Salute to NCAA College Sports (3 of 3)

Here are the six student athletes pictured in this entry: 1) Mysha Sataraka, softball, UCLA; 2) Grant Mullins, men's basketball, Columbia; 3) Chanen Roygoza, women's gymnastics, Penn State; 4) Matt Grzelcyk, men's hockey, Boston University; 5) Kiah Gillespie, women's basketball, Maryland; and 5) Mark Lowrie, baseball, Winthrop.....

NCAA College Gymnastics Championship Tweets: This is Not a Contact Sport

Today marks the start of the NCAA Women's College Gymnastics Championships in Forth Wroth, Texas, and apparently we will get hate mail if we refer to the city as a suburb of Dallas.

As of this writing, three teams have advanced to tomorrow's Super Six with three more to join them tonight. SPOILER ALERT: Florida, Stanford and Utah advanced, while Michigan, UCLA and Georgia did not.

Here are tweets from before and after the early session meet. The gymnast pictured here is former Florida Gators gymnast Randy Stageberg, yes, we are aware that is not a typical woman's name!:

1) Nebraska Women's Gym: Today's the day. The NCAA Championships are about to get a taste of the hashtag-perfect storm.

2) Some guy named Casey: Waiting for the doors to open!!! Can't wait to cheer for StanfordWGym to the super six. hashtag-fearthetree.

3) Samantha Peszek: It's game time Bruins, lezzzgooo

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

5) Stanford Gymnastics: Stanford's final score of 197.175 is its third-highest at any NCAA Championship.

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

7) Oregon State Gymnastics: Congrats to UtahGymnastics and StanfordWGym making it to Super Six! hashtag-BackthePAC

8) Illionois Women's Gym: Giana O'Connor totals a 39.425 that finishes tied for 3rd in the semifinal session.

9) UCLAGymnastics: Samantha Peszek has qualified for event finals on beam and floor and is a 1st-team All-American on those events.

NCAA Nicknames: Smart Schools

There is a bit of an in-joke here as the editor has decided to insert his own alma mater, although it is not a college which requires a sky high SAT score for entry. But, the other nine schools have that requirement (not all of these teams are in the NCAA Tournament):

1) Harvard Crimson  Ivy League. Cambridge (Boston), Mass., (John Harvard, the school mascot, pictured top. Yesterday, the school upset Cincinnati. They next face Michigan State)

2) UCLA Bruins. PAC-12. Los Angeles, Calif. (Bryce Alford, the son of UCLA's coach Steve Alford, is pictured along with a teammate. They play Tulsa tonight).

3) Duke Blue Devils. ACC. Durham, NC (The team's cheerleaders are pictured bottom. Amazingly enough, the team is losing by one-point to Mercer in Raleigh, in the NCAA Tournament. Will star player Jabari Parker prevent it?).

4) Radford Highlanders. Big South. Radford, Va. (Yes, this is your's truly's alma mater. Though not in the NCAAs, the team pulled a huge upset in the College Basketball Invitational over Oregon State 96-92 on the Beavers' home court.)

5) UVA Cavaliers. ACC. Charlottesville, Va. (The team is a top-seed, they play Coastal Carolina from the Big South tonight).

6) Cal Poly Mustangs. San Luis Obisco, Calif. Big West. (The 16-seed plays top seed Wichita State tonight).

7) George Washington U Colonials. Washington DC. Atlantic 10. (The team plays Memphis today).

8) Stanford Cardinal. PAC-12. Palo Alto, Calif. (The team is playing New Mexico right now).

9) Northwestern Wildcats. Big 10. Evanston, Ill.. (The team improved this year, but still had a losing season).

10) Colorado Buffaloes.PAC-12. Boulder, Colo. (The team lost to Pitt in the NCAAs yesterday).

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/

http://bleacherreport.com/

http://www.sportingnews.com/

March Madness by the Numbers: How Many Games Has VCU Won?

Let's jump in the pool, so we can watch some games ourselves; here are nine numerical facts about the NCAA Tournament, also known as March Madness, or (SPOILER ALERT) in the case of the Ohio State Buckeyes who just lost to the Dayton Flyers 60-59, March Sadness. For more numerical facts, go to our sister blog http://nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com/

1) 21: Number of points scored by T.J. Warren of North Carolina State in ACC semi-final loss to Duke in the ACC semi-finals in Greensboro, NC.

2) 224: Miles between Charlottesville, Va., and Raleigh, NC, where the top-seed UVA Cavaliers face 16- seed Coastal Carolina, the Big South Tournament champs. Akil Mitchell of UVA is pictured top.

3) 20: Number of games the Wofford Terriers (Spartanburg, SC) have won; the 15-seed faces 2-seed Michigan in the big dance.

4) 4: Numbers of years Ed Cooley has coached the Providence Friars; the teams face the UNC Tar Heels in San Antonio, Tex., tomorrow.

5) 35- Number worn by Anthony Cole of Memphis, the eight-seed face George Washington Univ. (Washington, DC) in the tournament.

6) 74: Number of points scored by Iowa State in their Big 12 title game versus Baylor.

7) 27: Number of years, it has been since UCLA coach Steve Alford, who played for the Indiana Hoosiers, lead his team to an NCAA title in 1987.

8) 26: Number of games won by VCU, the team's coach Shaka Smart is pictured on the bottom.

9) 6: Number of games lost by the Cincinnati Bearcats who are playing Harvard right now.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/

http://vcuathletics.com/sports/mbkb/index

College Game Day Facebook Feeds (Mostly Women's Gymnastics): Lots of Pink Meets

Here are some Facebook feeds for this afternoon, mostly regarding college gymnastics. At least three college women's gymnastics teams: UNC, Arizona and West Virginia are holding pink meets for Breast Cancer Awareness:

1) UNC Gymnastics: "WEAR PINK!!! And come out tonight and support your Tar Heels as they take on Pitt at 7pm in Carmichael."

2) Michigan Hockey: "51 days, it's finally game day at the Yost! No. 12 Michigan Hockey hosts No.9 Wisconsin tonight at 6:30 p.m. The game will be televised on the Big 10 Network."

3) Arizona Gymnastics: "Come support the Gymcats this Saturday at 4:00 p.m. as they take on Pac-12 rival Washington. It's our breast cancer awareness meet so wear pink!"

4) UCLA Gymnastics: "Meet Day! UCLA at Cal tonight in Sadiqua Bynum's hometown of Berkeley. Watch it live on Pac-12 Lost Angeles."

5) Radford University Highlanders: Ayana Avery of Radford women's basketball breaks single-season record for three-pointers in 63-62 win over Coastal Carolina."

6) Nebraska Gym: "Tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. come help the Huskers light up the night against Minnesota. First 800 fans get free light-up wand.

7) UNC-Greensboro Athletics: "Men's Hoops Looks to Maintain Momentum Saturday Against Georgia Southern."

http://www.collegegymfans.com

SPOILER ALERT: Florida Wins NCAA Women's Gymnastics Crown

The Florida Gators won the team's first-ever NCAA title in women's gymnastics; only four other schools (Alabama, Georgia, UCLA and Utah) had won and each of those schools is a multiple winner.

On our sister blog "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com we discussed how Florida performed as a team.

The two gymnasts pictured here are Gators' gymnasts Alaina Johnson (top) and Ashanee Dickerson (bottom). The meet will air on ESPN-U at 8:00 p.m. on ESPN-U.

Here we are going to post individual scores from the four different events; the meet was held on the campus of UCLA:


Vault

1. Bridget Sloan (Florida) 9.995

2. Alaina Johnson (Fla) 9.900

3. Marissa King (Fla) 9.900

4. Kytra Hunter (Fla) 9.900

5. Ashley Sledge (Alabama) 9.900

6. Olivia Courtney (UCLA) 9.900


Beam

1. Sloan 9.9950

2. King 9.925

3. Kim Jacob (Alabama) 9.950

4. Ashley Priess (Alabama) 9.950

5. Rebecca Clark (Oklahoma) 9.925

6. Madison Moorig (Oklahoma)9.925


Bars

1. Johnson 9.950

2. Vanessa Zamarripa (UCLA) 9.925

3. Sloan 9.900

4. Mackenzie Caquatto (Fla) 9.900

5. Jacob 9.900

6. Kaitlyn Clark (Alabama) 9.900

Floor

1. Hunter 9.975

2. Sloan 9.950

3. King 9.950

4. Bridgette Caquatto (Fla) 9.95

5. Jacob 9.950

6. Liominica Hall (LSU) 9.950

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

Here are our sports-related tweets on a rainy Friday night which has been overshadowed by surreal, harrowing developments in the Boston Marathon bombing suspect. But, today was also the day of the first round of the NCAA women's gymnastics championships on the campus of UCLA; the home mat Bruins are in the second session, which is going on at this hour. These tweets are in reference to the first session.

The three teams that advanced are 1) Florida, 2) LSU and 3) Georgia. The other three teams were 4)Minnesota, 5) Illinois and 6) Stanford. Minnesota and Illinois were competing in their first NCAA championships.

Here are the tweets:

1. Ivana Hong @IvanaHong (She is a Stanford gymnast, pictured top): "Thank you everyone for such love and support! In the end, competing with this team is the best part of gymnastics."

2. Bridget Sloan Fans @TeamBridgetS (Bridget Sloan is an American Olympic gymnast who competes for Florida): "Yay! Congrat to the #gators on being in the #supersix! And congrats to @bridgetsloan on being the AA winner thus far!"

3. Jamie Christian @JamieAllOver: "So along with manhunt and other things about the terrorists, #supersix is trending. This is why I love America."

4. Between the Hedges @UGAHedgesBlog: "Congrats to the @UGAGymnastics for reaching the #supersix for the first time in 2009."

5. Kytra Hunter @KytraHunter Kytra Hunter is a Florida gymnast from Frederick, Md.): "Started out slow, but ended strong! Way to fight Gators! So excited for tomorrow!"

6. FSU Baseball @FSU_Baseball: "First pitch has been moved back to approximately 8:30 p.m. Stay tuned for more updates from Charlottesville."

7. Boston College @BostonCollege: "Thankful for a peaceful resolution; remember all affected by this week. #BostonStrong

NOTE: Neither Florida State nor Boston College have women's college gymnastics programs, but their tweets helped fill a gap we had!

UPDATE: Alabama, the two-time defending NCAA champion, won the second session with a 197.35; host UCLA and Oklahoma tied for second with a score of 197.200. The three schools that did not qualify for the Super Six are: 4) Michigan 196.85 5) Utah 196.200 and 6) Arkansas 196.150

Things We Learned on Twitter Tonight_ Obama Celebrates Team USA Golds

Lots of tweets tonight regarding the 2012 London Olympics; let's jump in the pool:

1) @CaseyMatthews50: "Congrats to Oregon Alum Galen Rupp for taking silver today in the 10k!"

2) @BarackObama: "President Obama celebrating the Olympic and Paraolympic athletes of Team USA in his weekly address."

3) @UCLAAthletics: "All-time UCLA medal count now up to 242 after Mark Hunter's silver in rowing," (the middle image is of the UCLA mascot).

4) @forrestfire: "Quit Russian around and Czech out the  Olympics. I'm covered in Greece from the Turkey I ate earlier, but I'm still Hungary. Poland."

5) @destineehooker: "Sweet dreams everyone. USA x Turkey tomorrow." (The top image is of American women's indoor volleyball player Destine Hooker. Turkey, ranked eighth in the world in the sport, plays the USA, ranked first, tomorrow in a highly anticipated game.)

6) @StayAdventurous: "In battle of beautiful women Czech Republic beat Brasil today." (Indeed, Czech women's beach volleyball players Marketa Slukova and Kristyna Kolocova upset the Brazilian duo of Maria Antonelli and Talita Antunes. The image below is actually of a beach volleyball game in Turkey. The tweeter splled Brazil as Brasil. There is a photo of the Czech duo posing topless_with hands covering bare breasts on the net_but, we don't want to lose readers in Dubai!).

http://www.usavolleyball.com

http://www.tvf.org.tr

http://www.uclabruins.com

http://www.goducks.com

http://kolocova_slukova.cz

UPDATE: Fortunately, we did not mention which country Mark Hunter (rowing) represented. A time of the tweet from UCLA, we presumed he rowed for America, but actually he rowed for Great Britain. Zac Purchase was his teammate in the two-man rowing competition on Saturday.

Olympic Stories- Anna Li Making Best of Olympics After Bad Injury

Anna Li, 23, had overcome concerns that she was too old, too tall at 5'4 and too injury-prone as she had two surgically repaired broken feet, yet she qualified for the women's Olympics gymnastics team as an alternate for the squad that would head to London.

Li was a stand-out at traditional powerhouse UCLA where she helped guide the Bruins to the school's sixth NCAA title in 2010. UCLA narrowly lost to the University of Alabama this year at the NCAA championships this spring.

On July 28, Li blogged about her Olympics experience in an entry that was posted on uclabruins.com; alas, Li suffered a devastating injury when she feel from the uneven bars during the team's second workout. Li will be wearing a neck brace in the coming weeks and she thanked everyone for their get-well wishes.

But, the former UCLA gymnast was upbeat about her time in the United Kingdom, and she talked about how it took her a moment to realize that when the team's plane landed at 7 a.m. local time in England, that it was 1 a.m. in her home state of Illinois, where Li, the daughter of two Chinese Olympic gymnasts, went to Waubonise High School in the Chicago-suburb of Aurora.

In the years since graduating from UCLA, Li has performed as a stunt woman.

Li said the initial workout occurred at 8:00 a.m. and lasted for close to four hours, and that she took a nap at the team's hotel from noon until 2:50 p.m. for that second workout, where the injury resulted.

The gymnast is one of several UCLA alumni or active Bruins  in the 2012 London Olympics. Yesterday, former Bruin Courtney Mathewson, who helped UCLA to four consecutive NCAA titles, scored three vital goals in Team USA's narrow 14-13 win over Hungary in women's water polo.

As for women's gymnastics, Team USA had a shocking development on Sunday as defending world all-around champion Jordyn Wieber, 16, did not qualify for the all-around at the Olympics due to a highly controversial rule that only allows for two gymnasts from each country irregardless of the gymnast's score.

Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman are the two gymnasts who qualified for all-arounds. Wieber will still compete for the team in the team finals which are happening tonight, surprisingly early for gymnastics which has traditionally been held in the middle of the Olympic games.

According to a survey from bleacherreport.com, some 70-percent of those surveyed felt that the Olympic gymnastics rule should be scrapped. 

http://www.annali.us/

http://www.uclabruins.com

http://www.bleacherreport.com

Quote of the Day/Week-Cheryl Miller

Today, we conclude our series of quotes from Americans who won either or both gold and silver medals at the summer games in honor of the upcoming 2012 London Olympics.

Cheryl Miller, 48, a graduate of the University of Southern California, was the star player on the gold medal-winning  women's basketball team at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

In 1995, Miller was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. As a high school senior for Riverside Polytechnic High School in Riverside, Calif., she scored 105 points in one game.

Her younger brother Reggie Miller, who was a standout at UCLA and the Indiana Pacers, said he was flabbergasted when he found out that she had scored some 40 points more than him on a night when he assumed he would be the member of the family making headlines in the local paper the next day.

Here is Cheryl Miller's quote:

"Every plant has to look good for at least two seasons."

Quote of the Day/Week- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Well, since a quote from 1976 Olympic track gold-medalist Bruce Jenner_of all people has been_has been very popular on this blog, there is a temptation to quote him again, but not today.

Instead, we will quote basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 65, who was actually friends with another guy named Bruce (that being Bruce Lee) as we continue to quote African-Americans who were subjects for photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' "The Black List," which was on display at the National Portraits Gallery until April 22nd (this shot was not taken by the photographer).

Abdul-Jabbar remains the NBA's leading scorer with 38,376 points; he played for the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers from 1969-89. Before becoming a pro basketball player, Abdul-Jabbar won three NCAA titles with the UCLA Bruins, a team that was coached by the recently-deceased John Wooden.

Here is his quote:

"One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man can not make a team."

SIDEBAR: We thought we'd promote two of our favorite cinemas today as Cine in Athens, Ga., will be screening the French film "The Kid with a Bike" and the Israeli film "Footnote" starting today. In the nation's capital, The West End Cinema is also showing five films, including "The Kid with a Bike" as well as  the documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" and the Canadian film "Monsieur Lazhar," which was nominated for Best Foreign-Language Oscar.


http://www.kareemabduljabbar.com

http://www.athenscine.com

http://www.westendcinema.com

Congratulations to the University of Alabama for Winning Gymnastics Title

Yes, college gymnastics fans will undoubtedly notice that the headline and the photo of Georgia gymnast Kat Ding, a senior from Sparks, Nev., may not seem to go well, but please read the entry first!

And, before we get to that, I forgot to thank blog readers from Belgium, Portugal and Australia on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire,' in addition to them, I want to thank those of you from Bulgaria and Indonesia who have stopped by here in the last 24 hours.

The University of Alabama did indeed win its seventh NCAA championship in women's gymnastics on April 21, and this was the first time that the Crimson Tide had successfully defended its title.

For Tide senior Geralen Stack-Eaton, it must have been a particularly rewarding weekend for she also won an individual title on the balance beam.

Meanwhile, Ding defender her national title on bars with a 9.875 and she had a 9.995 on floor, which gave her a title on that apparatus as well; Ding edged out Stack-Eaton, the defending floor champ, and Ellyse Hopfner-Hobbs of UCLA, who is perhaps the top Canadian gymnast in the world at the moment.

Kyra Hunter of Florida won both the coveted all-around title as well as an apparatus title on vault. The Gators finished a very close second to the Tide in the team competition with the Bruins of UCLA coming in a close third.

Next year, UCLA hosts the NCAA championships in the sport.

The Rabbit Ears Test (5 of 12)_ The Brady Bunch

Earlier this year, tv show pioneer Sherwood Schwartz, who created both "Gilligan's Island" and "The Brady Bunch" died at age 94. But, he will always be remembered for creating one of the first unusual sitcom families which broke away from the "Father Knows Best" forms of the '50s and '60.

"The Brady Bunch" starred the late Robert Reed (1932-1992) as Mike Brady. Reed came to the show with a Shakespearean actor background, and he would later teach Shakespearian acting at UCLA during the last years of his life which ended at age 59 from AIDS.

But, the other two adult cast members, Florence Henderson and Ann B. Davis, who played the housekeeper Alice, are alive and presumably well. Davis turned 85 this year.

The oldest Brady child was Greg Brady, played by Barry Williams, who is 57 today, a mere two younger than Reed was when he died 20 years ago. The other Brady Kids were played by the likes of Eve Plumb, Maureen McCormick, Chris Knight (not to be confused with my blogger friend of the same name), Mike Lookiland and Susan Olsen.

"The Brady Bunch" ran for 117 episodes, and Gene Hackman_ of all people_ was considered for the part of Mike Brady. The show was actually more popular after it initially aired, as it never got past number 34 in the ratings.

The dog Tiger disappeared after the second season because off-screen the dog was tragically run over by a car, though his dog house was around up until the show's conclusion.

I actually had the chance to meet Williams in person in 1996. He said he still got high volumes of fan letters every week.

So, today, we are asking when exactly did "The Brady Bunch" first air; is the answer?:

A) Sept. 26, 1969

B) Jan. 2, 1970

C) Sept. 25, 1970

D) Nov. 20, 1970

SIDEBAR: Alas, our beloved UNC Tarheels fell 41-24 to the Missouri Tigers in the Independence Bowl that was mentioned in an earlier entry.

The Top Ten Countries Where We Are Most Popular

We used to jokingly brag that we were the most popular American blog in Bergen, Norway, and Samarkand, Uzbekistan, but it appears that our blog hits are not coming from those countries. However, they are thankfully coming from lots of other places.

For this entry, we chose to go with an image of Syd, Ollie and Millie, the mascots of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where one of my all-time favorite collegiate gymnasts Yvonne Tousek of UCLA competed for Canada; the reason for this is that Australia is in our top ten for this blog as well as 'the other blog,' which is "The Daily Vampire."

Here is the list of the countries that really, really like us:

1. USA 66,460

2. Canada 6,543

3. UK 5,222

4. Germany 4,918

5. India 1,774

6. Brazil 1,567

7. France 1,313

8. Australia 1,269

9. Netherlands 1,040

10. Indonesia 613

SIDEBAR: Our friends at Triad Stage in Greensboro, NC, are set to open a new play in their UpStage Cabaret space when "The Mystery of Irma Vep" debuts on Sept. 29. The stage production will run through Oct. 15. If you are reading this at a cofffehouse in Hamburg, Germany, you should go ahead and take the 12-hour flight to North Carolina just to see this play!

Whoops, We Forgot Belgium

Well, we are posting this simply to balance this blog with our other blog "The Daily Vampire," where we made an error sending an entry meant for this blog on that one.

But, we were thinking about taking a day off from blogging tomorrow to go wash dogs at an animal shelter in Lynchburg, Va. (that is a joke, but we understand there is a great animal shelter in that city).

Alas, an image we hoped to post of Borat at the rodeo in Salem, Va., which is my hometown, as featured in the film "Borat" fell through in our Kazakhstan entry due to technical problems or perhaps a block from that particular site. (By the way, the answer is B for the question in that entry).

And, earlier today, I was able to name 24 of the 25 cities that have hosted or will host the summer Olympics in mentalfloss.com quiz. We forgot about the 1920 Antwerp Olympics. I have even been to Antwerp, Belgium, (back in 1993) but I completely forgot that the city was an Olympic host. Our apologies to Tintin, and everyone else in Belgium.

Yvonne Tousek, a former Olympic gymnast and UCLA stand-out competed for Canada, who I get to chat with every now and then, competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. She is curently performing with Cirque du Soleil.

I would say that I competed for Turkey (my late father's homeland) in greco-roman wrestling at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, when I would have been 22 years old, but I imagine the actual members of that team would not care for the joke.

Road Trip (2 of 20) March Madness Journey from LA to East Lansing

Today, we continue our Road Trip series with a special look at two teams who will be facing each other in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, otherwise known as March Madness, on Thursday night. The UCLA Bruins will face the Michigan State Spartans at 9:20 New York time for a game in Tampa, Fla.

The two schools have rich basketball traditions. The Spartans won the 1979 NCAA championship thanks to Magic Johnson who became a legend for the Los Angeles Lakers.

As for UCLA, they have won more NCAA men's basketball titles than any other school as they 11 in their trophy cases. According to mentalfloss.com, UCLA is also the most popular university in the country as the school gets about 60,000 applications each year.

UCLA also has a strong women's gymnastics program, which has won several NCAA titles. One of our favorite college gymnasts of all time Yvonne Tousek was a member of a 'dream team' squad that won many titles some eight years today. But, today UCLA maintains a strong gymnastics team thanks to the likes of Tauny Frattone, a junior who was named specialist of the week by the Pac-10 recently.

The Spartans are also among the 18 schools with gymnastics teams. Tragedy ensued the team right before the season started as gymnast Kathryn Mahoney was paralyzed after a horrific fall on the vault. But, the team has continued on, as Spartans gymnast Jackie Berg scored a 9.8 on bars recently at a meet in Norman, Okl.

So, today, we are asking just how far apart these two schools are. Instead of focusing on the campuses themselves, we will explore the distance between Sofra Kebab Express, a Turkish restaurant on Venice Blvd. in Los Angeles and the studios of the award-winning WDBM college radio station for Michigan State.

If you happen to wish for a Korean pop song, you can listen to 'Asian Invasion' on WDBM and tell the host Elsie that we were the ones who told you about the station. Their request line is 517-884-8989. Of course, if they get mad at us, we will deflect all responsibility!

So is the distance between Los Angeles and East Lansing, Mich:

A) 32 hours even
B) 33 hours and 20 minutes
C) 33 hours and 40 minutes
D) 34 hours and 30 minutes

The answer to our last road trip between Spartanburg, SC, and New York was B) 11 hours and 49 minutes.

Oscar Predictions Teaser

Tomorrow, we are hoping to post some of our Oscar predictions on this blog as well as our sister blog "The Daily Vampire." This is, of course, on the presumption that the rest of the week will be less whacky that today has been so far. But, hey I did find the car keys so I can't complain!

Today, we are featuring an image of an Oscar the Grouch t-shirt with this entry, assuming that the hot-link works! We had an unusual problem last year when we were trying to put up an image of the Bill Griffith comic book character "Zippy the Pinhead" on one of our blogs, but we still love the strip even though it took quite a while to fix that mess!

I actually watched "Sesame Street" as a kid in the 1970s on Blue Ridge Public TV (WBRA) in Roanoke, Va. Alas, these days arch right-wing Republicans are trying to cut PBS and NPR funding as either a measure to cut federal funding or make Bill O'Reilly happy (political bias: We presume the later).

Tonight, WBRA is showing "The Secrets of the Dead" at 10 p.m., which focuses on a 2004 discovery of headless Roman skeleteons in York, England.

And, we also want to wish a happy birthday to former UCLA gymnast and Canadian Olympian Yvonne Tousek. She was part of a team that included standout Olympic gymnassts like Kate Richardson, Kristen Maloney and Jamie Dantzcher. The Bruins are also the current reigning NCAA champs in women's gymnastics. Last night, junior Taunty Frattone score a 9.95 on vault in a win over North Carolina State.

Top 10- Favorite Non-Celebrities to Follow on Twitter...

For starters, we would like to dedicate today's entry to students at Sheldon High School in Eugene, Oregon, where the late author Ken Kesey ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") was from for they will inevitably be the ones who take care of us in nursing homes in the future!

Here are favorite non-celebrities to follow on Twitter. I must profess that I debated if either Arsalan Iftikhar and Keith Knight, two people with loyal followings, could fit this category, but both are slightly less-known than the likes of Paris Hilton.

1. Boulder the Cat- We aren't sure if Boulder the Cat is a Siamese, like the one pictured here. Nevertheless, whoever is behind this feline's tweets is quite hilarious. One recent tweet advised 'fellow cats' that the best time to attack owners is when they are using the toilet!

2. The Kansan- At first, I was looking to follow the school newspaper of the same name for The University of Kansas. But, instead I found a young lady who happens to reside in Lawrence, Kansas, who has a great knack for making fun of Republicans, including a suggestion that the GOP's new theme song should be "Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum!

3. Chris Knight- My friend in Reidsville, NC, is not the same Chris Knight who was on "The Brady Bunch," but I love his off-the-wall tweets. Last night, he was watching the science fiction film "Moon," which came out in theaters last year.

4. Ali Arikan- This movie blogger from Istanbul, Turkey, may actually be even more obsessed with film than I am as he is taking a dvd of the Harvey Keitel film "Bad Lieutenant" to watch on the plane!

5. The Muslim Guy (Arsalan Iftikhar)- This young Muslim American activist has become quite a media sensation. Today, he lambasted Tennessee's Republican lt. gov. for calling Islam a cult.

6. Keith Knight- One of the best new cartoonists in America.......! Keith Knight, an African-American who pens "The Knight Life" is no relation to Chris Knight who is white.

7. Anna Li- The UCLA gymnast who helped the Bruins win a national championship this spring is always a delight to follow on Twitter as she details her life as a 20-something college athlete.

8. Dever Food Guy- Great recipes! He really knows how to use squash, tomatoes and cucumbers!

9. Nathan Tabor- A Republican?! I suppose this Winston-Salem, NC, conservative activist is an example of reverse affirmative action. As one might expect, President Barack Obama is often subject to his critiques.

10. LiberalChick230- This San Fran woman is always cool to follow. Today, she said that a Tea Party diversity event was indeed a big bust....

Congrats to 2010 NCAA Gymnastics Champ UCLA

Gazooks! I have spent almost six and a half hours on the Internet, which is about the amount of time it would take to get to Athens, Ga. The Georgia Bulldogs, the five-time defending NCAA women's gymnastics champions, were surprisingly eliminated at regionals at the University of Missouri thanks to an amazing performance from Tigers' gymnast Sarah Shire.

So, that opened the proverbial door for a new team this year which turned out to be the UCLA Bruins who edged out Oklahoma and third place finisher Alabama. Bruins gymnast Vanessa Zamarripa (pictured here) gave another stellar all-around performance to help capture UCLA's sixth NCAA title in women's gymnastics.

Here are the complete results from the Super Six Finals which were held at the University of Florida:

1. UCLA-197.725
2. Oklahoma-197.250
3. Alabama-197.225
4. Stanford-197.100
5. Florida-197.000
6. Utah- 196.225

In the all-around competition, Susan Jackson of LSU won with a 39. 625 followed by Casey Jo Magee of Arkansas who scored a 39.550 and third-place finisher Carly Janiga of Stanford who scored a 39.525.

Daria Bijak, a German national team gymnast for Utah, who is a personal favorite of mine came in seventh in the all-around with a 39.425.

SIDEBAR: My alma mater Radford University from Radford, Va., bounced back from a loss to Virginia Tech in men's baseball with a 15-9 win over Winthrop University from Rock Hill, SC, which means a lot to me since my cousin Mike went to Winthrop (note to self: call Mike to gloat tomorrow!).

And, our beloved Louisville Bats (see earlier entry) fell to the Indianapolis Indians 6-1 tonight, but we know they will come back swinging when the team play each other tomorrow night. We're not sure if the game is in Lousiville or Indy, but it's getting too late to bother checking that!

NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships Underway in Florida

With our sister blog "The Daily Vampire," I am posting on the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Chamiponships going on literally right now at the University of Florida.

The host Gators are among the six teams competing tonight. UCLA, Utah and Oklahoma advanced earlier in the day at the competition in Gainesville, Fla.

On my other blog, I posted a partial list of my 24 favorite active collegiate gymnasts in alphabetical order. This is a continuation of that list.

The pictured gymnasts here are standouts Sarah Shire (Missouri) and Vanessa Zamarripa (UCLA), whose name I've finally figured out how to spell!

Here are the remaining 12 gymnasts. The two gymnasts with an asteriks are competing individually without their teams:

Marissa King- Florida (freshman)

Anna Li- UCLA (senior)

Leslie Mak- Oregon State (sophomore)

Brandi Personett- Penn State (senior)*

Ashley Priess- Alabama (sophomore)

Taylor Seaman- North Carolina State (senior)*

Sarah Shire- Missouri (senior)

Geralden Stack-Eaton-Alabama (sophomore)

Makayla Stambaugh- Oregon State (freshman)

Kylie Stone- Nebraska (senior)

Hollie Vise- Oklahoma (senior)

Vanessa Zamarripa- UCLA (sophomore)