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• C. L. Max Nikias Named 11th President of USC: http://bit.ly/9qgs5c #

Authorities say a motorist has driven off a cliff, plunging about 200 feet down a steep canyon near Calabasas, after swerving to avoid an animal on the road.

— Driver Avoids Animal, Careens Off Calabasas Cliff – cbs2.com

Ouch — was he a PETA member?

I like animals. I ran over a squirrel once and I felt terrible about it but it did run right out in front of my car.

However — in the event of having to make a split-second decision between clobbering an animal and driving off a cliff, well, the animal is going to get it.

On a side note, kudos to the headline writer for the alliteration: “Careens Off Calabasas Cliff.” Who says a liberal arts education isn’t good for anything?

USC in the foreground, downtown in the background . . .

It poured rain all the way from San Jose to Los Angeles . . .

“It’s a good day for cows,” I say to my son, as we drive by a field of happy-looking bovines.

“It’s raining,” he points out.

“I don’t think cows mind a little rain. They get to eat lush, moist grass. Instead of dry grass. Do you like to eat a dry salad with no dressing? You don’t, right?” No answer. “I’m trying to think like a cow here.”

“My phone would go out right in the middle of a text message,” the boy says.

“That’s awful,” I say in mock sympathy.

“It is,” he says. “It was a thoughtful, heartfelt text message.”

“How thoughtful and heartfelt can a text message be? Aren’t you limited to 160 characters?”

“Not to Verizon numbers.”

“Oh. Well, that is disappointing then.”

We’re driving past an agricultural area with nothing but four- to five-foot sticks in the ground as far as the eye can see.

“What are they growing here?” he asks.

“Sticks,” I say. “It’s a stick farm.”

When I pass trucks on the highway, I always signal before pulling back in front of them.

Most people treat truck drivers and their vehicles just as obstacles to be bypassed. I treat them as real people with real feelings.

I think it makes life better for everyone . . .

Heiress Casey Johnson dead at 30

— Los Angeles Times

I myself have an heir named Casey, the main differences being that he’s a boy and he’s still alive.

This is definitely another blow to the idea that being fabulously well-to-do is a guarantee of any sort of happiness in life . . .

Steven B. Sample, president of the University of Southern California since 1991, announced on Nov. 2 that he will retire in August 2010.

Sample is widely credited with bringing about an institutional rise at USC that is unparalleled in American higher education.

— USC News

I’m so proud of what USC’s been able to accomplish academically under the leadership of Dr. Sample. When I went to USC in the pre-Sample era, the conventional wisdom in Southern California was that the rich kids went to USC and the smart kids went to UCLA.

(No one in my immediate family is or ever has been rich. I was able to attend USC on an academic scholarship, although it must be admitted that my wife and I both have rich but not overly bright cousins who also graduated as Trojans.)

Since 1991 though, SAT scores at USC have gone up more than 300 points. They passed up UCLA years ago and the gap continues to widen, much to the chagrin of Bruin alums.

So the way it works now is that the rich kids and the smart kids go to USC, and if you don’t fall into either one of those categories, you might be UCLA material.

Thank you, Steven B. Sample!

FIGHT ON!!!

• RT @MOCAlosangeles: MOCA ? YOU! Complimentary Museum Admission | SUNDAY, NOV 15–FRIDAY, NOV 20 | more info at http://bit.ly/46urQb #
• If Jimmy cracks corn, and no one cares, why does he keep doing it? #
• No hell, no dignity, no hope. Have a great day! #
• My wife's in LA at the Thai markets. She'll bring back those little coconut pancakes. I love coconut pancakes! #

Some highlights from Rick Neuheisel’s Sunday night conference call:

It’s time for us to just keep fighting. I just believe it to be a journey that is necessary and we’re going to get there.

I’m not pressing the panic button, even though there are a lot of naysayers who don’t want me to.

I’m talking about the journey that it is. I don’t know when the end of it is. I know that where we’re going is an exciting place. That doesn’t mean people are going to be happy with how it’s arrived at.

LOL! FIGHT ON!

• RT @LACMA: The 5 must-see historic L.A. houses as selected by our Decorative Arts & Design Department Head: http://bit.ly/3yxuG3 #
• RT @GettyMuseum: Natural works of art @KCET28’s Flickr group of SoCal state parks http://bit.ly/KGSRn #

It was HOT today at the Coliseum — not quite as hot as it’s been all week, and there was a bit of a breeze — but it was HOT.

During the game, there was a roar behind us that sounded like a jet flying past outside the stadium. The second time it happened, my son figured out what it was.

When the Goodyear blimp flew over the west end of the stadium, it cast a moving shadow over the stands (see photo). The roar was a rolling cheer from sweltering people who all of a sudden found themselves in the shade for a couple of seconds . . .

Our son’s flying to Australia for a couple weeks to visit his cousins . . .

I’m talking to people at LAX in a fake Australian accent. My Australian accent is not all that tight except on words with a long “a” sound, which I replace with a long “i” sound, e.g., “mate” becomes “mite.”

“Sorry, mite,” I say, as I roll a suitcase over a gentleman’s foot.

“Did you just say what I thought you said?” my son asks.

“When you travel,” I explain, “you can be a whole different person.”

We take the bags over to the baggage scanner. I know we don’t have to wait for them but since “wait” has a long “a” sound, I ask the woman, “Do I ‘ave to white?”

“No,” she says.

“Jus’ drope i’ oaf then?” I ask.

“Yes,” she says.

We’re dropping our 15-year-old son off at LAX. He’s flying to Australia for a couple weeks to visit his cousins.

He’s explaining his theory of international cuisine, which is that there’s not going to be any Mexican food in Australia because there are no Mexicans in Australia. On the other hand, they probably have New Zealand food that those of us in the States have never heard about.

“That’s why it’s important to travel,” I say, “so you can learn about things like that. Or you could just stay home and watch the Travel Channel.”

• Something I didn't know: Leave Sydney at 10 a.m., arrive at LAX at 6 a.m. — on the same day! It's like going back in time! #

• RT @PeteCarroll: cool panoramic photo from the coliseum today (taken by @USCRipsIt): http://bit.ly/bdjLM #

Alas, poor Carradine! I knew him, Horatio. A couple of years ago I was walking through the international terminal at LAX, picking up my family on a flight from Bangkok, when I heard a voice behind me: “This is David Carradine.”

I turned and it was Carradine, talking on a cell phone! A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy!

The rest is silence . . .

I like this photo. USC spring football with the downtown L.A. skyline in the background.

One of the post offices here in Irvine is a best-kept secret . . . it’s off Culver Drive, down a side street and around a corner, basically in a residential area. It’s never busy because, unlike the post office on Sand Canyon, it’s not visible from a major street and most people don’t know it’s there.

My wife emailed me at work yesterday morning to say that she went to that post office and tons of cars were lined up to get in, which reminded her that it was April 15.

Not to worry though. We mailed our taxes on the 14th — to beat that last-minute rush.

Twenty years or so ago, I was living in Hollywood and — on the evening of April 15 — filling up at a gas station just south of the freeway from Union Station. Beyond Union Station on Alameda St. is the Terminal Annex post office.

As I said, it was April 15 . . . cars were lined up on Alameda from the post office, past Union Station and past the gas station for as far as I was able to see. News helicopters were circling overhead filming the Tax Day madness.

A man drove into the gas station, stopped next to me, rolled down his window and said — I am not kidding — “Can you tell me how to get to the post office?”

“Sure. You see that line of cars?”

Taxes make people nuts . . .

Wednesday was national signing day for college football. Looks like UCLA got a good group of kids.

One of my Facebook friends, a UCLA grad, updated his status to say that he thinks UCLA will now rule the city in basketball AND football.

I posted a comment on his status: What about SAT scores?

And within minutes he had dropped me from his friend list, after sending me an angry email saying that USC is getting smart kids internationally and out of state while UCLA has to take California kids and besides that they’re manipulating the stats and blah blah blah . . .

To fully appreciate that, you need to know that traditionally the perception has been that the rich SoCal kids go to USC while the smart kids go to UCLA. In recent years though, USC has moved ahead in SAT scores, GPA, National Merit Scholars, etc., and continues to widen the gap.

So now the USC kids are richer AND smarter and the Bruins aren’t taking it well. Not at all.

FIGHT ON!