NewYearsEve IV

I watched my recording of last night's USC/Hawaii game today and tonight will watch Arizona/Toledo--always a sucker for the Pac-10 and remember when it was the Pac-8 (all West Coast Schools). Now it is the Pac-12. Sigh. The only constant is change, or as Heraclitus said, 'all is flux.' (Neither 'Heraclitus' nor 'flux' is dirty, by the way, despite what Sarah Palin or any of her fans might think, should any of them read this).

Tomorrow's the annual Big Day, though--New Years Day for us academic types: the start of another college football season. This year for the first time I actually ordered ESPN Game Plan so that I can receive any of the Pac-12 broadcasts that aren't shown down here in the Deep, Dark South. UCLA/Kansas State, for example, will be replaced tomorrow by Kentucky/Louisville down here. I plan to pay for the service out of my Social Security check, which would REALLY piss off SP and her fans (!).

I've been addicted to college football since my senior year in high school (1959), when my buddy Dennis Butler and I were recruited for the band programs at both USC and UCLA, superb players that we were (!!). USC took us to their Washington game (ho-hum), but UCLA took us to their USC game. USC was unbeaten and ranked third but UCLA upset them 10-7 still running their single-wing offense (!!!).

Both of us thus went to UCLA for not-the-best of reasons, but there you are. The Y chromosome struck again and would strike many more times in the future, at least in my case. I'll let Dennis speak for himself. I rooted for UCLA against USC my entire life until Pete Carroll came, after which I switched. Don't know what I'll do now, really. Pete was the ultimate college coach and neither Lane Kiffen nor Rick Neuheisel is. We'll see, I guess.

Dennis is the one I bought the Unit from, by the way, the one you see below. He never rooted for USC and never will.

OK: U-C-L-A, Fight, Fight, Fight (!!!!); Fight On, Trojans, Fight On(!!!!!). And while we're at it-- I've always loved Cal and their wonderful old stadium in beautiful Strawberry Canyon since I first played there in the UCLA Marching Band in 1960 (our flight up there was my first time in a plane): Go, Bears (!!!!!!)