Hecuba Off To Quite A Start

I wonder if Roger Noble Burnham, who created Tommy Trojan in 1930, would have had trouble spelling Shakespeare like the error on the base of Hecuba at the USC Village.

UPDATED: Here is USC’s statement on the matter: “To E, or not to E, that is the question. Over the centuries his surname has been spelled 20 different ways. USC chose an older spelling because of the ancient feel of the statue, even though it is not the most common form.”

88 thoughts on “Hecuba Off To Quite A Start

    • Months ago, President Maxie assured the USC Community that he would personally sign off on the inscription —but by the relevant time period he was hiding from subpoenas in an out of service elevator and couldn’t really follow through on his promise….

        • One of his flunkies who is pulling down six figures should have noticed it at least by the ceremony last week and had it corrected.

  1. Really Wolf? You’re calling out someone on errors in spelling after you have butchered the English language on the “blog” for years. You got some nerve. Don’t throw stones if you live in a glass house.
    #BHFM

  2. A full two days after Wolf posts… “But in the meantime, it has two kickers (Michael Brown, Chase McGrath) who have talent but were not heavily recruit.” Not as good as the one where you had to complain about not being able to proof read your phone, but you are the last person who should be commenting about dumb mistakes.

      • From August 10th…

        “OK, I want to repeat something that got botched trying to post with my phone yesterday: It is hard to imagine any teams in USC’s schedule better than the Trojans at quarterback or running back.”

        He later went back and fixed the prior post that originally read closer to a hugely failed field sobriety test.

    • Except this mistake had to be overlooked by scores of USC officials involved in the project and is permanent. Surely even you see the difference.

      • This mistake can be easily fixed by anyone with any skill in the area.

        It’s just ironic that SW would ever comment on a spelling error, since he routinely makes the worst mistakes even though they are immed correctible with a keyboard stroke or two.

        • I agree that he is an imperfect vessel but apparently nobody else has noticed this gaffe by the hired help.

          • I agree that it is totally amazing that in view of the ultra-massive scale of the project, this detail would be overlooked. Of all the gin joints!

          • Could it be the infamous “Lack of Institutional Control” SoCal is known for?
            Me thinks it so.

          • Who says things like, “Me thinks it so.”

            Is that baby talk? Does your dog get that from you? What an idiot.

          • Oh, SC made a giant screw up (well, as much as you can apply “giant” to a statue placard) and a lot of people should have caught it, but Wolf is the last person who should be crowing about errors like this. I doubt he makes it through the week without another doozy.

    • School line is that they did this knowingly and that it was spelled that way in the era. Hmmmmmmm
      #fumble #getthegrinder

        • True but they just can’t avoid the instinctual cover up trying to save face. Very much like Jacquie B who deflects to another subject when he’s cornered by the facts.
          “Look a Squirrel !!!!”

          • Hah. The fact is your little gutty football program stinks and we all know it.

            What’s wrong wimp boy? Can’t you take it? Too much for you? Does it hurt too much not to be even able to make a bowl game?

            How’s this for deflection? “Look, another crappy ucla football team.” It must be the Curse of Cade.

            USC owns L.A. Deal with it wimp boy. You’re going down again in Nov. Hah, hah, hah.

          • I had to double check to see what time you wrote this but you really did post nearly the exact same rambling diatribe with the same witless insults today.
            You are an algorithm aren’t you?

          • You must be tired of getting your head beat in wimp boy. Is that why you hang all day on your rival’s website. What a clown.

          • You left out Curse and gutty and ha,ha,ha.
            If you only have 5 lines, you should use them all whenever you can.
            I’m here more than normal tonight because I am going to my daughter’s classroom tomorrow and conversing with you is good practice for addressing a room full of 7-year-olds.
            If I pick up any more material to add to your elementary inventory of insults, I’ll let you know.

          • You live here wimp boy and only get out-posted by that other Troll gnome Just Squats. You two lead the entire world, with Roid Beefcake a close 3rd. Congratulations. Be proud!

            Try not to be ashamed of your devotion to all things USC little gutty. USC owns you.

        • Actually, he spelled his last name two different ways in his 1615 will: Shakspere and Shackspere.

          Truth is, Shakespeare couldn’t spell per Wikipedia and politicworm.

          • Still deflecting, Jacquie?
            We’ve talked about this before, making excuses doesn’t make sense and it doesn’t help you get better.

  3. I think they can add an ‘e’ to that name

    Even more glaring is that statue of Babe Ruth outside Camden Yards….the sculptor has Ruth holding a right-handed fielders glove…Ruth was a natural lefty – batting and throwing

  4. Scott,
    It’s SC, spelling isn’t important, compliance isn’t important, architecture isn’t important, professor sponsored drug parties on campus? No big deal. Drunken head coaches? It’s OK (if they win)
    Why sweat the details when SoCal is just a football team with a school attached?
    Get your priorities straight, man!

    • You shouldn’t take your crappy football team so seriously wimp boy. It’s just a game and you’re “cursed”, remember.

      Just because you lose all the time on the gridiron is no reason to get all defensive, but high and mighty.

      Any ucla students hunting down and killing professors on campus lately? How about any deadly lab fires? Scary campus you got there little gutty.

      • You just have to smile when poor j starts off on such topics as compliance, architecture and drunken head coaches, Jack. He just doesn’t get the irony of it all…..

        • Adrian Klemm was a long-time model of compliance at ucla. He was the king of the private, paid-for workouts and free housing for ucla’s woeful offensive linemen. Has Adrian been banned from college football?

          • ….it’s almost like j never heard of Kemm or ever watched a slurred Mora press conference or ever walked by UCLA’s goofy inverted fountain or ever saw that brick crap house they call a law school…..

          • It’s not every school who has a head coach who caresses the faces of his assistants while attempting to restrain them from fleeing the field during a game. The Chimp is always good for a bizarre public outburst!

          • I’m so glad their AD extended Mora’s contract so we will be entertained by his antics for years to come.

          • And what a buy-out clause he got, couldn’t afford to fire him, even if Guerrero had a clue.

          • L.A is all about entertainment —-as Mora gets older, his act will become more and more absurd & pitiable —-and, therefore, more entertaining.

          • We’re gonna get to enjoy lots of those moments this year, Jack —-the crescendo will come in the form of Coach Flora trying to climb into the stands during USC’s blow out victory —– when he’ll have to be restrained by youthful female assistants.

          • Mikey,
            Last time I checked, SoCal was behind 2-3 in football wins during the Mora Era.
            But I guess when your head gets bloated by pre-season rankings and fantasies of being a National Champ, reality is tough for you to grasp.

          • Last time I checked wimp boy, USC had won 25 Rose Bowls, including yet another one last Jan. ucla had won 5 (total, if you can believe it) and had to sit home last season.

            USC is 48-31 against ucla, 14-4 since ’99 and The Chimp is officially on the hot seat.

            How’s that for reality little gutty. Go ahead and deny it. Always fun to see you squirm.

          • “99, was that the end of our record streak of victories against SoCal?
            Wasn’t that the longest streak in the history of the rivalry?
            Wasn’t it great?

          • What happened to you little gutties after your cherished 8-game win streak – your main claim to fame in all of college football.

            The entire college football world has always wondered, why has ucla stunk for nearly 20 years. Cat got your tongue boy? Come on. Spill it.

          • “The 8 game streak!” “The 8 game streak!” Isn’t it sorta sad to hear that used as the ‘retort extraordinaire’ in the year 2017?
            #Poignant

          • The long ago 8-game streak is the gutties’ Holy Grail. They’ve accomplished nothing else in college football, literally, but that 8-game streak is something they value more than us Trojans do going 14-4, soon to be 15-4. That’s little gutty logic for you.

          • OK, you’ve crossed the line now, MG.
            Say what you want about my team, my coach, my school or my Mom but don’t you EVER, EVER disrespect The Inverted Fountain !! I’ll have my man drive me over to South Central and hurl salty slang upon your new Trojan Chick Statue, mister. Do you hear me????

          • I can’t actually HEAR you, j —-but your sentence structure sure reminds me of Tarantino dialog (e.g., Marsellus saying his goodbyes to Zed—you have to insert “hillbilly boy” after “do you hear me?”, though).

          • OK, got it, one of those guys that only speaks using tired movie lines….
            OK, I’ll play
            Are you talking to me Mikey????
            Do you feel lucky? Well do you punk?
            I’ll be back.

          • You were the one that went into makeup and came out as Marsellus.
            #AtLeastWeNowKnowWhatMoviesYouLike

      • I’m just hurt because I was never invited to one of those cool parties that your Dean of Medicine threw on campus and didn’t get any of St. Pat’s scholarship money. I’ll get over it but it does hurt….

        • Just as well. You gotta watch out for those parties wimp boy. One time a ucla lineman got way too wasted on your row and fell off the second story directly on his head. No further comment.

          • There’s a big difference between falling off and jumping off a balcony, especially when your running from the LAPD.
            Your dim wit is exposed when you try to compare SoCal with UCLA in terms of academics, sanctions or outrageous pinheaded behavior. NOBODY in the country touches SoCal in stupid antics. From football to your School of Medicine you guys are the most entertaining freak show in the NCAA.
            Can’t wait for your next dumpster fire.

        • It’s easy to party all night, j —-(although one good thing about night is that it separates days for most people)—-but to get an invite to one of our parties you need to party all day and all night and all the next day and all the next night—and, according to reports, all the NEXT day and all the NEXT night. When you think about it, the former Dean of the School of Medicine set the bar pretty high. Are you sure you want in….?

      • Did you see Fow sports ranked running backs, and put Rojo at #2. Ahead of backs from LSU, Bama, etc.

        • No, but I’m stunned at that. PSU, ALA and LSU all have better starting backs and it’s not close. JMHO.

          • Barkley’s so much better than RoJo, they aren’t on the same planet. Guice and Scarbrough are also my easy picks.

            That said, I’m very happy for RoJo. Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

    • This dude has no idea how much Ucla is in trouble. … The football team will never recover… Killing professors is the Ucla way.. Ruin your life.. #douchecity

  5. Says the King of Horrible Grammar and Misspelling. Only you Flow would find pure joy in posting this.

  6. He’s only posting this because a reader pointed that out a few days ago.
    You know sw reads the posts.

  7. Where does the Hecuba statue rank on the list of things only Wolf cares about? I’m thinking 3rd after baby QB and Galen Center soft serve but ahead of late kickoffs, Adoree long jumping and greek interlock lettering.

  8. Did we ever figure out if she is wearing Nike’s ?
    But honestly it’s just a statue, someone’s bound to topple it over soon.

    • Escpecially when the local yahoos figure out that slavery was rampant in ancient Greek civilization.

  9. ONLY the So CA BRAIN SURGEONS could miss-spell the Bard’s name.

    #YouCan’tMakeThatUpPaly

  10. So now it turns out USC intentionally spelled Shakespeare wrong, per the way we were all raised to spell it. I say it was still a slightly bad call – though many people wouldn’t really know one way or another.

    But this excuse makes a lot more sense than just overlooking the mistake. Kind of a relief actually. No fix-it job needed! USC was way ahead of us all the time, using the 18th century version. Crazy.

  11. Shakespear, Shakespeare, Traveler, Traveller – USC has a lot of spelling issues lately.

  12. It’s one thing to make a mistake…but to lie about it reveals character or lack there of!

    First lie about naming your horse after Robert E. Lee’s and now this…Just admit your racist past and current ignorance!

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