TSS: This March will be Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know

I'm sitting here, swathed in comforters and buried vast drifts of marking.  I'm prepping classes on Frank McGuinness's Observe the Sons of Ulster and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," but it's not my décor that's speaking to me (thank god).  'Tis basketball, basketball that hath ravished me.  March Madness is upon me, in all its Mephistophelean, Byronic glory.  Today will be dominated by the ACC Championship game, which happens to pit my beloved Tar Heels against their nemeses, the odious Blue Devils.

I may even have convinced my nonagenarian grandparents (whose only athletic interest is in tennis) to watch the Duke-Carolina game today.

My nonna:     I used to play basketball, you know.
SP:                I think the game has changed a bit over the past, er, century.
Nonna:          Why don't they raise the basket now that they are making *all* the players so much bigger?
SP:                Ummm....

5 Responses so far.

  1. Vasilly says:
    Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 4:59:00 PM ADT

    LOL! I love the conversation between you and your grandmother. Have a great Sunday.

  2. Ann says:
    Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 5:10:00 PM ADT

    I will forgive you your basketball if you will forgive me my horse racing. It's the Cheltenham Festival from Tuesday to Friday, horse racing over the jumps, and I will be glued to the television for four solid afternoon. There have to be some advantages to early retirement! (Having said that, I did once take my radio into a first year grammar class and make them all listen to The Gold Cup before we started the lecture. On balance I think they preferred the race to the grammar!)

  3. Sycorax Pine says:
    Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 8:02:00 PM ADT

    Thanks, Vasilly - you as well!

    Annie, there's nothing to forgive. Nothing at all. And who wouldn't prefer the race to the grammar? I think if my students could choose between hearing me ramble on about my love of college basketball or hearing me talk about literature, they would choose the basketball every time.

  4. Emilie says:
    Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 8:20:00 PM ADT

    I want to know that I take an interest in March Madness solely because of you! (French father + Division III school= being for a very long time mystified about March Madness). I also now get very nervous when Carolina plays Duke because I want the right (ie your) team to win.

  5. Sycorax Pine says:
    Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 10:19:00 PM ADT

    That's the way, Em! I always knew that you were my favorite friend! ;-)

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