Video of the Day: Lily and Matthew Stafford.
The new AT&T commercial with Lily and Matthew Stafford is a classic. It should get many awards for its creativity and play on words. See the above Video of the Day.
Under the category that you cannot always believe what you hear, President Putin told a crowd in Moscow that Russians “have not had such unity for a long time.” Putin must think the crowd doesn’t know he has criminalized public opposition to the war, with nearly 15,000 people being detained for publicly opposing the war.
I keep wondering, what will Putin do with a bombed-out Ukraine that will have very little infrastructure left by the time he is finished with his annihilation strategy? How will he manage rebuilding the infrastructure when he is being hit with so many sanctions? Does he believe that the people who are left in Ukraine will be loyal to him? As the saying goes, “Governing is significantly more difficult than occupying.”
The pictures coming in from the indiscriminate bombing of civilians are heartbreaking. I pray for those stuck in Mariupol without heat, water and food and little chance for escape to safety. I can never understand the total disregard of human life that some people have. Putin’s crimes against humanity are beyond comprehension.
There is a reason they call it March Madness. Through the first 24 games of round one of the men’s NCAA basketball tournament, the seeds with the higher number have won 8 of the 24 games. The biggest surprise came late last night when number 2 seed Kentucky lost in overtime to 15 seed St. Peters (Never play a Saint team on St. Patrick’s day) Of the over 17 million entries into the ESPN tournament challenge, over 1 million picked Kentucky to win it all. Through 24 games, only 2 of the over 17 million entries have picked all 24 winners. Only 2 being perfect at this stage of the tournament is the lowest in the history of the ESPN tournament since I have been following it. Let the Madness continue.
For the first time ever, I used a consensus of Las Vegas oddsmakers for each of the 68 team to complete one of my brackets. As of 24 games, using this formula, I have correctly picked 16 games, which puts me at the 63% category in the ESPN challenge, which means over 6 million entries are doing better than the odds makers. Even the guys who produce betting odds for a living do not come close to getting their brackets correct. This is what makes NCAA tournament bracketology so intriguing for so many people. At noon yesterday, over 17 million people think they had the best bracket. Twelve hours later, 15 million were throwing in the towel.
Pray for peace. What are you doing to stop the violence? Get vaccinated and get your booster.
Orchid of the Day: The St. Peters men’s basketball team for their upset of Kentucky.
Onion of the Day: Putin, until otherwise noted.
Quote of the Day: “The consequences of this conflict in Ukraine are radiating outwards, triggering a wave of collateral hunger across the globe. Ukraine is a catastrophe compounding what is already a year of catastrophic hunger.” Jakob Kern, operations director of the World Food Program.
Tom and Friends, Note that Notre Dame (although not a saint team, but still quite Catholic) won in double OT at 12:01 am March 17th.