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As a die-hard Utah fan, I hate to say it, but the Cougars have drubbed the Utes — again.
In Latin.
The tri-school competition pitting the University of Utah, Brigham Young University and Utah State University has been an annual event for 16 years, with cash prizes for the winners, thanks to a small endowment from defense attorney Ron Yengich, a sports fan who also loves the classics.
The tourney is named after his late brother, investigative journalist Nick Yengich.
Students are judged on their accuracy and interpretation in translating classic Latin passages to English. Because the English language has so many more words than Latin, creativity and subjectivity are required.
The contest is run by Margaret Toscano, associate professor of languages and literature at the U.
As usual, BYU — which devotes more resources to the classics than the state-run schools — dominated.
In Level I (first-year students), BYU swept, with first place going to Bryan Robins ($150), second to Stephen Betts ($100), third to Christopher Morey ($75) and fourth to BrookeAnn Henriksen ($50).
In Level II (advanced students), BYU's Nathaniel Pribil took top honors ($150), USU's Alex Tarbet grabbed second ($100), the U.'s Benjamin R. Davis placed third ($75) and BYU's Catherine Daun finished fourth ($50).
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New math • At the Governor's State of Sport Awards banquet Tuesday at EnergySolutions Arena, comedian Jay Leno was the after-dinner speaker to an audience filled with student-athletes, dignitaries and government officials.
Leno was talking about men preferring dogs and women favoring cats when he asked how many women had more than two cats. He singled out one woman who had raised her hand and asked how many she owned. One, she responded.
Leno asked again who had more than two cats, recognized another hand-raiser and asked how many.
Two, she said.
Leno pointed out that two is more than one, but it is not more than two.
The comic then turned to Gov. Gary Herbert and said, "we need to have a talk about the state of education in Utah."
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Rocky Mountain hi? • Herbert, a Republican, not only suffered the indignation of his Utah audience's inability to count beyond two in front of an iconic TV personality, but he also was humbled by Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat no less.
When Vail Resorts launched the Epic Ski Challenge between Utah and Colorado to raise awareness and resources for charities serving both states, Herbert made a wager with Hickenlooper that the Beehive State would win.
It didn't.
As a result, on the last weekend of the ski season, Utah had to change the name of one its ski runs at Park City Mountain Resort to "The Centennial State Run," and display a Colorado flag — a tough pill to swallow for a state that claims the Greatest Snow on Earth.
Nonetheless, everyone was a winner.
Each state fielded 10 teams put together by corporations and nonprofits. Each team picked a charity to receive its winnings, fueled by $1.1 million in donations from Vail.
The competition involved ski races between team members, fundraising and awareness of the charities and the event through social media campaigns — all based on a point system.
Colorado edged Utah for the victory.
Utah companies that participated included Alliance Health, Ancestry.com, The Boyer Co., CBRE, the Clyde Cos., KeyBank, Nutraceutical Corp, Salt Lake Chamber, Sotheby's and Zions Bank. Each charity received a least $14,000. But Utah's top three, Alliance Health, Clyde Cos. and Ancestry.com won $50,000 for Birch Creek Ranch, $30,000 for Maliheh Free Clinic and $20,000 for Primary Children's Hospital Foundation, respectively.
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A dry Tuesday • American Express? You could have left home without it Tuesday. Same with Visa and MasterCard.
If you didn't have a wallet full of cash or ready access to an ATM, you walked home empty-handed from Utah liquor stores in the Salt Lake Valley. The computer system, operated by the Department of Technology Services, didn't go down completely. But due to a problem with the system's telephone carrier, CenturyLink, it slowed down considerably.
It took several minutes to process a credit card, said Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control spokeswoman Vickie Ashby.
That was worse than waiting for the clerks to scan each bottle of beer in a sixpack.
So it was cash only. The good news: Everything was back to normal Wednesday, including the scanning of each bottle in a sixpack.