As another year of March Madness makes us all a bit crazy, it’s time for this reporter to empty his notepad.
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Back•et•ol•o•gy (noun): The practice or study of predicting the participants in or outcomes of competitions especially in NCAA college basketball.
Let’s just say I won’t be adding that skill to my resume anytime soon.
Once again this year, the only word to describe my NCAA Tournament bracket is busted.
It didn’t even survive the first round of this year’s tournament, as I had 10 bad picks. I’m pretty sure my golden retriever and Bernese mountain dog could have better predicted this year’s winners than yours truly. I’m going to put that theory to the test next year.
Several friends from my college days in Arizona and I have been doing a bracket competition for about two decades; it’s now expanded to include family members.
I had decent picks and even won a time or two when we first stated the annual competition about 20 years ago. For the past several years, however, I’ve been on the losing end. At the moment, I’m in 10th place out of 24. Three of the players ahead of me in our Arizona friend and family pool can’t even drive yet but they know how to fill out a winning bracket.
You know your picks were bad when your friends send you a screenshot of your annual NCAA bracket standings and end the message by saying, “Justin, I still don’t see your name. Where are you at?”
The biggest heartbreak for me was Thursday night when the Clemson Tigers defeated the Arizona Wildcats. I thought this was the year for Arizona to make it to the Final 4 and maybe even the championship game. Here’s hoping that dream comes true next year.
Now, however, it’s time to cheer on the Boilermakers, who earned their spot in the Final FOur Sunday afternoon.
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Jen and I try to travel as often as we can, and one of our favorite spots to visit is Spain.
We found an incredible deal on airfare to southeast Spain a couple of months ago and jumped at the opportunity to fly to Europe for cheaper than what it would have cost to go to Florida.
We’re listening to the church bells ring from our Airbnb this Easter morning as I write this column before we head out to attend a Spanish mass and watch a seaside Easter procession.
It seems like every other day there is a story on the news about unruly passengers or bad travel stories that people feel they need to share on social media. We had just the opposite experience on our journey across the pond last weekend.
Our seven-hour flight from Detroit to Amsterdam was uneventful and smooth. We had a seven-hour layover in Amsterdam — the perfect place to spend so many hours, as the airport has more stores than most malls. Shortly after we boarded our connecting KLM flight in Amsterdam, however, the captain shared that the emergency oxygen system in the cockpit wasn’t working and that the maintenance crews that had boarded the plane to repair the device could not fix it.
The captain exited the cockpit to share the news with all of us as he stood in front of the plane and made eye contact. He did not believe it was safe to fly this airplane and said that the airline was trying to find another one for us to use. Afterward, he walked down the aisle to answer any questions passengers had — stopping to chat with anyone who wanted more information.
Jen and I both travel a lot and were so impressed at how the captain handled the unfortunate situation that was out of his control. Before he could make it to the back of the plane, however, his cell phone rang. The airline had located a new plane for us to take to Spain. Within an hour, we were in the air.
I was so impressed that I gave KLM and the crew a shout-out on X (formerly known as Twitter). I’m guessing that a computer or some form of AI monitors their account, as the response I received was an apology for the inconvenience and a pledge to help us sort out the problem.
I’ll count that as a win for humans and a loss for AI.
At least I’m 1-0 in something this week since my bracket didn’t survive this year’s March Madness.
jdpeeper2@hotmail.com
