It was March Madness; Now It’s April…?

Florida Gators win NCAA Men’s tournament. Pretty good game, actually, even if Ohio State (with the quite good Oden and Connelly) couldn’t quite beat Florida (where the guys played like a team – what spirit, really). And, scarier – my bracket survived: I had picked Florida… now if only I can win the lottery; then I’d be set for life!

Too bad about the Rutgers’ Womens basketball team – Tennessee bested them in the NCAA Women’s tournament. Ah well. At least the ladies had the metro area a little more excited about Rutgers athleticism.

In the category of “good grief”: KITT 2000 – KITT of the old ’80’s show “Knight Rider” – is up for sale. Or, at least, a version of him that was filmed for tv and that doesn’t go into Super Pursuit Mode or make snide remarks in the voice of actor William Daniels (aka Mr. Feeney of the 1990’s tv show “Boy Meets World” – is there any other actor that has captured the imagination of the young for two decades?). Personally, I had no idea that Williams Daniels is a Brooklyn native – imagine KITT with a Brooklyn accent.

Oh God. I actually remember “Super Pursuit Mode.” Man, did I watch too much Knight Rider back in the day.

Prehistoric whale fossil… in inland Italy?

Was Jane Austen pretty… and does it matter?

Monday night: I attended NYU Law School’s APALSA’s Korematsu Lecture – speaker: Judge A. Wallace Tashima – he discussed the Japanese Peruvian experience of being interned in the US during World War II and briefly his own childhood experience at an internment camp during World War II. Apparently, during the war, US pursued a policy of protecting the Western hemisphere by interning persons who seen as the enemy (I think the Monroe Doctrine made that work, even though various Latin Americans countries were officially neutral on the war), forcibly removing Japanese Peruvians to Americans camps.

Things didn’t get that much better when the war was over, because Peru didn’t want the Japanese Peruvians back (talk about racism there), and the US viewed the Japanese Peruvians as “illegal aliens” (never minding that the US brought them to the country in the first place). The status became the loophole that prevented the Japanese Peruvians from collecting a larger amount in the reparations in 1988. It’s an interesting story, and thought it was fascinating that Judge Tashima discussed it and demonstrated the parallels to the current usage of Guantanamo Bay. History repeating itself; dare we learn from our past? Hmm.

Coincidentally, the NY Times published an article on the parallels of the Japanese-American internment and the experience of Muslim immigrants.

It’s that time of year: college acceptances out to the nervous high school seniors. Loved this headline in the Times: “Rejected by Harvard? Your Valedictorian Probably Was Too.” It’s getting really competitive when Alma Mater’s admissions rate is down to slightly less than 9 percent, or you have the realization that Harvard rejected 91% of applications. Every year it gets crazier – you got to save the world first before you can get to college? You apply on-line to more than 10 colleges? And, then you complain when NYU, Wesleyan, and UMichigan accepted you, but – say – an Ivy didn’t? Relax: NYU, Wesleyan and UMich aren’t exactly low tier and you might have ended up where you meant to be. Besides, the riches of choices for the colleges are making us alumni look embarrassing, the second linked article notes (and certainly highlighted what I’ve wondered):

The competition was ferocious not only at the top universities, but at selective small colleges, like Williams, Bowdoin and Amherst, all of which reported record numbers of applications.

Amherst received 6,668 applications and accepted 1,167 students for its class of 2011, compared with the 4,491 applications and 1,030 acceptance letters it sent for the class of 2002 nine years ago, said Paul Statt, an Amherst spokesman.

“Many of us who went to Amherst three decades ago know we couldn’t get in now; I know I couldn’t,” said Mr. Statt, who graduated from Amherst in 1978.