Over the last several years professional teams and colleges alike have been tripping over themselves in a rush to sell the "naming rights" of their home stadiums and arenas to corporate partners for a boatload of cash. Because of this a number of historic stadium names have been lost. Some examples: Candlestick Park, long home of the Giants and 49ers is now Monster Park, it's 3rd or 4th name; and New Jersey's Brendan Byrne Arena, long home of the NHL's Devils, is now the Continental Airlines Arena.

Colleges too are jumping on the bandwagon. Syracuse plays in the Carrier Dome (which ironically enough has no air conditioning!), and the University of Missouri briefly named its on-campus arena Paige Arena, after Elizabeth Paige Laurie, a Wal-Mart heiress, at least until her roommate at USC (that's right, she was not a U of M student, either!) revealed that Miss Laurie had engaged in academic dishonesty and subsequently left the university.

But the trend has now come full circle. Officials in Glendale, AZ announced today that the naming rights to the new Cardinals Stadium have been sold. To the University of Phoenix.

Now I know that U of P is a corporate entity more than a school, but it is deliciously funny to see a corporation pay to call a stadium "University of [anything] Stadium".

Posted by: caltechgirl at 10:26 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Courtesy of Weird Al:

Posted by: caltechgirl at 03:55 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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I think I've got a concussion.

I was sitting at the base of our stairs because it's a good place to watch TV and talk on the phone (to this lovely lady, my homeboy, and then my Mom last night, actually).  It's far enough away from the TV that it's not blaring into the phone, but directly across from the screen.  Plus the carpet is pretty nice.  Nicest carpet we've ever had, in fact.

So I was chatting away with Mom and the Princess decided to favor me with one of her toys.  Not thinking clearly, I leaned over to pick it up, and then sat up to toss it for her.

When I sat up, I brought the top of my head into direct contact with the bottom end of the handrail of the stairs at full speed.

You know the little birdies on the Warner Brothers' cartoons?  Yeah, I saw those.

Anyway, after about 30 minutes of ice and two Advil, I was ok, but this morning I'm sore all over and the headache?  She refuses the Advil and caffeine treatment.  I've had post concussion syndrome before (dropped on my head in college), so I know the drill.  At least it's just a regular headache, not a migraine, although even my damn teeth hurt.

Now it's just a matter of sitting here two hours and then driving home.  Yay, home.  Maybe I'll bugger off early.  I do have things I need to work on at home....

Posted by: caltechgirl at 12:45 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Hubby and I were doing some shopping today, and we went into a local home and decorating store.  I was looking for a large casserole dish, so we went over to the kitchen section.

As we browsed the Clearance section, I noticed what clearly HAD to be a Wilton Armetale tray.  These things just don't hang around long enough to make it to clearance, you know?  I was intrigued to say the least.

So I asked him to pick it up:

The pattern on the edge was a bit unusual, so I looked at it more closely:

Yep, that's the Baltimore Ravens' logo.  When we turned the tray over, it indeed said Wilton Armetale, but it also said "manufactured for Smyth and Co, Official Jewelers of the Baltimore Ravens".

So if you're a Ravens fan stuck in SoCal, and you'd like to have a fancy tailgate party, let me know and I'll tell you where you can find a nice serving tray for cheap.

BTW, nice pics for a camera phone, huh?

Posted by: caltechgirl at 04:52 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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The Baldwin Online Children's Literature Project.

Making a virtual archive of classic children's literature in the public domain.

h/t the venomous (and sniffly) one

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Having been there from time to time, I can say that for once, The Onion reports fact:

Caltech Physicists Successfully Split The Bill

September 5, 2006

PASADENA, CA--Sequestered in a private booth at a Pasadena-area Cheesecake Factory for nearly 25 minutes, a party of eight California Institute Of Technology physicists emerged exhausted but visibly excited Friday evening after successfully splitting the bill.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 10:30 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 well, obviously they didn't have a TA or research assistant along with them...then they'd do like the folks in a department I used to work at as a grad student did, that is, push random amounts of money in the person's direction and tell THEM to pay the bill....and invariably it would be $5 to $10 short of what the (presumably well-paid) scientists' contribution was supposed to be. I'm smarter than the average TA though; they only got away with that once with me.

Posted by: ricki at September 05, 2006 12:02 PM (VRP1v)

2 (And yes, i realize it's an Onion story. I'm just still bitter about that whole thing...especially because it was my DAD'S department, and he was along, and he just laughed at me when I told him that I had to fork out about $10 of my own cash on top of what my meal cost)

Posted by: ricki at September 05, 2006 12:04 PM (VRP1v)

3 ha ha ha!

Posted by: wRitErsbLock at September 05, 2006 06:45 PM (0Pi1o)

4 Lol And I was just at that Cheesecake Factory in Pasadena.

Posted by: Sissy at September 05, 2006 08:06 PM (4Tqbz)

5 I was there too.

Posted by: Joe at September 07, 2006 05:19 PM (pKjWO)

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1. A book that changed my life:
Wow, that's a hard one.  I think every GOOD book makes an impression on you, makes you think, changes your world view just a little. Here are a few:
Thomas Lynch, The Undertaking and Bodies in Motion and at Rest
Beverly Donofrio, Looking for Mary
Antonio Damasio, Descartes' Error

2. A book that I've read more than once:
There are about 50 million books on this list.  I re-read almost everything that I like.  The ones I've read to replacing, though, are:
John Grisham, The Rainmaker, A Time to Kill
Stephen King, The Eyes of the Dragon, The Bachman Books, The Talisman, The Dark Tower Series
Annie Proulx, The Shipping News
Alexandre Dumas (pere), The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo (I own 4 different editions of this one, sadly all in English)
Robert Crais, The Monkey's Raincoat

3. A book I'd take to a desert Island:
Stephen King, The Stand  1200 pages, I wouldn't get bored.

4. A book that made me laugh:
To be honest, and I'm not making fun of it, The Book of Mormon.  Every frickin' sentence starts with "And it came to pass that..."  My friend (who is Mormon) would read it aloud to us just to make us laugh.  True story.

5. A book that made me cry:
Adriana Trigiani, Big Cherry Holler

6. A book I wish had been written:
"Cleaning in Your Sleep" and the companion volume "Grant-Writing in Your Sleep"

7. A book that should never have been written:
I can't think of any.  Censorship is BAAAAD.

8. A book I'm currently reading:
Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, Freakonomics

9. A book I'm planning to read:
Lemony Snicket, The End

10. Five people I'll send these questions to:
Y'all feel free to chime in.  I'm not tagging anyone in particular.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:01 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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