Iditarod • NCAA Hoops

I hear there’s some big news in college basketball

Yes, the college basketball tournament is finally upon us. CBS insists on calling it March Madness, even though it apparently hurts the feelings of the mentally ill. Mental illness is no laughing matter, you know. But I’m not here to battle for political correctness, because I think March Madness is an appropriate moniker for the NCAA Tournament.

It’s not the “madness” on the court, though, but the insanity of the office tournament pool. Why every year do I think that I can correctly predict the outcome of 63 basketball games? The odds of doing so are staggering, even if I knew something about most of the teams in the tournament. Yet there I am filling out my bracket and putting my $10 into the hat. How much have I won in the office pool? Nothing. Nada. Zero.

Though the madness of trying to pick the outcome of the NCAA tournament doesn’t even come close to the other madness going on this month: The Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race. Defending champion Jeff King is still leading the race as the front mushers make their way along the Yukon River against a 40mph wind generating a debilitating wind chill. At the Eagle Island checkpoint, musher Paul Gebhardt showed reporters a patch of skin that had been exposed for a while during the day; it was raised and red and frostbitten. “It was cold,” was his comment.

That’s not cold, man, that’s freaking crazy cold. And you are freaking crazy for being out in it trying to get to Nome before everybody else. I mean, what’s in Nome anyway that’s so special? Hot chocolate? That better be some damn good hot chocolate.

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