It's that time again...

It's that time when both NCAA Division 1 basketball tournaments come down to four teams each.

Got to admit...I've slacked off a bit since last year when it comes to follow college hoops (2025 has been a year to deal with health issues, among other things)...but I'm still a fan.

I'm typing this in the middle of a game...but I'm going out on a limb to make predictions, anyway.

Women's: South Carolina over Texas, then Connecticut over UCLA...then the Gamecocks taking care of the Huskies on 4-6-2025.

Men's: Auburn over Florida, followed by Duke over Houston...with the Blue Devils stopping the Tigers on 4-7-2025.

Okay...now it's back to watching the games to find out what'll really happen.

Hope your favorite teams are still standing!

The Last One? (Part 1)

I'm going to take a break from telling the story of the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival to tell you a little about...the 2015 edition of the Illinois get-together. 

I missed the first eighteen (1975-1992) contests, and after making all but six (1997, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2010, and 2011) of the next 22, I sure didn't want to miss what was billed as the final edition. 

Well, at least the final Illinois staging. 

OTPP 2015 was the final Land of Lincoln installment because of the real difficulty Old-Time Music Preservation Association members had been having in recent years to get younger hands steering the contest wheel and keeping the Memorial Day weekend event going. 

More to the point: The fans who'd been supporting the C&F had been getting older...and many of their children and grandchildren hadn't been stepping up to lend their support for the contest.  

With all of that in mind, John and Kimberly Santamaria (a couple from Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL) flew to the Peoria, IL area to find out just what Ted Lemen's claim to fame was all about. 

Kimberly and John head up a group interested in bringing the event to Florida.

And from what I could tell, the Santamarias liked what they saw. 

I met John and Kimberly at OTPP Weekend's first function- the Thursday night (5-21-2015) tuneups at the Sky Harbor Steakhouse in West Peoria, IL. 

Folks who'd been coming to the steakhouse tuneups ever since the restaurant became part of the OTPP festivities noticed something different:

That 1883 Weber upright known to contest fans as "Moby Dink" had been moved to Sky Harbor. 

What's more, Moby Dink stood proudly to the right of that yellow Grinnell Bros. upright.

And that meant lots and lots of possibilities for duets. 

Lots of those duets involved one of this year's new contestants, an Illinoisan named Nathan Beasley. (Check out his YouTube videos...you'll really get a kick out of them!) 

Nathan (he's in the yellow shirt in the photo above) played alongside just about any fellow ragtimer who went to the tuneup session...and he was kicking hind ends and taking names. 

Do you remember reading about how Marty Mincer and "Perfessor" Bill Edwards began to really hit it off when they first met in the late 1980s at OTPP? Well, Nathan and fellow Illinoisan (and reigning Junior Division kingpin) Danny Souvigny started to forge that same kind of friendship during OTPP 2015.

And it was some kind of fun to follow...especially as Contest Thursday turned into Contest Friday (and the activities moved to the riverboat Spirit of Peoria and, ultimately, to the weekend's main venue, the Embassy Suites East Peoria).

5-22-2015 was the day of the OTPP New Rag Contest, which was won by Virginian-turned-Minnesotan David Cavalari (he turned in a rollicking number called "That Old 45 RPM Rag").

Right after that came the first (and hopefully not only) OTPP Duet Contest. 

Just three pairs went out for the top prize: Dan Mouyard and Adam Yarian (the first and third contestants, respectively, to win the Regular Division crown after bagging Junior Division titles); Adam Swanson (the most decorated performer to ever enter the C&F) and the ol' "Perfessor" himself; and- you might've guessed it- Danny and Nathan.

Turned out to be some kind of close, and any of the three duos could've snagged the crown.

As things turned out, it was Bill the "Perfessor" and Adam the Prodigy. (Well, if you've ever seen the movie "The Entertainers," well...)

With that mystery out of the way, one big one remained as the main competition drew near: "What're they gonna use for a contest piano, now that 'Moby Dink' is at the steakhouse?"

Stay tuned for Part Two, and I'll tell you.

I Still Can't Get over It

After the 7-13-2013 verdict in the George Zimmerman trial in Sanford, FL was handed down (allowing the neighborhood watchman to go free after murdering 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last year), US Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) told those who were looking for a different verdict from the six-member jury: "Justice was done. Get over it."  

I've got news for the sole Maryland Republican currently in the US House:

It's NOT that simple to get over the verdict.   

Yes, some people argue that the six women who sat on the jury were only working with the evidence presented them during the trial...and when you're a jury member, you're supposed to work with the facts presented in the trial you're involved in.

I just feel as if not enough of the facts were brought out during one of the most heavily-watched trials in years.

And Zimmerman's act wouldn't have even come to trial to begin with if all kinds of people- especially Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton (Martin's parents) and civil rights activist Al Sharpton (he hosts MSNBC's Politics Nation series)- hadn't demanded a trial.

What's more, Zimmerman wouldn't have gotten arrested if all kinds of people- especially Sybrina Fulton, Tracy Martin, and Al Sharpton- hadn't called for the Sanford Police Department to act.

From what I watched of the coverage of the trial, I don't remember either the prosecutors or the defense attorneys calling any SPD officials (especially Bill Lee, the police chief who was in charge 2-26-2012, the day of the shooting) to the witness stand.

What if Lee had to testify during the Zimmerman trial?  

If some of Sanford's Finest had been subpoenaed and been called on to testify this month, I would've felt better about the verdict. If some of Florida's government leaders had been told to testify in Sanford, I'd have felt better about the verdict the six women arrived at.

That's right...Florida's government leaders. 

After all, in 2005, the Sunshine State's then governor, John E. Bush (that's his real name, folks; I still can't bring myself to use that phony-baloney nickname of his), signed the so-called "Stand Your Ground" Act into law. (The state that gave us Pro Football Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith is one of twenty now boasting the law where you can kill anybody if you "believe" you're in danger of "great bodily harm.")

And so, those six jurors used Florida's "SYG" law...freeing our fortysomething from having to use said law in his defense. 

Never mind that a police dispatcher told Zimmerman that night NOT to get out of his (George's) vehicle and follow Trayvon Martin...the same Trayvon Martin who had as much right to walk through that same gated Sanford neighborhood as George Zimmerman did.

After the trial, Rick Scott (Florida's current governor) met with people who protested the verdict...and then he declared this past Sunday a statewide day of prayer.

How phony and useless.  

Scott's declaration struck me as useless and phony on account of his continued defense of his state's "Stand Your Ground" law.

The law didn't help Marissa Alexander, who got a 20-year sentence for shooting into a wall to scare off her abusive husband. And "SYG" didn't help Orville Lee Wollard, also serving a 20-year imprisonment because he fired a gun inside his own house...to frighten off his daughter's boyfriend.

The law (and its misuse) has caused many big-name celebrities (such as Stevie Wonder) to boycott Florida as long as "SYG" is in place there.

And if you're a parent of a teenager (or of a child of any age) and you've wanted to visit or revisit Florida, and you don't agree with the decision to let that neighborhood watchman go free, I'm with you.

Just don't let your babies grow up wanting to go to Disney World.

It's forty miles southwest of Sanford.

Dear Mr. Romney:

Allow me to introduce myself.

You see, four months ago, when you spoke at a fundraiser in Boca Raton, FL, you referred to a certain group of people who want the US government to feed them, house them, provide them with health care, etc., etc., etc.

You labeled them as Americans who don't pay their taxes.

You said that these people make up 47% of this country's population.

And you stated that they're going to vote to keep Barack Obama in the White House.

What's more, Mr. Romney, you made it clear that you're giving up on trying to reach them (in spite of your recent claim in Miami, FL, that you were going to be the President of 100% of the nation's population).

Yes, I'm one of the country's low-income wage earners; and yes, I voted for Obama in 2008...one of 69.5 million to do that on 11-4-2008 (out of 131.3 million who voted that day...when the United States had 225.5 million eligible to cast ballots).

That's actually less than 31% of this land's eligible electors four years back...not 47%.

And as a matter of fact, I actually DO pay my taxes.  

Okay, Mr. Romney, I've received money back from the State of Nebraska every year since I moved back here in 1997 from my birth state of Iowa...but it's been years since I got a refund from the Internal Revenue Service. (Okay, all right...for tax year 2011, I received a tax refund check of $109 from our state's Department of Revenue...while paying the United States Treasury $62.)

And I didn't go for the one-time US senator from Illinois because I wanted to be a freeloader.

I filled in the oval next to Obama's and Joe Biden's names because I thought the 2008 Democratic ticket could help more Americans than that year's Republican ticket...you know, John McCain and Sarah Palin.

By the way, when you gave that speech to 25 of your fellow bluebloods down in Boca Raton this past spring, you said you couldn't convince the so-called forty-seven-percenters to take responsibility for their lives.

Well, guess what?

I most certainly DO take responsibility for myself AND for my own life. 

I know you're some kind of busy right now, but if you get a chance to read this blog (or its predecessor on http://www.freeblogit.com), you'll find that I've been at the same place of work (a factory) since 1-26-2004, and that I'm also an independent performer (old-time piano- check out http://r2rfestival.webs.com).

Last time I checked, that DIDN'T sound like someone not taking self-responsibility.

I remember when you made a campaign appearance late last year (at the height of the Occupy movement); a man attending the rally identified you as one of America's 300,000 wealthiest people. (Okay...he called you a one-percenter.)

I remember you calling him a divider.

As far as I'm concerned, the remarks you made this past May in that fast-growing Sunshine State city (86,445 lived there in 2009, up from a 2000 total of 74,764) are totally divisive. 

If telling folks that Hispanic people giving their 2012 votes to the one-time Illinois state senator would ruin this nation isn't divisive, then...you were never governor of Massachusetts!

One more thing...I feel that this presidential election cycle, the way the Republicans have been running it, is the culmination of 48 years of- let's not kid ourselves- your party courting and attracting proven racists and sexists (in response to Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act into law in 1964). 

By the way...every schoolboy and schoolgirl knows (or is about to learn) that America's government works best when all three branches- executive, legislative, and judicial- actually participate in decisions. And that goes for BOTH major political parties!

Your GOP buddies in the US House and the US Senate made it clear, right from the start of the current administration, that they were going to block every piece of legislation that BHO proposed...even if previous Republican lawmakers (or the current ones themselves) championed that legislation before.

The Republicans took back control of this country's House loudly proclaiming that jobs would be what they'd be working on.

It hasn't happened.

IN FACT, THIS STRATEGY HAS HELD THIS COUNTRY'S RANK-AND-FILE CITIZENS HOSTAGE!!

You knew darn good and well that if you refused to work to bring America's economy back up to snuff, you'd get enough sympathy from citizens at large to get The Prize back.

Speaking of economy...if the trickle-down economic philosophy Republicans have espoused since 1980 is so darn great...why hasn't the money trickled all the way down to us rank-and-file Americans? 

After all, CEO pay here in America has skyrocketed since 1981 (and the pay for middle-income and low-income Americans has flatlined or, at times, even gone down).

That's not jive. That's research from Mother Jones. 

To wrap it up, I'm going to vote the exact same way I did on 11-4-2008. (The Democrats- and independents- not only, as a whole, are talking the talk when it comes to putting America back on its feet. They're walking the walk.) 

Barack Obama knows what and who he is.

Now, if you can just puh-leez figure out who you are...

Thank you for this opportunity to address you.

Sincerely, Jim Boston

Since When Did a Bag of Skittles Become Dangerous?

It's been exactly five weeks now since 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was killed by a Sanford, FL resident named George Zimmerman.

And, like millions of other Americans, I'm still sick about the murder of perhaps the most talked-about teenager to ever come out of Miami Gardens, FL.

All Trayvon was doing was coming back from a 7-Eleven convenience store in Sanford; he was coming back to his father's fiancee's house in a gated community in that city of 54,000 people. Trayvon was trying to check out the second half of this season's NBA All-Star Game...played 19 miles to the south in Orlando.

And all he was carrying were a cell phone and his two 7-Eleven purchases: A bag of Skittles candy and a can of iced tea.

But that didn't matter to George, a 28-year-old who serves as a neighborhood watch captain in the gated community in Sanford.

In fact, the hoodie Martin was wearing- to say nothing of his skin color- gave Zimmerman enough "justification" to label young Martin as suspicious.

So that gave our neighborhood watch captain the impetus to call 911.

And it didn't matter that the dispatcher who took the call told Zimmerman NOT to chase Martin.

He chased him anyway.

After five weeks, no arrest has been made.

In fact, it might be that the police officer who checked out the scene- and bought the idea that Zimmerman's life was threatened by Martin, hence the murder- might have publicly (or privately) congratulated Zimmerman.

This is what happens when a state signs into law "Stand Your Ground" legislation.

The killing that took place on 2-26-2012 was THE outgrowth of a law now in 13 states here in the US.

The Sanford Police Department simply didn't do its job. And if Sanford's government leaders had shown any guts, they would've asked for Bill Lee's permanent resignation as the city's police chief.

There's so much- way too much- we don't know about the shooting of a young man who loved sports and, yes, WAS trying to get his life back on the right track. (That's why he went to Sanford.)

And I'm still wondering how spokespersons with the National Rifle Association (the group that's been on bended knees begging for these "Stand Your Ground" laws) really feel about this Central Florida murder.

How many hate-radio hosts (okay, talk-radio hosts) have been praising George Zimmerman for what he did? (Remember, last year, Neal Boortz got on his show and asked his listeners to pack heat and get those so-called "urban thugs." Does carrying a bag of Skittles make you an "urban thug?" Does wearing a hoodie?)

Bill O'Reilly, on his Fox Gossip (oops, I mean Fox News) Channel show, defended this vigilante. I can imagine how O'Reilly's network colleagues, such as race-baiter deluxe Eric Bolling (from The Five), feel about this incident in Sanford.

John Bush's silence is deafening. [After all, in 2005, when he was the Sunshine State's governor, he signed this into law. (And no, I can't bring myself to call him Jeb!)]

One thing I'm GOING to bring myself to do is this: I'm going to stand with Trayvon's parents- Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton- and millions of others to say: "Let's have some justice and get George Zimmerman in handcuffs! What are you waiting on?"