Mike O'Connell

Today on Math and Musings you’ll hear me and Franklin discuss the NCAA Tournament, among other things referencing my one-time home of Raleigh, North Carolina, and its North Carolina State University Wolfpack. I say I was happy they made the tournament, but am “sure they’re out of it by now” or some such thing.

Yup, we recorded the episode long ago, and this is now an outdated lie. The Wolfpack are one of 12 teams still in, still with a chance to win it all.

Call it the reverse jinx of Math and Musings.

You’re welcome, Wolfpack.

Move over vanilla.

There’s a new Frosty in town.

First discussed on Math and Musings more than a month ago, fast food titan Wendy’s really does now have an Orange Dreamsicle Frosty on its menu.

And God damn it’s delicious.

As far as I can tell, the first time I wrote about “alternate” Frosty flavors was June of 2022. I had to wait until I was 40 before having a third option following chocolate and vanilla. Now in less than two years Wendy’s has doubled that output, tacking on peppermint, pumpkin spice, and the aforementioned orange. That only one alternate flavor (to the o.g. chocolate) is available at a time is still an issue, but wow, one taste of that orange Frosty and all was forgiven.

Friday on Math and Musings you heard me and Franklin talk about how we haven’t had one yet. That’s an outdated lie. Shortly after we recorded the episode we were in the drive-thru line, waiting for that taste of Heaven.

It was worth the wait.

One of my favorite days of the year as a child was that certain Monday in March, the day after the NCAA Tournament brackets were released and the Madness was about to being. USA Today would have a special insert approximately the size of a Manhattan yellow pages, and this would be my Bible for the next three weeks.

(If you didn’t understand any of the references in the previous sentence you can Google them.)

(Actually don’t. Just skip the rest of this post. It’s not for you.)

This was the only day of the year my Dad would buy USA Today. He’d arrive home with it, holding like a trophy or perhaps some sacred text. Contained within were the secrets that would allow us, mere mortals, to enter the world of sophisticated college basketball analysis and reveal for us the roadmap to predicting a perfect bracket, long before Warren Buffet and company got involved. These were the days of the “office pool,” and no one put more thought and energy and careful consideration into his picks than 8-year-old Mikey O’Connell. I gave the process the solemn respect owed to peace treaties and human rights declarations. This was serious business.

Years later the obsession lessened, especially after crossing that embarrassing point where the players were younger than I was.

But I always filled out a bracket. And I always bought a copy of USA Today.

Until this year.

I always knew this day would come, as every year it became more and more difficult to find a place that actually sold newspapers, let alone USA Today.

My last holdout was the Shell gas station in Lansdowne, Va., eight miles up the road from my house but worth the journey, a sort of last picture show of print media.

And then, one day, it was gone.

Oh, the Shell station is still there. They sell gas and cell phone chargers and vitamin waters and other 21st century products.

But not a single newspaper.

The Harris Teeter in the plaza sold newspapers but no USA Today, and even though it was a longshot I stopped in a Starbucks too. Yeah, they used to sell newspapers but not any more.

Like so many things in life it was just, not any more.

A one-second Internet search of college basketball reveals a thousand times the information contained in the world’s largest copy of USA Today or any newspaper.

It wasn’t hard for me, of course, to find game times, team descriptions, player stats, etc.

But holding that copy of USA Today?

For the first time in 35 years, it was not meant to be.

Yeah, I’m sure I could have ordered one from Timbuktu or wherever they print the six copies they no doubt make these days, but it just wouldn’t be the same.

My son and I paused for a moment in that gas station parking lot, mourning the lost of, well, a childhood friend.

A childhood, actually.

Like all things, you know it won’t last forever.

But you never expect it to be today.

USA Today was now yesterday.

But March Madness, marches on.

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.

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.