oc weekly’s best of oc (2008)

some excerpts from OC WEEKLY’s “BEST OF OC” (2008), :

BEST RADIO STATION: KUCI-FM 88.9

“…God bless KUCI for being one of the more interesting college radio stations in the country…No one knows good music like a college student…Why, pretty much all UC Irvine’s students do is write papers, drink beer and illegally download mp3s, so you know you can trust them.”

BEST URBAN LEGEND: The Campus Drive Ghost Jogger

“UCI kids leap at any opportunity to get the hell out of Irvine. Many late night drives back to the dorms will take you down a stretch of Campus Drive right past the wildlife preserve. There are absolutely no lights, other than the occasional car going the opposite direction, and patches of thick fog tend to envelope the road. Legend has it that a female jogger taking advantage of a cool night was struck by a car-and now her spirit haunts the road and will visit the occasional driver. Fun!”

BEST PLACE TO GET TOWED: Irvine

BEST PARKING STRUCTURE: Micky and Friends Parking Structure at Disneyland

BEST RECORD/CD STORE: Fingerprints (in Long Beach)

BEST MYSTERIOUS CONDIMENT: The Herb Sause at the Gypsy Den

BEST PLACE TO DINE ALONE: Mitsuwa Food Court

BEST THEATER FOR INDIE FILMS: Edwards University Town Center 6

“…What elevates ‘Uni’ above [other theaters] is everyone from the kid filling up your tub of popcorn to the overwhelmed manager telling you which films are indie, foreign, vanity, or big studio cast-offs.”

Peter the Anteater: Best of OC

BEST SPORTS MASCOT: Peter the Anteater

UC Irvine’s anteater mascot is the laziest, mopiest, most indifferent-looking mascot we’ve seen in OC. In short: He’s perfect for college. With a look of glazed insouciance, the usually yellow-hued cartoon anteater, known as Peter the Anteater, is captured in midstride on all official university vehicles. But there are two actual Peter costumes floating around. One is tough, with angular, raccoony eyes and a mostly black-and-gray colo scheme; it’s this one that’s reserved for games. The second sports sunglasses and a huge-yet-creepy grin – and is usually seen wandering Ring Road (the campus’ main drag of sorts) to promote something or another, encasing a poor Student Assciation member stuck with the job of peering out from behind the teeth.

Sure, Peter the Anteater’s not tough like a Bruin, Neptune, or Trojan, and he’s not quite as quirky as the Banana Slug, but Peter the Anteater says, “Zot”which is supposed to be the sound anteaters make when they lick up ants. Fight on, wha?

(Quick excerpt from the OC Weekly’s annual “Best of OC” issue, p.70)