Sports Desk: Penn State Goes over the Hills and through the Woods to win at Iowa State in women's gymnastics

Gathering from the photos we saw from the Penn State women's gymnastics team, the Nittany Lions had quite a trek to Ames, Iowa, where they faced Iowa State in the first major NCAA meet of the season in women's college gymnastics.

Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, we could see the team's photos of snowy places, such as West Virginia, as they journeyed to middle of the Hawkeye State in what is normally and presumably a 15-hour drive.

Thanks to two LSU transfers, juniors Randi Lau of Hawaii and Sidney Sanabria-Robles (the image is of Penn State gymnast Sharaya Musser who graduated last year), Penn State edged out a 193.925-193.550 win over the home mat Cyclones.

Lau's outstanding 9.825 performance on the vault was crucial for the visitors. Lau also tied for second in the all-around with Sanabria-Robles.

For the Cyclones, Caitlin Brown, a stand-out junior, won the all-around with a career-best 38.900; Brown also won the balance beam for the home team.

SIDEBAR: Back on Dec. 22, Penn State's women's volleyball won their fifth NCAA title in seven years in Seattle. The Nittany Lions faced their surprising Big 10 Conference Rival Wisconsin Badgers in the title game. The Badgers shocked the college volleyball world by upsetting then-defending NCAA champs in Texas in the semi-finals.

Senior Deja McClendon, from Louisville, Ky., delivered the game-winning kill which propelled Penn State to win the match 3-1.

SIDEBAR TWO: Lastly on New Year's Day, it was a grand Rose Bowl for the Michigan State Spartans football team as they pulled a slight and narrow 24-20 upset over Stanford in Pasadena, Calif. Spartans quarterback Connor Crook, a sophomore, threw for a career high 332-yards win in the victory for the Big Ten champions.

Silly Photo to Fill Space- Halloween Dogs

If there is one thing about Americans which might make folks in Qom, Iran, Basra, Irag, or Pyongyang, North Korea (Forgive the political humor: I had to use the Axis of Evil countries to make fun of George W. Bush), it might well be our obsession with dogs.

There are lots of dogs and even some cats in very amusing photos in the current edition of "The Washingtonian."

While this is not from that magazine, it nevertheless is amusing.

And, with college football season in full-swing, one has to wonder if Vanderbilt, Wake Forest and Northwestern will lobby the NCAA to join the Ivy League (the joke here for those of you in Axis of Evil nations is that these schools seem to be more interested in academics than athletics hence they may have even more problems competing in high sweepstakes sports than ever before)! Personally, if I were the dog, I'd go with Vanderbilt.

Bonus Road Trip- Nebraska to Wisconsin (3 of 10)

Today, we look at the distances between two college towns which both happen to be state capitals named after two legendary American presidents: Lincoln, Nebr., to Madison, Wisc.

On Saturday, the Wisconsin Badgers won a home victory over the Nebraska Cornhuskers, a team that was making its Big Ten debut (there are actually now 12 teams in the Big 10) by a surprisingly devstating 48-17 score, which help move the Badgers into the top ten.

But, both schools also strong women's volleyball programs, and in that sport Nebraska will travel to Wisconsin for an important game on Oct. 14th.

On Saturday, the Nebraska women's volleyball team won a crucial road game at Michigan State on the part of 22 kills from Cornhusker stand-out Morgan Broekhius.

The Cronhuskers have several players from Nebraska on their squad, including Laren Cook, a junior from Lincoln and Brigette Root, a senior from Grand Island.

As for the Badgers volleyball team, they play four-time champion Penn State for a road game on Friday.

Nebraska also has a competitive women's gymnastics team, which has come close to winning a national championship at several intervals in recent years. That team's first home meet will be against Denver University on Jan. 13, 2012. The team has at least one gymnast from Nebraska, including Deanna Barrmore from Omaha.

So, for this segment, we are comparing the distances between two panckae houses, including the Original Pancake House at 5518 University Avenue in Madison (the state-wide chain has four other locations in Wisconsin) and Greenfields Pancake House on South 87th Street in Lincoln.

The distances between these two places is:

A) 7 hours, 30 minutes

B) 7 hours, 40 minutes

C) 7 hours, 50 minutes

D) 8 hours even

Give us your answers, and you may qualify to win a vintage 1970s Oak Ridge Boys record on vinyl (that is a joke, folks!).

Quote of the Week- Dwight D. Eisenhower

For those wishing to visit the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and Museum, it is located in Abilene, Kansas, and my mother visited in last year during a lengthy road trip excursion that ended somewhere in Colorado.

The Newseum in Washington, DC, is also commemorating the 50th anniversary of Eisenhower's farewell address in January with guests like James Fallows from "The Atlantic" and Dana Priest from "The Washington Post."

Here is our quote from Ike, which is appropriate since lots of college football games are being played today (as we speak in fact):

"An atheist is a man who watches a Notre Dame-Southern Methodist University game and doesn't care who wins."

SIDEBAR_ Our High School of the Week entries are in recess, but we should congratulate Cave Spring High School of Roanoke, Va., as the Knights are the only school from my hometown left in the Virginia state playoffs thanks to their win over Grundy High School last night.

Things We Learned on Twitter Today- Senator Talks Sports

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), one of our entries in the now-defunct Know Your Congressional Rep and Senators series (that was as popular as Porky Pig cartoons in Pakistan), tweeted tonight that she was delighted to see her beloved University of Missouri tigers stun top-ranked Oklahoma in college football:

"WE WON!!! So special to see The Tigers beat those Sooners!! So much fun. And, we deserved to win."

Of course, this being the political the right-wing web site fireandreamitchell.com, which presumably believes everyone to the left of Newt Gingrich is as radical as Che Guevara, cited the Missouri senator and made her out to be The Joker from "Batman."

And, to think some 45 percent of my fellow Americans share this idiotic far-right political views, especially in places like the tiny Shenandoah Valley hamlet of Toms Brook, Va.!

50 Beers From Around the World- Kronenbourg 1664 (France)

Kronenbourg 1664 Beer, France's best-selling brew, was started in the year 1664 in Strasbourg, France (not to be confused with Strasburg, Va., which is an hour south of Washington, DC).

KUDOS: Congrats to the Virginia Tech Hokies for beating the N.C. State Wolfpack 41-30on the road Saturday.

SIDEBAR: We would have more to say today, but it is a Monday and we have a lot of bogabok (which is Turkish for something associated with a type of cow) to take care of! Efes Pilsen, by the way, is the most popular beer in Turkey.

Things We Learned From Twitter Today- Good News for College Football Fanatics...

There is a completely meaningless college football game tomorrow night which might actually be a fairly interesting contest.

Now, this post may not go over well here in The Tarheel State since we are a mere 108kilometers away from the state capital, but we do love the North Carolina State Wolfpack's women's gymnastics team with senior Brittany Vontz (who is a great vaulter, we believe) but they don't start their season until a home meet on Jan. 14 against Oklahoma.

As for the 'Pack football team, they have a home game tomorrow night at home againt the Cincinnati Bearcats which were an up and coming powerhouse in the Big East until their coach left for Notre Dame.

But, through a tweet from ACC Sports, we learned that 'Pack coach Tom O'Brien actually is a Cincy Reds fan as he grew up in Ohio and he is looking forward to the game. His team is 2-0, while the 'Cats are 1-1.

The 'Pack were one of the few ACC teams that won last week as they beat Central Florida 28-21. Among the most recent debacles for ACC football is Virginia Tech's 21-16 home loss to James Madison University.

Silly Photo to Fill Space- Hokie Bird

Since the Virginia Tech Hokies will face the University of North Carolina Tarheels in a nationally televised game in Blacksburg, Va., on ESPN on Thurs., Oct. 29, I thought I would feature photos of both school's mascots. I happen to live on the Virginia-North Carolina border, and I've learned it's smart to root for the Hokies during football season and the 'Heels come basketball season.