[thenightwriterblog] The Night Writer: What kind of bracket are you in?

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by The Night Writer:
What kind of bracket are you in?
http://thenightwriterblog.powerblogs.com/posts/1173811138.shtml


   [1]Away With Words has a nice March Madness diversion, looking at the
   new book, [2]The Enlightened Bracketologist: The Final Four of
   Everything. The book posits that many of the great debates of our
   times can be resolved by methodically breaking these down into a
   series of one-on-one matchups culminating in a categorical "Final
   Four." She links to Salon.com's [3]article about the book, which
   features four sample brackets: the greatest "Where Were You Moments",
   "Ad Slogans", "Marital Arguments" and "Film Deaths."
   In these samples, 32 candidates in each category are listed in Round 1
   and you proceed to "face-off" each match-up into the next bracket. For
   example, in the "Film Deaths" bracket I found a lot of bona fide
   contenders that were hard to choose from, but when it was close I went
   with the death that was most central to the story. Thus the "Psycho"
   shower scene made it to my final four despite a strong first round
   challenge from the opening shark attack in "Jaws". The rest of my
   final four ultimately included King Kong falling from the Empire State
   Building, Tom Hanks' death in "Saving Private Ryan" and the Wicket
   Witch melting in "The Wizard of Oz." (King Kong won.)
   Deaths also figure prominently in the "Where Were You When" (Boomer
   Division) bracket with JFK, RFK, Martin Luther, Princess Diana, John
   Lennon, Dale Earnhardt among those featured, though these also compete
   against the fall of the Berlin Wall, Woodstock and the Miracle on Ice.
   In the Ad Slogans bracket you've got "Where's the beef?" going up
   against "It's finger-lickin' good" in the first round, while "Does she
   or doesn't she?" could conceivably fight it out with "Just do it" in
   one of the later rounds.
   You can check out these sample brackets for yourself from the Salon
   link. While I don't see that we could resolve many disputes by having
   a world-wide "Greatest Religions" bracket, this is a fun way to hash
   out your favorites -- and all without having to listen to Dick Vitale
   (I didn't notice if there was a "Most Obnoxious" bracket covered in
   the book).
   When you're finished you can check with your friends and acquaintences
   who also completed the brackets and then make a bracket to determine
   which of you is most compulsive.

References

   1. http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2007/03/its_a_winlose_s.html
   2. http://www.amazon.com/Enlightened-Bracketologist-Final-Four-Everything/dp/159691310X
   3. http://www.slate.com/id/2161655/