One and Done...

March madness finally had lift off and early during the day there were two upsets. Harvard, seeded 11, won for only the 2nd time in their NCAA tournament basketball history, showing the boys from Cincy, seeded 5, that the ivy league had game; while 11th seeded Dayton in the South region sent Ohio State packing. The finality of tournament hoops, the one and done formula, have caused many a strong man to weep as college seniors close out their careers on losing teams.

El Presidente unveiled his brackets on ESPN yesterday. His final 4 are Louisville, Arizona, Michigan State and Florida. The champion is Michigan State. Last year, Obama's brackets ranked 2,080,996, in the 74.4 percentile.

Some March Madness facts that might interest the leader of the free world as he guzzles his filtered water around the White House water cooler: 86% of employees will be actively involved in 'cyberloafing' as they check for scores, and updates throughout the days and weeks of the basketball tournament. 81% will physically cut away from their jobs to watch games during the work day. 56% of employees will be anxiously occupied during the first rounds of play as 'bracket busting' games occur. There will be 10.5 million hours streamed by workers for uh, game updates. During this time, 50 million employees participate in office pools. 175 million is the amount of wages employers will pay their 'cyberloafing' employees during the madness. And finally, 41% of employees think the annual tournament has a 'positive' impact on the workplace.

Since you gotta walk the walk instead of just talk....Florida Gators looking distracted in their 1st round of play, making me sweat (!), are my pick to cut down the nets in Texas. Enjoy y'all.

Friday Postscripts

1. Back from the islands. Same ol'song, but a different verse. Flew into
Oahu under beautiful skies; to my right a postcard, Diamond Head, with a ribbon of sand bumping up against the sparkling Pacific blue, and then... almost, but not quite, the mother of all landings. Passengers yelled collectively as we rocknrolled in our seats; two things: 1.Whopping human error. 2. Where the rubber shouldawoudacoulda hit the road, we had careened off the asphalt,  back into the air, colliding severely with the tarmac again. Wtf? It shaved maybe a nano second from my life, before I stepped out into the balmy tropical breeze and flip-flopped my way to baggage.

2. Pussy Riot. Horsewhipped, pepper sprayed and detained by the Cossack militia, who apparently had nothing better to do (pre Kiev), as the Olys were rolling, again attacked yesterday morning by another band of Cossacks who threw green paint and garbage on them as they were eating breakfast at McDonald's (hmm, Mickey D's in Russia). Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina. Two years in Siberia. And back at it again with their posse. Never has a regime been so fearful of so few, uh, women.

3. Meanwhile, in this country, a bill that would have removed sexual assault cases from the jurisdiction of military commanders, and placed
them under a neutral court of law, failed 55-60,  five miserable votes short of advancing it to a floor vote. El Presidente should have, but chose not to weigh in and back Senator Gillibrand's campaign. Instead, he gave the military until the end of 2014 to improve their response. Where oh where are the Underwoods when we need them?

4. International Women's Day tomorrow. Own it.