So it begins--The NCAA Tournament. But the way it is beginning, you would think that you couldn't ask for more: the first day of three of the absolute best weeks of the year, coupled with St. Patrick's Day and 65 degree weather (here in the Lincoln/Omaha area). When you couple that with the fact that Sambuca and I have a satellite hookup on 'Buca's ginormous deck, it should be one of the great days of, well, my life. The definition of a watershed day.

But it is not. You know why? Because I'm at work, just like probably everyone else reading this right now. It goes from a watershed day to just another work day.

Our good friend Seger posed the question "how is today and tomorrow not a National Holiday?" And you know what? He's right. How is Columbus Day a better day to celebrate compared to the first two days of the Tourney? Let's see--Columbus didn't discover American, raped and pillaged the people and villages that he did "discover" (pretty hard to discover something that is already there), and generally had no bearing on our lives whatsoever.

The NCAA Tournament, however, is a whole different story. It has a total bearing on our lives. For example, today is the first day of me being a nervous wreck, checking scores on my Sprint wireless device every two seconds to see how UK is doing, and generally being in a constant state of PMS (elated to agitated to worried to hellish-to-deal-with back to elated, and the last two years, completely depressed). And how doesn't putting future mortgages down on Utah State to pull the upset not affect people's lives? That's not Columbus putting up that last second shot. That's Andrew Bogut!

So, dear reader, it is time to act. We all must band together and petition to get rid of a holiday of a rapist, and start celebrating amateur basketball at its finest!