The Second Big Loser of the UCLA Upset: H. D. Buttercup

Bandini, author of the sweet (yet not-recently updated, cough cough) LA blog The Great Taco Hunt, asks, "I wonder how much furniture Lane Kiffin bought from HD Buttercup?"

To fully understand this joke/question/accusation, one must know who Lane Kiffin is, and what H. D. Buttercup is.

H. D. Buttercup is an upscale, interior designer's wet dream in Culver City, housed in the beautiful 100,000 square-foot Helms Bakery building. Built during the depression to celebrate the 1932 Olympic Games in LA, the building is as gorgeous as the 19th century antiques, Afghani carpets, and hand-made furniture stored inside.

"It's an incubator for little baby home-furnishing brands that really care about quality design," Buttercup owner Evan Cole told the LA Times last year when the store opened.

Apparently Buttercup CFO (and USC alumnus) Pej Sabet was so confident that the #2 Trojans would beat the unranked Bruins that he convinced ownership to run a promotion last week, in which anyone who bought at least $2,000 of furniture between Thursday and kickoff would get their stuff free if UCLA won the game.

Somehow UCLA won the game.

Some say it was due to the poor gameplan of USC's offensive coordinator, who was able to muster only nine points against the Bruins in Pasadena. The coordinator's name: Lane Kiffin.