You're not often lucky enough to get Sir Elton John, a Mississippi Senator, an "Ole Miss" football helmet, pink sunglasses and a baby grand in the same place.
But he'd seen something he couldn't ignore -- a tape of an Ole Miss game.
They went through anger, to disbelief on to irony, cheering Germany's seventh goal and greeting every successful pass with an "Ole" and a sneer in the direction of their own hapless players.
The program's name is a reference to "Mississippi: The Closed Society," a 1964 book by James W. Silver, an Ole Miss history professor, about the strict orthodoxy of white Mississippi.
But in an address last week, Charles W. Eagles, an Ole Miss history professor and the author of "The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss," created a minor stir when he questioned the tenor of the celebration.
Mr. Fabris and his wife, Patti, also an Ole Miss graduate, bought a three-bedroom condominium just off campus in 2002 for $280,000.
As I stood chatting with old friends, I was startled to see a big black bear dressed in an Ole Miss jersey waving and coming toward me.
Each team again traded punts before the Alabama defense stopped an Ole Miss scoring opportunity on a fourth-and-two play from their own seven-yard line that kept the score 16 0.
With less than a minute on the clock, there was an "Ole!" for every pass in the Gigante de Arroyito.
During a visit to the Manning home, Csonka was surrounded by the three young Manning boys: Cooper, whose college career as an Ole Miss wide receiver would be ended by a congenital spinal illness, Peyton and Eli.
