The Madness that is March

Welcome to My Favorite Month of the Year - March, the month of upsets and bracket busters, victories and defeats, cinderella teams and one champion. It is simply the month in which the NCAA holds its College Basketball Tournaments. Both men and women of the hardwood vie for a place in basketball history.

Being reared in Indiana - home of the Indiana Hoosiers and the film "Hoosiers" - basketball is the winter religion that raised me. Never mind that every Sunday morning we would all get dressed up and go to Friends Meeting as a family, the real time to pray or center down as Friends say was every Friday night before the Pike High School Red Devils took on a notorious rival like the Carmel Greyhounds. Once upon a time in the state of Indiana, before some meddling busybodies decided to divide the state’s schools into Divisions (A, AA, AAA and even 4A), it was possible for a small, rural school like Hickory in the famed movie “Hoosiers” to win THE State Tournament – there was only one State Tournament and only one champion. And although the NCAA does recognize Division II along with Division I schools, only Division I schools play in THE March Madness tournament. The tournament does by its very nature reflect schools of all sizes, from all conferences, and from every corner of the country. All the teams compete in one single-elimination tournament every March to determine THE National Collegiate Basketball Champion.

The field of 65 teams is culled from a combination of the 31 conference champions and 34 at-large bids – true to form, again this year, the Selection Committee favored major conferences (ACC, SEC, Big Ten, and PAC-10) over the smaller, mid-major schools, a perennial complaint. Nevertheless, the field made for some fine first-round games and at least one upset that not only boosted my bracket, but also raised my spirits (VCU over dastardly Duke).

It’s Saturday and I’m home watching basketball, I am not on Peoria in Brookside, protesting another year of this god awful war. I feel a little bit bad that I didn’t make it to the protest rally, but I’ve had a productive, if relaxing, day here at the house. God, I wish that Bush and Cheney would be impeached. That would be better than winning either pool I’m in. It would be the perfect cap to March Madness.

Vote for Stephanie Miller

STEPH HAS WON A TRAILBLAZER AWARD!

Thanks to all listeners who voted fot Stephanie Miller in the nonstopradion.com
TRAILBLAZER Award - Steph mentioned receiving her award in this morning's show
(Wednesday, April 25, 2007).

Many, many thanks to Aldous Tyler who maintains nonstopradio.com.

Stephanie Miller Show Revamps Web Site

Steph and the SMS crew have revamped their web site - go have a look-see (http://www.stephaniemiller.com/home.php?PageId=85&PageSubId)
Here are a few comments that I sent to Steph that she read on the air this morning (March 13th, Hour 3).

1) I thought you were going to add new StephCrap to the StephStore, but it looks like the same old crap to me, what gives? (**see list of suggestions below).
2) Why is Jim Ward known by so many aliases in his film career? Doesn't he know his own middle name or has the Witness Protection Program suggested that he change it from time to time to "throw off" his pursuers?
3) When can we expect complete bios of the fascinating lives of Jim "Voice Deity" Ward and Chris "BoyToy" Lavoie?
4) Where the hell is the video of you and Joan Rivers slapping each other silly? I checked all of the YouTube clips on the new site and didn't see it anywhere...
5) What's up with the Butt-Cam? You guys are all talk and no action - not unlike the Democratic Congress... ;-(

**Steph read the following suggestions for new StephCrap on her show this morming (March 14th, Hour 2)
--A Stephanie Miller Bobble-Head Doll complete with miniature wine box and three stuffed, oversized dogs.
--Our own version of Steph's Mr. Happy (both battery-powered and manual models would be appreciated).
--A Stephanie Miller Calendar - (nothing says Happy ChristmaHannaKwansica like a year's worth of Steph photos - with and without dogs).
--A coffee table book of some of the more memorable Photoshop Fun Pics.
--A Stephanie Miller remote key chain that allows a person to press a button that is affixed to her/his's wrist that causes key ring to play a clip that says "Here are you freakin' keys, dipwad."
--A SMS Bored Game - along the lines of Monopoly - suggested name "Steph-landia" with properties named after Steph's radio affiliates, for example, Madison Avenue, Portland Place, WeHo Blvd, and utilities like Slime Porner, Screaming Baby Airlines, etc...
--Finally, a line of Stephanie Miller apology cards - not unlike the rejected Hallmark cards you featured on your show awhile back. Here are just a few suggestions:
---"Sorry my dog ate your front porch, I'll get my handyman right over to fix it."
---"Sorry I mistook you for some other celebrity, may I wipe the lipstick off of your cheek?"
--Here are a few bonus cards that Steph didn't read:
---"Sorry my sauerkraut made you sick, would you like to take some home with you?"
---"Sorry I spilled wine on you, how do you take your coffee?"
Just a few thoughts of new items for the Steph Store.