TORNADO WATCH UNTIL TEN

Another entry in our "Celebrating Sarah" Series...

It is 5:45a.m. and dark and humid. 71 degrees and Patrick and Junior are asleep up here.

Went to bed at halftime of the Bulls game. Don't know if they ever got any better...

Saw more of Gibson's hostile grilling of Sarah Palin--asking her the same question over and over, seemingly wanting a different answer... Hope he's proud of himself--he doesn't treat other people this way.

More Later.

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UF student on cover of Playboy

By Nathan Crabbe
Sun staff writer

Published: Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at 11:48 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at 11:53 p.m.

If the Gator victories against Ohio State weren’t bad enough, now the University of Florida has a Playboy cover girl dissing the Big Ten.

Playmate of the Month Kelly Carrington on the October cover of Playboy Magazine.

Kelly Carrington appears as both a cover girl and Playmate of the Month in Playboy’s October issue, which hits newsstands Friday.

The 22-year-old Carrington — Kelly Carrington is not her real name, it’s the pseudonym she uses for the magazine — is a UF public relations major who took a break from school to be photographed and promote her appearance in the magazine.

The annual college edition features a spread on the girls of the Big Ten, so Carrington admits it’s funny that a Southeastern Conference girl made the front.

“There weren’t any girls from the Big Ten who were hot enough to be on the cover, so they had to pull someone from the SEC,” she quipped.

She appears in the magazine under the headline “Gator Maid” — an allusion to Gatorade and a pun she admits is “kind of lame.” The pictorial and accompanying article are full of UF references, from the football jersey in which she poses to her quotes on the joys of tailgating.

“The whole reason I wanted to go there is I was a Gator fan,” she said.

Carrington’s appearance in Playboy follows another Gator avoiding being in the magazine. UF declined to nominate quarterback Tim Tebow for the magazine’s annual All-American team due to his religious convictions.

Carrington said she thought that decision was unfortunate.

“I just think Playboy is a very classy and well-respected magazine,” she said.

Carrington grew up in Stuart. She now lives across from the Playboy mansion in Los Angeles in a home known as the “Bunny House,” where visiting Playmates stay and a few live long-term. “They’re very selective about who they allow to live there,” she said.

She said watching the E! network show, “The Girls Next Door,” with her boyfriend led to her appearance in the magazine. The show features the lives of the three girlfriends of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.

The boyfriend begged Carrington to send her picture to the magazine, she said, which led to a test shoot and then her selection as a Playmate.

“If you asked me a year ago, I would have laughed and said ‘never,’ ” she said. “I was definitely on the conservative side.”

She said life at the mansion is essentially like it is portrayed on the show. There are constant events, she said, but not the kind of wild parties associated with the mansion in past decades.

“It’s kind of like a sorority house,” she said.

She’s now promoting her appearance and pondering her next move. She said options include interning in public relations for Playboy. She’s not sure if she would return to UF or continue her studies elsewhere.

“If I wind up loving it here or getting the Playmate of the Year, I would consider transferring” to the University of California-Los Angeles, she said.

She admits being nervous about the reaction in Gainesville to her being in Playboy. While she views the town as liberal, she said she’s concerned about the conservative Southern influence. “At least I’m not there,” she said.

GOGATORSGOSARAH