January 7, 2000
The three-dot column
By Susanne Rockwell
Cooperative Extension Specialist Joe DiTomaso wonders whether being born in Hollywood has anything to do with the fact that he keeps getting calls from movie production managers needing his weed expertise. When veg crops’ DiTomaso was a graduate student at Humboldt State, he selected the redwood grove (those are big weeds!) used for a scene in George Lucas’ Return of the Jedi. He also supplied weed seeds for the 1990 movie Green Card, starring French superstar Gerard Depardieu and Andie MacDowell. Joe had his third encounter with moviemakers last summer, when he helped the film crew for Robin Williams’ new movie, Bicentennial Man. It seems that the Half Moon Bay site leased for the film’s beach scenes grows one of Joe’s specialties, poison oak. When the construction crew that built Bicentennial Man’s beach house landed in the hospital with complications from the poisonous plant, Williams refused to come to the site. Given the caveat that no herbicide could be used on the property, what was Joe’s solution? Cut the poison oak to the ground, cover it with tarps and then cover the tarps with sand until the work was finished. Joe says his solution was a success….
Speaking of UC Davis’ celebrity connections, our new dean in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Neal Van Alfen, and his wife, Pam, found themselves in deep conversation in December at a St. Helena party with Julia Child–-yes, she who admits to putting marshmallows on her Thanksgiving yams even though you won’t find the recipe in any of her French cookbooks. The party was in Child’s honor before a board meeting for a new food and wine museum in Napa Valley that a number of UC Davis folks have helped launch (including University Relations’ Gina Kelsch, University Extension’s Charles Lacy and the ag college’s Bob Fridley). Child put a serious proposal to the Van Alfens. "She would very much like to see UC Davis develop a program in the art and science of food preparation much as we do with enology," Neal says. "She made it clear to me that she was not proposing that we should do what the Culinary Institute of America does–train chefs. She felt that there are few places where food preparation is addressed in a systematic manner that includes both the art and the science. She would envision that chefs trained at the culinary institute would want to pursue additional training and degrees from a university program." Van Alfen says it’s food for thought….
You are invited to celebrate the retirement of Bob Beasley, the guy who has been checking out athletic equipment in Hickey Gym for most of his 34 years here. Bob remembers when fewer than 2,000 students comprised our student body. As equipment and recreation supervisor, he has been supplying our men’s teams with uniforms and equipment, keeping the equipment repaired and running the laundry. He’s also become good friends with hundreds of our student athletes. If you’d like to wish Bob a good retirement, the party is 3-5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 29. Call Carol Kelly, 752-4557, for more details.
Got news? Contact Susanne Rockwell at 752-1932 or sgrockwell@ucdavis.edu.
Dateline UC Davis is the faculty and staff newspaper for the University of California, Davis.