What does a UC Davis degree bring you? A free trip for two to the Mexican Riviera. Yup, that's what Kelly Crabtree claims. Crabtree, lately of Employment and Outreach and a new member of Staff Development and Professional Services on campus, was inspired to use her favorite subject in school--statistics--when she heard only one person had guessed the three real tabloid headlines among 17 to win a cruise courtesy of the Paul and Phil Show on Y-92. That person did it by sending in all the possibilities. Kelly figured she could do the same. She used number sampling methodology in a spreadsheet on her home computer to plot the 681 combinations possible. As a result, you can wish her bon voyage.... Speaking of nimble keyboarding skills, the Division of Rheumatology/Allergy and Clinical Immunology can boast that it employs "California's Fastest Typist," administrative assistant Nikki Phipps. Her 1996 achievement--120 words per minute with two errors--marks the third time Phipps has competed well in the national contest put on by Western Staff Services in Sacramento.... It seems a little anticlimactic now, with all the recent tales of Hurricane Fran's havoc, but our own conductor extraordinaire, Kern Holoman, had a close scrape this summer with Hurricane Bertha while vacationing at the family summer home on the North Carolina coast. Bertha passed by, allowing Kern and family to continue sunbathing and boating.... Art professor Lynn Hershman spent her summer in the Bay Area directing actresses Tilda Swinton, Karen Black and others in Hershman's first 35 mm feature, Conceiving Ada. The video artist is using computers to create images of sets ("virtual sets") for the actors. The film dramatizes the life of Ada Lovelace, daughter of poet Lord Byron and a mathematician who is considered by some to have invented the first program for the British mechanical precursor to the electronic computer. Conceiving Ada is expected to be released on the art-house cinema circuit next spring.... You may think of poli-sci prof Bruce Jentleson as a Middle East policy wonk working in a coat and tie from inside the Beltway, but try picturing him in a baseball cap. Bruce, who directs the Washington Center for the campus, reports that he coached his son and teammates to the championship title for the D.C.-area baseball team for 14-to-15-year-olds--the second such stellar achievement in three years. Bruce must hang up his cap--with regret--because his son at the ripe old age of 16 must retire from the league.... The VCRs were turned on at some poli-sci faculty homes in Davis last month to catch an almost-prime-time speech about student loans at the Democratic National Convention by Cinthia Hamner-Portugal. She's a senior on leave of absence to work on the presidential campaign as a youth and campus deputy coordinator. Cinthia, who says she's always had a fear of public speaking, found herself pulling an all-nighter to write the speech (with the help of a professional speech writer).... Kudos go to the folks at Student Housing who donated 300 used chairs from the residence halls to the congregation of the New Home Missionary Baptist Church in Sacramento, which burned down this month. UC Davis folks who have news to share are invited to contact Susanne Rockwell by mail at Dateline, 334 Mrak Hall; e-mail at sgrockwell@ucdavis.edu; or by phone at 752-1932.