On Monday I finished my annual exercise in futility — picking the winners of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. I already have 2 wrong — I picked Alabama-Birmingham and Arkansas-Little Rock to win First Four games and, of course, both lost. My Final Four are Ohio State, Texas, Kansas (which will please my editor) and Wisconsin. I have Ohio State beating Texas in one national semifinal, Kansas beating Wisconsin in the other, and the Buckeyes and Jared Sullinger beating Kansas (much to my...

  There’s a long-suffering Minnesota Golden Gophers fan I know who used to wear a worn-out t-shirt every time his favorite football team played Ohio State University.  “Oh how I hate Ohio State” were the words written on the t-shirt. It’s not hard to do these days.

I did it. I took the plunge. I got a mini van. No, I'm not a soccer mom; my daughter is only eight months old and nowhere near ready for cleats. But we, as a family, were ready for more room, and the ease of getting the baby in and out of our vehicle. With my PT Cruiser (which I loved and owned three of), it was not conducive to having a baby. Because my daughter's car seat sat in the middle of the back seat, I would literally have to get in my back seat and sit down in order to get her loaded...

When Abby Geotz contacted me a few weeks ago to nominate her mom for an Everyday People feature, I had no idea how big of a story I was getting. ** Like, we're talking history channel biography mini-series type story.  Abby's email said: