Event: Big West Conference Championships Where: Tijeras Creek Golf Course – Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. When: Today and Tuesday, all day. Who to watch: Consistency is key to the Aggies’ success, and Ramie Sprinkling has it. The junior from Camarillo, Calif. leads the Aggies with a 73.0-stroke average per 18 holes, with two fourth-place finishes on the year.

080421_ca_opentextbooks.CHeadline: “Open textbooks” becoming popular, says CalPIRG studyLayercake: Publishers argue that they are already offering cheaper editions to studentsBy PATRICK McCARTNEYAggie Staff Writer While most classes continue to use traditional, commercial textbooks, professors are increasingly willing to choose so-called “open” alternatives, according to an Apr. 15 California Public Interest Research Group report. One thousand professors […]

Kim’s Mart, Davis’ only Asian market, is undergoing an expansion, which will be complete mid-May. “We’ve been [at 636 Fourth St.] for 12 years,” said owner Chur Jun. “I have been thinking about expanding for a long time now.” Kim’s Mart will inhabit the space two doors down at 628 Fourth St., which was previously Pallen’s Martial Arts. When renovations are complete, the grocery will be twice its original size. “The store is too crowded now,” Jun said. “We need more space for people and products.”

Remember when the world was a better place? I don’t, but I wasn’t alive during the 1950s. I’ve heard that back then things were great! Women finally won the right to wear pants. There was a soda shop on every corner. The only threat to society was bongo-wielding beatnik Maynard G. Krebs from the Dobie Gillis show. Well, him and communists. You know, because that whole Cold War thing was going on. The Soviet Union and Cuba just would not get off of America’s ass. But since no one ever dropped the bomb, things were pretty peachy keen. In fact, things were so peachy keen in the 1950s that UC Davis served as a symbol for good old fashioned community spirit. According to Davis Wiki, the school started a tradition called “Hi Aggie Spirit.” Here’s how it worked: If you were on campus and you encountered someone you didn’t know, you were encouraged to say “Hi, Aggie!” Your new “Aggie” friend would respond by saying “Hi, Aggie!” back to you.

I’m writing this horizontally, which is to say, I’m lying on my bed, typing with the laptop on its side. It’s Sunday. My hangovers always isolate in the stomach. No headaches, just horned animals, knocking their heads together and scraping their hooves against my stomach lining. Sometimes the collision is especially violent, and that’s when I stop typing to stare at the wall, waiting for it to pass.

The Schaal Aquatics Center was packed at 4 p.m. when eight Aggies were scheduled to play the final home women’s water polo game of their collegiate careers. An hour-and-a-half later, the game finally began and not a single person had left their seat. The delay, due to the absence of referees, did not deter anyone from honoring the eight seniors in their final farewell at Schaal. UC Davis came out like they had been waiting for this game much longer than an hour-and-a-half, letting itspresence be known by tyrannizing the Tigers, 14-5, for the team’s 10th straight victory.

TODAY Post Secret Davis exhibit 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Griffin Lounge, Memorial Union Learn what secrets UC Davis students and staff are keeping at this awareness exhibit. Sponsored by Students Against Sexual Violence. Asian Pacific Culture Week kickoff 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Quad Check out performances, a Bruce Lee look-alike contest and more!

While one would expect normal car thieves to target the stereo system or items from the glove compartment, the latest underbelly of vehicle theft stems from an item not within the car itself: catalytic converters. The converter is a device used to reduce the toxicity of emissions from an internal combustion engine. They were first widely introduced in the mid-’70s to comply with tightening Environmental Protection Agency regulations on auto exhaust. And now, largely due to trace amounts of precious metals within the converters – such as platinum, palladium or rhodium – thefts are on the rise. Sergeant Glenn Glasgow of the Davis Police Department said law enforcement officials often deal with the thefts in waves, with the latest rash occurring in January.

Your style has always been seen as acoustic folk rock. How is your newest album, The Con, different, and why did you make that change? We always saw ourselves as songwriters, so there wasn’t much emphasis on developing the band with instrumentation. With So Jealous and The Con, we had the chance to think a lot more about the instrumentation and worked a lot on it. We went so far as to put our own drums down and mapped out what we wanted our songs to sound like.… When we first started making music, we were 18, where you go into a studio and rattle something out.

080421_sp_column.CHeadline: Bred for competitionBy Michael Gehlken Zephyr the Destroyer and the UC Davis Division I athlete have much in common. Both train for months on end. Both have a strong supporting cast to push them to their limits. Both know what it’s like to have thousands of screaming fans cheer them on. There is just […]

The sun wasn’t the only thing shining on Woody Wilson Track on Picnic Day. After a successful overall performance at the rain-drenched event last year, the Aggies shined once again as hosts to the Woody Wilson Classic that featured 600-plus athletes. UC Davis turned in several standout performances Saturday. Junior Sirena Williams claimed the 100-meter hurdle event with a time of 13.96, breaking the school record that she set last week. At the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational hosted by UCLA last weekend, the Fresno, Calif. native earned a share of the Big West Conference Women’s Track Athlete of the Week award by setting a new school record time of 14.06. Her Saturday performance also broke the Woody Wilson record of 14.00 set by Donica Merriman in 2002.

Teams: No. 10UC Davis vs. Pacific Records: Aggies, 21-8; Tigers, 4-24 When: Today at 4 p.m. Where: Schaal Aquatics Center Who to watch: On the opening whistle of each period, UC Davis fires a torpedo in the tank to capture opening possession. The torpedo: junior attacker Lindsay Kiyama.