Usc Students

Imagine getting two dozen USC students together and none of them knowing the name of the Trojans' starting quarterback. That's what happened the other day on campus over at the Lyon Center, I swear. "Anyone know the name of the starting quarterback?" Nothing. Silence. Which, in itself, is a bizarre reaction for most of today's college students. Surely, they must be impostors, or UCLA plants, but really that's what happened, and USC's Don Ludwig was there to help. Ludwig has one of those great jobs you never knew existed, executive director of spirit and traditions at the school and a 38-year USC veteran overall.

As their countries headed toward victory and disappointment in the final hour of the much-anticipated Cricket World Cup 2011 semifinal match, Waleed Ishtiaq and Nikunj Jajodia were dozing side by side. Wearing their respective countries' team colors — green for Pakistan and blue for India — the 20-year-old USC students had nodded off in their chairs at an on-campus screening of the game. Not even the intermittent cheering of their compatriots could rouse them. It was past 10 a.m. Wednesday in Los Angeles when India took the prize, after a nail-biting eight-hour contest.

A conversation this week in the offices of Neon Tommy, a USC student-run online news outlet, went something like this: Editor: "We should be tweeting more of the Tumblr content. " Journalist One: "You can publish automatically to Twitter from Tumblr. " Journalist Two: "But the tweets can look weird. It's better to move the link to Bit.ly and customize it. Do your own. " The exchange might sound like Greek to those not immersed in the mediasphere. But the young people running Neon Tommy are purveyors of a new journalism, concerned as much with how a story is delivered and discovered by its audience as with how it's reported and written.

There actually could be love lost when crosstown rivals UCLA and USC meet Wednesday night at Pauley Pavilion. UCLA center Anthony Stover and forwards Travis and David Wear all date USC students, making for some interesting exchanges before and after games. "She was at the SC game wearing her big SC shirt," Stover said Monday of his girlfriend, who is preparing for medical school. "She made sure I saw it right after we lost, so I'm making sure we get this win so we have something to say back to her. " David Wear, who is a redshirt along with his twin brother this season after transferring from North Carolina, dates Christina Marinacci , a sophomore forward for the USC women's basketball team.

The president of USC is warning students not to attend raves, saying use of the illegal drug Ecstasy at the massive dance parties "can create a ripple effect of dangers that lead to catastrophic consequences. " "I wish to warn you about a specific danger that has become increasingly prevalent in the city of Los Angeles: raves. Occasionally, these are held close to our campuses, often at the Coliseum or the Shrine, and they present serious risks to all who attend," USC President C.L. Max Nikias wrote in the letter sent by e-mail Wednesday to USC students.

The NFL Players Assn. announced Friday that it had revoked the certification of agent Teague Egan, a USC student who gave tailback Dillon Baxter a golf cart ride on campus that led the freshman's temporary ineligibility. In a statement, the NFLPA said that Egan violated "numerous provisions of the NFLPA's Agent Regulations" by providing Baxter with the ride, which is regarded by the NCAA as a prohibited extra benefit. Baxter was suspended by USC for the Trojans' Nov. 20 game at Oregon State.

For a kid who says he wants to build robots, 10-year-old Jabari Griffie came to the right place. The fifth-grader was among hundreds of curious kids who turned out Saturday morning for the grand opening of Iridescent, a nonprofit science and discovery center near downtown Los Angeles. The first exhibit Jabari saw featured something even cooler than a robot: An underwater robot. Remote control in hand, Jabari grinned broadly as he maneuvered the device in an apparent effort to make it crash into another one in the same wading pool.

Real-life medicine Re "Cancer educates a med student," Column One, Sept. 7 As this article illustrates, it is unconscionable that anyone should have to deal with having their medical insurance taken away just when it is most needed. When the recently enacted healthcare reform is in full force, stories such as these should be largely a thing of the past. Josh Lilienstein was fortunate to be able to get insurance again, despite his preexisting condition. There are many who are not so fortunate.

His body scarred and broken, Marcus Garfinkle told a downtown Los Angeles court Monday how he woke up on a sidewalk moments after the hit-and-run crash that changed his life. His bones stuck out from his legs. Blood gushed from his abdomen. His limbs were torn by glass, shards of which he picks out of scars 14 months later. The USC student had been walking another student home that night when a dark Infiniti sedan struck them at a crosswalk near campus, killing Adrianna Bachan, 18, and sending Garfinkle hurtling through the car's windshield.

Two look-alike oil paintings hang side by side in an alcove of the Fisher Museum at USC: one in an intricate gold frame, the other pinned to the wall like a memo. To the untrained eye both are the work of French painter Charles Émile Jacque, but USC senior Jayme Wilson points out a handful of flaws in the unframed painting. The lighting is off, details such as the animals and house are warped, and there are color variations. It turns out the pinned-up painting is a replica. The sociology and art history student had discovered that at least two museums claimed to own the same painting.