by John Walters
Tweet du Jour
Allderdice’s Shaun Morris lifts Mt. Lebanon’s Blaine Gartley after he was knocked over during a PIAA playoff game on March 10, 2018, at Barack Obama Academy in East Liberty. Allderdice beat Mt. Lebanon, 63-54. (Steph Chambers/Post-Gazette) #PIAA #PIAABasketball #CityLeague #WPIAL pic.twitter.com/yXkSg9hE66
— Steph A Chambers (@StephChambers76) March 11, 2018
versus…
This kid’s like
“CHALLENGE ACCEPTED GRAYSON ALLEN!”pic.twitter.com/8FOpeVsJp8
— Isaac (@WorldofIsaac) March 10, 2018
Starting Five
Bahamas native DeAndre Ayton: The best Caribbean big man since Tim Duncan
Let’s Dance
One seeds are Virginia, Villanova, Kansas and Xavier.
Just missed, or “snubbed”: USC, Louisville, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Notre Dame.
Schools that screwed them: San Diego State, Davidson (by winning conference tourneys).
Happy/Surprised to be in: Oklahoma, Syracuse, Arizona State, UCLA
Toughest Bracket? People gonna say Midwest (Kansas/Duke/Michigan State) but I’ll go with West, where Xavier is a tenuous 1 Seed having to share bracket with North Carolina, Michigan and Gonzaga.
MH Final Four picks: Arizona, West Virginia, Duke, North Carolina.
2. Tiger Tough
At the Valspar Open in Florida, Tiger Woods flirted briefly atop the leader board and finished in second place, one stroke back. A 50-foot putt on 17 on Sunday made it possible for the winner of 14 majors, who last won a tourney five years ago, to force a playoff with a birdie on 18. Alas, he shot par.
But the first round of the Masters will be must-see TV next month…
3. Oral Exam
Betsy DeVos struggles to provide answers to ’60 Minutes’ when asked for evidence to support school choice policies. https://t.co/yG3POYJre6 pic.twitter.com/la8rsxqKYW
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 12, 2018
One can imagine Betsy DeVos’ inner monologue during this exchange be like, “Nobody told me this would be on the test.”
4. The Next Bold Step of Fascism
He’s actually even uglier on the inside
Speaking to a crowd in France, former White House—what was his job title, anyway?—resident white supremacist Steve Bannon exhorts them, “Let them call you racists. Let them call you xenophobes. Let them call you nativists. Wear it as a badge of honor.”
5. You Go, Girl!
Gabrielle Thomas 22.38😱🔥🔥🔥Breaks COLLEGIATE Women’s 200m RECORD#NCAATF #trackandfield pic.twitter.com/0kVJ8HvJGo
— Athletics GIF (@AthleticsGif) March 11, 2018
That’s Harvard junior Gabrielle “Gabby” Thomas setting a new collegiate indoor 200 record (22.38) while winning the indoor national championship this weekend. Yes, Harvard. Hot damn!
Music 101
Mirror Man
After returning from their 1981 world tour to promote breakout No. 1 hit (in the U.K.) “Don’t You Want Me”, The Human League returned home to the British Isles and followed up with this No. 2 in 1982. More than a decade letter the band would confess that the song was about their contemporary, Adam Ant, about whom they feared (rightly) success had gone to his head.
Remote Patrol
Charlie Wilson’s War
9:35 p.m. TMC (not TCM)
We’d argue that this 2007 film is Tom Hanks’ last great role, and that Philip Seymour Hoffman definitely should’ve won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the work he did here as the son of a soda pop salesman from Aliquippa, Pa. This was director Mike Nichols’ final film and the reason the script zips and zaps so well is because Aaron Sorkin wrote it. If you’ve never seen this, it’s from the same era as Argo and so much more deserving of a Best Picture Oscar. Never understood how this was so overlooked.
The exchange in Charlie Wilson’s War that best captures the movie is when Hanks the congressman tells Hoffman the CIA agent, “You’re no James Bond,” to which Hoffman replies, “You’re no Thomas Jefferson either. Let’s call it even.”
And Julia Roberts’ character, a rich Texas socialite, is suddenly reminiscent of Betsy DeVos and the other wealthy patrons who have been placed in positions of power by the Trump administration. Hoffman’s character sees the ridiculousness of such people in a nanosecond:
Joanne Herring: May I ask what it is that I’ve done to make you dislike me, Mr. Avrakotos?
Gust Avrakotos: I like you just fine, Mrs. Herring, it’s just been my experience that when people with money and too much free time get involved in politics, pretty soon, I forget who it is I’m supposed to be shooting at.
Agreed on both, Wally. Also love the scene with PSH and John Slattery. It’s just an excellent film, through and through.
As an owner of both MU & BA, this must be a good news-bad news kinda day for ya, jdubs. 🙂
The good news, Susie B., is that I own a lot more MU than BA. And it’s a good news day for both of us re: AMZN. Let the river run, as Carly Simon would say….
are we doing the knock out pool again.. its my fav NCAA game.
Certainly. And MH owes you $100. Please DM address (we can shoulder it, easy)
I’m shocked & saddened that Deitsch is leaving SI! Since I will NOT pay to subscribe to any site, I will no longer be able to read his articles. Same reason that I can’t read what you write except for here. 🙁 Any idea why he’s leaving SI? He had such a niche there, I thought he was one of the few that was “safe”. Between the IDIOTIC staffing decisions of ESPN & SI, I’m not sure whom I’m more disgusted with these past few years. Humpfh!
Susie,
I’m not sure if you realize this, but you answered your question in the second half of your comment with what you said in the first half of your comment. I think we’d all like stuff to be free, but I doubt your company gives away whatever widgets it is you make.