Bracket Busting
The Hunting Party, Nikka Ramen, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Damian Lillard, Swiped Stool
Fave Five 24: Bracket Busting. Scottish Slaying (The Hunting Party), Japanese Jewel (Nikka Ramen), Haunting Harmonies (Kate & Anna McGarrigle), Seventy Scorer (Damian Lillard), and a Swiped Stool.
The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has begun and kicks into high gear tomorrow with 16 games. I normally block off the first Thursday and Friday of the Big Dance so that I have no schedule conflicts. I am making an exception tomorrow to record a podcast during the first hour of the first game. But after that, I am all in.
I saw my first college basketball game in person in 1970 when St. Louis University clobbered Princeton at the St. Louis Arena. In 1971-72 I attended all of Northwestern’s home games at McGaw Hall in Evanston. In 1973 I became a fan of the SLU Billikens and saw them beat eventual national runner-up Memphis State, led by future Spirit of St. Louis player Harry Rogers.
In 1976, Barb and I became fans of the Missouri Tigers and their star, Willie Smith. He was known as “Mister Magic” before Earvin Johnson became better known as “Magic.” Barb and I attended our first tournament game in Lawrence, Kansas in 1976, when Missouri defeated Washington on route to a regional final loss to Michigan.
I became a fan of Michigan State in 1999 and have rooted for them at seven Final Fours. Unfortunately, Michigan narrowly missed making the field of 68 this year, or I would be hoping for a Michigan State-Michigan final. The Wolverines won their first NIT game last night, and I hope that they win that lesser tournament.
A dream Final Four for me this year will include Missouri, Michigan State, and Northwestern. To round it out, I chose Kent State. My sister Ann got her master’s degree in library science there, and I am on their Knowledge Management Advisory Board and will participate in the 9th Midwest KM Symposium there on June 16, 2023.
Here is my bracket with my Fantasy Final Four:
You can still enter my son Roger’s Garfield & Friends tournament bracket pool to compete for this year’s bragging rights. If you enter and give Rog your email address, you will receive regular missives from him that are just as entertaining as the tournament itself. Here is a sample from yesterday's email:
Which mascots are the MOST ferocious? In the 68-team field, two schools employ mascots from the Natural Disaster category: Hurricanes (Miami) and Cyclones (Iowa St.). And two fall into the Evil Spirit category: Blue Devils (Duke) and Sun Devils (Arizona St.). One is not even worth categorizing: Crimson Tide (Alabama).
From there, we have far fewer human mascots (22) than animal mascots (41). Let’s straight away strike every human mascot from the conversation.
First, The Non-Fighters (10): two teams of Gaels (St. Mary’s and Iona); two Aggies (Texas A&M and Utah St.); residents and engineers of the state of Indiana (Indiana Hoosiers and Purdue Boilermakers); some Islanders (Texas A&M-CC); some Friars (Providence); some Mountaineers (West Va.); and some Ragin’ Cajuns (Louisiana). They seem mostly about peace, farming, building, and partying. Not too ferocious.
Then, we have The Fighters (12): Musketeers (Xavier), Cavaliers (Virginia), Volunteers (Tennessee), Aztecs (San Diego St.), Spartans (Michigan St.), Trojans (USC), Knights (Fairleigh Dickinson), Paladins (Furman), Fighting Illini (Illinois), Raiders (Colgate), Norse (Northern Kentucky), and Gauchos (UC-Santa Barbara). Many rely on weapons or – yes! – animals to win their battles, so their Ferocity Level cannot possibly reach the heights of the non-humans.
So we're still left with the conundrum of which animal is most ferocious. Here are their categories:
The Big Cats (15): Five Tigers (Missouri, Memphis, Auburn, Princeton, and Texas Southern). Four Wildcats (Arizona, Kansas St., Kentucky, and Northwestern). Two Cougars (Houston and Charleston) and the Catamounts (Vermont), which are basically cougars. Panthers (Pittsburgh) and Bobcats (Montana St.). And our beloved Nittany Lions (Penn St.).
The Birds (9): a couple Owls (Fla. Atlantic and Kennesaw State), two Golden Eagles (Marquette and Oral Roberts), Jayhawks (Kansas), Redhawks (SE Missouri St.), Hawkeyes (Iowa), Bluejays (Creighton), and the Golden Flashes (Kent St.), who use an eagle mascot that originally was a golden retriever and later a caveman.
The Doglike Carnivores (7): Four Bulldogs (Gonzaga, Miss. St., Drake, UNC-Asheville). Two grammatical iterations for groups of wolves: Wolfpack (NC St.) and Wolf Pack (Nevada). And Huskies (UConn).
The Horned Mammals (4): Longhorns (Texas), Antelopes (Grand Canyon), Rams (VCU), and Bison (Howard).
The Horned Amphibians (1): Horned Frogs (TCU).
The Five Others (5): Bruins (UCLA), Bears (Baylor), Razorbacks (Arkansas), Broncos (Boise St.), and Terrapins (Maryland).
Because so many of the animals lack originality, we can eliminate them in the Ferocity Level Analysis. A quick newsflash for all the Tigers, Wildcats, and Bulldogs out there: You’re (more than) double-dipping. From now on, take one dip and END IT! In other words, your university presidents should commission a task force to seek a one-dip mascot. Something like …
… a Nittany Lion! To add brevity to our Ferocity Level Analysis, and because one of my favorite former players – Myles Dread, an alum of Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., and a ferocious competitor – suits up for Penn State, it’s obvious that the most ferocious mascot in this year’s field is the Nittany Lion. The mountain lion that once roamed the hills surrounding Happy Valley – there are actually hiking trails at a place called Mount Nittany – was so dangerous that Pennsylvania officials took actions to make the cats, um, dip. What’s more, what’s a more original modifier than “Nittany”? High-level adjective. High-level ferocity. We are. Done with the Ferocity Level Analysis.
Let the games begin! Go Green! Go White! MIZ - ZOU! Go U. Northwestern!
Book Best Bet
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
This book was recommended by the Santa Barbara Independent’s Emily Lee. I found the location, characters, and plot to be riveting. If you like murder mysteries in the style of Agatha Christie, this one will entertain you.
From Amazon: Everyone's invited...everyone's a suspect...
During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands—the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.
The trip begins innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps, just as a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.
Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead. . . and another of them did it.
Keep your friends close, the old adage says. But how close is too close?
DON'T BE LEFT OUT. JOIN THE PARTY NOW.
Restaurant Recommendation
Nikka Ramen 5701 Calle Real, Goleta, CA 93117
Barb and I struck out on two consecutive meals: an inadequate Indian inn and a cut-rate chicken café. I asked our daughter Tracy to recommend a good place, and she raved about this spot.
We arrived at 5:00 p.m. when it opened, and soon it was filling up with mostly-Asian customers. Barb and I ordered what Tracy suggested, and it was a fine meal. Our faith in local dining establishments was restored.
CRISPY RICE with SPICY TUNA
TONKOTSU ORIGINAL “SHIRO” RAMEN: SB Craft Ramen Noodle (thick), Pork Belly, Green Onions, Green Cabbage, Bean Sprouts, Kikurage Mushroom, and Seaweed
POKE BOWL (small): Tuna, Sushi Rice, Green Mix Salad
TONKOTSU SPICY “AKA” RAMEN: SB Craft Ramen Noodle (thick), Pork Belly, Green Onions, Green Cabbage, Bean Sprouts, Kikurage Mushroom, and Seaweed
From the restaurant’s site: Nikka Ramen is a traditional Japanese ramen house restaurant, serving up delicious ramen. Nikka Ramen cooks its Tonkotsu soup broth for over 24 hours in Tonkotsu (Pork Bones) on high heat, allowing the gelatin in the bone to dissolve in the soup. This gives our ramen soup a milky white color and a unique savory flavor.
Marvelous Musicians
Kate McGarrigle died on January 18, 2010. Anna talked about life without her sister. Anna’s husband Dane Lanken died on March 9, 2023.
In 1990 I bought Heartbeats Accelerating based on a listening station at Sound Warehouse. I bought several more of their albums and became a fan of their harmonies.
Their first album was featured on a recent No Root, No Fruit podcast by Matt Watroba. The interviews and musical excerpts are outstanding. I highly recommend this podcast series to all lovers of folk, roots, and Americana music.
From Wikipedia: Kate McGarrigle (born February 6, 1946 in Montreal; died January 18, 2010 in Montreal) and Anna McGarrigle (born December 4, 1944 in Montreal) were a duo of Canadian singer-songwriters (and sisters) from Quebec, who performed until Kate's death. Their songs have been covered by a variety of artists including Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Judy Collins, and others. They were born in Montreal of mixed Irish- and French-Canadian background. They grew up in the northern suburb of Saint-Sauveur, where they learned piano from village nuns. They were appointed Members of the Order of Canada in 1993 and received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award in 2004.
Kate McGarrigle was married in 1971 to singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III. Their children are Rufus and Martha, both singers. The two divorced in 1976. Kate McGarrigle died in 2010, aged 63, of sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. Anna McGarrigle was married to Canadian journalist and author Dane Lanken. The couple have two children, Lily Lanken and Sylvan Lanken, and live in North Glengarry, Ontario, just west of the Quebec border. Dane appeared as a vocalist on several of the sisters' albums and in 2007 wrote their career biography. Another sister, Jane McGarrigle, is a film and television composer who acted as business manager for Kate and Anna, and also wrote and performed several songs with the duo.
Complainte pour Ste-Cathérine
Heart Like a Wheel
Heartbeats Accelerating
My Playlist
Sports Star
On February 26, 2023, Damian Lillard scored 71 points. I thought about featuring him following his 50-point and 60-point games, but after this performance, it was time. Here is the list of NBA players who scored 70 or more in a game:
Wilt Chamberlain (6)
Elgin Baylor
David Robinson
David Thompson
Kobe Bryant
Devin Booker
Donovan Mitchell
Damian Lillard
I was not aware of Dame’s college exploits because he played for Weber State, but I became a fan when he started making buzzer beaters with the Portland Trailblazers. This season he has had 14 games of 40 or more points, including 50, 60, and 71 (41, 41, 71, 40, 40, 42, 42, 60, 44, 40, 50, 40, 41, and 41). He is currently third in the league in scoring with 32.3 points per game but is close behind Luka Doncic (33.0) and Joel Embid (33.4).
From Wikipedia: Damian Lamonte Ollie Lillard Sr. (born July 15, 1990 in Oakland, California) is an American professional basketball player for the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Weber State Wildcats and earned third-team All-American honors in 2012. After being selected by Portland with the sixth overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft, Lillard was unanimously voted the NBA Rookie of the Year. Nicknamed Dame Time for his history of making big shots in the clutch, he has received seven NBA All-Star and six All-NBA Team selections, the only player in Trail Blazers franchise history to do so. In October 2021, Lillard was honored as one of the league's greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. He also won a gold medal on the 2020 U.S. Olympic team in Tokyo.
Using the stage name Dame D.O.L.L.A., Lillard has enjoyed moderate success as a rapper. His first studio album, The Letter O (2016), charted in the Billboard Top 200, while his second and third albums, Confirmed (2017) and Big D.O.L.L.A. (2019), placed on the indie charts. In 2021, he released a fourth album, Different On Levels The Lord Allowed.
Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard scores career-high 71 points by Jason Quick and The Athletic Staff
Lillard’s record-setting performance came one day after he told teammates the push for the playoffs started Sunday, imploring that “it has to happen now. The urgency has to pick up. This is it.”
Lillard quickly lived up to his word, scoring 41 points in the first half, then scoring 21 in the fourth when Houston cut the lead to eight.
Don’t take 70 for granted by Zach Harper and Shams Charania
Lillard is the eighth player to ever crack 70. Of course, Wilt Chamberlain achieved the mark six times. But Lillard’s outburst had its own distinctions:
At 32 years and 226 days old, Lillard is the oldest to score at least 70. David Robinson is now second.
Lillard shot 22-of-38, the second-fewest attempts in a 70-point game. He was 14-of-14 from the free throw line, the fewest attempts among all 70-point games.
You guessed the flipside stat. His 13 made 3-pointers are tied for the second-most in a game, ever. He’s the sixth player to hit a dozen 3s in a game. His five from at least 30 feet are tied for the most since the league started tracking data in 1996-97.
He’s now averaging 41 in his last dozen games. Kobe Bryant and James Harden are the only others since the ABA-NBA merger to enjoy similarly hot stretches.
71-Point Performance
Game Winners!
Picture Pun
I was going to turn in the person who took this, but I’m no stool pigeon.
