The Weekend Starts Tonight!

UH-OH, BRUINS!
First, tonight the hapless UCLA Bruins, under the guidance of lame duck coach Rick Neuheisel, travel to Eugene, Oregon to play the vaunted Oregon Ducks in the first ever Pac-12 Championship game. If the Bruins' performance against USC last weekend is any indication - I think it is - the 50 points the Trojans scored on them will be nothing compared to the thrashing the Ducks will put on them tonight. The game starts at 5:00 and will be televised on Fox.

GO EAGLES!
Then, for a bit of local football, Costa Mesa's Estancia High School Eagles battle Beckman High School in the league semifinal game beginning at 7:00 p.m. at Jim Scott Stadium. This should be a terrific game - both teams are 10-2. Good luck to those Eagles.

"THE CRUCIBLE"
For those of you who prefer a different kind of entertainment, the Estancia Drama Department will present their version of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible", with the first performance tonight at 7:00 at the Barbara Van Holt Theater at Estancia High School. Performances will also be shown Saturday and also on December 9th and 10th.

KENT'S FINALE
Tomorrow, at noon, our friend, Kent Treptow, will wrap up his nearly 3500 mile solo trek from Maine to California when he puts his feet in the Pacific Ocean at the Huntington Beach side of the mouth of the Santa Ana River - the place where he learned to surf. I've provided a link to his blog for your reading pleasure. It's been quite a trip, to say the very least. Hopefully, more than a few of Kent's friends will be on-hand to greet him.

CHRISTMAS SPIRIT
The rest of the weekend is up to you... I suspect Christmas shopping will occupy most of your time. Have fun. I leave you, once again, with Stan Freberg's classic, GREEN CHRI$TMA$, to get you into the old spirit.

Easing Back Into It...

STILL DROWZY...
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. If you're like me, you are still suffering from the tryptophan stupor that gorging on too much turkey creates. You have my sympathy...



ALL FOOTBALL, ALL THE TIME
My solution was full-immersion football-watching for two, going on three, days straight. It might not help the stupor, but the football was great - especially the USC-UCLA debacle. It the same Bruin teams shows up in Eugene to play the Oregon Ducks in the much-touted inaugural Pac-12 Championship game, the quackers might explode the scoreboard! If that 50-0 Trojan drubbing of the hapless Bruins was, in fact, junior quarterback Matt Barkley's final game for USC, he sure went out on a high note! And, yes, he should be invited to New York for the Heisman ceremony... And, yes, Rick Neuheisel should begin packing up his office...

SPEAKING OF FOOTBALL...
And, congrats to the Estancia High School Eagles for winning their playoff game Friday. Lots of hard work and skill plus some pretty good coaching paid off for those young men.


HEADING FOR HOME...
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I invite you, once again, to visit the blog of my friend and former Daily Pilot photographer, Kent Treptow - http://kenttreptow.com/blog/ - which chronicles his amazing solo walk across the country - from Maine to southern California. If all goes well he should be dipping his toes in the Pacific Ocean sometime in the next few days. His adventure, which has covered the past 170 days, has been fascinating to follow. This photo, courtesy of his blog, shows him "on the road" not too far from home.

THAT'S ALL, FOLKS...
That's all for this one. It's a slow week at City Hall next week, but I'm sure there will be news to cover. Stay tuned.