Brackets are out, Wolfpack are in!

The ghost of Jim Valvano was smiling down on the North Carolina State Wolfpack Saturday night as the boys from my one-time hometown put together an improbable victory over the University of North Carolina in the ACC Tournament championship game. A game which happened to be played down the street from me in my current hometown. But that’s not even the most interesting part.

Starting at guard for State is one Michael O’Connell. It’s not me, and this young man is no relation, but he is from New York (Long Island, actually), and has brought great honor to this already great name.

Now… let the Dancin’ begin!

March anniversaries

Today on Math and Musings Franklin and I talk about several March anniversaries, among them the onset of a global pandemic and the assassination of Julius Caesar.

But I overlooked a big one.

March 16, 2004: the premiere episode of Politics After Dark appeared on Binghamton Public Access Cable Channel 06. It was YouTube before YouTube. And I’m happy to see, 20 years later, that my form hasn’t really changed. I’ve got a little less hair and a few more wrinkles, but the cadence and content are pretty much what you’ll hear on the podcast two decades later.

But you don’t have to take my word for it.

Never promoted on the blog before but I figure now’s the time: the premiere episode of Politics After Dark.

Got your audio and visual covered today.

Enjoy.

Amazon hits home run with Ricky Stanicky

Leave some space in the next edition of The 365 Greatest Movies Ever Made and the Days You Should Watch Them.

Make room for Ricky Stanicky.

The hottest movie on Prime video these days, apparently this one was in the works for more than a dozen years, with at one point James Franco, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jim Carrey considered for the title role.

Eventually the gig went to philanthropist/actor/wrester John Cena, and damn he hits it out of the park as only he could. Like, literally, only John Cena could pull off the John Cena-ness that Ricky embodies at the end of the movie, but no spoilers here.

Also playing their parts just right are, among others, teen heartthrob-turned-adult-actor Zac Efron and this-guy-can-do-anything William H. Macy. The acting is actually pretty good for what’s basically a silly movie, though nobody is really trying too hard. They all realize they’re not competing for Oscars here. Thank goodness.

Released on Amazon Prime, I like that you can see this one in the comfort of your own home right from Day One. It doesn’t need to be seen in a theater. The story, as it were, is interesting enough: childhood friends who invent a scapegoat to get them out of some childish pranks, still using him decades later to fool their significant others and get them out of social obligations. In the wrong hands it would just be silly, but with the Brothers Farrelly, they can spin silliness into gold.

Three cheers for Ricky Stanicky, the best friend three dudes never had.

Why do we never address the really important issues?

I would seriously consider pledging my undying devotion to the first political party that does away with Daylight Savings Time forever. Or keeps it on Daylights Savings Time forever. Whatever it takes to never change the clocks again.

I don’t care if they’re fascists, anarchists, vegetarians, or the Ancient Brotherhood of Elvis Impersonators. They’ve got my vote if they get rid of Daylight Savings Time, and I would forever change my answer to “what good has the government ever done?” from “nothing since defeating Hitler” to “ended Daylight Savings Time.”

It’s a presidential election year. I’m looking at you, old guys running for president. Here’s a chance to leave your legacy.

Much ado about pricing

Those aghast at Wendy’s and its “proposed” “dynamic pricing” make the usual errors of economic dislogic far too pervasive in our society today. As usual. This one’s a layup, but allow me to offer a few words.

First off, I think every fast food restaurant–nay, every single person conducting any type of business–should adopt a dynamic or “surge” model of pricing immediately. Please start charging different prices at different times of the day, week, and year for heaven’s sake.

It’ll be easy, of course, because every single person and every single company already does it.

Ever wonder why it’s more expensive to go to Disney World during Spring Break than the middle of January?

Ever wonder why a snow shovel tends to cost more in December than in June? Or for that matter the guy who comes to plow your driveway? He’ll give you a great price from April to October.

(You’re getting the idea but I can’t resist a few more.)

Ever hear of Happy Hour? Pizza specials on Mondays and Tuesdays? Post-season clearance sales, anyone?

Here’s a little secret. It’s all in the name of making money. (Gasp.)

Happy Hour doesn’t exist because someone is trying to be nice. The bar owner wants to get you in early so that you’ll be there longer and end up paying more. Play it right and you’ll get a good deal, of course, but the barkeep’s aim is not for you to save money. (Adam Smith called this non-existent character the benevolent brewer.) The reason Domino’s gives you a deal on Mondays and Tuesdays likewise isn’t compassion; they want to pull you in on a day you’re probably not thinking of ordering pizza. (But maybe if the weekend price is too much for you, you can still enjoy pizza earlier in the week.)

Is Domino’s practicing “surge pricing” on Fridays and Saturdays?

Funny how people tend to concern themselves with the higher prices in these arrangements, rarely thinking of the benefits at the low end. The cheap seats, the cheap fares, various discounts if you’re willing to travel on a particular day or be flexible about your time or take an “obstructed view.”

Rule #1 is: customers have choices.

This is the operation of the market. A free market to coin a term.

Wait, no, that’s the term everyone has been using for years, never mind.

Everyone business is free to charge whatever price its owners want. And ever consumer is free to say no.

Let the record show there have been a few places that have tried to guard against “surge pricing” and the like. They’ve had czars and commissars regulating prices from distant capitals, ensuring a “fairness” throughout the land preventing anyone from getting, well, anything good or approaching good service. They called the waiting lines “queues” to fancy up what really just a hassle. Waiting in line just became a different way to pay.

The Soviet-style communism from what I understand worked really well. Until we found out what was actually going on behind the Iron Curtain and it all came crumbling down.

Given the choice between state-regulated bread and circuses and some freely fluctuating prices on cheeseburgers…

I can has cheezburger?

Phil is still king

I said it six years ago and I’ll say it again: Somebody Feed Phil is the best show on “TV.”

Everything I said in that previous post is still true today, somehow even more so. And this time around I’ve got a son who dreams of the Phil Rosenthal lifestyle the way boys of the ’60s and ’70s looked at Hugh Hefner.

One troubling feature of the new season (that’s Season Seven which dropped this past Friday)… one of the episodes is from Washington, D.C.

My home!

Every one of those restaurants is now going to be crammed with tourists eschewing the monuments and going for the tempura and goat cheese instead.

I guess maybe it’ll be easier to get in the museums now.

Thanks, Phil.

Today’s hot take

Many times on this blog and elsewhere I have noted the great and universal truism of life: we all turn into our parents.

There’s no sense in fighting it. It’s going to happen. For the past decade I’ve resigned myself to the fact and tried to embrace the fact that, well, I’ve become my dad.

Today’s hot take?

Your parents become your grandparents.

This should be obvious, right? I mean, they literally are grandparents. But more than that there’s going to become your grandparents. The folks you remember from when you were a kid… you’ll see them again like 30 years later, proof that they’re doing the thing you’ll eventually do as well.

Nice to know you’ll see your grandparents again.

And your parents.

Every time you look in the mirror.