The Super Bowl in Las Vegas and an easy dish ...

My husband and I visited Las Vegas in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Then, it was not the popular city it is now. I remember that it was a city in the center of the Nevada Mohave Desert where there were some casinos and motels. In my memory the city is pictured as in the two top photos of the vintage postcards below.

A few years ago we stopped several hours at the Las Vegas airport on our way to Los Angeles. This airport had greatly been updated. There were slot machines everywhere: in the concourses, the gates, and more. Later I read an airport article stating that the Las Vegas Airport slot machines had generated one billion dollars in all-time revenue.

I even bought a postcard for my cousin in France showing the Las Vegas Eiffel Tower replica (50% of the Paris tower.)

Now, Las Vegas is famous for its large luxurious casinos with top international entertainers. In 2019 2.9 million visitors came to its five-star resort hotels, gourmet restaurants, the various shopping malls, high-end stores and 24/7 entertainment. It is the largest city in Nevada. The new Allegiant Stadium, a domed multi-purpose stadium, was opened in 2020. At 1.9 million dollars it is the second most expensive stadium in the world, after Los Angeles 5.5 billion stadium. Allegiant Stadium claims that it is the first NFL (National Football League) stadium powered by 100% renewable energy. On February 11, 2024, Las Vegas hosted its first Super Bowl there, a highly publicized football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.

For my overseas blogging friends I'd like to mention that sports are very important in the USA. Football is the #1 sport, American football that is, played here and in about 30 other countries, compared to the other football, the one called "soccer" here but played in 211 countries around the world. Many children in the US start playing football at about 12 years of age. It is played in high schools, colleges and universities, plus professionally. Nearly 1.04 million high-school athletes (with 16,000 teams) and 81,000 college athletes (with 858 teams) play football in the US. Football has a huge impact on a college, on its culture and campus life. Colleges and universities make more money from sports, and are more interested in sports than academics, education, travel, arts, etc. A winning team will boost a university enrollment. Enormous amounts of fans will crowd college football stadiums to cheer their school team. My late husband did not watch much sport on television, unless it was a big game between Ohio State University's Buckeys team and another university. He was an Ohio State University alumnus. My youngest daughter is a fan of the "Dawgs," the University of Georgia's Bulldogs team where she graduated, and my son-in-law is a fan of the rival GA team, the Yellow Jackets, from Georgia Tech University where he graduated. But since both took their medical residencies at Ohio State University, they are fans of the Buckeyes, too. Fans like to wear their university team's tee-shirt and buy team merchandise.

The National Football League (NFL) has the highest average attendance of any professional sports leagues. The Super Bowl, its championship game, ranks among the most-watched sporting events here with the highest average attendance. The league in 2023 had an annual revenue of around 18.6 billion dollars. In 2023, sports generated $520 billion in revenue to the U.S. economy. It can be understood this way: a million seconds is 12 days, a billion seconds is 31 years and a trillion seconds is 31,688 years. Top professional football athletes can obtain salaries of more than 55 million dollars a year. I mention all this because money is what drives the USA. With such a huge audience, companies paid up to $7 million for a rare 30-second advertisement slot on television. By November 2023, all commercial slots had been purchased for the Super Bowl of February 11, 2024. Companies try to come up with unusual, innovative or funny commercials; they also use well-known celebrities for their ads to stand out. The commercials are watched attentively, and rated. In the commercials below pop-star Beyoncé is on the left, actor Ben Affleck on the left of the center photo and actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is on the left in the right picture.

Some people who are not avid football fans still watch the Super Bowl Halftime shows. Most colleges feature marching bands and drill teams during their shows; the Super Bowl did too when it started in 1967. But in 1993 the Super Bowl featured Michael Jackson. That year more fans watched him than the game. Since then the Super Bowl Halftime shows have been headlined by some of the most popular contemporary musicians. Some of the past entertainers have been: The Rolling Stones, The Who, Sting, Paul McCartney, Bruno Mars, U2,Bruce Springsteen, The Temptations, Tony Bennett, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, Lady Gaga, Janet Jackson, Diana Ross, Britney Spears, Madonna, Prince, etc.

This year the Super Bowl generated more media frenzy because there was the added attraction of the relationship between Taylor Swift the pop culture superstar and the Kansas City Chief tight end Travis Kelce. Taylor's fans all over the world, called the Swifties, are obsessed with the relationship. They were agonizing because Taylor Swift, on her worldwide Eras Tour, was performing in Tokyo Saturday night February 10th, the eve of the Super Bowl, and might not show up in time. To illustrate what a big deal the Swift-Kelce romance is, the Embassy of Japan in the U.S.A. issued a statement to reassure the fans.

But no fear, Swift quickly flew on her private jet and covered the 5,500 mile journey to Las Vegas in time. Another 882 private planes landed for the game in the Las Vegas airports as well. Well-known celebrities from entertainers to politicians and sports stars were seen at the Super Bowl, such as Jay-Ze,Beyoncé, Paul McCartney, Canadian singer-songwriter Justin Bieber, Elon Musk, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Lady Gaga, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sheryl Crow, Shaquille O Neal, talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, and many more. The romance has generated an intense amount of attention and provided millions in revenue to the KC Chiefs and other marketing companies. I have not watched a Super Bowl in a long time but decided to turn my kitchen TV on the game and watch it while cooking. I also took some photos from the television.

Since I did not want to spend much time cooking I decided to cook something in one pot only. I had two egg yolks leftover from baking some meringue cookies earlier and came up with a type of spaghetti carbonara, but without the spaghetti. I called it Super Bowl Carbonara, It was fast and easy in my cast iron frying pan. I wouldn't say it was a 5-star recipe but something simple and stil pretty good. You may wish to give it a try. The recipe is below.

Super Bowl Carbonara: 2 packages of Ramen noodle soup, any flavor because only noodles are used, spice packs are omitted. 2 egg yolks. 1/3 green pepper, chopped, and 2 green onions, sliced, white parts separated from green parts. 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for sprinkling when done. 2 cups warm water, plus another 1/2 cup for egg mixture. 1 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon each of thyme and oregano, salt and pepper to taste. 1 tsp olive oil. Fry bacon in cast iron frying pan or other pan, remove to paper towel. Remove bacon fat but leave 2 tablespoons in pan and add 1 teaspoon olive oil. Fry green pepper and the white parts of the green onions in the pan, remove. Add 2 cups warm water to pan and add the Ramen noodles. Bring to a boil while flipping the noodles and separating them with two forks. Sprinkle salt, pepper and seasoning. Turn heat to medium-low. When noodles have softened (about 2 or 3 minutes or so) turn heat off. While noodles were cooking add 1/2 cup warm water to egg yolks in a small bowl (or if too much water left in noodles, use that.) Whisk Parmesan cheese in eggs. Toss egg mixture into noodles, turn heat on low, and keep tossing a minute or two until creamy. Add crumbled bacon, the green parts of the onions, and the cooked green pepper and white parts of green onions. Serve sprinkled with grated Parmesan cheese. Voila.

As an aside, one of the players for the Kansas City Chiefs at the Super Bowl, Lucas Niang, is French and has dual citizenship. His parents moved to the US from France. His father is French and his mother from the Ivory Coast, or Côte d’Ivoire in West Africa. Lucas speaks fluent French. Here he is below.

After the meal I went to watch the game on my large TV in the den. It looked like the San Francisco 49ers were ahead but then the game turned to the Kansas City Chiefs. We had some glimpses of Taylor Swift in her suite cheering with her friends. She was wearing her gold necklace with the number 87 - that is her boyfriend Travis Kelce's tee-shirt number.

The game became gripping during the overtime. The end escaladed quickly to a thrilling victory for the Kansas City Chiefs, their third Super Bowl victory in the last five years. They defeated the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 and declared champions.

Travis Kelce hoisted the Lombardi Trophy on the podium and then descended onto the field. He joined Taylor, saying "Come here, baby girl." They hugged and embraced.

This game gathered the highest ratings since the Apollo II 1969 moon landing. A staggering 123.4 million viewed the game and 202 million watched at least part of the game across all TV networks and via streaming. The insane amount of attention being paid to the Taylor-Travis romance helped with teenage girls watching the Super Bowl for the first time. The reason for this fascination is because this is the classic American romance in a way: the cheerleader or most popular girl falls for the handsome football star. Or in this case, Taylor Swift (voted woman of the Year 2023 by Time Magazine,) the pop culture megastar is dating the popular and talented Kansas City handsome tight end = two famous people making their fan base swoon. Dr. Helen Fisher, an anthropologist and a senior research fellow at the Kinsey Institute who has studied the chemistry of romantic love said: "It was charming, so real, so human, so unrehearsed and so dramatic." She explained that the phenomenon behind the interest in this romance is called "emotional contagion." She added it is the same as why we tear up when our friends cry or get hungry when those around us are eating. This is the type of fantasy love story the American public loves.

Everyone needs a little romance in their life!

A visit to Ohio State University and the Thompson Library – part two

Continuing our visit of the Ohio State University (OSU) campus, we walked on what is called “The Oval” toward the Thompson Library, which borders it. Below is an aerial view I found on the Web (unknown author.)




Below is a map showing the Thompson Library at the top, building 050 (from the OSU maps.)



Architects designed the original building in 1910. It was renovated in 2006 (after two prior renovations.) The façade was kept as is but the inside was totally modernized and expanded. Ohio State mentions that this is “a three-year renovation designed to turn the 1913 building into a 21st Century academic center.” In this country, a turn of century building is considered “old.” Many buildings never have a chance to get old here as they are torn down. “Old” is relative as, for example, the French university La Sorbonne was founded in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon. There is also the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, which was founded in 970-972 - that is old!

Cour de la Sorbonne, Paris. Original antique wood engraving, printed 1881

As we approached the library, it looks like a classic building.

But then, once inside – it was very different! My husband and I have been bookworms for many years – don’t have any idea about how many books we own. Visiting a library or a bookstore is one of our favorite pastimes. So we were in heaven!

Click on collage, then click again on each picture to enlarge

The Thompson Library reopened in 2009. The OSU Internet site gives some highlights: seating for 1,800 persons, more than 200 computers with Internet access, motorized window shades, 250,000 rare books, “green” elements, a 2-000 square foot café, wireless access with plenty of wall outlets and a million+ volumes. There are significant print collections and digital information resources, areas for quiet study and interactive group learning. The renovation involved 11 years of planning and 27 months of construction, requiring 569,799 man-hours. It is impressive.



The library was named in honor of William Oxley Thompson (1855-1933) the fifth president of OSU who served from 1899 to 1925. A large statue of Thompson welcomes you to the building. Here is his picture below (if his head was totally shaved, he would look like many men I see around here…)

As we walked into the library I took a picture of the seal of OSU embedded on the floor. I also snapped some brass plaques bearing scripts of languages, music and alphabet. The elevator doors had interesting engravings as well.



We took the elevator to the 11th floor. Then we entered a large room with comfortable chairs and tall windows.

The view from the windows was spectacular since it was a clear and sunny day. My sister-in-law was pointing out the different buildings on campus and naming them, but I can’t remember now which building was what.



The view was better than what is shown on my pictures, because the pictures were taken behind glass.



I can tell that this building below is University Hall (rebuilt in 1976.) It is home to the African-American Studies, Philosophy, Greek, Latin, and Women’s Studies Departments.




I can also recognize the stadium. It is called “The Shoe” because of its horse shoe shape. It was constructed in 1922 with a capacity of 102,329. As I said in part one, every seat in every game is sold out. This stadium was added in 1974 to the National Register of Historic Places. I could see it only partially from the window.



I liked that light and sunny room. I could certainly see myself with a book on a rocking chair and, once in a while, looking at the panorama below.



But we had more to see. I understand that the stacks used to be dark and dingy but now they are filled with light. You can see them from the glass partitions.




With the two tall atria with skylights the interior of the library is very bright and modern looking – not what you expect from the outside. There is a grand staircase leading to the ground floor. The east atrium has a “flying staircase” with 100 steps not attached to a wall. There are open reading rooms on many levels.



Some books with attractive bindings were close by. I was going to look at them, but then realized…that I could not read them! Shucks!



My sister-in-law was looking around then suddenly she called me. “Quick come and look! Here comes Brutus!” me “Brutus?” her “yes, the Buckeye mascot – we usually see him only during football games.”



Brutus was going up the glass staircase very quickly. I tried to take his picture but could only take his back.



Before I knew it he had disappeared in the stacks. I ran after him, but where was he? I went all the way to the Buckeye Reading Room – maybe he was there?



Nope - just a lonely student reading near the Climate Change exhibit. Well I took his picture anyway.



While I was in the Buckeye Reading Room my sister-in-law was watching Brutus standing on the second floor, across from her. He was looking down toward the ground floor. She took his picture.



I tried one last time to find him in the stacks. I guess he had turned around because suddenly I was in front of him. I asked if I could take his picture. He shook his head yes.



I told him I would place him on my blog and people from around the world would admire him. His tee-shirt was wet – not surprising with the temperature being around 90 degrees or more outside. He may have been practicing.



Then we entered the Grand Reading Room – a 2 ½ stories tall room with floor-to-ceiling windows, long tables and lovely lamps. Immediately I recognized “La Victoire de Samothrace” statue. It is at the top of the Daru staircase in the Louvre Museum in Paris. I sketched it with my Art class a long time ago. I went closer to it and sure enough a panel said that it was a replica of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, a marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Victory (victory in Greek is “Nike.” (No, Nike is not a Japanese or Chinese word.)



It is estimated that the original marble statue was created around 190 BC. to honor the goddess Nike and a sea battle. It was probably destroyed in an earthquake and was found in many pieces on the island of Samothrace (NE Aegean Sea.) The pieces were discovered in April 1863 by the French consul Charles Champoiseau, an amateur archaeologist. It was assembled in situ and then sent to Paris that year. On the Internet I found a photo of the original at Le Louvre.



Before leaving we stopped to look at the special exhibits. There were some ladies’ clothes behind a large glass case – the type of garments Elizabeth Bennett, from Pride and Prejudice, would have worn.



This is what was written near the white dress below: “A revival in interest in classical antiquity at the turn of the nineteenth century led to the popularity of this dress style. Taking inspiration from Greek statuary, bleached by years in the sun, these dresses pay tribute to the contemporary assumption that classical costume had been white.”



There was also an exhibit of pulp magazines from the 1930s and other interesting items.



We then went to the Ohio Union, a student facility center. We met Brutus there, but he was seating on a bench and no longer running in the library stacks. We had a spot of lunch at the Union Market with some cold drinks.



There were many food choices: Mexican, salad bar, grill, sandwiches, daily special and more. I had a German sausage sandwich with sauerkraut. There were few students and no lines. My sister-in-law said that when school starts, around the second week of September, there will be hundreds of students around – walking, rushing, balancing umbrellas, backpacks, phones, talking, laughing, etc. It won't be such a peaceful experience.



I finished by drinking an “expresso doppio” which was very good and inexpensive.



My sister-in-law told us that we had not seen the back side of the Thompson Library. But by then we were a bit tired. Instead I found some pictures of it, courtesy OSU pictures. One picture is an aerial view and the other was taken at night. The library certainly looks like a totally different building seen from this side.



It had been warmer and more humid in Columbus than in Atlanta which is unusual. To cool us off, here is a vintage postcard below showing Mirror Lake near the Library, but in winter.

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