Green Day

When your name is Michael O’Connell, you don’t need to wear green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

Green is for amateurs.

I could have used the luck of the Irish, though, yesterday, for my “hometown” college–that would be the George Mason University–the only school I know with nickname “Patriots” that uses green in its colors. The “Patriots” could have locked up an NCAA Tournament bid with a win yesterday against VCU, though fell a bit short in that quest. Mason ended the year 26-8 but was denied an at-large birth from the selection committee, who saw fit to include 14 teams from the SEC but one from the Atlantic 10.

Cue up Rodney Dangerfield because these Patriots get no respect.

Pi(e) Day

Today on Math and Musings Franklin and I discuss the most overrated day of the math year: Pi Day.

Actually we spend much of the day talking about pie, not the Greek letter or mathematical constant, and that’s much more our speed.

Ben Orlin has expressed perfectly my thoughts about Pi Day (sort of a rebuttal), and at the risk of violating some copyright law, here‘s what Ben had to say.

I do still love pie though.

Five years ago

Five years ago today the world, well, the world shut down. Remember that one?

Among other things I remember thinking, hmm, if this really is the end, I guess I lived a pretty good life.

Five years later I’ve had five more years of pretty good times. I guess it’s all just a bonus from the day we’re born, right? This is all one big mysterious bonus round.

I’d say I’ve gotten more philosophical as I’ve gotten older but really I think I’ve gotten less philosophical.

I don’t know why we’re here, I don’t know how long we have, and I don’t have an idea of really what we’re supposed to do with our lives.

As I often find myself saying… enjoy!

Sometimes the hilarious satire just presents itself

The closest Long John Silver’s restaurant to me is more than an hour away, but given its status as the industry standard in quick service seafood, I do stay apprised of its doings. And as I will on occasion partake of their wares, I remain an active member in its Seacret Society rewards program. Seacret… hilarious.

I received an e-mail Saturday from LJS touting its newest promotion: the Lent Challenge. Levels of mastery include deckhand, boson (I had to Google that one), first mate, and captain.

Among other things one can get a buttery piece of fried fish and some delicious waffle fries for $2.99.

Any day except Friday.

Lenten challenge not valid on Fridays. That’s just hilarious.

I hear they’re lowering the price to 49 cents on April 31, then they’ve got a collab with Chick-fil-A that’s valid only on Sundays.

I swear sometimes you just can’t make this stuff up.

Remembering JR Gaudet on MAM today

Today’s episode of Math and Musings is admittedly not the most happy or uplifting episode we’ve ever aired, though I felt it necessary to provide a little more closure for those who remember JR Gaudet. Actually, that’s all I’ve done for the past few weeks, and will no doubt continue to do so for, well, forever.

“Enjoy” is not exactly the right word.

Listen, share, and remember.

Throwback to 2014

Eleven years ago today, coincidentally enough, was also Ash Wednesday. Unlike today, where temps will be in the 60s, there were mounds of snow everywhere from a storm 48 hours prior.

And most importantly, one Franklin Sullivan O’Connell came into this world.

My boy.

And it’s getting tougher and tougher to claim I’m only 23.

I don’t claim to know the “good” movies

I know a thing or two about enjoyable movies. In fact I wrote the book on it. (That’s usually just an expression.)

Oscar-nominated movies, though?

Let’s check the O’Connell stats.

Oscar nominees for Best Picture…

O’Connell saw zero of ten.

Nominations for acting?

A total of 20 slots and O’Connell saw…

zero of those movies.

Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot were the only movies among the nominees I’d actually seen, and, well, neither of them won anything.

Still, it’s an honor to be nominated.

An even greater honor–more rare anyway–to have been seen by the aforementioned cinematic author.

Today’s list: Weighted days of the week

Hard to believe it’s only Wednesday, right?

Well, part of that is because you’ve actually been through 60 percent of the week already.

In case you’ve never heard it before, this is the breakdown:

Monday… 32%

Tuesday… 28%

Wednesday… 20%

Thursday… 13%

Friday… 7%

These are hard and true facts, battle tested and peer-reviewed and all that.

Looks like Wednesday is the only day that’s actually, you know, equal to a day.

So have a nice… day… today.

And don’t worry, it’s easy from here on.

This is going to be a stretch

Five weeks in a row of five days of school.

Ouch.

I’m reminded of the words of one of the great characters of theatre… Tevye the milkman from Fiddler on the Roof.

Five daughters.

(Pause for effect.)

Read that first line again like an overworked Russian peasant.