It's that time of the year

I can now officially call the productive part of the year in Kentucky over until about September.  My reasons for making this judgement call are:

• NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament - There shall be no productive work done here until either the tournament ends or all of the local teams are out.  My hope is that Kentucky and Louisville are out after the first couple of rounds.  If they make it to the last rounds, then nothing will get done around here for the next two weeks as people take time out to watch the games, watch news programs about the games, talk about the game they watched and the news coverage, and talk about the next game.  Remember, in Kentucky, there are three major religions:  Christianity, Judaism, and Basketball.  I find it best to not even get involved in the quasi-religious conflicts between Kentucky and Louisville fans.
• Kentucky Derby Festival - The madness begins in mid-April with Thunder Over Louisville.  During the two weeks it takes for Louisville to run a two minute horse race, no-one will be working.  And I don't mean they will be in the office and goofing off.  I mean they won't consistently be in the office.  Entire work groups will leave someone behind and go have fun at the track, the parade, the food concessions, or some of the other events that revolve around the Derby.  Heck, they even call off school the day before the Derby so that locals can take their kids to see the Kentucky Oaks race.  
• Vacations and Summer Holidays - From the beginning May to the end of August, productivity picks up a bit, but at any given time, approximately 25% of the workforce will be off on vacation, off to attend a conference, taking a nice afternoon office off to get in 9 holes, or just deciding it's too nice a day to work.  Now, I take advantage of this as much as the next guy, so I can't cast stones here.  I just don't understand the "I'm taking a couple of days off every two weeks until the end of the summer" attitude.

So for the next few months, I'm going to be frustrated trying to get an entire working group to work all at the same time for more than a couple days in a row.  Does anyone else have this happen to them in their area?

Another One?

Syracuse University has fired an assistant basketball coach after a third person has come forward claiming to have been sexually assaulted by him as a child.  After the first two accusations, the university placed Bernie Fine on administrative leave, and I guess the magic number with Syracuse was "3".

Now, these accusations are still under investigation, so nothing is known for sure.  But I have to ask this:  Is collegiate sports going to be the next place we find a subculture of pedophiles?  After what appears to have happened at Penn State, this latest set of allegations has me asking whether or not the process for vetting coaches and staff at college sports programs is thorough enough.  Assuming that most universities have programs that bring young people into the sports programs in some way, what are the policies and practices of the NCAA to ensure that the adults who have access to these children are vetted and monitored?  If there aren't adequate policies, they need to be drafted.  If there are, then they need to be more rigorously applied.

The NCAA needs to go through these programs with a fine toothed comb, and get rid of coaches and staff who are placing children in danger.  Failure to do this risks the spread of such atrocities and the loss of a reputation for trust and ethics the NCAA tries to espouse and preserve.

Prediction

I've been told that there's some kind of sporting event taking place in either Missouri or Texas tonight. 

I predict that someone will win.  There will be a lot of beer drinking and snacking going on during the event.  I also predict that some yahoos will be on the news tomorrow after being arrested for either celebrating a victory or mourning a defeat by setting something on fire or knocking something over, or possibly knocking something over then setting it on fire.

Y'all keep me honest here, and let me know how I did come tomorrow.