I would submit that the festival that begins this Thursday, March 16th, is perhaps the most all-encompassing sustained episode of what Bakhtin would call the "carnivalesque." Yes, it's true that there are other, perhaps more intense, examples, such as Mardi Gras or the Superbowl Sunday, but those don't last a month. And in the US, World Cup simply hasn't risen to that level of interest (yet. I'd like to be able to say yet there).
During this month, many Americans will waste inordinate amounts of office supplies and paid time following the tournament. I wonder if anyone has calculated work hours lost between the first flurry of games and the day after Championship Monday. Normally, wasting such things is frowned upon, but normal rules of conduct are suspended during this time.
Likewise, gambling operates wide-open during this period. Nearly every sports outlet offers online "bracket managers" for office pools. Again, using the workplace as a base for gambling activities is generally frowned upon, but in some cases, the NCAA tournament is the only thing that brings low-level keyboard punchers and vice-presidents together, and they unite in a complete disregard for workplace efficiency and ethical conduct.
It's also an orgy of television consumption. I have a friend who actually takes off the first Thursday and Friday of the tournament in order to see every game. I'd love to do that, but unfortunately my central involvement in one of the activities listed above precludes me from being absent from the office during this important time. Ahem.
Now I haven't studied the brackets, nor have I followed the teams this year, so I'm a bit out of it. However, I will provide you with my exclusive "Final Four Locks" (tm):
Iona, Belmont, Murray State, and Pacific.
These teams are guaranteed* not to be in the final four.
I do have some groundrules when picking teams, and those groundrules include a healthy bias against the PAC-10, because they are choking dogs.
*guarantees made on this site are not actual offers of warranty and cannot be enforced.
5 comments:
My final four picks are Memphis, Duke, Conn., and Boston College. Now, I've yet to watch a game all season, so I have absolutely nothing to support this premonition. But now that I have $10 at stake, I'm going to start watching.
I can't publish my picks quite yet, but I think that I'm going to do fairly well.
I just love that on the bracket at the NCAA website Villanova appears to be playing itself. Nice Catholic school! you know that's a sin!
Taking Thursday and Friday off? Whatever dude. I'm going to Vegas with some college friends specifically to gamble on tourney games. Its the most fun you'll ever have in Vegas without a hooker.
Although this weekend has gotten so crowded in Vegas that the second weekend is now the cool weekend there.
I have no idea about NCAA, but just filled out the ESPN thing randomly after reading the team reviews and came up the same as rcr. Duke, Memphis, Conn. and Boston College.
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