As requested: Five songs I hate with all my heart

I mean no disrespect if you like these songs, or if you have an emotional attachment to them. Just know that I don't. I'm the king of taking offense at musical tastes, so please know that I understand where you're coming from.

1. Margaritaville
2. Hotel California
3. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
4. My Humps
5. Hollaback Girl

Five gestures I hate with all my heart

1. The "hitting yourself with the inside of your wrist on the chest," as if to indicate mental retardation.

2. Putting your finger in your ear while singing.

3. Gang signs.

4. The robot.

5. Showing people, uninvited, where "the gun show" is.

Self-Doubt, and what it can do to you

So Kami and I went and heard Pulitzer ("Puh-litzer" or "Pew-litzer?") Prize-winning author David McCullough at Belmont on Monday night, and he convicted me - a history major working in a historic institution - to bone up on my American history.

I started thinking about how many Presidents I knew. I did know that there were 44 presidents, and that's where I started: How many presidents could I name? I got 30. That's bad. So I started working on it, and by yesterday morning I was at the point where I could name 40 of the 44 presidents. At lunch today I got 43 of the US presidents, in order.

Here's my problem, I had to look it up to see if Warren Harding's middle name started with a "G." Because I had been calling him "Warren G. Harding" since high school. And here's where my self-doubt crept in. Was I calling him "Warren G Harding" because that's what his name is, or because of the rapper Warren G.?



Panic led to the White House's website. Thank God it's Warren Gamaliel Harding.

This is absolutely horrifying

Regard:

SCITUATE, Mass. (AP) - A Massachusetts youth soccer coach told parents in an e-mail his team of 6- and 7-year-old girls would be known as "Green Death," encouraged them to feed their daughters "undercooked red meat" and said "losing is for losers."

Coach Michael Kinahan has since resigned from the Scituate (SIH'-choo-et) Youth Soccer League. He says he was joking in last week's season-opening e-mail.

League official Chris Park tells the Patriot Ledger of Quincy that Kinahan has a "wry, sarcastic" sense of humor and some parents understood the e-mail's tone. But others didn't and complained.

Kinahan also wrote he would heckle referees, expected players to "bleed a little" and wanted parents to cheer, not sit on the sidelines "sipping mocha-latte-half-caf-chinos." .

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I'm horrified by this - but not in the way you may think. I'm horrified because that could very easily have been me. I laughed out loud because this is obviously meant to be sarcastic, but no one got it, and because of some chino-wearing soccer moms and dads who are too busy for their kids, but try to drop them off for an hour on Saturday mornings at the Y to assuage their pathetic consciences (alert: that was sarcasm. Don't take my blog away), this guy won't be coaching 6- and 7-year old girls soccer. I would have written that e-mail. Michael Kinahan: Want to hang out?

My four favorite days of the year

March Madness: It's how I know baseball is about to start playing games that don't tease me into thinking they're important. Of course I fill out brackets, and of course there are multiple brackets, and of course they're not exactly the same. I go back and forth on the strategy of this. Especially in the ones where, should you pick every game (impossible), you win a lot of money - which would be nice.

Do you fill out the same bracket for each won, ultimately increasing your chances of winning a "God-awful" amount of money? Or do you spread it around and hope you caught lightning in a bottle on one of them? Anyhow, here are my picks - feel free to mock:

Midwest:
Louisville, Siena, Utah, Wake, Vest Virginia, Kansas, USC, Michigan State

West:
UConn, BYU (I wouldn't pick A&M if they were playing the University of Whoville), Purdue, Washington, Utah State, Missouri, Maryland, Memphis

East:
Pitt, Oklahoma State, Florida State, Xavier, UCLA, Villanova, Minnesota, Duke

South:
UNC, Butler, W Kentucky, Gonzaga, Temple, Syracuse, Michigan, Oklahoma

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Midwest:
Louisville, Wake, West Virginia, Michigan State
Louisville, Michigan State
Louisville

West:
UConn, Washington, Utah State, Memphis
UConn, Memphis
Memphis

East:
Pitt, Xavier, UCLA, Duke
Pitt, UCLA
Pitt

South:
UNC, Gonzaga, Syracuse, Oklahoma
UNC, Syracuse
UNC

Semifinals:
Memphis, Pitt

Champion:
Memphis

Skull and Bones is very literal in their moniker

Weird.

Five Shows I Hate Most Of All

The first in a series of things I hate with all my heart.

5. Saved by the Bell
4. Desperate Housewives
3. Alien Nation
2. Will & Grace
1. All in the Family