translation, please

What exactly does it mean when the commentators say with delirious excitement:

"Now that shows the importance of dribble penetration!"

At the wall....

After your rant Chris it seemed that a visual of some sort is in order to add a little flavour....

Der Pikens auf der Freitag (how's that?)

Meine Gute Freundes (I learned German from Hogan's Heroes, you know),

Ah, Friday, what is so rare as a lazy Friday in the office, knowing there are 4 potentially interesting tournament games to look forward to? OK, so not all of them are likely to be interesting, but at least the potential is there. I have opened up a little distance between myself and the estimable Maggi Jackson, and the mockery may be soon to begin, another beautiful beautiful thing to look forward to. Egad, the world's all lovely sometimes.

Back to bidness. Who picked whom? Well, sisters and brothers, see below:

Let's have a safe Round Three out there.

C


1. Florida - The multitudes
5. Butler - Nobody. Zip. Nada squata potata.

--------------------------------------
4. Maryland - Maggi, Acy, Sarah
12. Old Dominion - Alexander (he's 16 months old. What does he know?)



3. Oregon - Knott, Gena, Mike, Scott, Bill, DaveW, Matt, Hank, Sarah, Rosalie, John, DavidP
7. UNLV - Dana (Go Dana!!!)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Wisconsin - Maggi, Favs, Steve, Acy, Kate, Liz, Ruth, Calvino, Henry, Dayle, Willow
15. TX A&M-CC - Alexander (see comment above)
10. Georgia Tech - Dykes


1. UNC - Opie, Goober, Aunt Bea and the rest of the field
5. USC - Rosalie, Willow (what do they know that the rest of us don't?)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Texas - Knott, Steve, Dykes, DaveW, Matt, Sarah, DavidP
8. Marquette - Dana, Alexander



2. Georgetown - Most folks
6. Vanderbilt - Dayle (Go Commodores! Go Dayle!)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Washington State - Steve, Dana, Sarah, DavidP
7. BC - Rosalie, Willow


And there you have it. Don't double dip the chips tonight, and quit lipping the 40 ouncer. We all have to drink out of that.

Poolmeister

Thursday night results and standings to this point

Friends,

Good games last night, but let's face it, a boring outcome. Two 1-seeds and two 2-seeds in the regional finals? Yawn. Big genius (but with a cautionary footnote) is Bill O'Hearn, who picked all four winners corrrectly. Here's the footnote: sure, Bill, you picked all the games right. And I know, I know, a correct pick is a correct pick. Still, isn't it a little cheap to rocket into a tie for first place because you picked matching 1-2 regional finals? Don't you feel, well, dirty? Cheap? No? Just happy to be winning. Well, I guess I get that. You Etonians and your playing field ethos. It won you Waterloo and it seems likely to win you the pool. And Britons never never never shall be slaves.

I think I started ranting a little right there. Sorry, the tread on my mind's tires isn't what it used to be. I need chains or steel-belted radials to keep my mind from slipping off the road. Where we was was that I was fixing to tell you the standings. And here they is:

------------R2---Thursday--Total

1.	Bill	50	12	62
1.	Silet	56	6	62
3.	Favs	49	12	61
4.	Matt	50	9	59
5.	John	49	9	58
6.	Dayle	51	6	57
7.	Gena	47	9	56
8.	DavidP	49	6	55
8.	Kate	46	9	55
10.	Ruth	47	6	53
11.	Hank	43	9	52
11.	Steve	46	6	52
13.	Dykes	42	9	51
13.	Knott	42	9	51
15.	Calvino	41	9	50
15.	Henry	44	6	50
17.	Dana	42	6	48
17.	Mike	39	9	48
19.	DaveW	41	6	47
19.	Liz	38	9	47
21.	Sarah	40	6	46
22.	Alexander	33	9	42
23.	Maggi	36	3	39
24.	Acy	32	6	38
24.	Rosalie	32	6	38
26.	Willow	29	3	32

In a moment, I'll send out the Friday picks.

Ta,

C

My new rule

Just gotta click on the little box. You're all gonna want one.

Don't let the doorknob hit you...

Alford to New Mexico!!! My beloved Iowa Hawkeyes have received manna from heaven. Their miserable, pin-headed, loser dork of a "coach" Steve Alford, seems to have packed up his hair product and hit the road to New Mexico. What a relief. Our long national nightmare is over.

Now let's get ourselves a real coach. Less product, more production.

Breathing deep sighs of sweet relief,

Your man from Hawkeyetown

Thursday night picks

People,

Well, well, a few days of dreary workaday life have interrupted our hoopishness. But now, it's back to the good stuff, the stuff that makes life worth the bother, the stuff that dreams are made of. Hoop, even though I'm hopelessly mired in the D+ section of the class, is still better than no hoop.

So, you may be wondering how others have picked. Below please find my own artless chart showing how we've all picked tonight's games.


1. Kansas - everybody else
4. Southern Illinois - Mike, DaveW, Dayle (I picked KS, but I'd love to see SIU win this)

------------------------------------------------------------
9. Villanova - Dana, Acy


2. UCLA - Everybody else
3. Pitt - Steve, DaveW, Ruth, Dayle, Sarah
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Duke - Maggi, Acy, John, DavidP (Gee, I don't miss Duke, do you?)
10. Gonzaga - Alexander, Willow


1. Ohio State - Hell and sundry
5. Tennessee - Gena, Scott, Ruth, Rosalie
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. UVA - Dana, Henry
9. Xavier - Maggi, Willow


3. Texas A&M - Dykes, Scott, Kate, Matt, Calvino, Henry, Sarah, DavidP
2. Memphis - Everybody else
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Louisville (what happened to these bums?) - Knott, Maggi, Liz, Hank
7. Nevada - Steve (a genius pick that just didn't quite work out)
14. Penn (average SATs too high to win in tourney) - Rosalie, Willow (both smart enough to attend Penn. Me too dumb)

Well, that's that. At this point, all I care about is finishing ahead of Maggi. I'm a small person, but I have clear goals in life. I will post this message text to the blog as well, but I'm growing weary of posting in two places. If you hermits would get your bad selves hooked into the blog we could dispense with all the email. Hoping against hope, I suppose. Feh.

Yours poolily,

CAK

I've got Moosehaven on My Mind

With six months or less to go on the job, I'm thinking ahead. Moosehaven - golfcarts, vans, tri's (what is a tri - a Harley with a side car? Not such a bad idea) But you need to check it out for yourselves. Men, you need to be Mooseheads, so that your wives can be eligible to live at Moosehaven. Something to consider.

Contact you after Sunday evening.

Just some entertainment before the hoops start again

Sorry Folks, I steared you wrong. You cannot, in fact, see this polinated work of art in its entirety, just three minutes worth. Which is really all you need.
Steve and I had the good fortune to see this masterpiece a while ago. What they don't show you in the poster is the orgasmatron that the "housewives" enter naked to get Beed. It's terrific, and educational, being as the Queen Bee is really an alien bee scientist who lures bad human men to her hive to suck out their....I don't know, honey or something.

A Boost to Get you Through the Week

Hi, I saw this a couple of weeks ago in the New Yorker. I haven't decided which is my favorite flavor.

Hope you are not feeling so low that even these drinks can't give you a boost.

Sunday results and standings after Round Two

All right, it's Sweet 16 time. Sadly, 48 of the tournament's 63 games are over. It goes by too quickly. Any sporting event that more or demands one to sit on the couch, eating Hint O'Crack Tostitos and drinking quarts of beer will always, I'm afraid, come around too infrequently and fly by too quickly. Such is the sad, fleeting bird of life, darkening the souls of those of us who live with a constant presentiment of loss. Still, b'gad, there're 15 games left, plenty of snacks yet to be consumed, and I understand they're still bottling spirits and plan to offer them for sale to the private citizenry, so perhaps the glass, metaphorically speaking, is really still half full. Life is beautiful, I guess.

Not so my picks, which, frankly, suck. Nothing at all beautiful about them. Most of you seem to be doing a damn sight better. Nuts to you. There weren't any tremendous upsets on Sunday, but there were some good games. When is the last time, I wonder, when there weren't any double digit seeds in the Sweet 16? If only there were a librarian handy, we'd know. Everybody picked Florida, almost everybody picked Kansas and Oregon. Slightly fewer (17/26) thought Memphis would make it this far. Half of us (you, not me) picked Tennessee over Virginia. 8 got USC right - (Maggi, Gena, Dana, Calvino, Henry, Dayle, Rosalie and Willow). 9 got Southern Illinois - (favs, Alexander, Mike, Scott, DaveW, Matt, Dayle, Sarah, John). Only five picked UNLV - (Dana, Scott, Bill, DaveW and DavidP). All in all, a fairly even distribution of geniosity (geniusness? genitude? what's the word I want here?)

Sunday Special Super Genius Guys are Scott (again), Dayle and DaveW. These boys picked an obnoxious 7 of 8 games right. That's astonishing, says me. Especially that lanky Milwaukeean, Scott Silet. Do you realize that he picked 13 of 16 Round Two games correctly? No surprise then that he's spanking the field. Someone needs to rise up and smite him, verily. On the other hand, since I can't win, do I really care who does? I might go with sour grapes as the theme of my 2007 pool participation.

Anyway, here's where we stand after two rounds:


-------------Sat----Sun---Round Two Total

1.	Silet	42	14	56
2.	Dayle	37	14	51
3.	Bill	38	12	50
3.	Matt	38	12	50
5.	DavidP	39	10	49
5.	Favs	39	10	49
5.	John	37	12	49
8.	Gena	35	12	47
8.	Ruth	37	10	47
10.	Kate	40	6	46
10.	Steve	38	8	46
12.	Henry	38	6	44
13.	Hank	37	6	43
14.	Dana	32	10	42
14.	Dykes	34	8	42
14.	Knott	34	8	42
17.	Calvino	35	6	41
17.	DaveW	27	14	41
19.	Sarah	30	10	40
20.	Mike	29	10	39
21.	Liz	32	6	38
22.	Maggi	26	10	36
23.	Alexander	25	8	33
24.	Acy	26	6	32
24.	Rosalie	22	10	32
26.	Willow	21	8	29

Later this week I'll send out a chart of who has picked whom for the Thursday and Friday games. I probably ought to do a little work now.

Yours in Poolishness,

CAK

Day Three results and current standings

Dear ones,

A bad day for the Meister and his entire family. We're all languishing at the bottom of the field; as clear an example of anti-Yankee bias as you could ever hope to see.

Scott Silet retains his (admittedly slim) lead, but the big story of the day are the two megaminded mensa mavens who picked a gaudy 7 of 8 games correctly. Matt Peterson is one of today's geniuses, and he has rocketed into a tie for 5th place. More interesting (not to say disgusting) is Newbie Kate's 7 of 8 performance today, which catapults her into second place behind Scott. The Milwaukee power couple is coming perilously close to running away from the rest of the field. I can almost hear their cruel, mocking laughter at our expense. Let's get 'em!

------------Rnd 1 Today Total

1.	Silet	30	12	42
2.	Kate	26	14	40
3.	DavidP	29	10	39
3.	Favs	27	12	39
5.	Bill	28	10	38
5.	Henry	28	10	38
5.	Matt	24	14	38
5.	Steve	28	10	38
9.	Dayle	25	12	37
9.	Hank	25	12	37
9.	John	27	10	37
9.	Ruth	25	12	37
13.	Calvino	23	12	35
13.	Gena	25	10	35
15.	Dykes	24	10	34
15.	Knott	26	8	34
17.	Dana	24	8	32
17.	Liz	22	10	32
19.	Sarah	22	8	30
20.	Mike	21	8	29
21.	DaveW	21	6	27
22.	Acy	20	6	26
22.	Maggi	22	4	26
24.	Alexander	19	6	25
25.	Rosalie	18	4	22
26.	Willow	17	4	21

Better games today. That, and the fact that we cooked a really good pot of chili today (in response to all the chilichatter on the blog) made it a good day. Mostly, though, it was that our driveway shoveling guy showed up in his truck today and removed about a foot of snow from the driveway. Love that dude.

Tomorrow is another chance for me to sink in the standings. Be safe out there. Keep your eye on Scott and Kate. I think a flaming bag of poop on the doorstop is a few correct picks away. Beware!

C

Indiana v. UCLA

So far this is shaping up to be one of the worst basketball games of the tournament. 1st half total points....33. That's for both teams.

It's like watching my kid's team.

Correction: The most wonderful person in the world

Liz, Matt, Hank, Dayle, Willow and John picked Vandy

They're smarter than the rest of us. It's just that simple. Go Commodores.

The Butler Did It

All,

Just thought I'd beat tomorrow's headline writers to the punch with my oh-so-obvious subject line quip. Honestly, isn't it a little like having H. L. Mencken as your Poolmeister? Without the vicious racism, I mean? Actually, not that you care, but I've been thinking about Mencken a lot recently, two quotes of his especially. It was Mencken who said, "Democracy is the idea that the people know what they want - and they deserve to get it good and hard" and my personal favorite, "Saying 'my country right or wrong' is like saying, 'my mother drunk or sober." Well, amen to that, brother.

Anyway, Butler beats Maryland. Almost all of us got that one wrong. Who were the Nostradamuses among us who picked it correctly? Well, congratulations are in order for Dana Duffy, first-timer Kate Lewis, Hank Z, Red Willow and her uncle David Prown. Nice going, people. That's some solid prognosticating.

And now, back to the games.

C

Skyline or Camp Washington

Mike says that Camp Washington (www.campwashingtonchili.com ) is way, way better than Skyline.

Chris, Steve, Dana - what do you have to say about this?

Legal Seafoods wants $15 for a pint/with or without sand

Skyline sells 24 15 oz. cans, shipped to your door for $99.95. Just add cheese, onions, hot sauce, spaghetti, oyster crackers. You can also order a t-shirt

OMG, I think I'm hungry. The pizza joint gave away free black forest cake today in honor of St. Patrick's Day. It's a Greek pizza house - very good. But Kellyanne's, on Spruce Street, was kicking their butt because of the Erin Express. The Erin Express drives students around the city to all the Irish bars for beer or whatever. We've never been - but I know it lasts at least 8 hours. No wonder everyone was wearing plastic boots.

We got 2ish inches of snow/slush. The drycleaners around the corner used a hose to wash away the snow. It didn't seem like a good idea in the morning, but by afternoon it didn't matter.

Spr/sum is just several days away.

more on (moron?) culinary delights

Ick... chili con bivalve: http://shop.legalseafoods.com/index.cfm/pk/product/ac/list/cid/10119

Results of Day Two and standings after Round One

All right, my friends,

It's very late, I'm very tired, and I'm not winning. And I hate to complain, but isn't this tourney just a tad dull? Today, 14 of the 16 games were won by the higher seed. One of the upsets was 9. Purdue over 8. AZ. Not that much of an upset, even if you're a big Lute fan. (All right-thinking native Iowans hate Lute (Scott, Kate, am I right here?)) On the plus side, and it's a biiiig plus, Notre Dame lost. Nothing makes me happier than watching those ($*%&#ers lose. Good on ya, Winthrop. That game, since it was an 11-6 game, gets you an extra point. More than half of us picked it, which I find interesting. Is there an undercurrent of ND hatred out there? Or do people actually make picks based on something like, say, basketball knowledge? What must that be like?

Anyhoo, here's how we all did and where we all stand. Congrats to Scott Silet, who takes Round One honors. In the old days, that used to get you something. Now, sadly, I just send congratulations. Congratulations, Scott. I'm especially stoked by the fact that Henry, who is 5 or so years old, is tied for third. We're really a little disgraceful in our picking ability, no? Oh well, here's where we all stand:

Day1 Day2 TOTAL

1.	Silet	15	15	30
2.	DavidP	13	16	29
3.	Bill	15	13	28
3.	Henry	13	15	28
3.	Steve	13	15	28
6.	Favs	13	14	27
6.	John	13	14	27
8.	Kate	11	15	26
8.	Knott	12	14	26
10.	Dayle	13	12	25
10.	Gena	11	14	25
10.	Hank	12	13	25
10.	Ruth	11	14	25
14.	Dana	11	13	24
14.	Dykes	12	12	24
14.	Matt	13	11	24
17.	Calvino	12	11	23
18.	Liz	11	11	22
18.	Maggi	10	12	22
18.	Sarah	11	11	22
21.	DaveW	9	12	21
21.	Mike	11	10	21
23.	Acy	9	11	20
24.	Alexander	8	11	19
25.	Rosalie	9	9	18
26.	Willow	10	7	17

Don't despair, tomorrow is another day, another eight basketball games, and 10,000 more calories to consume. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you, tomorrow...

Good night, people. Please let me win, if you don't mind. I need it.

The Poolmeister

I could n't help it

Oh Eileenglack and Michaelglerp you're beautiful!