• Last night I had the NCAA tournament playing, and while it was mostly on for background noise, I was somewhat following the Xavier/Gonzaga game. With a few minutes left, I noticed Xavier was up by six points. One of my old friends from Ohio had went to Xavier and blindly followed his beloved Musketeers. Since the better half got me sick with her cold, along with the fact I wake up at 4:45 a.m. to get ready for work, I decided to go to bed early and I called my friend up to congratulate Xavier on pulling off a first-round upset. Even though I thought Gonzaga would win the game, I had a feeling this match up could result in an upset scare.

After looking up his number from my hotmail account, I called and left a message on his answering machine. When I hung up the phone, I replaced some garbage liners and took out the trash for Friday’s weekly pick up. When I came back inside I walked by the living room television that had the Xavier on; Gonzaga was now up by one.

Oops.

I think subliminally I wanted Xavier to lose and by giving a premature congratulation I cemented the underdog’s fate as being another close-but-no-cigar story.

• I normally don't have a problem with pop stars that seem fashionable to hate if you’re not a teenybopper. The Backstreet Boys never cut me off in traffic. Justin Timberlake doesn’t hold up a line at the store by counting change in the express lane. Hanson didn’t cause me to stab my mother 100 times and leave her in a car that had a one-way trip to the bottom of Lake Erie. So whenever the better half complains about how someone can like Jessica Simpson, I just bite my tongue. I’ll never listen to her music, nor have I ever seen an episode of that show her and the ex were on, but I have no reason to hate her, unlike so many other people in this world. And after what she did at a recent fundraising event (or should I say, didn't do), I think I like her even more. After recently declining a seat at a Republican fundraising event, she said her reason was because she wanted to lobby for her nonprofit foundation that offers free plastic surgery to disadvantaged kids with facial deformities. Attending this GOP fundraiser would have injected politics into her nonprofit, and I can respect that.

• And while in a loving mood, I must say that even though Russ Feingold does not believe in the First Amendment (campaign-finance reform), made an ass out of himself with that recent hippie call for censuring George W. Bush, and would make me go on medication if he was ever elected president, there is something I will always give him props for. Even though he voted against the Iraq war, when it came time to fund the war, he voted for that $80 billion that John Kerry famously voted for, too, before voting against it. Although I will probably never agree with Feingold on anything, I’d rather have him as a political opponent than some piece of shit like Ted Kennedy, Patrick Leahy or Charles Rangel.