It was an unproductive weekend, unless you count the haircut as an accomplishment. I had good intentions – taxes, gutter cleaning, composing the great American novel, etc. Instead it was mostly “Elite Eight” and “WWF” (no, not the World Wrestling Federation, Words With Friends).
Speaking of Words With Friends, I did learn something new, besides ODAS being a word. I learned that you can’t have more than 21 games going at once. Sounds like maybe I’ve crossed over from the realm of harmless fun to addiction. I’ll stop soon. Really.
It was a bracket-busting weekend if ever there was one. I do have UConn in my Final Four, but not the final game. And I had Butler and VCU both losing that first weekend. So with riches no longer a possibility I’ll go with my heart. Kentucky is SEC, which I should be loyal to and will be when they play the Huskies. As for Butler/VCU, it’s hard to lose on either of these. While I do think Shaka Smart has the coolest name in the tournament, wouldn’t it be great to see Butler back in the championship game? And if they do get there I’ll be pulling for them, SEC or not.
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Last weekend also saw the end of BYU’s Jimmer. Here are some thoughts on that from the hilarious Rick Reilly, from his column, “Jimmer grows dimmer.”
“Thanks to one of the worst performances of Jimmer Fredette’s fabulous career – and a set of teammates who looked like pizza delivery guys – the BYU star took a hard fall in the Big Easy.
You can take off those “Romney-Fredette in 2012” T-shirts now.
Except for a stretch in the middle, when he was brilliant, Fredette was brutal.
Yes, he scored 32 points, but he took 29 shots to do it. He seemed to be wearing a blindfold from the 3-point arc – 3-for-15. Plus, he committed six turnovers and wandered aimlessly through the lane on defense like Moses in the desert. I’ve seen dead people play better defense. At least they occasionally trip people.
If his last college game is what he’s bringing to the NBA, then I’d say, in five years, he’s got a really good chance to be your Provo area Isuzu dealer.
Great kid, though. Polite, smart (good chess player, whiz at Sudoku), studies his Bible in hotel rooms. Maybe that was the problem. Fredette and the largely Mormon BYU Nation should’ve never been made to come to New Orleans. You can sin just by osmosis here.”
You can read Reilly’s whole column on espn.com.
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Besides taxes, the beginning of the year’s hoop madness also overshadowed a funeral last Thursday.
It was for a woman whose mother came from a small town with a familiar name. It’s not so far from here, Arkansas City, Kansas (they pronounce the s).
The girl’s father, Francis, was an art dealer, his wife, Sara Viola, a stage actress in New York City, where they met. After marrying they moved back to Sara’s home town, then from there to London, where two children were born – first a boy; then a girl three years later.
In London the family became acquainted with Colonel Victor Alexander Cazalet, who was a member of Parliament and a close friend of Winston Churchill. Cazalet became godfather to the girl. Once, when she was very ill, she asked her mother to send for him. Sara described it - “Victor sat on the bed and held her in his arms and talked to her about God. Her great dark eyes searched his face, drinking in every word, believing and understanding.”
When World War II broke out, Francis moved his family back to the United States, to Beverly Hills. Cazelet was killed in 1943 when his plane from Gibraltar to Britain crashed seconds after take off.
In Hollywood, the young girl with the “great dark eyes,” was growing up. Those eyes were now so deep blue they were thought to be violet. She even had double eyelashes.
Francis’ art gallery opened many doors for him and his family, leading them directly into the society of money and prestige within the nearby movie colony.
Sara was asked to let her daughter test for the roll of Bonnie Blue in “Gone with the Wind,” which she refused, believing the family would return to London after the war. That would never happen and the attention to the young girl grew stronger. She appeared in her first film at age nine and three years later landed the role of Velvet Brown, in “National Velvet.” From there it was simply iconic legend.
On March 23, the girl with the violet eyes and double eyelashes died in Beverly Hills. Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was 79.