Weekend Primer
Your guide to the weekend, SIOC style.
International Talk Like a Pirate DayVery few days stir up more excitement on campus than Talk Like a Pirate Day. Perhaps it's the desire to return to a simpler time when one could earn a living robbing Spanish galleons. Perhaps it's merely fun to throw in an extra "yarr" here or there. Whatever the reason, the day is so popular you'll have no trouble finding an event nearby.
NCAA Equestrian: Kansas Sate at South Carolina, 2 p.m.Armed with the 20-25 new fans the sport picked up from late night Olympic broadcasts, the new equestrian season is ready to kick things off right. The increasing popularity even has the NCAA considering creating a ranking system. If it happens, the defending champion Gamecocks will be near the top.
USC Beachfest '08The weather is starting to cool in the Eastern part of the country and that means it's time for USC's intramural volleyball tournament on Santa Monica Beach, which reminds everyone why they should have gone to school in California.
"Starry Starry Night," University of CharlestonThe aforementioned stars aren't the balls of gas which form the Big Dipper; They're Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. The uber-celebrity couple will host this mega-event which aims to raise money for a new basketball arena. Although the fundraiser is sure to bring in a ton of cash, the school may regret it when the new arena becomes known as "The House Ben Affleck Built."
NCAA Football: Iowa at Pittsburgh, ESPN, 12 p.m.The Iowa football team has a bigger connection to the city of Pittsburgh than you might think. When Hayden Fry took over the Hawkeyes in 1979 he wanted to change the losing attitude. His solution was to copy the uniforms of the Super Bowl Champion Steelers. Iowa players have been wearing the distinctive black and gold ever since.
NCAA Women's Volleyball: No. 3 Texas at No. 2 Nebraska, 7 p.m.Along with Penn State (last year's champions), Texas and Nebraska are the only non-western schools to have won a women's volleyball championship. The race for the Big 12 Title (and possibly a national title) begins in Lincoln.
Lecture of the Week: An Evening With Mythbusters' Grant Imahura, Iowa State, 7 p.m.It's a geek's dream. Not only is Imahura a member of the Mythbusters team, he's also built a robot which competed on Battlebots and updated the fleet of R2-D2 robots for the most recent Star Wars trilogy. Unfortunately for Iowa State students, there's nothing he can build to stop Kansas', Missouri's and Texas Tech's spread offenses.
NCAA Football: LSU at Auburn, ESPN, 7:45 p.m.Coming off its thrilling 3-2 victory over Mississippi State, Auburn will attempt to hold the Tigers to less than three safeties. As for LSU, this is when the Tigers will really find out how much they miss Ryan Perrrilloux.
Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma speaks at Rutgers, 4 p.m.Before making an appearance at the U.N. on Monday, Koroma will stop in New Brunswick to answer questions from politically savvy New Jersey residents.Sarah Palin might want to take notes (after all, you can't see Siera Leone from Alaska).
