:

1) Bridget Sloan. Florida. Sophomore (pictured top)

2) Samantha Peszek. UCLA. Senior (pictured center)

3) Emily Wong, Nebraska. Senior (pictured bottom, she will compete for her third straight Big 10 all-around this weekend)

4) Nicolette McNair.. Stanford. Freshman.

5) Diandra Miller. Alabama. Senior.

6) Brittany Rogers. Georgia. Sophomore. (Rogers competed for Canada in the 2012 London Olympics)

7) Joanna Sampson. Michigan. Senior

8) Nansy Damianova. Utah. Senior (The Canadian gymnast's parents were gymnasts in Bulgaria)

9) Jessie Jordan. LSU. Junior.

10) Haley Scaman. Oklahoma. Sophomore.

http://www.collegegymfans.com

College Gymnastics List (1 of 4): The Seniors

This week we are posting lists for college gymnastics; the other sport where March Madness is underway as conference meets begin this upcoming weekend.

Here are ten seniors who are completing their college careers soon:

1) Shona Morgan, Stanford (pictured top; she's from Australia)

2) Mary Beth Lofgren, Utah (pictured center)

3) Olivia Courtney, UCLA (pictured bottom)

4) Audrey Harrison, Kentucky

5) Kristen Aloi, UNC

6) Hannah Fallanca, North Carolina State (Aloi and her both went to Mount Tabor High School in Winston-Salem, NC).

7) Mackenzie Caquatto, Florida (The Gators are the defending NCAA champions; we didn't spell her first name right in the tags section)

8) Lindsey Fowler, Alabama

9) Sarie Morrison, LSU

10) Katie O'Rourke, Pitt

http://www.collegegymfans.com

College Game Day Tweets (Mostly Women's Gymnastics): The Bruins Hit the Road; the Heels Stay Home

1) Samantah Peszek (pictured, a UCLA gymnast): "It's a travel day for the bruins. Off to NoCal we go." (posted Thurs.)

2) VCU Athletics (Men's basketball team has 11:00 a.m. vs. cross-town rival Richmond): "Be early. Be loud. Wear Black. Wreck HAVOC. Let's Go VCU!

3) West Virginia U Gymnastics: "We host our pink meet Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Coliseum!"

4) Kansas Women's Basketball: "Kwbb hopes to continue its Red Raider dominance in Lubbock, Tex. tomorrow"

5) UNC Gymnastics: "Carmichael Arena is ready and waiting for tonight's meet vs. Pitt! Come cheer us on at 7:00......free admission" (Meet will be televised live on ESPN3).

6) Penn State Gymnastics: "Excited for another BUS trip to Columbus, Ohio, tomorrow." (Posted Thurs.)

7). Florida Gators Gymnastics: "When combined rank of teams is less than the ticket-price- that's a deal! No2 Gators vs. #1 Oklahoma. Tix: $5"

http://www.collegegymfans.com

Women's College Gymnastics News and Rankings: Oklahoma is Numero Uno

Greetings to our blog readers in South Korea, India and Chile.

Erica Brewer (pictured above) was named Big 12 Gymnast of the Week, and her Sooners teammate Lara Albright was named the conference specialist of the week following Oklahoma U's win over Big 12 rival Iowa State. The Sooners, a team which has never won a NCAA title in women's gymnastics but come close on several occasions, is also ranked number one nationally.

Here are the other major conference Gymnasts of the Week:

1) SEC: Bridget Sloan (Florida)

2) Big 10: Joanna Sampson (Michigan)

3) Pac 12: Olivia Courtney (UCLA)

Other gymnasts to look for on top ten teams include Rheagan Courville and Jessie Jordan of LSU, Kytra Hunter of Florida, Danuisca Francis of UCLA and Georgia Dabrist (Utah).

Here is the current top ten in the sport, with a look at their respective weekend meets, (all times given are eastern time):

1. Oklahoma 197.188 (@ Ariz. #17 on Sat. at 6:00 p.m.)

2. LSU 197.038 (Hosts Arkansas #14 on Fri at 8:00 p.m.

3. Florida 196.863 (Hosts Georgia #6 on Friday at 7:00 p.m.; last week's meet with Auburn will be televised on ESPN-U on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.)

4. Utah 196. 763 (Hosts UCLA #8 on Sat. @ 9:30 p.m.)

5. Michigan 196.663 (Hosts Ohio State #23 on Sat. @ 4:00 p.m.)

6. Georgia 196.608 (see Florida)

7. Alabama 196.600 (Hosts #10 Arkansas on Fri @ 8:30 p.m.)

8. UCLA 196.525 (see Utah)

9. Nebraska 196.438 (@ Iowa Fri, 8:00 p.m.)

10. Arkansas (see Alabama)

http://www.collegegymfans.com

Sports Desk: Florida Edges UCLA in Road Meet

Greetings to our blog-readers in Russia, India and Brazil.

In the City of Angels (Los Angeles, Calif.), the top-ranked, defending NCAA champion Florida Gators met the fourth-ranked UCLA Bruins in a very significant early season meet before both teams face their respective conference rivals.

In the end, Florida won by a very narrow 196.625-196.650, with the Gators prevailing by a margin of .025.

The Gators team had won the 2013 NCAA title at UCLA, but Marissa King, on the team leaders for the Gators, had finished her last year of eligibility. But, the team still includes former Team USA Olympian Bridget Sloan (pictured top), who was the 2013 AA champ at the NCAAs, Kytra Hunter, and sisters Bridgette and Mackenzie Caquatto.

For the Bruins, the 2014 team features stand-out Samantha Peszek, Danusia Francis (pictured bottom), Sydney Sawa and Olivia Courtney.

The Gators swept the all-around with Kytra Hunter (39.375), Bridget Sloan (38.875) and Mackenzie Caquatto (37.300) taking the top three slots.

But, the Bruins featured many outstanding performances in their own right. Olivia Courtney scored a career-best on vault with 9.975 and on bars with a 9.900; on that event, Courtney tied for first with Bridgette Coquatto.

Courtney edged out Sloan, who scored a 9.925 on vault, while her teammate Sawa tied Hunter of Florida with a 9.9 on that same event.

Hunter won floor for Florida with a 9.925; Peszek won balance beam for UCLA with a 9.925.

But, the WOW moment of the meet came from Peszek's teammate Francis, one of two British gymnasts for the Bruins, a team which also features three Canadians, on the beam.

For that event, Francis, who finished with 9.900 on the beam, performed a sideways aerial into a full-twisting dismount.

We imagine it will get lots of hits on Youtube.

UPDATE: This is the corrected version of this story. A blog reader pointed out several errors we made, but like most people who criticize, he/she did not give me credit for spelling Mackenzie Caquatto's name correctly, so we will give ourselves a standing ovation!

The Return of Friday Night Tweets: Drug Bust in Hurricane, West Virginia

 

There is a full moon out tonight, and sure enough lots of crazy effing stuff is going on. The tweet from "The Toronto Sun" is an eye-catcher as is one from "The Charleston Gazette" in Charleston, W.Va. We also have tweets from Baltimore and Chapel Hill  (NC) as well.

 

 

Let's get started:

 

 

1) The Baltimore Sun @baltimoresun (image top): A1: Edward Snowden charges with spying, Somber Police Academy graduation. Man gets his name off sex offender list. School divides community.

 

2) Charleston Gazette @wvgazette: "Three arrested in Hurricane meth bust. Hurricane, WVa_ Three people were arrested Friday.....

 

3) Wall Street Journal @wsj (image center): "Average American slept 8 hours, 44 minutes per night in 2012"

 

4) Chapel Hill Magazine @chapelhillmag: "So proud of @DiamondHeels. What a season! It was so fun to witness their talent, resilience and heart."

 

5) The Daily Tar Hell @dailytarheel: UNC falls to UCLA 4-1 to end season.

 

6) The Toronto Sun @TheTorontoSun (image below; the late 1960s children's show "H.R. Pufnstuf" has been closely associated with weed): "Fired pot-smoking City of Ottawa worker fails to convince court his reefer madness is disability."

 

7) Samantha Peszek (a UCLA gymnast): "Proud of the @UCLABaseball team right now....Absolutely killin it!"

http://www.goheels.com

http://www.uclabruins.com

http://www.wvgazette.com

http://www.baltimorecity.gov

Friday Night Tweets: Sports, Sports, Sports....well, mostly college women's gymnastics

Since I may well be the one crossover NCAA Women's College Gymnastics fan who also happens to love Turkish soccer (I'm a Turkish-American), I want to start by mentioning that Istanbul powerhouse GalataSaray clubbed ElazigSpor, a team from Elazig, which is in eastern Turkey, by a 3-1 score thanks to two goal from Didier Drogba, the former Chelsea star and Ivory Coast national, and one goal by emerging Turkish superstar Burak Yilmaz, earlier today.

Now for the reason 97 percent of you are tuning in, here are some tweets that were generating in regard to the the first session of today's NCAA women's gymnastics championships being held on the campus of UCLA.

The college gymnasts pictured here are British Olympian Marissa King who competes for the Florida Gators (top) and Canadian Olympian Brittany Rogers who competes for the Georgia BullDogs/GymDawgs; both teams, along with the LSU Tigers, advanced today.

The two Big 10 schools in the first session: Illinois and Minnesota were both competing in their first national championships.


There are some other tweets regarding other sporting events, but they are not many, not many at all in fact!

Here we go:

1. @UIBaseball Iowa Baseball: "Tonight's game has been postponed due to rain. #Hawks play a double header with Penn State tomorrow starting at 1:05 CST."

2. Gators Gymnastics: "Gymnastics team advances to Super Six; Bridget Sloan is All-Around leader."

3. Illini Gymnastics @IlliniGym: "Florida, LSU, Georgia advance to Super Six #Illini women finish 5th in session with a 195.7, their highest team total ever."

4. MacKenzi Caquatto @MackMacko (a gymnast with Florida): "@AlexMorganVarga: Congrats to @MackMacko and the Gators for finishing first at NCAA Qualifying #ncaagym_ thank you. Good luck to y'all "

5. UCLA Gymnastics @uclagymnastics: "Session 1 #ncaawgym Finals: Florida-197.775, LSU 19.325, Georgia 197.150, Minnesota 196.375, Illinois 195.700, Stanford 194.700"

6. Minnesota Gymnastics @GophersWomensGym: "@KylaSledita recieves a 9.85 on vault and @JennyCovers gets a 9.825."

7. USA Water Polo @USAWP: "Also don't forget to mention our own Adam Kirkorian @WaterPoloCoachK will be live tweeting tonight's USC-UCLA matchup."

8. Chelsea Davis @Gymdogchels: "RT @ChelseaDfans: Congrats to Georgia #supersix! Thank you!!!

http://www.collegegymfans.com

http://www.twitter.com/turkishsoccer

More College Nicknames- Bulldogs, Purple Aces and Explorers

We should point out that Tyrone Garland (pictured bottom) is actually in the NCAA tournament even though the Virginia Tech Hokies, the team I grew up with, is not. This is because Garland transferred to La Salle, the Philadelphia school in the A-10 won their play-in game over Boise State. Today, the La Salle Explorers face Kansas State in Kansas City, Mo, which is a mere two hours away from Manhattan, Ks., which is the home of the Kansas State Wildcats.


Here is our look at this and other college school nicknames:


More Smart Schools:

1. Radford University Highlanders (Va., Big South)#
 2. UCLA Bruins (Cal; Pac 12_ pictured top)*
3. Cal Poly Mustangs (Cal; Big West)
4. UNC Tarheels (NC, ACC)*

More Angry Birds:

5. Ball State Cardinals (Ind.; Mid America)
6. Elon Phoenix (NC, Big South)
7. Southern Utah Thunderbirds (Utah, Big Sky)
8. Fla Gulf Coast Eagles (Fla; Atlantic Sun)*

Canines and Wolves:

9. Gonzaga Bulldogs (Wash; WCC)*
10. Washington Huskies (Wash.; Pac-12)
11. UM-Baltimore Retrievers (Md., America East)
12. Michigan Wolverines (Mich., Big 10-pictured center)*

Best of the Rest:

13. Cal State Northridge Matadors (Cal.; Big West)
14. Cleveland State Vikings (Ohio; Horizon)
15. La Salle Explorers (Pa., A-10)*
16. Evansville Purple Aces (Ind., Missouri Valley)
17. Missouri-Kansas City Kangaroos (Mo., Summit)

#- Radford is my alma mater, so I put it in as a smart school as a bit of a joke. The New Jersey Institte of Technology which is unquestionably a smart school has the same nickname.


*- Teams which are in the NCAA 68-team field

http://www.goexplorers.com

Sports Desk- Former UCLA Gymnast is Alternate for Team USA

On Sunday, in San Jose, Calif., the United States Olympic women's gymnastics team was formally decided after the result of team trials. Among the pleasant surprises of the night was that former UCLA gymnast Anna Li, 23, (pictured top) the daughter of Chinese Olympic gymnasts from Las Vegas, qualified as an alternate to the team.

Li was a stand-out at UCLA, where she helped the Bruins win a NCAA title in 2010.

The other alternates are Sarah Finnegan and Elizabeth Price.

Since the Magnificent Seven, which included Dominque Dawes won the team gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, women's gymnastics now apparently only consists of five gymnasts.

Among those who are on the scheduled competing team are McKayla Maroney (pictured), Jordyn Wieber,  Gabby Douglas, Kyla Ross and  Alexandra Raisman, who at 18 is the oldest of the five regular team gymnasts.

Douglas, 16, from Virginia Beach, Va., edged out Wieber, who is considered to be America's strongest gymnast.

There was some controversy as some analysts believe Price, who came in fourth at the trials, should have been on the main team instead of Ross, who is strong on bars and beam.

Alas, the night of competition in San Jose brought an end to two great gymnastics careers as both Alicia Sacramone, 24, the oldest competitor who was also the captain of the 2008 Olympic team and a stand-out gymnast at Brown University, and Nastia Liukin, 22, the 2008 Olympic all-around champion failed to qualify for the team.

www.usagym.com

www.uclabruins.com

NCAA Gymnastics Preview_ Vanessa Zamarripa (UCLA)

Since the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships are set to get underway on Friday in Gwinnett, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta, we are going to profile four gymnasts from four teams which are expected to contend for a national championship.

We start with Vanessa Zamarripa, a junior from O'Fallon, Ill., who has been named PAC-12 Gymnast of the Week, UCLA Athlete of the Week and PAC-12 Specialist of the Week during the 2012 season.

Zamarripa was named PAC-12 Gymnast of the Week and UCLA Athlete of the Week for week of Feb. 20-26, thanks to her outstanding 39.625 all-around title in a win over Arizona State. Zamarripa won a second UCLA Athlete of the Week title later in the season after garnering a 39.575 to help UCLA win a PAC-12 title during the conference championships in Salt Lake City, Utah, edging out the home team Utah.

At two intervals in 2012, Zamarripa was named PAC-12 Specialist of the Week. She scored a perfect 10 on vault in win over Cal-Berkeley early in the season which paved the way for her first specialist honor. Zamarripa won the same honors in February for strong performances on vault and bars in win over Stanford.

Other Bruins' gymnasts that will be counted on at the championship meet will be a trio of Canadian gymnasts, including Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, a senior from Toronto who was the first Canadian gymnast to medal at a world championships. The other two Canadian gymnasts are Aisha Gerber and Ti Liu.

Another UCLA gymnast Samantha Peszek, a junior from Indianapolis, has also been named PAC-12 Gymnast of the Week this season.

The Bruins also won their regional meet in Fayetville, Ark., two weeks ago. Along with Georgia, Alabama and Utah, UCLA is one of just four schools to have won a collegiate women's gymnastics title.

It is interesting that UCLA has arguably the hardest women's gymnast name in the NCAA as we have frequently double-checked Vanessa Zamarripa's last name, and one of the easiest names to spell in Ti Liu as well.

Sports Desk- UCLA Reaches High Scores Vs. Arizona St.

On Sunday, UCLA Bruins junior Vannessa Zamarripa (pictured here), whose name we always have a hard time spelling, (two rs and one p!), helped her team reach its highest score since the 2004 Bruins squad that won a NCAA Title.

Zamarippa scored a 39.625, which we be the rough equivalent of scoring 36 points in a basketball, and she was thus named both PAC-12 Gymnast of the Week and UCLA Student Athlete of the Week.

Samantha Peszek, Zamarippa's Bruins teammate and who also had a solid meet against the Sundevils, has also been named PAC-12 gymnast twice this season.

The Bruins scored a 198.050 team score over Arizona State, which also had an impressive score of 194.85 in their road meet. Sundevils sophomore Samantha Seaman had a carer-high on all-around with 39.175.

Zamarripa score a 9.925 on both beam and floor; conversely she got a 9.9 on vault.

The Bruins now head to Athens, Ga., which lost to top-ranked Florida in a major SEC road meet last weekend; the Bruins face the Bulldogs (Gym Dawgs) on Friday at 7:30 p.m., eastern time.

In another key Pac-12 meet, Arizona won a home meet over Washington by a score of 195.675-194.925

Freshman McKenzie Fechter, for the visiting Huskies, set a new career on all four events. Fetcher had an all-around score of 39.375. Fechter tied for first on beam with 9.85, and second beam and bars (with 9.85s on each event). Her teammate senior Ruby Engreitz had a season-best 9.825 on bars.

For the home team Wilcats, sophomore Shana Sangston and junior Molly Quirk both a 9.775 on vault, an event that was won by their teammates Abree Cristello and Jordan Williams, who each scored a 9.850.

The 'Cats also had strong nights from seniors Katie Matusick and Britnie Jones.

Quote of the Day/Week- Aretha Franklin

Today, in honor of Black History Month, we quote the Queen of Soul, who is Aretha Franklin, 69, who has been battling serious health problems as of late.

Franklin is perhaps best-known for her catchy r&b number one smash hit "Respect"
(1967). In recent years, she has performed at the 2009 Presidential Inaguration for Barack Obama.

Franklin was also the god-mother to the recently deceased pop singer Whitney Houston, who was found in a Los Angeles hotel room on Feb. 11. Houston was 48. To our knowledge, no conclusive report on her cause of death has been released to the media.

Here is the quote from Franklin:

"Don't say Aretha is making a comeback because I've never been gone."

SIDEBAR: We want to wish one of our favorite Olympic and college gymnasts Yvonne Tousek a happy 32nd birthday. Tousek competed for Canada in both the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

As a college gymnast at UCLA, Tousek earned the NCAA bars titles in 2001. Her Bruins teams won three of the school's six NCAA team titles in women's gymnastics.

Over the weekend, UCLA tied Oregon State with a 196.775 at Oregon State that also included the California Bears, which finished last in the three teams meet.

UCLA got strong results in the all-around competition from Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, who finished third with a 39.375, and from Vanessa Zamarripa, arguably the hardest college gymnast's name to spell (we think we got it right, hopefully) who finished fourth overall with a 39.325.

The Bruins host Arizona State on Sunday.

Bonus Road Trip (10 of 10)_ LA to Athens (Georgia, not Greece)

We will go ahead and tell you that the air mileage between Los Angeles and Athens, Greece, is 6,907 miles, suprisingly enough, Istanbul, Turkey, which isn't quite as south as the Greek capital is slightly closer to L.A. at 6,832 air miles.


But, the UCLA Bruins women's gymnastics team coming off a narrow, but impressive home win over the Utah Utes yesterday (196.075-196.025) will travel to Athens, Georgia, on March 2nd to face the Georgia Bulldogs, also known as the 'Gym Dawgs.'

UGA scored its own win on Friday night as they defeated the Denver Pioneers at home by a score of 196.525-193.700. The Gym Dawgs will next head to the University of Alabama to face the defending champions in the Crimson Tide. Alabama is also vying for a national titled in football tonight against LSU.

For the UCLA Bruins, Samantha Peszek paved the way by winning the all-around with a score of 39.45. The Bruins also have stand-out gymnasts in Vanessa Zamarripa, whose name we have previously spelled incorrectly (don't tell the Associated Press!; forgive the journalism humor) and Aisha Gerber.

Among the outstanding gymnasts for the Gym Dawgs are seniors Kat Ding and Gina Nuccio.

For our points of destination, we are choosing Garage Pizza on West Seventh Street in Los Angeles and Taquiero Del Sol (one of several locations) on Prince Avenue in Athens, Ga.

So just how far is this commute, in terms of driving time (we assume the Bruins team will fly into Georgia; we'd ask the Bruins coach ourselves, but we think she has more pressing matters to tend to); is the answer:

A) 32 hours and 30 minutes

B) 33 hours and 30 minutes

C) 34 hours and 30 minutes

D) 35 hours and 30 minutes


SIDEBAR: The answer to our last Bonus Road Trip was C. Incidentally, the Dartmouth Big Green's men's basketball team lost on the road at Harvard by a score of 63-47. But, Gabas Maldunas, from Lithuania, was selected as the Ivy League Rookie of the Week for the third time this year. We refered to the game in an earlier post. Maldunas scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the loss at Harvard.

Congrats to UCLA on Team's Women's Volleyball Championship

We were personally rooting for the Florida State Seminoles amongst the four women's college volleyball teams that made it to the semi-finals (apparently, the term Final Four can only be officially used for college basketball) in San Antonio because the team has two Turkish players in stand-out Duygu Duzceler and Fatma Yildirim.

But, the Seminoles were defeated in straight sets by a very talented UCLA Bruins team that went on to win a thrilling match over the University of Illinois by a score of 3-1 (25-23, 23-25, 26-24, 25-16) last night (Saturday).

The Illini, in spite of their loss in the title game, had a banner year which included a semi-final victory over UCLA's main rival, the USC Trojans, in a five-set nail-biter that finished with a 63-second back and forth between the two teams.

In last night's game, the Bruins were led by Rachael Kidder, a 6-3 junior who was also named NCAA Tournament MVP, who had 20 kills and eight digs. Her UCLA teammate Lauren Van Orden added 17 digs, and freshman Zoe Nightingale had 11 blocks and eight kills.

For the Illini, Michelle Bartsch had 22 kills, and Colleen Ward added 17 kills as well.

The Bruins, who were a powerhouse in women's volleyball, had not won a title in the sport since 1991. UCLA has now won four NCAA titles in the sport, and 108 titles in collegiate athletics, with a significant number of titles in men's basketball, women's softball and women's gymnastics.

Coach Michael Sealy of the Bruins, who was also named NCAA Coach of the Year, is also the first coach to win a title as coach and as a player, since he was on the 1993 men's volleyball team at UCLA which won a championship as well.

Quote of the Day- Henrik Ibsen

Today's quote of the day comes from the great, classic Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. A production of his famous play "A Doll House" will be performed by L.A. Theatre Works from Sept. 22-25 on the UCLA campus with Calista Flockhart (from tv's "Ally Macbeal) and JoBeth Williams in the cast.

Here is his quip:

"A minority may be a right, but a majority is always wrong."

SIDEBAR: Wow, as a former journalist, the rapid decline of the print medium is quite a chilling and depressing one. The Raleigh, NC, alt weekly "Independent Weekly" reported that Durham, NC's daily newspaper "The Herald-Sun" laid off seven newsroom employees, a third of the paper's staff, which also leaves fewer than 20 people in the editorial department.

The paper which was drawn into the Duke University lacrosse scandal in 2006 (acording to Wikipedia) has seen its circulation dwindle from 50,000 to 25,000 (according to "Indy Weekly"). Additionally Wikipedia disclosed that "The Herald-Sun" laid off 81 employees during its first round of lay-offs in 2005. All the staff that was laid off in Durham, NC, as well as reporters from around the country who have lost their jobs due to these seismic changes in the industry have my deepest sympathies.

Strange, but True Things We Learned This Week

We will get to why we are using an image of Ozzy Osbourne, who is going to be performing in Tampere, Finland, on June 9th, later in this entry, but first here are four surreal things we found out this week. We have four more strange, but true items on our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time." Here are the things that will likely surprise you:

1) Osama bin Laden (1957-2011) was the subject of a UCLA geography department study that sounds a bit like a more formal take on "Where's Waldo?" in which geographer Thomas Gillespie and his colleague John Agnew along with undergraduate students from UCLA tried to predict where the ruthless terrrorist leader was hiding. Through sturdy research, they concluded that with an 88.9 % likelihood that bin Laden was in Abbottabad, Pakistan, which proved to be correct. (I actually thought he was in Karachi or Islamabad myself, but I had never heard of Abbottabad until late Sunday night). I heard this story through the BBC last night, and it was also reported in "Science" magazine.

2) What is the busiest McDonald's in the world? Well, the answer is ironically the historic McDonald's located at Pushkin Square in Moscow, Russia. It serves 30,000 customers per day!

3) Do you think it costs too much to go to the movies these days? Well, as we reported on our sister blog yesterday, the historic Castro Theatre in San Francisco is selling tickets for $20-40 for tonight's special 30th anniversary screening of "Mommie Dearest,"for Mother's Day, which will be presented by a local transvestite celebrity named Pecahes Christ. The cinema is also showing a Faye Dunaway double-header (she stars as Joan Crawford in "Mommie Dearest" and the film is apparently her least favorite) on May 11, including a screening of "The Eyes of Laura Mars." Personally, I would prefer going to the May 11 event, but San Fran is a long way from the east coast!

4) I read another great article/column by "The Atlantic" magazine's media writer James Parker about how heavy metal has 'saved our souls.' The article reminded me of how I heard the music of Ozzy Osbourne (yes, now we are now getting to him) in Bursa, Turkey, which is a fairly conservative city with a large number of fundamentalist Muslims. Interestingly enough, Turkey has a 'heavy metal scene" with domestic bands like Labrient, founded by Serhat Kocak and Yavuz Selim Sarici. But, sadly, we also learned a few months back from WKNC (88.1-FM/Raleigh) the student-run station at North Carolina State that the Turkish scene is not quite as globally recognized as the Greek heavy metal scene, which includes the likes of Acid Death and Nightfall. But, perhaps music associated with demons and warlocks can perhaps bring the two feuding countries together once and for all. And, I'm sure that would delight Ozzy Osbourne and his compatriots!