We interrupt our regularly scheduled Madness to bring you this important announcement:

It's March 17 - St. Patrick's Day - and it's already broken 100 degrees in God's Country East. Last year this time, it was cold, rainy and windy. And then summer came. What does summer mean if it's already this bad?

(Nameless, incidentally, claims this is normal weather and chooses to disregard our repeated online updates about "unseasonably warm temperatures." You ask me, she's just trying to pull rank since she's lived here three years longer than I. And yes, I can get away with writing that since she's in The Land That God Forgot for the weekend.)

Today there was a car accident with injuries at the offramp just up the street from the bureau. Too close to drive, but not a fun walk in the heat either. By the time I got back to the office I was drenched. March 17!

Remember that scene in Alien 4 where Sigourney Weaver finds that secret lab where they had all those horrific failed attempts to recreate her and there's that one fat bloated half-Sigourney half-Alien lying on the slab still alive and clearly in terrible pain and misery and she begs normal Sigourney Weaver to "kill me, kill me"? Well, that's me in this weather. I'm fat naked bloated Sigourney Weaver. "Kill me."

Next time I hear a Republican question global warming I'm punching them in the face. And in the interest of bipartisanship, if I ever move back to Chi-town during winter and hear a Democrat gripe about global warming I'm punching them in the face too.

On a happier note, I climbed out of the basement in my tourney pool today with a 14-of-16 pick rebound! The way I did it was, I bugged B&G on Gmail chat all afternoon and any time one of my picks was in trouble I'd message, "Prepare my shuttle. I sense Lord (Virginia Tech) is in danger." Or, "Lord (Southern Illinois)" - fill in the blank. Once I did that, without fail VaTech, SIU etc. would fight back to win. And when I needed a top seed to shift into overdrive and lay waste to the bottom seed I'd write, "Commander Kansas, execute Order Sixty-Six."

Anyhow, my system seemed to work. That, and I completed three hours of work in an eight-hour workday. Tomorrow it's off to God's Country West for a b-day party and likely a visit to Q's to support Your Georgetown Hoyas with the Brethren. May the Force be with us.