Once again, a UC Davis student has won fabulous prizes on "The Price Is Right." That makes three—count 'em, three—Aggies who have recently achieved that distinction. We figured you'd want to know just what it is about being an Aggie that makes becoming a "Price Is Right" contestant (and then winning) such a slam-dunk, so here are

The Top Five Reasons Aggies Strike It Rich on the "Price Is Right":

No. 5: UC Davis students have sharpened their guessing skills playing bovine bingo.

No. 4: UC Davis students know the prices for oleomargarine and oleobutterine.

No. 3: Like all Eggheads, UC Davis students are smarter than your average daytime TV watcher.

No. 2: UC Davis students have an intimate knowledge of the price of ramen, diet soda and frozen pizza.

And the No. 1 reason Aggies strike it rich on "The Price Is Right": Aggies are too nice to get on "Survivor" or "Weakest Link."

BY THE NUMBERS

* The campus's 2.8 megawatt co-generation plant is powered by a jet engine.

* On every shift, each UC Davis custodian cleans the equivalent of 10 homes.

* Ag Services grows 2,500 tons of alfalfa and oats to "feed" campus research.

* The campus grounds are twice as large as all the open space in Sacramento, and just one month's edging of the lawns would take groundskeepers all the way to San Francisco.

A BACKWARD GLANCE

What was happening on campus 40 years ago? A look at September 1961 issues of The California Aggie tells some of the story . . .

In sports: Vern Hickey was named acting director of intercollegiatge athletics, assuming the duties of the late Irving "Crip" Toomey; the undefeated Aggie football team traveled to Southern California to face the favored Whittier Poets; and a call went out for "all persons (male only) interested in runing cross country" to go out for the team.

In fashion: The "Calico Gal" column noted that "even if our campus is considered agricultural, we girls here at Davis can certainly be just as fashion-minded as any other group of healthy college co-eds" and that at the Big and Little Sister Get-Acquainted Fashion Show "it was interesting to note the striking new colors and color combinations: black and camel, jade green and teal blue, and let's not forget magenta."

In the lively arts:The Varsity Theatre in downtown Davis began offering student discount tickets—75 cents rather than the general rate of 90 cents; composer Darius Milhaud was commissioned to write a symphony for UC Davis to be premiered on campus by the San Francisco Symphony; and fourth-floor Bixby announced a Sunday afternoon exchange with fourth- and third-floor Malcolm to "celebrate the end of summer with a wet water fight."

In the dorms: Titus Hall's new housemother, Mrs. Maxine Day, came to campus from Fresno, where she had previously worked with the Fresno County Probation Dept. "In Mrs. Day's own words, 'A new broom sweeps clean.' Realizing the importance of social graces in the dining commons, she would like to see girls dress appropriately for dinner."

2001: A VEGETABLE ODYSSEY

Attention, Hollywood! Two of the top research stories coming out of UC Davis this summer—first, the discovery of traces of the first generation of atoms in the universe, 14 billion light years from Earth, then the announcement of the development of a salt-tolerant tomato plant—ought to inspire some enterprising scriptwriter. Coming soon to a theater near you: Attack of the Killer Transgenic Tomatoes from Outer Space!