Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone. We would say a lot more as like Leo Tolstoy (the author of "War and Peace") we can not proclaim brevity as one of our strengths.

And, to paraphrase The Animals and their 1965 hit song: "We gotta get out of this place, if it's the last thing we ever do."

We were not aware until we 'researched' the song on Wikipedia that 'this place' was referring to Vietnam. Perhaps, there are others who feel this way, but the song seems to play in our minds when we are at chamber of commerce mixers that we simply can't break away from. But, I remember one person was very honest one time at one of these things (this was about 15 years ago). He simply said: "I need to go home to watch Seinfeld."

The above image, oh by the way, is of an Irish terrier.

Quote of the Day/Week-Mary Lou Retton

Today, we continue quoting American athletes who won either gold or silver medals at the Summer Olympics with a quip from Mary Lou Retton, 44, whose image with a red, white and blue leotard is making its way back to Wheaties cereal boxes.

We will be quoting international athletes, including perhaps Nadia Comaneci of Romania, who was a major influence on Retton, who won both team and individual gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Retton is from Fairmont, West Virginia, and she is a member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness, which is slightly ironic as Retton is a Republican as she attended the 2004 Republican convention.

Gymnasts of today have also been influenced by Retton as she developed 'the Retton flip' move on bars.

Here is her quote:

"If I had a bad performance in a particular leotard, I threw it in the trash."

SIDEBAR: People in Retton's home state of West Virginia are likely not to happy today as West Virginia University lost to Gonzaga in the NCAA tournament yesterday.

I was also disappointed to see Harvard lose to Vanderbilt 79-70 though President Barack Obama, a graduate of Harvard, said he had to reluctantly pick Vandy since that school has just won the SEC Tournament.

But, there is happy basketball news for my home state of Virginia because Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) 'upset' Wichita State 62-59 in Portland, Oregon, in the NCAA tournament last night.

UPDATE: When we posted this entry earlier in the day, we did not know the first name of Mary Lou Retton's sister who was a great gymnast in her own right at West Virginia University. Her name is Shari Retton.

As for the current Mountaineers gymnastics team, they head to Baton Rouge, La., tonight for a meet with SEC power LSU. For WVU, current gymnast Kaylyn Milick was named EAGL Conference Gymnast of the week. The Mountaineers also have an exceptional, nationally-ranked gymnast in Hope Sloanhaffer.

Quote of the Day/Week-Barry Goldwater

Today, we continue our series of quips from men who tried to become American presidents, but didn't quite get enough votes to pull it off.

Barry Goldwater (1909-1998), the Republican candidate who lost to Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 presidential election is widely believed to be most conservative Republican to have ran for his office, though some may argue that Ronald Reagan, who was president from 1980-88 was just as or even further to the right.

Goldwater actually lost many states that Republicans have won in recent election cycles, including Oklahoma. Goldwater was a U.S. senator who represented Arizona.

One of the great political ironies is that Hillary Clinton, who came from a conservative family in suburban Chicago was a 'Goldwater girl.'

Here is his quote:

"It's a great country where everyone can grow up to be president except me."

Quote of the Day/Week_ Rachel Weisz

Today, we continue quoting famous movie and television stars who were born in 1970, with a quip from Oscar-winning actress Rachel Weisz, who just turned 42 a week ago on March 7th. She is a mere three days younger than your's truly (Tilly Gokbudak, the managing editor of this blog).

Weisz won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for "The Constant Gardener" (2005). Last year, she secretly wed Daniel Craig, aka the new James Bond. And, for many years, she was in a relationship with film director Darren Aronofsky ("The Wrestler," "Black Swan," the film which won Natalie Portman a Best Actress Oscar) and they share a child together.

Here is the quip from Weisz, which may be more true in her native England than here in America:

"I don't believe your soul mate has to share your politics."

My NCAA Brackets....with a Twist

For many years, we have wanted to fill out the NCAA brackets simply based on the teams we liked best, or the teams that we would like to see in the Final Four.

So, this year, I decided to make a 'real bracket,' in which top-seed Syracuse prevails over the 16-seed underdog of underdogs, the UNC-Asheville Bulldogs from the Big South Conference, and one in which the Bulldogs pull the college basketball upset of the century.

There is a dose of reality in my 'fantasy bracket' as I just picked the Bulldogs as the lone 16-seed to knock off a Goliath. In addition, I have the 15-ssed Norfolk State beating the two-seed Missouri Tigers.

Thus, when all is said and done, my Elite 8 comes down to the unlikely match-up of ten-seed West Virginia, with Turkish player Deniz Kilicli, and 12-seed Harvard with Brandyn Curry from Huntersville, NC, in the east region. In the midwest, my dream match-up is not too implausible as it has 3-seed Georgetown taking on the top-seed UNC Tarheels (in the 'real version' two-seed Kansas plays North Carolina).

In the south region, there is a very realistic match-up between one-seed Kentucky and two-seed Duke. But, in the west, we have another fantasy match-up between ten-seed Virginia and 13-seed Davidson, a team that did in fact shock the world and make the Elite 8 a few years ago.

Thus, the 'dream Final Four' pits Harvard against Georgetown, and Duke against UVA. And, the final comes down to Harvard and UVA, with the Ivy Leaguers from Cambridge, Mass., winning it all.

Of course, it would be fittingly ironic if my fantasy bracket turns out to be more true than my 'real one!'

SIDEBAR: A fair number of the 68 teams in the NCAA tournament (actually as of writing, there are 66 remaining), have competitive teams in other sports. In wrestling, from the schools in the field, Ohio State, Misouri, Michigan, Lehigh, UVA and Purdue are all nationally-ranked.

In men's lacrosse, UVA, Loyola (Md), Syracuse, Notre Dame, UNC, Lehigh, Duke and Georgetown are all ranked.

Similarly, in women's lacrosse, UNC, Duke, Florida, Syracuse, Vanderbilt, UVA, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Georgetown and Loyola (Md.) have teams ranked in the top 20.

Colleges Nicknames- Is that Really Tulsa's Nickname?

We conclude our project of showing the nicknames of 96 different NCAA schools (in men's college basketball). We wish we could share them all them all, but there are 334 schools! If it's any consilation, I left out the Radford University Highlanders, my own alma mater.

Today, we look at some of the most distinctive and in some cases outright strange college nicknames.

One that always stands out from the pack is the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes. For those of you residing in Sri Lanka who are perhaps unfamiliar with American geography, Tulsa, Oklahoma, is far, far away from both coasts. Though Oklahoma is quite vulnerable to tornadoes. Nevertheless, it is an absolute impossibility that Oklahoma could ever get hit by a hurricane.

The three schools we have pictured here are the Akron Zips, the Sacramento State Hornets and the Missouri-Kansas City Kangaroos.

Of the schools listed here, it is a virtual certainty that both Florida and Georgetown will into the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Florida A & M has a chance if they beat Norfolk State today in the MEAC semi-finals and then win the conference tourney. Akron is also in their conference tournament semi-finals today as they face Kent State.

We believe that we got all 33 or 33 of the conferences, but we did inadvertently snub some states, including West Virginia, Minnesota, New Mexico and New Hampshire. While we did have a huge number of schools of these eight lists from North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and California.


Here are the teams, yes we are not making some of these crazy nicknames up:

1. Akron Zips, Mid-America, Akron, Ohio.

2. Denver Pioneers, Sun Belt, Denver, Colo.

3. East Tennessee State Buccaneers, Atlantic Sun, Johnson City, Tenn.

4. Evansville Purple Aces, Missouri Valley, Evansville, Ind.

5. Florida Gators, SEC, Gainesville, Fla.

6. Florida A & M Rattlers, MEAC, Tallahassee, Fla.

7. Georgetown Hoyas, Big East, Washington, DC.

8. Maine Black Bears, Northeast, Orono, Maine.

9. Missouri-Kansas City Kangaroos, Summit, Kansas City, Mo.

10. Northern Arizona Lumberjacks, Big Sky, Flagstaff, Ariz.

11. Sacramento State Hornets, Big Sky, Sacramento, Calif.

12. Tulsa Golden Hurricanes, C-USA, Tulsa, Okl.

Colleges Nicknames: Big Dogs on Campus

Today's list of college team nicknames continues with a list of 12 schools that have dog-related nicknames, including the three pictured here: Albany Great Danes, James Madison University Dukes and the Southern Illionois Salukis.

The Loyola (Md.) Greyhounds out of Baltimore are assured of a NCAA bid as they won the Metro Atlantic Conference tournament earlier this week.

The North Carolina State Wolfpack which won their ACC tournament opener over Boston College (not to be confused with Boston University which is on this list; for those of you in Malta, they are seaprate schools!) while playing in Atlanta today are among the 'bubble teams,' which may or may not make the NCAA field.

Here is our list of schools with dog or dog-related nicknames:

1. Alabama A & M Bulldogs, SWAC, Normal, Ala.

2. Albany Great Danes, America East, Albany, NY

3. Arkansas State Red Wolves, Sun Belt, Jonesboro, Ark.

4. Boston Uniersity Terriers, America East, Boston, Mass.

5. Georgia Bulldogs, SEC, Athens, Ga.

6. JMU Dukes, Colonial Athletic, Harrisonburg, Va.

7. Loyola (Md.) Greyhounds, Metro Atlantic, Baltimore, Md.

8. Marist Red Foxes, Metro Atlantic, Poughkeepsie, NY

9. Nevada Wolf Pack, Western Atletic, Reno, Nev.

10. North Carolina State Wolfpack, ACC, Raleigh, NC

11. Southern Illinois Salukis, Missouri Valley, Carbondale, Ill.

12. Washington Huskies, PAC-12, Seattle, Wash.