Bowling for dollars

Make that lots of dollars.It cost us $150 to bowl for two hours this weekend at East Village Tavern and Bowl, which is located in a trendy part of downtown San Diego that's seen major gentrification in recent years. The place is more "tavern" than "bowl." Six lanes are squeezed into a shockingly small space that's dwarfed by the adjacent sports bar.
We were able to spread the cost out among our group of five. We had burgers and yummy onion rings in the bar while we waited more than two hours for a lane to open.

Despite the sticker shock, we managed to have a great time.

The Ballad of Nick Saban

A melodic review of the $4 million coache's first season in Tuscalooser.

Some people might call this piling on. But remember, we are talking about Nick Saban here, so that's not really possible.

For the pussy that has everything

This is the Kitty Wig.

It comes in four styles: Pink Passion (above), Bashful Blond (left), Silver Fox and Electric Blue.

Kitty Wigs are the creation of Julie Jackson, whose main day job is running a business called Subversive Cross Stitch. Jackson's cross stitch patterns include these warm and fuzzy catch phrases: "Shut your whore mouth," "Go F*** Yourself," and the seasonal favorite "Happy f****** holidays."

Each wig sells for $50 and arrives draped over a foam ball and stored inside a metal case.

The Web site suggests using the toy mouse rattle included with every wig to "help direct kitty's stunned gaze" during the inevitable wig photo shoot.

A shot of bourbon in a bowl of milk might also help.

It wasn't long before I started wondering why cats should be the only ones having all the fun.

Think there's a market for Pug Rugs?

Little Saigon

We traveled deep behind the Orange Curtain today to visit the cities of Westminster, Garden Grove and Fountain Valley, home to the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam. Aside from foreign language signage, there's nothing much on the surface that distinguishes the area from the rest of L.A.'s suburban sprawl - strip shopping centers and walled-off neighborhoods filled with track houses.
We stopped at this Buddhist temple where saffron robed monks were leading daily chants.
This statue of Buddha was carved from a piece of Chinese white marble. The neon hallo is hot.
We tried to get into this Catholic shrine, but it was locked.
Outside of the shrine we found this Asian pond .
Guarding the pond is a statue of Our Lady of La Vang, an unmistakably Asian-looking version of Jesus' mom. As the story goes, this one started appearing in a remote location in the jungles of central Vietnam in 1798 to a group of Catholics who were hiding from persecutors.

So, the Catholic church was under attack. Mary started hanging out with some of the local faithful. The apparitions gained notoriety and attracted the attention of Catholic forces outside the country. Haven't I heard this before?
We spent much of our time at this shopping mall.
This shop sells teas, herbs and traditional potion mixes made on site to treat all sorts of ailments.
I should have bought this 24k gold tiger. I could make a small fortune selling hundreds of these little statues in Louisiana right now.
One shop had Virgin Mary and Buddha statues side by side.

The food court.
Snails.
Fried tofu.
I had some of my favorite Vietnamese dishes. That's rice porridge and spring rolls, above, and a crepe stuffed with slivers of pork and bean sprouts, below.

Some strange fruit.

Indeed!

Suspect arrested in Robin Malta murder

Less than six months after my friend Robin Malta was found bludgeoned to death in his Lower Marigny home in New Orleans, police have arrested Laura Michelle Lapaz, a felon and drug dealer, in the case, according to this article from The Times-Picayune.This is Robin and his sister, who together owned a hair salon in the French Quarter. Robin was a well-known and much-loved member of the French Quarter-Marigny-Bywater community. He cut my hair off and on for more than a decade. He was grand marshal of the Southern Decadence parade in 1998. And his salon was one of the first French Quarter businesses to reopen after Katrina. Read my original post about his death here.

The T.P. reports that Lapaz, who goes by the nickname Seven, is accused of hiring someone to kill Robin over a drug debt. She was arrested in August in New Orleans for allegedly selling methamphetamines and was booked recently with first-degree murder and solicitation of murder in connection with Robin's death.

Fun with the Coaches' Poll

There are some interesting details to glean from the individual ballots cast in the last Coaches' Poll, which weighed heavily in sending LSU and Ohio State to the national title game.This guy sucks
- Oklahoma's Bob Stoops gave LSU its lowest ranking, at No. 5. Not surprisingly, he ranked his team No. 1, followed by the Buckeyes and Missouri, the team that his Sooners beat Saturday in the Big 12 conference championship. Perhaps Stoops is still smarting from the ass-whooping that LSU gave him and his team four years ago in the national championship game in New Orleans.

Tigers No. 1
- 11 coaches put LSU at the top of their ballots, including LSU's Les Miles, Auburn's Tommy Tuberville, Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer and Florida State's Bobby Bowden. LSU beat Virginia Tech and Auburn this season.

Green with envy
- Eight coaches (including Stoops) ranked LSU No. 3 or lower, including Notre Dame's Charlie Weis (No. 4) and Nebraska's Bill Callahan (No. 4).

I want YOU!
- Miles and Ohio State's Jim Tressel each ranked their own team No. 1 and the other team No. 2.

Put up or shut up
- Georgia's Marc Richt, whose team failed to reach the SEC championship game, was the only SEC coach who didn't vote to send LSU to the national title game. He ranked Ohio State No. 1, his team No. 2 and LSU No. 3.

All over the map
- Hawaii, the only undefeated Bowl Division team, received the widest range of votes with New Mexico's Hal Mumme ranking the Warriors No. 1 and Texas A&M's Dennis Franchione ranking them No. 22.

Is he insane?
- Florida Atlantic's Howard Schnellenberger wins the prize for the craziest ballot. For starters, he ranked Kansas No. 2, Hawaii No. 3, Missouri No. 4 and Boise State No. 10. Then he topped it all off by placing USC at No. 12 and Florida at No. 21. Get this guy a shrink.

The payoff

This was the scene Sunday at LSU as members of the football team learned that they would be playing for the national championship in New Orleans on Jan. 7.
LSU head football coach Les Miles and starting quarterback Matt Flynn were all smiles. Pics courtesy of NOLA.com.
The smart guys in Vegas have LSU as a 5 1/2 point favorite against Ohio State.

These flags could use more company

It's been a remarkable weekend for Tiger Nation.

Saturday began with reports that head coach Les Miles was, indeed, heading back to his alma mater Michigan to take his dream job. But by the end of the night, LSU had won the SEC championship, Miles had made it clear that he wasn't going anywhere and, thanks to the continued curse on No. 1 and 2 ranked teams, the Tigers' hopes of playing in the national championship game had new life.

Today, those wishes became official.

The Tigers will face Ohio State in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans on Jan. 7 for the national championship. The game comes four years after LSU won its second national title in the same stadium by beating Oklahoma.

I must admit that my thoughts in the wake of last week's overtime loss to Arkansas (read them here) were a bit harsh. I still think Miles called the wrong play at the end of that game, just as he has at several other key moments this season, but I'm glad he's staying on as LSU's coach. Hopefully, his decision will give the Tigers the long-term coaching stability that we've craved for more than a quarter century.

I won't repeat the details of how LSU landed in this most coveted position after such a chaotic season. But if you have a few minutes to spare you might find it interesting to look at the way voters in the Harris Poll (a critical component of the BCS formula) cast their final ballots.

The panelists are a mishmash of sports-media members, former coaches and players, and others with ties to college football. It was essential for LSU to finish among the top two in the poll to secure a spot in the championship game.

Here are some of the more interesting ballots cast for LSU: (Background info on voters courtesy of Rivals.com)

- Craig Morton, former NFL and Cal player, ranked LSU 11th. (Georgia 2nd)
- Dr. Terry Schmidt, dentist and member of Ball State's football team in the early 1970s, 10th. (Hawaii 2nd)
- Paul Schneider, radio host for KBOI 670 AM in Boise, 10th. (Hawaii 2nd)
- Budd Thalman, former sports information director for Penn State, 6th. (USC 2nd)
- David Housel, Auburn athletic director from 1994-2004, 5th. (Georgia 2nd)
- And if you think the Tigers got a lot of love from everyone with ties to LSU or the SEC, think again. Bill Arnsparger, LSU's head football coach from 1984-86 and Florida athletic director from 1986-92, ranked LSU 5th. (Kansas 2nd)
Thanks Bill. With friends like you, who needs Nick Saban.

These voters ranked LSU No. 1:

- Brian Dohan, Los Angeles Daily News reporter.
- Bob Dunlevy, former West Virginia player.
- Boomer Esiason, NFL analyst for CBS Sports, former NFL quarterback and former Maryland player .
- Blair Kerkoff, reporter for The Kansas City Star.
- George Lapides, radio host for 560 AM in Memphis.
- Ray Melick, columnist for The Birmingham News.
- Denny O'Brien, East Carolina reporter for Bonesville.net.

We're having weather

It's raining - for real. Not that misty stuff that's just a step above fog. Or the brief drizzle that lasts only a few minutes.

We're talking old-fashioned, day-long, Louisiana-style stuff. And I'm loving it.

I have the day off, and I can't wait to get outside.

The showers started early this morning, and it's looking as though they will continue through the end of the day. We're even under a flood watch.

The storm was triggered by a slow-moving low front that is sucking up moist ocean air from the south.

I think it's only the second significant rain event that we've had in San Diego since I moved here more than a year and a half ago, so I'm determined to make the most of it.
Nero, however, is having none of it. I tried to coax him out for a potty break and he froze after walking just a few feet out the front door. He wouldn't budge. I think all of the California sunshine has spoiled him.

Of course, the big downside to all of this is the traffic. People in these parts don't know how to drive in this weather - much like the problem Southerners have when it snows. And to make matters worse, all of the oil that accumulates on the roads during our lengthy dry spells turns the highways into auto slip-n-slides.

That's why accidents always spike when the weather gets stormy. The CHiP already is reporting more than 20 accidents in the area on its amazing traffic Web site.

Another problem is landslides, particularly in the areas that burned in October and have lost protective vegetation.

But that won't keep me from throwing on my rarely worn raincoat and heading out into the beautiful wetness.

OB

We headed to Ocean Beach for a walk to the dog park where we watched a silvery fall sunset.

That's me and Nero above. Click on any photo to view it at full size.

This one's going to hurt for a loooooong time

A funny thing happened when I woke this morning. My nightmare didn't come to a merciful end; instead, it started all over again when I remembered that LSU's hopes of playing for another national championship in its own back yard ended in a devastating triple-overtime loss to an unranked SEC rival.

I can't stop replaying the final play of the game in my head - LSU quarterback Matt Flynn's failed pass to the back of the end zone on a mandatory two-point conversion attempt that would have kept the Tigers alive for another overtime series.

What was head coach Les Miles and his staff thinking? They were facing a must-score situation. LSU's passing had been suspect for most of the game, with Arkansas' secondary covering Tiger receivers like white on rice. All season long, LSU had effectively run the ball on short-yardage, must-get situations.

Run the option on the two-point-conversion attempt and the quarterback has several possibilities to score as the play unfolds. Commit to a pass and those possibilities are dramatically reduced and the risk level is dramatically increased.

So what does Miles and Co. do? They roll the dice and pass the ball.

After the game, Miles called the upcoming SEC title game a "much bigger" match than the one he lost yesterday, according to the Detroit Free Press. Huh???? Maybe that explains the game's inexplicable ending. Perhaps Miles just didn't realize that the ENTIRE SEASON was hanging in the balance.

So many times this season, the insane talent level of LSU was able to overcome the high-risk gambling habits of Miles. But this time the head coach's luck ran out.

And what's happened to our much vaunted defensive squad? Injuries certainly have taken their toll on several key players but that doesn't explain the increasingly passive play calling by defensive coordinator Bo Pelini or the big plays we keep giving up on key downs (Arkansas' quarterback having plenty of time to find an open receiver on a fourth-and-10 overtime play with LSU in the lead).

After guiding one of the most - if not the most - gifted college teams in the country for three years running, Miles and his assistants have little to show for it. No national championship. No appearance in a national championship game. No conference championship.

Better coaches are out there, and there's no reason why some of them shouldn't be in Baton Rouge.

Here's hoping that Michigan hasn't figured that out for themselves.

* Photo of Miles courtesy of my fellow former Times-Picayune alum Alex Brandon and the Associated Press.

Thanksgiving Day

We spent the day eating like pigs at Rex's house with friends. Jess (head of the table) made most of the food, including an amazing kumquat sorbet.
Saying that Jess has gotten holiday meal preparation down to a science might actually be understating things. This is his Thanksgiving Day meal preparation schedule which maps out every step of the process in precise timing.

He actually sticks to it, and the plan works perfectly. And you thought Martha Stewart was anal.