st. joe's vs. south carolina tonight on espn at 7:00!!! watch my school win the losers tournament!! (i mean, shit, it's better than LOSING it...)

i'll be there in person with marcello and some other peeps... about 6000 of them.

LET'S-GO-SAINT-JOE'S

the hawk will never die.

bitches.

i'm sure you read about it before you saw it here, but i'm very sad that mitch hedberg apparently has died. mitch was a great comedian, who had a unique delivery and some really funny material. you can go to mitchhedberg.net to read up on him and learn more about him. unfortunately, the website hasn't made mention of the news yet.

oh, and that starvin' marvin' girl finally died also. whatever.

speaking of food... vote to finish off the sweet sixteen!!

here are the first eight to make it to the sweet 16:

in the frito lay region:
(1) doritos had a scare from (9) tato skins, but pulled out the victory.
(2) cheddar goldfish had no problem knocking off (10) pringles cheese ums.
(3) rold gold pretzels got a strong challenge from (6) snyder's hard pretzels, but it wasn't enough.
(12) andy capp's hot fries pulled off the upset of the day, beating (4) baked lays in overtime.

in the nabisco region:
(1) ruffles squeaked by (8) sun chips.
(7) trader joe's chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels did not have enough to upset (2) tostitos.
(6) honey roasted peanuts knocked out the lowest seed in (14) snyder's honey mustard and onion pretzels.
it was a good day for twelve seeds as (12) pringles salt & vinegar topped (13) wasabi peanuts.

ok first things first. the tournament of champions second round begins today. results of the rest of the first round will be posted tomorrow. to vote on second round matchups go here.

now, for the fun stuff...

oh shit, that's right. i'm boring.

easter is usually a pretty boring holiday for me. it's pretty much the holiday where i just "go through the motions." however, this year, it was really fun. both sides of my family were at my parents' house, and there was tons of food. not that there normally isn't a lot of food. i mean, an italian family, even one a couple of generations removed, certainly knows how to eat come holiday time. but this year it was insane. my 92 year old grandmother cooked. my 85 year old nonny cooked. my mom, sister, aunts and cousin cooked.

and i ate. i ate a whole effing lot.

which is good, because i almost lost my appetite after the way some of the ncaa tournament games went this weekend. luckily, i came out victorious in all four of them.

unc beating wisconsin was the least of my concerns. that one was pretty easy. i picked unc and they won. nice.

however, when i saw lousiville was down by twenty in the first half on saturday, i got a little nervous. i knew it was possible for them to come back, but i wasn't so sure they would do it when i saw the way west virginia was shooting the ball in the second half. but, thankfully, they came through in the overtime and i had my first correct final four pick (yes, i said in an earlier post that i thought wake forest would be in the final four, but in the pool that i am in now, i picked louisville. so eat it.).

what can i say about illinois? maybe the most ridiculous game i've ever seen. just freaking awesome. completely saved my bracket. i love deron williams.

michigan state? dang. i know this guy is pretty happy right now. and you know who else is? me. i mean, i did not have michigan st. in the final four. this is true. but the other person in the pool who had a chance to beat me picked kentucky in the final four.

so, yeah... her bracket? done.

i'm excited. after having a legitimate chance of winning a pool every year for the last three years, only to see it go up in smoke every time, i am guaranteed victory in 2005. woo!

anyway, i finally got the remainder of the first round of the "tournament of champions: snack food edition" to work properly. you can vote right here.

and now for the results of last week's voting (definitely a few upsets!):

FRITO LAY REGION
(1) nacho doritos 86.7% (16) taco doritos 13.3%
(2) cheddar goldfish 93.3% (15) steak & worcestershire chips 6.7%
(3) rold gold pretzels 93.3% (14) vegetable thins 6.7%
(4) baked lay's 53.3% (13) chili cheese fritos 46.7%
(5) sour cream & onion chips 33.6% (12) andy capp's hot fries 66.7%
(6) snyder's sourdough pretzels 53.3% (11) stoned wheat thins 46.7%
(7) cheddar & sour cream ruffles 46.7% (10) pringles cheese ums 53.3%
(8) wise potato chips 40% (9) cheddar & bacon tato skins 60%

NABISCO REGION
(1) ruffles 92.9% (16) sweet potato chips 7.1%
(2) tostitos 85.7% (15) chicken in a biskit 14.3%
(3) triscuit 46.2% (14) honey mustard & onion pretzels 53.8%
(4) lays bbq 35.7% (13) wasabi peanuts 64.3%
(5) chex mix 29.6% (12) salt & vinegar chips 71.4%
(6) honey roasted peanuts 69.2% (11) better cheddars 30.8%
(7) chocolate peanut butter pretzels 91.7% (10) tostitos gold 8.3%
(8) cheddar sun chips 57.1% (9) planters cheez balls 42.9%

for some reason, i couldn't get the surveys to publish last night, so i'll do what i can to get them up over the weekend, and the voting will get finished on monday for the first round.

stupid internet.

st joe's has officially made it to the "not necessarily the final four." they beat texas a&m last night to give us hawks fans some hope that they might actually be one of the two teams this year that get to finish their season with a win. now they just have to beat memphis, and i feel bad admitting that i don't think it's even going to be close. if st. joe's loses by less than 10 i'll consider it an achievement.

i've been so busy and tired the last couple days, i haven't had a chance to update the tournament of champions, but i will post the last two brackets of the first round tomorrow. thanks for the votes so far!

on monday, i will announce the winners of the first round. looks like there are some upsets brewing... by next friday, we should be down to the final four!

so, it may not be the ncaa tournament, but sju is now in the elite eight of the nit. it kind of sucks, but at least i get to see them win a few games as opposed to getting their asses beaten in the first round.

speaking of basketball... if you haven't seen this yet, check it out. it's one of the sickest plays i've ever seen. and, no, i'm not talking about the horrendously awful commercial at the beginning of the video. just watch it already.

on to the real tournament of champions...

here are the first round matchups in the nabisco bracket: vote here

(1) ruffles original vs. (16) terra sweet potato chips



(2) tostitos white corn tortilla chips vs (15) chicken in a biskit



(3) triscuit vs. (14) snyder's honey mustard & onion pretzel pieces



(4) lay's k.c. masterpiece bbq vs. (13) trader joe's wasabi peanuts



(5) chex mix traditional vs. (12) pringles salt & vinegar



(6) planters honey roasted peanuts vs. (11) better cheddars



(7) trader joe's chocolate covered peanut buter filled pretzels vs (10) tostitos gold



(8) sun chips harvest cheddar vs. (9) planters cheez balls

now, with that being said, let's move on to the first round matchups.

you can vote for all the winners here


(1) doritos -- nacho cheese vs. (16) doritos -- taco



(2) goldfish -- cheddar vs. (15) herr's potato chips -- steak & worcestershire



(3) rold gold pretzels vs. (14) nabisco vegetable thins crackers


(4) baked lay's -- original vs. (13) frito's corn chips -- chili cheese



(5) lay's potato chips -- sour cream & onion vs. (12) andy capp's hot fries



(6) snyder's hard sourdough pretzels vs. (11) stoned wheat thins



(7) ruffles potato chips -- cheddar & sour cream vs. (10) pringles cheez-ums



(8) wise potato chips -- original vs. (9) tato skins -- cheddar cheese & bacon




make sure you click the link at the top of the list to vote!

look at the previous post for the tournament bracket in pdf format.

god i'm a dork.

so here it is. the official 2005 RTW sports snack food championship.

quite simply, these are the best salty snack foods to munch on while watching some tense games on the tube. now, this is only a 65 team field, so not everyone can dance. therefore, some executive decisions had to be made as to who could qualify. the most important thing was that the food needed to be salty and be stored on a shelf. therefore, this list doesn't include things that could be considered junk food, like buffalo wings and cheeseburgers, etc. because those things need proper storage, and cooking, and are way too substantial.

it also doesn't include candy, which is too sweet. notable exceptions are things such as cracker jack, honey roasted nuts, and trader joe's chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels. while these things do have sweet characteristics, you can still taste the salt in them. i also didn't include "munchies." as in the mix of doritos, chee-tos, pretzels, etc. that you can buy in the store, because all of these things are in the tournament on their own merit. mainly, the list consists of chips, crackers, popcorn, nuts, and things like that.

if some kind of junk food that you really like isn't here, sorry. i tried to have as wide a variety as i could.

what are you considering when voting? i don't care. if you haven't had "baken-ets," but you just like the name, that's fine with me. if you like a particular flavor of chip, but haven't tried the specific brand, feel free to vote for the item anyway (e.g. you like salt & vinegar chips but haven't had pringles' version).

the real voting will begin on monday. this will change on a daily basis through thursday, so make sure to come back and vote every day!

for this weekend, however, i want to know who's going to win the opening round matchup!

go ahead and click here to view the pdf version of the bracket!

just vote below to tell me who you think should win the play-in game...

sabritones chili & lime puffs vs. baken-ets fried pork skins









i could be totally lame as always and just be like, here are my final four selections for this year, and tell you that i think it will be illinois, north carolina, wake forest, and utah. but what fun would that be? i could also be lame and tell you that i think the best potential first round upsets are uw-milwaukee, utah st., new mexico, northern iowa, vermont, and niagara, and that i fully expect at least three of those teams to win a first round game. and that washington is way overrated and louisville is way underrated. i also think pacific is a sweet sixteen team, and uconn better be really careful of charlotte in the second round.

but, i won't be lame like that.

instead, i'll be lame in a whole different way.

stay tuned for how...

no.

i told you it wasn't over...

today's random ponderings:

central florida is my extreme upset possibility in this year's ncaa tournament.
girls continue to both suck and be cool at the same time. why is this?
customer service reps should be allowed to, by law, shoot one person per year.
okcupid.com really needs to have more than 9 girls within 50 miles of me.
john chaney? still sucks.
the first two days of the ncaa tournament are officially holy days of jonbligation.
the beginnings of my new website are underway.
i need to get out of my parents' house very soon. VERY. SOON.
i'm sorry i haven't been keeping up to date with any of your blogs. i miss you guys!